Tuesday, April 10, 2018

2017 Travels from April to June

It's time to conclude this blog. It keeps loosing photos.
Happily Mike is recovering from lung cancer after a success lung resection on January 26, 2018. Unhappily Mike's undergoing chemotherapy as a precaution. We leave Arizona some time in early May. I have reinvented my time in Gold Canyon. My main exercise is going door-to-door canvassing Democrats. We await impeachment.

We started 2017 by attending the Women's March in Phoenix.


Mike hitched up 5th wheel trailer to Chevy Silverado and we left Gold Canyon on March 31, 2017.
Here is where we went. We spent an average of 3 nights in one place and stayed in 54 different places.
Liz starting 2017 trip in April.
3/31-4/1 - Dead Horse, Arizona State Park. Mike's oncologist, Dr. Beyer in Sedona who treats Mike's prostate cancer was pleased with Mike's PSA (prostate cancer marker). PSA had been 13 in 2014 when Mike underwent treatment. After treatment in 2015 PSA was .01, then it was .1, then in Oct. 2016 PSA was 1. On March 31, 2017 PSA 3.6. I was aghast by increase but Doctor Beyer was pleased so we were pleased.  

4/2 - Boondock in New Mexico highway rest stop west of Albuquerque.

4/3-4/5 Oklahoma City. We had Mexican lunch with Lois and Larry Christiansen. We visited the national memorial to the OKC bombing. Capture of bomber Timothy McVeigh was interesting.

 
 Wounded federal employees waiting for ambulances after OKC Murrah Building bombing.

 

 

4/5-4/12 Terrell, Tx. BREAKDOWN. Chevy Silverado's fuel pump died, thankfully on eastside of Dallas near a kind and competent Chevy dealer. We visited Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was assassinated with GM dealer's loaner. We visited Fort Worth's fantastic Kimball Art Museum along with a few others in their museum district. I'd seen documentary, My Architect about Louis B Kahn's genius, infidelity and illegitimate families. Art appreciation was my favorite subject in college. My only Grade A at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill was in art appreciation. I adored the Kimball's collection. Each piece represented the highest quality and/or beauty of an era or culture. Collection covered vast time spam.

https://www.kimbellart.org

www.cartermuseum.org
Richard Avedon photo on display at Carter.  

https://www.jfk.org/

 
President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Assassin shot him from this building.

4/12-22 Fontainebleau State Park in Covington, La. We did not see grandchildren, Collin or Owen Thelen. We missed our opportunity to visit due to breakdown.
4/15-21 New Orleans timeshare in Plaza Suite Hotel Resort
 
NOLA French Quarter. Discussing removal of Civil War Confederate General




NOLA Easter Parade
WWII Museum feature in this time of Fake News
Propaganda is acute that to Fox News, right wing radio and corrupt politicians. It's so obvious.  


4/21  Mexican lunch with grandson Ricky in Mobile, Ala.
Ricky was so pleasant. He seemed so angry and profane on Facebook years ago that I unfriended him. During our lunch with his girlfriend's overweight and gifted teenage son, Christopher, Ricky was easy to talk to. I'd love to visit him and see that area again. What I'd really like to do is pay to fix his teeth. He'd be far more successful as a salesman with good teeth. Even without he's OK.

4/22  Tallahassee. March for Science April 22.

 


 Charmed by Snake at the March for Science



 

4/23-4/28 Savannah, Ga. Walking tour.

 






Wormsloe Plantation is a Georgia State Park with longest oak tree driveway in world. We took tour and I took notes. Plantation goes back 8 generations. Plantation owner's last names begin with Jones (St), then De Renne and onto Barrow. The founder of state of Georgia, James Oglethorpe persuaded the Spanish that he had 10k soldiers (actually 1000). The Spanish owned Florida but he helped kept them from moving north.  The War of Jenkins Ear was fought by Britain and Spain 1739-1748.
Georgia was founded by poor folks and debtors. Red cedar is valuable export for coastal Georgia. 

World's Longest Oak Tree Lined Driveway
Dolphin! Construction of highway resulted in Jones Narrow River turning into marsh 45 years after the road construction.
Oyster shells are used in building construction. A single nail takes a blacksmith 5 minutes to pound out. A single house takes 4000 nails. Shingles need most nails. Smiths burn a lot of coal.
Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. Contrast rope bed versus hammock.
 
 "No See Ums" abound in Savannah. Nonetheless April's weather is comfortable in Savannah.

4/28-5/1  Charleston, SC included Fort Sumpter National Park and Patriots' Point.


Fort Sumpter National Park Ranger

 
 
 

Visitors' Center in Charleston, SC


 
Mike drove this type of truck on Hwy 1 in Vietnam ahead of mine sweepers carrying info.  

 

5/1-5/6  Myrtle Beach State Park
5/6-5/13 Surfside, SC Country Club Villas timeshare.









Brookgreen Gardens was terrific! It was close to our timeshare. The ticket is good for 7 days. I visited 4 times with my mom and friend Martha. I visited with Mike 1 day.
 
Slave cemetery featured no headstones until after the Civil War. Africans were not Christian and had no money for headstones. Gullah are a very private black people. They live along the coast and a group live on an island near Brookgreen Gardens. A school boat picks them up for school.
Westons were  educated and ultra wealthy. 
Avoided bugs or malaria during their visit. They go to ocean, mountains or Charleston.
Waccamaw River overlook. 
Tabby here but unusual to be so far north. 
Bricks made on plantation. 115 feet tall chimney with 8 sides for rice mill. It let Yankees know location. Spanish moss is a fungus.
Milling preserved rice. White rice is exported by boat to Georgetown for poor and army. 18000 enslaved in 1850. (Captain)Dagget ran mill, used torpedo to sink Harvest Moon.
Task system. Cruel long hours. 
Pine eco system preserved.
Bumpy sandy dusty roads. Berm boundaries.1300 mile Kings Hwy. Washington slept here.
Boston to Charleston connected by Old River Rd.
Purchased 1930. Rice ended 1900. 
Original Cyprus trees cleared by slaves. Longevity short. 


5/13-5/19 Yanceyville, NC

5/19-5/26 Banner Elk, NC timeshare

5/26-/5/30 Yanceyville, NC

5/30-6/2 Gettysburg, Pa.

6/2-6/5 Harrisburg, Pa.

6/5-6/10 Bald Eagle State Park, Pa.

6/10-6/22 Gateway National Recreation Area, Brooklyn, NY

6/22-6/24 Minuteman RV P ark, Littleton, Ma.

6/24-6/29 Acadia National Park, Schoodic Woods Penisula, Me.

Nature Conservancy owns 1 island for 7 years. 2 eagle nests. 
Lighthouse manned until 1967.
Ironbound Island see photos.
Old growth forest!
Hugonaut Head Island
Cadillac Mtn. 
Frenchman Bay
Sheep Porcupine Island 
Bar Harbor is on Mount Desert Island. Carriage Trails and bus service are good for bikes. 

Canada
6/29-7/1 Herringcove, NB.

7/1-7/3  St John, NB

7/3-7/7  Hopewell Rocks, NB
 Lover's Arch is used for weddings and proposals.
Shawn held up ipad with timelapsed video of rising tide engulfing 3  Canadian interpreters.
Castle Cove was castle-like until large tip fell in during off season. Event was caught on videoed by American tourist. No injuries in park's history occurred due to rock falls.
1st sentry rock is predicted to fall in 50 years. 
Cliff face recedes 2 feet per year.
Elephant Rock 
Ice storms accelerate alteration of rocks.
Mattress rock is special. It appeared on shore in the sixties. Was it pushed in by ice? 
Peregrine falcons nest behind Face (Jay Leno's chin) Rock. Pair are feeding newly hatched chicks. 
Anteater Rock
Baby Elephant Rock
Images are as corny as a cave tour. 3000 visit daily totaling 300k in a season. Tourists included tours from a Globus bus. We saw a German tour. French speakers were half. 
1st walking tour for interpreter Shawn.
Mike and I climbed over the "dinosaur tail" rocks walking around to beach with only 2-3 others. After the crowds this semi-isolated hike was best physical event in New Brunswick provincial park. 
The best emotional-social outlet was a quick discussion of politics with an optimistic middle-aged man from Toronto.  We told him that the silence by American conservatives is deafening. Attending marches in Phoenix, Tallahasee and Harrisburg is one outlet for us as RVers. He asked how we're managing our political angst. Trip planning and media escapes centered on nature and culture like a trip to Baltimore to follow television show, The Wire made sense to him.

7/7-7/10 Kouchibouguac National Park, NB

7/10-7/16 Cavendish, PEI

7/16-7/18 Hilden, NS

7/18-7/22 Lunenburg, NS
Immigrants of every occupation except Fishermen.
Lunenburg Academy designed by Mott. 1895. Making $ from fisheries. Education VIP.
Bench seats. Persecute left-handed. Pit toilets. No sewer. Waste burned once a year.
Gilbert and Sullivan popular.
Bell system. Buddy system for toilets. 2x6 balloon style construction. Used until 2012. Intact example of academy system. Library is moving in. 4 grand pianos in 3rd floor moved in with cranes. 75 yr old. 
$25k + $5k overrun in 1895.
Germans, Swiss and Mont Biliary French fulfilled their immigration.
50 acres head of house.

Wedding cake house. Salt cod exporter. Lunenburg bumpiest house in town. 1900. 
1973 Run Stranger Run movie with Ron Howard. Scrap the paint. 

British grid layout. 
Sleeping loft. Standard materials given to each. 
Oldest house is navy blue red door 1753. 
Gray house 7th generation. 
Deutsche. Lutheran. Anglican. Diablo red church doors.
Camp Norway during WWII. Windows releaded for $8k each.
3 Cod fish in Window represent trinity. 
Tavern next to church. Lennox Inn. 
Pale green house is Finck House from Wurttenburg.
4 pane window is coffin window. 
Black hollyhock just opened.

Koch became Cook, probate judge. Now Solomon House.
You didn't move the shoe, did you?
 Church burned Halloween 2011.cost $6M. Gothic arches. 


7/22-7/26 Peggy's Cove, NS. We visited Halifax, NS while staying in Peggy's Cove.
Halifax is immigration center, not employment center. Halifax's main industry is immigration.
Why Halifax?
Port doesn't freeze.
12 months per year, 24/7. Halifax is closer than St. John, NB.
Only 4 days from England.
1950s and 1960s were busiest years for immigration.
Ellis Island is earlier phase of immigration. 
Medical and Employment screening before departure. 
Casino now on Pier 2. 
Parents seasick. Children run around. No food rations. Food good and plentiful and from NA. See oranges and bananas for 1st time.
1945-46 immigrants are buying tickets on troop ships
Holland America Veendam in port with 1350 passengers.
Stress is English questions. What if we're deported?
1000 people pe day.
1700 passed through at peak in 1954. Plunge in 1964-5. Airplanes took over. Immigration moved to airport.
1st- see MD. Proof of on TB. If you arrive sick you went to hospital.
Lots of chicken pox and measles among children.
2nd- financial prospects? Most have a job. 20 minute interview. Too few translators. Hopefully paperwork speaks for them. 
Detention without paperwork. Refugee resettlement takes time.
WOP without papers from Italy.
Netherlands UK Germany.
Few from France and Belgium.
Dutch encouraged to leave.
Customs hasn't changed. Confiscated sausages. Cured meat is taken away. Smuggled in kids.
In hair. Communist books. Books with red covers confiscated.
Ulysses is banned.
Very sad. 
Red Cross.
Train trip is 2-7 days.
Trains were old.
 
Saw Trudeau. No photo.
Moment of Silence for Orlando.
Floats on display
Parks Canada
Natives 1st

Citadel Tour
Star shaped English fort. Very rainy typically. Collects clean rainwater with gutters on top.
Gun discussion.
.13 per day. 
2 hours on guard. 4 hours off.
Drunks docked pay and fed less.
Wooden buttons in powder room.
78th Highlanders served all over Commonwealth. Typically start as poorly educated and age 16. 
Privatized education. Rank based on education. 
Kipling quote. Ask Mike
Spies common. 
Transit flags on masts id ships in port for merchants. 1808 12 pounder. Keep cannon relevant. Loud. Monarchs cipher. New recruit can't name top 3 guard duty orders. 
Interpreter is a Republican from Rhode Island  but born in Canada and going to college in Halifax. 
7/26-8/1 Baddeck, Cabot Trail, NS

8/1-8/8/3 Louisbourg, NS

Tricornered hats
Wool jacket
Indebt forever
Die age 45
Bayonets
Urine in streets
65 caliber
Don't shoot until you see whites of their eyes.
Block leather shoes on duty.
Horse for punishment. Hands tied in back.
Fleur de lisle on blankets.
Angelica looks like dirty lace.

8/3-8/4 Port aux Basque, NL (Newfoundland)

8/4-8/8 Gros Mourne, NL

8/8-8/11 St Anthony, NL

8/11-8/14 St Barbe, NL Day trip on 8/13 to Labrador's Red Bay

8/14-8/17 Cow Head

8/17-8/22 Gros Mourne

8/22-8/23 Port aux Basque, NL

8/23-8/24 Bras d'Oro, North Sydney, NS

8/24-8/25 Boondock Walmart in Monckton, NB

8/25-8/27 Woodstock, NB

8/27-8/29 Freeport, Me.

8/29-8/31 Hammonasset, Ct.

8/31-9/19 Croton, NY
Notes on Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Ct.
His father left his sisters property for security. His father left him stock in new aluminum company, Alcoa since as a male he could earn his own living. Philip Johnson was a homosexual and studied art and architecture abroad. Johnson was a late bloomer in architecture
Johnson was a contemporary of Ludwig Mies Van der rohe.  The Glass House was completed in 1951. Johnson was influenced by Mies Van der rohe's Farnsworth House in Illinois. 
Johnson employed "Hide and seek" masterfully. Furnace and water heater were in their own building.
Design fit lay of land. Approach to house is at angle. His number sculpture 1234 ... reminiscent of LOVE sculpture.
Robert Indiana, age 88 lives on island off Maine
All downhill Birth through Death
Mass in stonewall. 
Barcelona chairs by Meis
Philip "I sleep alone" Johnson
Tongue in check
Age 98 he died in a hospital bed in his famous Glass house.
Circle and square
Curve door to bathroom
Lovely at night
Reference to Lincoln Center
Egyptian dog house
Take the last train back to Manhattan
Symbolic planter: Mom & Dad 
Lou Reed and Velvet Underground
Landscapes are performance art in slow motion.
2200 works to Moma. 
David Whitney
West coast of Greenland by Lynn Davis.
Percy Shelly : Asamandius
Im king of kings.
Snaubel log of decay
Gallows humor
Frank Stella
George Siegal in bed
Theme: stripes
 
9/19-9/23 Baltimore, Md.

9/23-9/30 Wyndham's Patriot's Place tim eshare in Williamsburg, Va.
Notes on talk by George Washington impersonator.
North provides finished goods. The South provides raw materials. The East provides necessities while the West provides markets.
Under what government will we live most happily?
Innovation or novelty is no reason.
No oligarchy or sovereignty.
No branch is to encroach. Evil precedent. Constitution changes only by amendment and not by encroachment.
No debts left to children.
Taxes are inconvenient and unpleasant. Alternating dominance by political parties. Argument toward factions is dangerous.
Too much love or hatred for a foreign nation is to be planned against.
Stay out of foreign wars. England and France have a foreign feud.
George Washington said "I look forward to being a common citizen in retirement. Providence has worked so far. I was cajoled into office. I didn't want to serve a full term."
Washington was unifying force according to Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.
He was a public servant for 53 years with a sacred regard for justice and greater good for larger community. Slavery is divisive. If we extend liberty to some, then it may be lost to all.
9/30-10/1 Boondock Walmart in Wytheville, Va.
10/1-10/2 Boondock Walmart near Nashville, Tn.

10/2-10/4 T.O.Smith State Park, Memphis, Tn.

10/4-10/5 Boondock Walmart near Oklahoma City.
10/5-10/6 Boondock Walmart near Amarillo, Tx
10/6-10/7 Boondock Walmart near Gallop, NM

10/7-10/10 Black Bart RV Park,  Flagstaff, Az.

10/10/17-4/1/18 Gold Canyon RV&Golf Resort, Gold Canyon, Az.

I booked Lot 498 on July 13 taking the last site available on the side of the street where we like the sunlight. I hesitated due to deep feelings of anger, upset and confict with my fellow Americans. With election of Donald Tr@mp, I did not want to return to Gold Canyon. But Mike likes Gold Canyon and expects older people to be conservative. I was unsure of where to go instead of Gold Canyon so we are here. Naomi Klein's book, When No I Not Enough provides insight into national trauma as we suffer from kakistocracy. Kaka as in the Greek word for defecate refers to government by the least with poorest of intentions for government.  We watch Tr@mp's inchoate ideology turn into Bannon's racism, sexism, xenophobia and white supremacy.
Tr@mp and his despicable cabinet are deconstructing American institutions ASAP. Shock: Do it fast. All at once is the name of the game. Dozens of changes from all directions all at once is strategy to overwhelm and exhaust public so they swallow losses.
Also refer to author Rebecca Solnit.Tr@mp's Think Big is cold blooded exploitation
Win-win is crap. He crushes opponents.
An Early example is in Manhattan. City of Fear: NYC bankruptcy 
Commodore Hotel
Dynasty and Dallas : 1980s soaps.
Pillage public sphere.Enrich self.
2 stocks CoreCivic (Corrections Corporation of America) +140%
GEO Group +98% after election
ICE incarcerates up to 34k immigrants per day.
73% are incarcerated in private prisons.