--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992
compiled 1975–1977

Note from son Allan in 2009: To enlarge any of the pictures, and to read a caption explaining context, click the picture. More text of note to come.

"Two years? Two years! You will never be able to stay away that long!"

That was what we heard from our friends when we told them our plans for starting our life after Harry's retirement. Our dreams were finally going to come true, and we didn't care what other people thought.

We had decided to get a travel trailer and a pickup truck because two years in a camper did not appeal to me in any way, and it seemed to us both that side trips with a motor home would get complicated. It would mean packing everything inside for every trip, and risking losing a preferred space in a trailer park, plus the difficulty of moving in traffic in a city.

Needless to say, it proved to be a wise decision for us. We leased our home for the two years to a young woman who was a friend of our niece, knowing that we were not ready to make the decision to sell. We had never lived in a trailer and we might not like it at all. The rent for Donna was very little, just enough to take care of the taxes and insurance. She took care of the utilities for the house, and in reality was our house-sitter.

It seemed that I had lists and more lists of "things to do" in the six months after Christmas: Move a thirty-year accumulation of our things out of Donna's way, set up a bank account for our daughter who was going to pay our bills, change of address to her home in Seattle, ask our bank for a letter that might help us cash checks, these were only a few of the important things on the lists. We made sure that daughter Christine had our legal papers of all kinds, and that she had a power of attorney to take care of emergency decisions when we might be out of touch.

You can believe that it was Harry's job to get the trailer and the truck ready, but I knew that it was up to me to decide what was needed to live for two years—clothes, utensils and dishes, blankets and/or sleeping bags, chairs and TV trays—name it, and a decision had to be made about what would fit into a twenty-foot trailer and the canopy on the pickup. I decided not to take my sewing machine because I wanted my typewriter much more, and the Joy of Cooking cookbook and a bird book seemed important. When I included a dictionary, I said I could always read it in desperation.

Hand-written in margin: Wanted a copy of the very old Fisk Tire ad saying "Time to Retire"

We found room for a big box of books and treasures that belonged to our son who lived in the Catskills, too. We knew that we would see him and other relatives who lived in New England. Each and every one of them had written that they expected us to come for a visit, and we were looking forward eagerly to seeing them.

Hand-written in margin: Round Tuits on back tire flaps

At last by the first of May in 1975 we felt that perhaps we were ready for a trial run to see how we would cope. So away we went to spend the weekend in my brother's yard in the little town of Oakville, all of 20 miles from our home in Centralia, Washington. We had no problems, but I spent all my time looking out the window to see how the trailer tracked behind us. After all, we had never had a trailer before. Camping in a tent, living in a station wagon with a tent, and a small camper were completely different.

No problems, that is, unless you consider forgetting the radio antenna (as yet we had no TV antenna or TV), which Harry spotted flying around while we were on the road, and I forgot an open can of pop on the drain board, which did not spill. It was not a new trip for us through Aberdeen, Raymond, Pe Ell, and Chehalis, and back to Centralia, but we did have a very successful 100-mile trip for the first time with a trailer.

The following weekend we gave Christine and her husband, Ed, an R&R vacation. They went sailing while we got to watch out for the three girls, a delight for us. Then the next Friday we went with the trailer on the north bank of the Columbia River through Camas, where we had not been for many years and had forgotten all about "tunnels next 2 miles." Fortunately, we knew the height of the trailer, so that was all right, but we met two logging trucks in one tunnel!! I probably would have stopped, but Harry kept on. Bless his heart, he admitted that he, too, was scared.

At lunchtime we ducked into a place where it said "RecV" to get rid of the trucks that were following us, only to find that we were on a dead-end two-lane road. On we went to come to a very sharp-turn underpass, very narrow with a creek next to the road, which was full of very sharp rocks. There was kind of a place to back up: a couple of big rocks, a big tree, and that very narrow road. It took time and patience, but Harry did a great job. I like to think that perhaps I was of some help in getting out of our predicament. We expect to watch for dead-end roads from now on.

We arrived in Kennewick just in time for dinner, clever people that we are. Just as we turned into their farm driveway, a kind lady who had been following us stopped to say that one of the rear trailer wheels seemed to wobble a bit. That frightened us, so the next day brother-in-law Cecil (a long-time trailerite) and Harry checked out all the wheels carefully. Nothing seemed to be wrong, so it could have been some kind of an optical illusion, we hoped.

By now we knew that the truck needed beefing up in the back, so Harry had overload shocks installed in Kennewick. The trip home through White Pass in the Cascade Mountains with over 300 pounds of asparagus for us and our friends to freeze was a great deal better because of the overload shock absorbers in the back of the pickup.

We learned a lot from this second trip, too. Clothes bounced off the rod in the closet, so we tried bungee cord over the hangers to hold them in place. Maybe it will work.

THE DAY, June 4, 1975, finally came, and we were ready to go, still feeling somewhat insecure but determined to be brave about the whole thing. Our tenant, Donna, came home to see us off, even though her agency had been robbed the night before, and friend Richard was there to take pictures of the start of our adventure. Most of the neighbors worked, so we left with an underwhelming cheer, although our police chief neighbor did drive by to wave just as we were leaving. We did hope that our tenant and a good neighbor would take care of our very old, very spoiled cat while we were gone.

From Portland we took old Highway 99W through McMinnville and Corvallis, a road that I had not been on for many years and that Harry had said he had never been on. It is a lovely drive with many schools: George Fox, Linfield, Monmouth, Oregon State.

We turned east at Corvallis to pick up Highway 20 at Albany, where we bought gasoline, and at Sweet Home a ranger told us about Trout Creek Forest Camp 20 miles farther on into the Cascades. There are Golden Age card for seniors made the price only $1 a night. We had not yet learned to use our Trailer Life campground book, which came with experience in later weeks, but even now we realized that no way could we find motels with restaurant meals as cheaply as we were going to live in a trailer.

By this time we knew that we had been working, raising children, taking care of our mothers and college students, and fussing with a house and yard so long that we had forgotten about the beauties of Nature. On our walks in Trout Creek Forest Camp we saw many wild flowers we had not noticed for years: solomon's seal, spring beauty, anemone, johnny-jump-up, and even lady-slipper. Wild strawberries, wild roses, irises, and daisies were everywhere, but there was no fishing for us in lovely Trout Creek. An Oregon license meant a trip back to Sweet Home, and $2.50 a day. However, a nice man gave us some fish—and guess who cleaned them?

That night we had the last of our T-bone steak from the freezer cooked over coals in the outdoor grill. Harry made a great fire—but guess who scrounged for wood in the abandoned campsites? I even got enough wood for the next day and could leave some for the next one in the camp. As we were leaving on Saturday morning, the cars and campers and trailers were lined up hoping, so we wonder who got our good site come Saturday noon?

At Trout Creek I found that I had forgotten the TV tray. It would be handy to carry things out to the tables in the parks. Almost I had it in the trailer before we left, but I got sidetracked when Christine was down over the last weekend. The children ate in the backyard, and then I put all the TV trays away. I also forgot serving spoons… lots of soup spoons to make do. I really should have insisted on the Coleman lantern… it is dark out in a forest camp… for once Harry agrees with me. Would you believe that our first jaunt was 239 miles from home?

We left Trout Creek at 11:30 and stopped to shop in Bend for things we should have had before we left home, like batteries for the radio, and Oregon waste water disposal tank, and a jumper cable. We had lunch at La Pine, and then we went to Collier State Park, just north of Klamath Falls… 185 miles that day.

The next morning we found our way across Highway 97 to the logging museum and the pioneer village. A long walk but well worth it. Harry knew what most of the old logging equipment was and how it was used, and he gave me a guided tour. Other visitors were listening and joined us to ask questions of him. The old trapper and miner cabins in the pioneer village had been found in the hills and restored for us to see. There were fire pits and bough beds in some of them, others were more modern with cookstoves and real tables and chairs. Some of the chairs were huge chunks of logs cut to make a seat and a back.

When we left home, I decided to bring a large map of the United States to mark our trip, and that I would keep a journal of our trip. A notebook during the day, and letters home quite often made in carbon copy seemed the ideal way to keep track of our adventures.

I refuse to make the journal saying only the temperature and where we stayed in spite of the fact that Harry says I talk too much! I always do because how would he stay awake and interested while he was driving otherwise? Besides, I am the navigator and map reader for him, a very necessary job. I keep track of our expenses and the gasoline mileage, too.

Here in Collier State Park Harry was napping when six motorcycles arrived next door. Naturally, we Establishment people though "Oh, no," but how wrong we were! Six quiet nice young men traveling for fun from Chino to Canada on their Hondas and Yamahas, they were fun to talk with.

June 9 is son Allan's 33rd birthday. We left Collier State Park about 11 a.m. and drove to Westwood, California, by way of Alturas. Westwood is a lovely town in the mountains near Lake Almanor, and our friends Louise and George retired there quite a few years ago. They go in their trailer often, but this time we found them at home, and also they had a trailer pad for us with all the hookups.

The next day we all went for a ride through country that had been settled many years ago to the museum in Quincy. Louise and I enjoyed the museum and the art show while the fellows disappeared into town. On the way back to Westwood we went through Taylorsville, a town founded in 1852, and a few of the original old buildings are still in use. Louise is an artist and has painted pictures of much of this country.

We convinced Louise and George that fish and guests should go after 3 days, and that we had to pay our dues in Reno. By this time I had learned to use the Trailer Life campground guidebook, and we found a nice park on the Truckee River in Sparks, where we paid for a week.

The closet rod completely fell down on the trip from Westwood, clothes still on hangers on top of boxes of shoes. This happened in the 115 miles from Westwood but should not happen again, because we fixed it.

Keno was good to Harry, he won $335 on one card. He used the money to have a new leaf put on the springs on the back of the truck, and bought a folding ironing board, a new porch light, and a swing ashtray for the truck for me. Also we found that there was no way that we could have a gauge put on the extra gas tank that we had had installed in the back of the pickup, so we left it the way it was.

A laundromat was completely new to me, but I gathered the clothes, soap, money, and my courage together and tried. Everything was fine, but I did realize that I needed to keep all kinds of change separate for the machines.

Arlene, my friend in Centralia, had given me a Keno card to play for her, but it was a complete bust. I wrote to tell her that as her business agent I could suggest that she destroy that card. Of course, my Keno cards were not good, either.

Harry's brother and more of the family came from San Francisco for a few hours, and we all went into Reno for the afternoon. Elzie has not yet retired, and he wondered if he would like our life on wheels the way we do.

It was Father's Day, so we called Christine in Seattle to let her know where we were, and where to send our mail for the first pickup. We decided on Littleton, Colorado, main post office for the mail. Christine had the news for us that we were grandparents as of June 7, Vincent Charles Yarnot in California. That made me two grandsons and two granddaughters in California, one granddaughter in New York, and three granddaughters in Seattle. Very happy grandparents.

There was a rodeo coming to town, as well as a Search and Rescue Convention when we left on June 17. It had been hot, but the weather finally cooled down quite a bit. Innocents that we were, we could not get the turn signals working on the trailer before we left, so we started for the repair shop near the airport for help. There was no readily visible sign for John's shop, and we almost went into the airport, trailer and all. It could have been very embarrassing, but we did find a place to turn around and, thanks to a nice taxi driver, we did find John's. Nothing was really wrong, but we decided that we should get a new connection for the pigtail.

We had two checkoff lists encased in plastic, one for me in the trailer and one for Harry on the outside. It was always my job to check out all the lights for him, too. Eventually we both memorized all the "must do" things on the lists, and could ignore them except when it had been a long time between moves.

It was summer, but the weather really changed from the warm days and nights in Reno to very cold with hard showers in Winnemucca with a cold wind. We were warm and cozy in our House on Wheels with the heater and the radio.

Winnemucca is only 179 miles from Reno. We decided that we senior citizens do not move along as fast as we did years ago. The other day we saw a sign on the back of a motor home that said "Grandma and Grandpa's Playhouse," and we wished we had thought of that! Also there was a bumper sticker that reads "The Geritol Gypsies," a name we thought about taking for ourselves.

June 19 we stayed in Wells, Nevada, all of 175 miles from Winnemucca. I took Harry for lunch at the Commercial Hotel in Elko for one last fling at Keno, with no luck for either of us, as usual. Each time we come to Nevada, we say that we are going to pay our dues, and just wait until next time.

Interstate 80 was not completed all the way from Winnemucca, so we had some two-lane highway and chuckholes and bumps in the towns. Summer, and the mountains had new snow for us to admire. We were lucky when we stopped at Wells at 4:00, because by 7:00 all 100 sites were taken. The tent sites were grassy spots, and the tents were so many colors of nylon. We remembered our canvas tent, which took so long to dry, and was so heavy to pack and move. Ours was warm and easy to put up, though.

On June 20 it rained all he way across the Salt Flats on the way to Salt Lake City. We had to pay 62.9¢ for gasoline, so you know that we did not fill both of the tanks. (Remember, this was in 1975.)

The hard way we learned that "Right Lane Must Turn Right" sings have absolutely no warning, so we went for a tour of downtown Salt Lake City with a truck and a trailer at lunch hour. We knew where we wanted to go, but had to ask a kind man on the street where North Temple Street was. We were on West Temple, but wanted West North Temple. In Salt Lake City everything revolves around the Mormon Temple, so we found.

We forgot that we would be on Mountain Time, which helped explain why we arrived in Salt Lake City at rush hour with a convention going on downtown. The camper ahead of us in the traffic had their steps down, surprising that they did not hit other cars or a pedestrian.

We called Dayanne and Phil (she was a college roommate of Christine at Lewis and Clark College in Portland), and made a date to see them for dinner Sunday night. There were moving and busy, but Dayanne asked us to go with them to a ballet recital for their oldest child, Shelley. We said "no, thank you," because my hair needed attention, and I knew I would never get Harry to dress up after 203 miles, and fighting the traffic.

The next day we fixed the closet rod again with contact cement and screws, and we hoped that it would hold. The evening was so beautiful with no rain that we decided to see if we had the right directions to find Dayanne and Phil. We did find the house but only the boys were at home because the parents were at the ballet recital. We got lost on the way home and ended up almost in Provo coming down from the mountain. I had no map of Salt Lake City, but even so Harry said he might get a new navigator because we got lost again.

There were lots of gypsies in the park who seem to fight a lot, but maybe it sounds that way in their language. On one of our walks through the park we noticed the wonderful fringed velvet curtains and very fancy shades on the lamps in the gypsy trailers. One whole row on each side of the street had their trailers parked, but we never heard how long they were to stay. We did hear that if a park knows that gypsies are coming in, they say they have no room, so one regular-looking family comes in to make the arrangements for the rest of the clan. A long time ago we were told the same thing happened in restaurants… one comes in, and then the rest arrive. We had no idea about the truth of this.

After our nice dinner with Dayanne and Phil and the children, we asked them to come for a swim at our park, all four of them. It was rather late because we went in to see the new house on the way down the hill. Phil stayed to install the dishwasher there while Dayanne led us back to the park. She got lost, too, in spite of the fact she had lived so long in Salt Lake City.

The gypsies seemed to be fighting again, and some of them live in their white convertibles, even the trailers with two tipouts must not be big enough for all of them. We supposed that they did not use the hookups because they were always in the public restrooms and showers, even saw them with buckets getting water from the faucets to carry home. The crystal lamps were lighted, though, so they did have electric hookups.

June 23rd was my birthday, and we celebrated by leaving Salt Lake City, and running out of gasoline on the freeway. Fortunately, there was a place to pull off for emergencies, we could switch to the regular tank, which still had about 5 gallons. So we bought 51.2 gallons at 48½¢, and found that the extra tank held 30, not 35 gallons. We did wish that the switch for the gasoline tanks had been installed on the dashboard instead of under the driver's seat, because it was a project to take care of it at the right time. Another time with another pickup, we will know better.

Phil had told us that what looked like coal to us on the highway west of Salt Lake City was copper tailings from the largest open pit mine in the world. That added to my determination to ask questions to find answers, even dumb questions get answers most of the time.

It was a beautiful drive most of the way to Vernal, erosion like the Grand Canyon on a smaller scale. I remarked at lunch that the bluff next to us looked much like the pictures of the temples on the upper Nile that were flooded by the Aswan Dam. The family of another college roommate of Christine lived in Vernal, and we not only found them at home, but also Jennie, Doug, and the girls were there on a visit from Portland. After a wonderful hour or so we went to find our KOA park for the night. Lucille and Isabel invited us for lunch the next day, the rest of the family were going on a raft trip down the Green River.

The closet rod fell down again, after we had driven 205 miles. The next day we checked with every store in Vernal to try to find the real answer to Closet Rod, and had a new electric pigtail for the trailer lights installed.

After a nice lunch with the Johnsons, we started for Denver at 2:00 in the afternoon. Harry had talked with a man about a good road to take after leaving Vernal, Highway 40 to Dinosaur, Colorado, then Highway 64 along the White River to Meeker to pick up Highway 13/799 to Rifle, and then Interstate 70 to Glenwood Springs. He said that way we avoid Rabbit Ears Pass and Berthoud Pass, and that Interstate 70 had tunnels through the mountains since our last trip many years ago.

The highway goes through the center of Vernal, and at the downtown stoplight the truck made a horrible noise, we stopped with a jerk as though we had been hit from behind. Harry sent me to the back to send traffic around us while he set out the flashers and called for a tow truck. Behind the trailer was hot and dusty, and I got sunburned, scared the whole while, too.

People were nice in small towns, we had many offers of help, and before the police came, a Good Sam Trailer Life RV Guide man and his wife really helped us. The trailer had to be disconnected and towed separately, the truck had to be towed backwards on the front wheels. The man from Good Sam took me to the garage, and then towed our trailer to the park where he and his wife were staying. He said he was bringing customers in off the street. We had planned days in Forest Camp for the next few days so we had just gone shopping. The lack of transportation did not really bother us, and we were grateful that we had the breakdown in town, if at all. It could have been miles from nowhere, where help was not available anywhere.

The next morning the Good Sam representative, Chuck, took us to the garage to find out what had happened. It seemed that the pinion gear had sheared, a defective part covered by the warranty on the truck. The shop foreman told us that we were very lucky the way it happened, in town; we could have turned over on a hill.

We waited for parts from Salt Lake City, and Harry told them to change the gear ratio from 321 to 391 while it was torn down. We paid the towing bill of $15.68 and sent it to the insurance agent in Centralia who we knew would see that a check would be sent to Christine in Seattle to deposit for us.

We gave Chuck and Maggie some smoked salmon, part of our supply from home, as a very inadequate thank-you for their kind assistance, and I said we would write a letter to Trailer Life telling about their wonderful, helpful field representative in Utah.

Chuck and Maggie took us into town the next morning as they were leaving for Steamboat Springs, and we found that the truck might be ready by evening, but for sure by the next day. The parts had arrived from Salt Lake City.

We did remember to fish out some groceries from the back of the truck, and Harry got his toolbox, too. We carried it back to the trailer park, 11 blocks which we rather enjoyed. We borrowed chairs from the manager to sit outside in the evening, rocking chairs for us old folks, of course. The laundromat in the park was only 25¢ and 10¢ thought it too bad that the rest of the laundry was still in the back of the truck in the garage.

We fixed the closet rod again, hopefully.

Harry spent the afternoon clipping the grass around the hookups just to have something to do. He met a nice man from Hobbs, New Mexico, who knows his brother there, and they gave us some fish they had caught. Meanwhile, I had thawed some trout we had been given at Trout Creek Forest Camp, and now we had so much fish I made a salad to have with the corn on the cob.

People in trailer parks take time to be friendly. We were told about the trip to Flaming Gorge, where we decided to go over the weekend to make sure that the truck worked properly before we left town for western Colorado and Denver.

The manager lent us his truck to go to the garage, where we found that our truck was ready to go anytime, and that everything was covered by the warranty, except for $35.77 because of the parts for the gear ratio change Harry had ordered.

The day before had been so windy that the gusts rocked the trailer, but the day we left for Flaming Gorge on the Utah-Wyoming border was very nice. A man and his wife from Dina Park who were also going up there followed us all the way to see that all was well. They were from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and now we know how to say the name of the town.

In the afternoon we went down to Dutch John's to buy fishing licenses for the weekend, and then went down to the lake to explore. It was over 8,000 feet, so we took it easy because we were not used to the altitude. The potatoes for dinner took a long time to cook, too. I kept wanting to call the place Flaming George, and with no hookups bedtime was early for us.

The fishing on Sunday was not good until we ignored our way of fishing and believed the others when they said to use Velveeta cheese as bait. Harry caught a 12-inch trout, and I caught a 10-inch one, which we ate for our dinner that night.

Before dinner we went for a ride to Antelope Flats, where the herds of antelope really were close to the trailer and boats in the park. The chipmunks were very tame and came to the door of the trailer to be fed peanuts. We needed sweaters in the evenings and mornings, but the afternoons were warm.

The tow truck had bent the connection on the truck, so Harry worked most of the afternoon after fishing to fix the new electric pigtail for the lights from the trailer to the truck. Someday all would be well for the Innocents on Wheels.

We left Flaming Gorge about 8:00 on the morning of June 30, and went down the mountain safely because all was well with the truck. We stopped at Dina Park to use the dump station. Louie, the manager, was not there, but we left the $1.00 fee in his mailbox with a thank-you for his kindness. And before we left Vernal, we stopped to check the truck at the garage to make sure all was well.

After shopping for groceries, away we went, through Rangely and the area where shale oil exploration was taking place. The White River, which we followed for so long on our highway, was very muddy, as was the Colorado River next to Interstate 70. We thought our odometer was perhaps not working correctly because of the new gear ratio, but think we traveled 275 miles. Anyway, we used it the way it was.

We went for a walk around the park in Glenwood Springs and met a nice lonesome couple from Colorado Springs who told us about Palo Verde Hills in Apache Junction in Arizona. It sounded so nice that we thought about staying there maybe on our way back in 1977 or 1978.

A striped cat with a bell and a license came to visit me, its ear was permanently turned back and stayed that way. I do wish we still had our D.C. cat that we left at home.

The boys next door had steak and fried potatoes for their dinner, and Harry practically invited himself for dinner. I restrained him, and told him he would have to wait for payday to have steak, because this night we had spaghetti.

And we spent the rest of the evening cleaning out the shower and the bathroom because Harry had forgotten to open the vent on the dishwater disposal tank. After an hour or so we had the cleanest shower and bathroom in the whole park. Innocents, again.

On July 1 we started over the Rocky Mountains with our truck (by now named Henry for reasons unknown). Henry's carburetor was set for sea level in the state of Washington, he gasped for breath going over the present top of Loveland Pass. Eleven thousand feet was just too much. There was a place to pull trailer and all off the road, and Harry took off the air filter so Henry could get enough air to make it the rest of the way through Eisenhower Tunnel. But once at the top of the pass he replaced the air filter before we actually started through the tunnel.

We thought the tunnel fascinating, the first one we had been through since the Holland Tunnel in New York in 1950. It seemed extremely long with two lanes and signs that read "Stay in your lane," "40 miles per hour," and finally, "Have a nice day." No one could or would ever tell us how long the tunnel was, but we did hear that traffic sometimes backs up for miles on holidays and weekends because I-70 was four-lane except for the two-lane tunnel. It made us wonder whether they used the original Loveland Pass highway at times to take care of traffic.

We got lost again trying to find the trailer park we wanted on Highway 285, and Henry Truck got very hot when we followed a slow truck in the mountains. No campground signs were allowed on the highway, and we missed the entrance to Stage Stop Park, and had to drive several miles more up the mountain to find a place big enough to turn around. Henry really boiled and bubbled for quite a while after we got settled in the park under the trees, and we were grateful for the transmission cooler and the radiator overflow we had installed before we left home.

Naturally, Harry was upset about the whole thing, and somehow it was my fault we had missed the park entrance. It was a good thing that I didn't like to fight, or our "fun" trip might have ended then and there.

Our mail in Littleton was waiting for us, nearly a month's accumulation, and it was all very interesting, of course. When we came back from town, I used the phone in the park office and called my cousin Dick, who lives in Littleton, and we were invited for dinner on July 3rd. We forgot to check the milage but thought it was 156 miles from Glenwood Springs to Denver, we decided to forget about being lost in the mountains on the way to Stage Stop.

We bought propane after nearly a month, just one tank of 7 gallons. There was no laundromat, but I did a washing of sorts anyway with clotheslines strung between the trees. I did remember to bring clothespins and the line because of our days really camping, and found there was no objection here to clothes hanging out. Some parks did have rules against this.

The manager and his wife are Harry and Ann, and they have a son Harry, as well as a son-in-law Harry! Soon it became "my Harry" and "your Harry."

An extremely nice couple from Virginia lived down the hill from us, and we helped them get water to their tent trailer by using our 50-foot hose to go with their 50-foot hose. Berry was interning for the summer at Fort Logan Mental Health Center, and planned to go to Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco in the fall. Pat was writing a thesis for a college course while staying in the mountains for the summer.

We took Pat shopping with us to Conifer, where we bought steak for the 4th of July. The price reminded us of the freezer full of meat we had given away before we left home! But Harry was promised steak after payday when we were in Glenwood Springs.

We knew that the checks from Social Security and the pension should be in the bank in Chehalis, Washington, so, armed with the letter from our bank there, we got gussied up and went to try to buy traveler's checks for July. There were no problems, and because we had not asked permission, we did not use my cousin's name as a reference. Now we had money in hand for the month of July.

It was very hot in town, we did not want to go back to the park, so we called Elsie to ask if we could come out to their house early to wait for dinner. No problems finding where to go because of Dick's good telephone directions, and the aid of the map of Denver we had borrowed from Pat. In spite of not finding Stage Stop, I was still the navigator for a while.

Elsie was raised on a farm, too, and has a vegetable garden, though she said she is the only one who liked the vegetables. The daughter, Charlotte, was taking care of horses, dogs, and cats for a friend who was away. There was also a pet rabbit, tame and house-broken, that she was taking care of for a while, and her English sheepdog Muffet who lives most of the time under my aunt's bed. We told her about Christine's skunk years ago, and Charlotte thought she might like one, while Elsie announced that she had had a pet skink at one time. I had to go home to find out what a skink was from the dictionary.

My Aunt Bertha was nearly 90, very hard of hearing, and did not see too well, but she flitted up and down the stairs and around the house like a young person. Dick was the only cousin left on that side of my family, and the last time we had seen him was during the Korean War, when he stopped to see us all before he went to Japan.

Hand-written in margin: Dick gave me a fly rod made in Ireland which he said might cure me of "bait" fishing.

Their son Bruce was not home from work before we left for the park at 10:00, with bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way up the mountain. The Innocents lucked out and found Stage Stop with no problems.

When we called Christine in Seattle, she wanted to know why we were in such a hurry to get to Denver "in a month." Smart kid. Our mail had told us that we might not have insurance on Henry Truck, but Christine said all was well because it had been a mistake. We told the grandchildren that we were sending each of them a license to hunt dinosaurs that we had picked up at the Dinosaur Park in Vernal, Utah—very official-looking and signed by Al E. Oup. That park was well worth seeing. We told Christine to please send our mail in care of the St. Labre Indian School at Ashland, Montana. This was a North Cheyenne Indian school we had donated to for many years, and we hope to be there by July 11.

On July 4 Pat's sister Shirley and a friend Carolyn who were both schoolteachers in Front Royal, Virginia, arrived for the weekend at Stage Stop. They didn't know about the Harrys, and Mary, but brought Barry some mountain dew from the hills of Virginia. While Barry and both Harrys were fixing a vent in the shower, they all shared a drink of it.

Boss Harry had not realized how very hot the shower was until the Ashbrooks and the Taylors suggested that perhaps a vent was necessary, he had never taken a shower there.

Shirley, Carolyn, Pat, Barry, Harry, Ann, and Harry and I all had steak, potato salad, and corn on the cob that night over our fire. Pat and Barry were interested to know that one did not have to have charcoal to cook, it just took longer with wood, but the coals were just as nice.

We did have our flag out on this holiday.

On July 5 the manager Harry fixed the timing on Henry Truck for the altitude. It worked great on our trial run to Conifer, but we decided that no way did we want to be on the road the last day of the Fourth of July weekend. I did want to visit Buffalo Bill's grave near Golden, though. Another time would have to do.

The rain started with thunder and lightning while we watched four young men set up their camp about 6:00 in the evening. Pat and Barry said they had been in our spot last weekend, and that they were all schoolteachers from Michigan. One of them had a cast on his foot from a skiing accident nearly 5 months ago, and Carolyn from Virginia had her arm in a cast from a softball game 3 weeks ago. It did look like an invalid camp, but even so the boys invited us all to their campfire that night.

Shirley and Carolyn knew that we were expecting to be near Virginia in the fall, so they wrote the directions for us to find them then, they promised a cookout, mountain dew, and a place to stay. I made steak sandwiches from the leftover steak from the 4th of July cookout and took them down to the Taylors for lunch. Everyone showed up for dinner, Ann, Harry, their family and friends all came for dinner with their donations while we only had frozen fish left over from Vernal to add. It was fortunate that all seemed to like it.

It seemed that the 7th day was free at Stage Stop, so we decided to stay another day. Now we knew that weekly rates could be cheaper than by the day—Innocents, again.

Ann took Pat and me for a hike to see where the old stage road from Denver that gave the park its name had gone; there are still signs of the wheel tracks there. Meanwhile, Henry and Harry and Harry and another camper pitched horseshoes back at the park.

The morning of July 7 I decided to let Harry sleep while I went to see if I could help Ann in any way. I was so tired of playing solitaire, reading, and knitting that I needed something to do. Ann agreed to let me help with the dishes, vacuum, and dust her living room and dining room, but she didn't believe that I really wanted to work because I was bored.

I felt very good because her house was clean when her bridge game was advanced to that afternoon instead of the usual Tuesday. I knew Pat played bridge and they needed a fourth for that day, so Pat was it. Pat had thought she would go with us to Bailey for the post office and groceries until I promoted her for the bridge game, so we shopped for her, too.

We had hamburgers for dinner with the Taylors over our charcoal fire that night, and Harry and Ann came for dessert. The party ended up as a farewell party for the Ashbrooks with a horseshoe game for all of us, and they all tried to get us to stay for a week/or another month.

The skies opened up during the middle of the night, and guess who got to get out in my nightgown to shut the windows in the truck… me. Rain and thunder storms so very different than we were used to in Washington, they were commonplace as we were to find out. I learned later to be frightened of lightning, too.

Manager Harry and Ann and Barry and Pat all stopped by to say goodbye on the morning of July 8. We had decided that the name of the park should be changed from Stage Stop to Friendly Harry and Ann's, and knew that someday we would return. Soon we were on the way to Morrison to get on I-70 and then I-25 to go to Cheyenne, and found lots of traffic even at 11:00 in the morning. We always tried to avoid the real rush hours with the trailer.

The country north of Denver seemed to be mile after mile of flat acres of corn, alfalfa, and wheat. The wheat was planted in strips of summer fallow, which were very apparent because the strips were so narrow.

We finally found rolling hills and cattle before we stopped for the night at a free county park near Torrington on the North Platte River. The campground book told us of many places like this, and we had finally learned to use it properly.

The next morning we slept in until after eight, and decided that one day we might find the clock and use it. Harry wanted to throw out all the clocks when he retired, but I did bring a travel alarm with us and hid it somewhere.

We did get started about nine, an easy move because we had not unhitched the truck from the trailer the night before. Between Lusk and Newcastle we saw round bales of hay about 5 feet in diameter, and we thought we saw the baler for them. It was new to us because our side of the Cascades in Washington had nothing like that. Quite often there were herds of antelope next to the highway, which made the drive interesting.

Highway 85 took us through Lead and Deadwood, South Dakota, and naturally we thought of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. Homestead Mine, the largest gold mine in the world, had tours, but we could not find a place to park the truck and the trailer. It seemed much too early to stop for the night and come back for a tour. Both Lead and Deadwood are at the bottom of a valley with a 7½% grade going down, and a long pull up leaving towns. Somehow we were reminded of Bisbee, Arizona, and the Lavender Pit copper mine, especially when Highway 85 took us through the towns, very narrow, crooked streets for Henry and the trailer. Someday we planned to come back.

Interstate 90 from Spearfish to Belle Fourche was extremely rough, and we learned later that somehow the contractor had goofed. There were peanuts all over the trailer when we stopped for the night at the free city park in Belle Fourche. Fortunately, the door that jiggled open had only plastic dishes and the peanuts in it to fall out. The Closet Rod stayed in place, and I found I remembered to lock the refrigerator. We had heard tales of the mess an open refrigerator door and a rough road can do the inside of a trailer, and hoped this would never happen to us.

Years before we had gone through Belle Fourche with our daughter Christine, and still remembered how to pronounce it: "Bell Foosh." The man at the gas station where we bought 38½ gallons of gasoline at 56.9¢ told us Belle Fourche meant "beautiful forks," but we never learned why or what river?

The morning of July 10 we saw stacks of hay in the fields that looked like enormous loaves of bread. These we had seen in eastern Washington, but had never seen the baler for them before. The hay was chopped, blown into a big tall box on wheels, compressed, and left in the "loaves" in the field. At least so we thought, but someday maybe we hoped to find out for sure.

We crossed the Powder River at Broadus, "a mile wide, an inch deep, too thin to plow, and too thick to drink." I made a funny about how Broadus must have gotten the name (the broadest part of the Powder River), and Harry did not speak to me for quite a while. Could have been that he wished he had thought to say it.

Our park at Lemonade Springs was 25 miles west of Broadus and 18 miles east of Ashland, where we were to pick up our mail, a long empty stretch of mountains in between the towns. Just as we got the trailer settled, the brake warning light went on. Fortunately, it was after the mountains, because when Harry checked, he found the brake fluid leaking in the right rear wheel.

HERE WE WERE AGAIN. The nearest Dodge garage was in Miles City, over 100 miles away, and the places in Broadus and Ashland were too busy with the harvest machinery to make service calls. We were in sad shape until the young man who owned the park said he was a mechanic, and offered to help find the problem for us. They worked until dark to find that it was the plunger for the right rear wheel brake system.

These were more defective parts on the truck that should be on warranty, but how could we get to a Dodge garage from Lemonade Springs was a good question. I decided to write letters to "Your Man in Detroit," telling him our problem and asking what to do. At least we could let him know what we thought about the whole thing. After all, this was the second time we had a warranty problem, and this time we were where we could not get help.

The man in the motor home next door went to Ashland the next morning and gave Harry a lift into town so he could order the parts, but he needed to hitch a ride back to Lemonade Springs. There went some of our emergency money. But while Harry was gone to town, I cleaned the stove and the refrigerator, and my hair and some clothes, while I worried all the time.

Found there was no need to worry because the father of Harold, the owner of the park, brought Harry back with the parts, plus a guided tour of the area. The father, Mr. Hanson, and Harry worked for a couple of hours to fix the brakes, and now all was well—we hoped. Mr. Hanson had had a farm machinery shop in Ashland until he retired, and we were grateful for his help. Neither father nor son would accept any payment for their kind assistance.

We knew we would find some way to pay them. There were three cute children we had fun with, as well as the cats and kittens. The orange cat family consisted of Mama Cat, Papa Cat, and four playful babies, which Papa Cat helped take care of. There was a swallow nest above the door to the women's shower, and with field glasses I watched the momma bird feed the little ones. We felt fortunate to be at such a pleasant spot in the mountains while we waited for our mail.

While Harry was in Ashland trying to get the parts for the brakes, he found a couple of pamphlets giving information about those round hay bales we had seen. My brothers would understand how the baler worked (I didn't), but it seemed that the cattle were fed by unrolling the bales, either partially or completely. I still didn't understand about the "loaves" of hay, but now the "rolls" made more sense.

On the morning of July 12 I wrote a letter to my high school class reunion, which we could not attend. Then we went into Ashland to try for our mail at the office of the St. Labre Indian School, which we had donated funds to for many years. There was no one there to ask for our mail on a Saturday, so we had a tour of the Cheyenne Indian School. The museum was very good, as was the church and the whole boarding school, but we knew we would see the whole school again on Monday, when we came again to try for our mail. We had thought it might be there on July 11.

Harry was going to take me out for lunch, but all two of the restaurants in the town were closed for the weekend, so we came home. Harry showed the boys his old-fashioned slingshot, and the three of them had a wonderful time for hours.

I volunteered to babysit for Norma and Harold if they wanted to go out on a Saturday night. We knew we would have no problems because the children knew us and liked us. They decided to go to a dance and go bowling in Broadus, and she asked us to run the campground for them, too.

I would be too soft-hearted to run a campground. An Indian woman with a baby and no money stopped with a sob story, and I did warm a bottle for her even though it had a hole in it. Harry had gone home when the TV went off the air, and I refused to leave the children to go outside to talk with her. She took her broken-down car up one of the streets in the camp to spend the night, but when Harold and Norma came home from their good time in Broadus with another young couple from the park, he sent her on her way when I told him what had happened. Guess this had to be done for the free-loaders.

The good steak we found for July 4 was from a real butcher shop in Conifer, Colorado, a long time since we had found anything other than packaged meat. We froze more steak and good hamburger to have with us for emergencies because our freezer works very well on either gas or electricity. The night of July 13 we decided to have steak cooked on our hibachi, and it was good, too.

We were the only transients here in the park, the others all had jobs in the area and lived in a camper, a tent, or a trailer. Harold Hanson worked at a steam plant at Colstrip, 60 miles away from here; he was a mechanical engineer. He and Norma had 40 acres nearby, which they planned to develop for winter ski people.

On July 13 Harry fixed the radio so that it would work in the trailer without the windows open; it was the antenna and the ground wire. And he bought a straw cowboy hat because of the Big Sky influence, which he knocks off when he gets into the truck. And I did mail the letter I had written to "The Man in Detroit" about the truck warranty that we though was due us, in spite of the fact we could not get to the garage in Miles City.

The Hansons wanted no money for helping us with the brakes for the truck, but we left a check hoping they would buy a record player for the children, anyway, when we left the check for our rent. It was nearly noon when we got back from Ashland to pick up our mail on July 14. At the school on another tour we found that most of the children were home for the fall, winter and spring weekends, and that there are 25 buses for them. Our mail was great, of course.

It was very hot driving to Glendive, Montana, where we spent the night. The road from Broadus to Miles City was very "paintable," and I thought of my friend Louise in Westwood, California, who is the artist knowing she would like this drive. We heard about paddlefish at the lake near the dam by Glendive, a prehistoric fish, but had no time to go find out about them.

Central Time we found just over the North Dakota border before we got to Williston to spend the night at the Red Barn the next night. We were on a hill with many tents and tent trailers, and the temperature was over 94 degrees. It seemed hot to us. The Dodge garage said they would take care of any problems we had on the next day, and so we decided to stay for at least 2 days.

How sorry we felt for those in tents and tent trailers during the night because of the thunder and lightning with lots of rain during the night. The wind shook our trailer so much that we wondered what happened to the tents, but never heard that they were hurt. I was frightened, but it did cool down enough for us t be able to sleep during the night.

In the morning Harry bought new sandals to replace those he had bought many years ago in Roseburg, Oregon, right after the town blew up from the explosive truck. I found an even-up trade for my paperbacks at a Salvation Army store, and used three washing machines at a laundromat to catch up on our laundry while I wrote letters. Meanwhile, Harry had a new cap made for the bumper which holds our sewer hose, which had been lost on a long, muddy detour the day before. The entire hose could have been lost on the road. We are innocents, as usual.

The garage in Williston said that the truck was now fixed, the other end of the brake plunger that the fellows had fixed in Ashland had blown, so the garage put an entire new wheel assembly in for us. This was on warranty, and we did hope that the speedometer was fixed, too. By this time we did wonder what else could go wrong, but decided to be confident that all would be well.

We had thought that the thunder storm over Stage Stop in Colorado was quite something, as well as the first night we stayed in Williston, North Dakota, but the night of July 17 in Williston was the worst ever we had experienced. The storm at Stage Stop was mild by comparison. There were lightning flashes that we could have read by, very loud claps of thunder, high winds with gusts that shook the trailer, and rain that poured like water from a faucet for over an hour. We felt sorry for those in tents and tent trailers, and hoped all was well with them. The news in the morning said that it rained .400 of an inch, and that there were tornadoes less than 30 and 40 miles away.

Could be that the weather happened because Harry had those new sandals, and that if he wore them, we might have snow! Like when he washed the car, and always he took the blame for the rain that immediately followed, and if the neighbors wanted rain, he was praised, but otherwise, he felt guilty.

We really had road construction on the way to Moose Mountain Park on Lake Kenosee, and the truck and trailer were covered with oil because of over 18 miles of construction in one place. At the Canadian border we had no problems, we told them we had a rifle with us, but they seemed only interested in handguns, which we did not have. Years ago we had no difficulty crossing the border at Northgate, but our dog had to have all kinds of papers to get in and out of Canada. When we got to Moose Mountain Park we took the gun to the ranger office to have it sealed for the time we were staying in Canada. The girl there thought it seemed sealed quite well the way we had it, but she finally located some official-looking papers for the rifle.

Lake Kenosee is huge and lovely, but we decided to stay only overnight because there were so many people there. We walked all over the park to the beach and the chalet, and because the radio batteries we had bought in Bend, Oregon, were not good, we went to the store for new ones.

The odometer read that we had gone 214 miles from Williston to Moose Mountain, but by the road signs we thought it was off quite a bit, like 16 miles in each hundred. We were disappointed because we had just had it fixed in Williston, we thought.

Nice people in the park talked to us, and one man from Quebec next door told me that now Canada uses Celsius (centigrade) temperatures, and that he wasn't sure how to convert from one to the other. He did say that he was sure that 68 degrees Fahrenheit was 20 degrees Celsius. Somewhere I remembered that perhaps a conversion formula was 20C times 9/5 plus 32, and it worked!

Stapled to the page was the following hand-written formulas:
Celsius 20 X 9/5 + 32 = 68F
Fahrenheit 68 – 32 X 5/9 = 20C

In the store we found that the labels on all the groceries are both in French and English, too, but our tomato juice can almost looked the same as in the United States. We sent labels from the groceries home with letters as souvenirs for the children.

The next day we drove all of 65 miles to Moosomin Park, a provincial park east of Regina on the Trans-Canada Highway, where we planned to stay for the weekend. In town we bought gasoline at 71.9¢ a gallon, which shook us up until we remembered the imperial gallon and decided that we had a bargain. We thought it was 20 of the United States gallons called 16 imperial gallons. Then we bought what we supposed was a half-gallon of milk at $1.09, and found it would not fit into our container in the refrigerator, there was at least a pint of milk to store. Everything was larger here, but we would learn, we thought.

The park was nice with the trailer spots on the side of the road with the tables just out the door, and the other people hidden from us by the trees, which helped to cut the wind. Harry had the ground squirrels eating our stale peanuts from his hand, they look like gray squirrels, but are very rusty. Eventually, they came to the door to be fed. We liked to eat outside at the table in the trees, and Harry could not resist the real meat markets in the town and bought steak again.

Here we saw milk cartons made into wind whirligigs, so we made one for our trailer. The cartons were yellow, blue, red, and white with both French and English—Lait and Milk—and by now we realized that they were larger than those we were used to. We would learn as we went on our way, we hoped.

We had been given tourist information at the park entrance when we came in, and went to the Moosimin Museum one afternoon, which was very interesting. We learned about the world's largest oil can near Rocanville, and went there another afternoon. Apparently, a Eugene Symons invented a very successful oil can, and after 50 years the Sheetmetal Workers Union erected a 28-foot oil can on the prairie in tribute to him. In the pictures we took Harry looked very small standing at the base of the big can.

The people here were picking Saskatchewan berries, which were much like the huckleberries at home. I thought perhaps they used them for pies and jams, too. The yellow fields we had wondered about which looked like our mustard we asked the ranger about, and he told us it was rape. It was grown commercially for lubricating oil, and the leaves are used for fodder. As I said, one asked, and one found out. And now we wished that we had asked about the fields in North Dakota that we thought might be flax. Now we know that the dictionary was what we needed with us, it helped.

We heard a kitten one day and tried to find it, but the ranger told us it was a catbird which can mimic anything. We did not see one, or a cardinal, or a bluebird, but had hopes for another time. The mosquitoes ate on Harry the way they did years ago in North Dakota.

Handwritten in the margin: Check on Jimmy Hoffa disappearance we heard on U.S. radio

The provincial parks in Canada all seemed new with wonderful showers and restrooms, but the hookups were only for electricity. At Moosomin I carried lots of water from the faucet to cook and wash with, because we did not have a full tank of water after staying at Moose Mountain. But we used the disposal tank at the park at Moosomin and filled our water tank, too, before we left for Winnipeg on the morning of July 21. We stayed at Conestoga Campground in Winnipeg with the other "covered wagons" of all types that night. I read somewhere that travel trailers are the modern covered wagons.

We were puzzled on our nice cool drive from Moosimin to Winnipeg because at the roadside there were signs that said "Orbit" and then a very large round object with a hole near the top, and a stand close by that looked rather like a parking meter. Finally we saw a sign that said "Put Trash in Orbit"… they were litter barrels. Then we wondered why there never seemed to be a place for us to get off the road, and we never did find the purpose of those meter-like stands.

Mosquitoes had always eaten Harry, years ago in North Dakota they did get me one time when I took the dog for a walk in a small town at noon, but the ones in Conestoga Campground seemed very vicious. The campground had a mosquito repellant which helped, and they had several of the bug killer lights throughout the park. We were told that Winnipeg did not allow any spray this year.

On July 22 we went to Winnipeg for lunch and to get the odometer fixed again, because it was still off about 16 miles each hundred. Harry also wanted to have the trailer hitch lowered because the skids dragged at every entrance and exit at service stations. The trailer was not level, either, because we were such innocents when we left home several weeks ago. More emergency money for our mistakes, but we would learn.

Winnipeg is a city of skyscrapers in the middle of the prairie, very clean and with lots of room for industry and the city to grow. The Assiniboine (A-sin-i-boine) and the Red Rivers meet here. By the time we left the welding shop it was rush hour again, and our lunch had been hamburgers that I had brought back from my walk while Harry was stuck in the garage. This was lunch out. We found a beltway around the city to get back to Conestoga Campground, which we were warned was an experimental road using ground tires as a base. It seemed great, and the city impressed us.

Harry thought we should be able to see the North Pole from Winnipeg because there seemed to be absolutely nothing in the way over the prairies. It wasn't hot, but there seemed to be a haze over the city that we thought might be smog, but the people at the gas station said it was not. Gasoline was 69.9 an imperial gallon, and I did not like any of the Canadian cigarettes I found at 95¢ a pack. Thought I might roll my own sooner or later.

July 23 we found that the rest areas in Ontario were called "halts." They were working on the Trans-Canada Highway and there was lots of construction along the way. Our Highway 71 turned south at Kenora and on the way there were many detours because the roadwork must be done in the summer. "Squeeze Left" seemed to mean make one lane on detours, and our guess was correct.

Tomahawk Lodge trailer park was very large on the Lake of the Woods near Sioux Narrows, and after we were settled we decided to go back to Sioux Narrows to buy fishing lures and an Ontario fishing license at $10.75 each. After looking at the maps we thought that Ontario had the most lakes and the biggest country to use the licenses. Retirees were not able to buy fishing licenses in every province and state because of the cost, as we well knew.

There was a lure named "Mr. Twister" and minnows which we did buy in Sioux Narrows, but we did restrain ourselves on something called a worm harness. I bought Canadian stamps to be sure that I could mail letters and postcards home, because I heard that United States stamps would not be accepted at the post offices for any mail. Coffee was $1.75 a pound with brands packaged in bags that we knew nothing about, and I found some American-type cigarettes made in Montreal at $7.10 a square carton.

July 24 we were at the dock when the fishing boats came in with about eight walleyes ready to be cleaned by the experts with very sharp fillet knives. The walleyes are ugly fish, yellowish-green with spots and white on the bottom, but they are said to be very good eating. Perhaps we were too accustomed to the salmon and trout in the Northwest, but we did try to fish from the dock with no luck, but we were determined to expect again. The mosquitoes did leave Harry alone at least for that night.

We had decided to stay one week at least at Tomahawk Lodge so I cleaned house, and Harry took care of washing the oil off the truck and the trailer. And I learned that I must keep Canadian change handy for the laundromat; United States money is not accepted by the machines.

We thought the odometer on the truck was still off about 7 miles in every hundred, but decided to forget about it. That small problem helped make it difficult to find a true figure for our miles per gallon, but we thought it was a little more than 10 miles per gallon after adjusting for the imperial gallons.

The worms in the shop in Sioux Narrows finally arrived from Toronto for the weekend supply, $2 plus tax for 25 of them. We wondered why someone did not start a worm farm close to the Lake of the Woods.

No one ever asked to see our fishing licenses, but we knew that if we had not had them, things would have been difficult. Our fishing was not successful, but we enjoyed the beautiful lake while we fished. A man from Iowa who had a boat offered us walleye and northern pike because he had so many, he said he had a freezer full and could only take a 1-day limit home with him. We gladly accepted, and he showed us how to fillet them, and warned us about the "y" bone left in the northern fillets. The fish was very white meat and tasted very good, even to us who were used to salmon and trout. There are times when we thought perhaps we should have a boat with us, but we planned to go so many places where we would not fish.

Handwritten on a small insert: The birds, blackbirds, and wild canaries, and the red squirrels came down to take baths and drink next to us, not minding a bit

Black flies, we thought, took real bites out of us, but the mosquito repellant seemed to help a little bit. And the sole of my moccasin came loose again for the fourth time. Glue worked for a while, but I knew someday I would have to find a store to buy new ones.

On July 29 we started for Fort Frances on Rainy Lake, after making a collect call home to Seattle because we felt lonesome. A program on the radio told us that in 1889 a volcano blew up in Iceland and left many homeless. Canada invited them as settlers and many of them came to stay permanently on Lake Winnipeg. One settlement was named "Gimli," which is Icelandic for Paradise, and there are several other Icelandic towns. The government took over one named Hecla for a park, and the plans for the fishing village to keep the people there were abandoned. The golf course was to be finished first, and the fishermen left because of no work. Another case of governments which worked in strange and wonderful ways.

We had been impressed by the Lake of the Woods which stretched all the way from Kenora into Minnesota, but found Rainy Lake even more overwhelming. Highway 11 from Fort Frances went across the lake on a long causeway, with more lakes and lodges and resorts which did not seem to welcome transients because they were all for summer people from the cities. We did find a place to stay at Lower Shebandowan Lake with a nice shady spot, a breeze, and a view of the lake with electricity. We knew we could manage for a few days by borrowing more hose to get water to the trailer, and we would be careful about the holding tank for the bathroom. The innocents did learn.

It was very hot on the drive from Fort Frances, and we learned that it had been 117 degrees in Kakabeka Falls that day, but it was only 96 degrees at Shebandowan. Our air conditioning was open windows and cold water, and it did cool down at night. I stayed in the trailer making my quilt blocks which had been started at Moosimin in Saskatchewan days before, hoping for no company because I wore no blouse. The black flies bit, but Harry wandered around the park making friends, as usual. We heard that the black flies were many times worse in June.

The people next door were there with their granddaughter from Thunder Bay, and they offered to take us fishing in their boat. Bea had come from England many years ago, but still had an English accent. Glen was a most pleasant man, and the granddaughter Debbie was very charming. I taught her to play several games of solitaire, and she taught me to play a game called "Kings in the Corner."

Our first ride on Shebandowan Lake was wonderful, and now I knew why one of the postcards I had bought declared that Canada has over half of the world's fresh water. There was Upper Shebandowan, Middle Shebandowan, Lower Shebandowan, and Greenwater Lake, all connected, and each of them seemed larger than Lake Tahoe. The shore of the lake was much different thatn that at Lake of the Woods, there it was large flat rocks with very little beach while at Shebandowan there were large stretches of sandy beach. Glen told us that 15 years ago he had turned down an opportunity to buy one of the islands for $800 because he did not want a permanent place. Now the same island sold for over $20,000, and he felt the way we did over our lost chances.

Fishing did not go well for us, but Glen caught two nice walleyes. About 3 minutes from our dock a sudden storm came up, we could not outrun it. Just as we got to the dock the winds really hit us, and we were glad to be back. I had trouble getting up the hill to our trailer to try to shut the windows while Harry helped moor the boat. I wanted to close the windows in the trailer, but was still standing dripping on the rug when Harry arrived later. There was no way we could get to the windows without getting everything wet from us, so in desperation we closed them anyway.

We hung our clothes in the shower to drip, and heard later that Bea just put Glen's clothes out in the rain because there was no room for them in their trailer. Both of us were as soaked as if we had been in a shower, and really felt silly because we had not been as frightened as we should have been. Now we knew more about the sudden thunder and lightning storms that could arrive with no warning. Never had we innocents found anything like that in Washington, but felt lucky because we heard later that another boat did not get into our dock until after 11 that night. He and his party had to go into another spot until the storm let up.

August 2 was our wedding anniversary and a beautiful day. Harry went with Glen and Debbie to try again for fish. They all decided to try the Columbia River lures we had, as well as the minnows which Glen always had good luck using. Debbie borrowed my pet fishing hat, and her grandmother Bea was now copying the crochet pattern to make her one for herself. Another time I kept care of the children while Harry went with Bea and Glen to fish.

Our anniversary dinner was leftover tamale pie, cole slaw, and string beans by candlelight. Exciting, but because we could not get to the store to buy steak, or to a restaurant for a special dinner, and we heard that Monday was a holiday of some kind. So we expect to stay over until Tuesday. At dinner each of us took a picture of the other, but forgot about the mirror behind us which reflected the flash of the camera; the picture looked strange.

When we went outside, we told them what we had been doing, and Bea and Glen just looked at each other because August 2 was their anniversary, too. They had lost track of the days. We had them over to our trailer for coffee, but had no cookies or cake to go with it, and neither did they. It seemed that Glen was originally from Scotland, and Bea from London, but they both had lived in Thunder Bay for many years.

We keep track of the days by "X"ing out the days on a small calendar and eventually pasting them up on our wall. Someday we hoped to have 24 of [the months] up there, but at that time we had only June and July of 1975.

Sunday their daughter Diane and the son-in-law and another daughter came out from Thunder Bay to stay the rest of the week. Kathy was a beautiful child, and I gave her a bead necklace that I had. Meanwhile, we made Debbie a whirligig from a large milk carton I had found, and had bought her a postcard of Shebandowan Lake, and taught her more games of solitaire. We did miss our grandchildren so very much.

Diane and her husband brought a Ukrainian treat with them from Thunder Bay when they came: perogey. We thought it very good, and very filling. Diane said it was potatoes, onions, cheese, they are boiled, and then deep-fried. We thought we must have always lived in the wrong part of the country to enjoy the good things available for other people.

We did go fishing, Diane, Gene, and I Sunday night, and I caught three fish! We came back to find that everyone was worried about us because a storm was coming again. This time we did make it back to the trailer before it hit with hail, wind, rain, lightning, and thunder. When the brief storm was over, Glen brought all the fish over to us, because Bea had cleaned them and wanted us to have them.

Although I offered to take care of the girls on Monday, Bea insisted that I go fishing with Gene and Diane because Harry and Glen wanted to fish off the dock. I caught a 2-pound fish that time, and Harry caught several off the dock, too. Bea showed me how to clean them, and we put them all in the freezer. From the regulations we knew that we must always keep track of each kind of fish, and that we could only have one day's possession with us—12 fish, and now we had 10.

We did not ever make fun of the Canadians and their accent. We did know that "zed" would be "zee" but still wondered how it was that they said "about" and "south" because it did sound so different to us. In Canada we learned what we thought was "eh" or "hey" in the middle of a sentence and thought it was "you know," but it could have been something else. Of course, we said "Washington" differently, too, because somehow I thought we might have put an "r" in "Washington"? Possible, because it did sound different. We said "crick" for "creek," but so did Glen and Bea. We wondered why we thought we were always right, and knew we had much to learn.

After the Monday holiday we drove all of 55 miles into Thunder Bay, where we found the shop to get the trailer wheels greased and checked. Easy to find because we had looked in the telephone yellow pages at the lake, and Glen and Bea had told us how to get around the town. It was a trailer supply store (as well as a service shop), so we bought several things we needed. Propane seemed high at $5.90 then.

Trowbridge Falls Park was city-owned, and very nice. We settled the trailer and went to find a bank to buy traveler's checks for the month of August. How surprised we were to find that they accepted the large check from our Chehalis bank without any serious question. We offered to pay for a call to the bank, but they did not do it, possibly because of the letter we showed them from an officer of the bank.

The transaction took quite a while because of the exchange of money, and this time United States money gained for us. The idea of our 2-year trip fascinated the bank people, too, and we heard "Good luck, and have a good time" as we left.

All afternoon we had tried to call Bea and Glen to ask them to go for a delayed anniversary dinner with us as a thank-you for their kindness at the lake. While we were having the truck serviced in the garage after the bank, I finally found them at home. They came to pick us up at our park about 5:00 and took us for a guided tour of Thunder Bay before dinner.

Thunder Bay is a new name.…

The elevators where the Russian ships came for their wheat were here, high mountains were right on the bay, and a wonder view of the city from up on a hill. The Sleeping Giant was a series of hills that looked like an enormous Indian lying down. I found a postcard of him to send to one of the grandchildren.

Handwritten in the margin: picture in paper
egg fried on sidewalk

After a very good Chinese dinner they asked us back to their house for a while. It was the first time we had been in a house since Montana when I babysat for Norma and Harold, and found that we liked it. The trailer was fine, though. How fortunate we felt to meet such nice people who seemed to like us because we were interested in their country, and we just liked them.

We had picked Marathon out of thin air for our next mail drop and sent Christine the name of the town and the zip code. Bea and Glen later told us that the road along Lake Superior was very scenic. Nipigon on Lake Helen was only 65 miles from Thunder Bay, and we picked that just off the map, too. How very lucky we were again!

Just before we got to Thunder Bay we changed to Eastern Time, and a look at our map told us that before we reentered the United States after the Gaspe Peninsula we would be on Atlantic Time. It was fortunate that everywhere was Daylight Time.

Nipigon was pronounced Nipigun, and Lake Helen was truly beautiful. We dumb innocents fell into luck, always. Our first night in the park we went for a walk to the far dock on the lake, and the only wild flowers I recognized was fireweed, and perhaps vetch. When I asked about the others, on one could help me, not even the management.

We went to buy minnows in order to fish in the Nipigon River for trout. I forgot to take my Ontario license, so only Harry fished, with no luck. It seemed that nightcrawlers were called dew worms, which made a great deal of sense after we thought about it for a while. The manager of the park told us about the museum in town, so we went one day to see it. Tomahawks, Indian relics, old moccasins, a birch-bark canoe—name it, and it was there to see. The person who wrote the captions for the items really made the museum. There was a recipe for Clay Pot Soup: "1200 A.D. Line clay pot with hot rocks, throw cut-up fish into pot (don't bother to clean), cook 45 minutes over some kind of fire, take out fish and broth (scales, rocks, etc., will fall to the bottom of the pot), put rocks back for another time, and eat fish and broth without salt, and enjoy it." We didn't think so.

The people next door with a boat went fishing at the far end of Lake Helen and came back with white fish, a big pike, and two rainbow, one about 16 inches and the other one the biggest one we had ever seen. The man said it weighed over 5½ pounds. We were told that the rainbow here were not always red meat, as we were used to, and we wondered about that.

Handwritten between paragraphs: W.Va. He told us about leaving the trailer safety on the ground when parked as an extra ground in case of lightning

The manager of the park had rafted logs for many years on Lake Helen, and he took us for a ride in a small boat down the Nipigon River to Lake Superior. We had only seen long rafts on the Columbia River, but the postcard I found for Lake Helen showed round rafts which Bob (the manager) told us was no more because of pollution. There were rapids going down the river, but the wind had died down, so the rollers on the lake did not hit us too hard. He took us to see the Indian pictographs on the cliffs on Lake Superior, and told us the story about them. I was fascinated and somewhat frightened because naturally a thunderstorm with lots of rain hit just as we started back. It could be that I was rather a Jonah in a boat, always a storm then. But again we were lucky to have a trip on Lake Superior, we thought.

We kept track of our expenses like gasoline, lodging, trailer expenses, postage, laundry, and miscellaneous. "Vice," our tobacco and alcohol, was a separate account, and in Canada it was not much. The provinces had the liquor stores, and the beer retail stores were separate outlets. We learned that the alcohol content of the beer was more, and were told that the alcohol was less in the whiskey, but were not sure about this. In Saskatchewan we made out requisitions to buy anything, Manitoba we didn't know about, but Ontario requires a nickel deposit per bottle on each case of bottled beer. I rolled cigarettes for quite a while, because I thought they did not taste worse than those I could buy, and Harry was still looking for his chewing tobacco. No doubt it would be a shop in the city to help him.

There were grackles and ravens in the park which we had never seen before. The grackles had conventions outside the trailer very often with much noise, and the ravens look like very large, different crows. Our bird book helped us much, and we hoped to learn about different birds.

The manager was kind enough to ask us to his house after dinner to see some pictures of his rafting days on the lake. He had pictures of our trailer park, Hillside Acres, the bridges across the river, and the big pulp mill far down the river at Red Rock. Our boat ride down the river had been much farther into the lake.

When Bob mentioned that he had come from the East, I asked where, and he said "Andover, Massachusetts," the home of my relatives. He said he still had a cousin in North Andover.

I had to glue the right sole of my moccasin again.

We heard loons again on the lake. The first we had seen were on Lake Shabandowan, one was in the middle of the lake with a baby one. They made a strange, eerie noise, and are rather like a duck with a long neck.

In the morning we took off for Marathon and our mail. On the way we saw a sign that said "Moose Crossing." Although we watched the lakes hoping to see them feeding as we did on the way to Jasper in the Canadian Rockies years before, we didn't see any this time.

There was a big forest fire at Manitonwadge, about 40 miles northeast, and the smoke was smelly and thick. The car radio said the fire was under control.

Many of the cars we met on the road either carried canoes on top, or had a boat with a trailer behind them. So many lakes in Ontario attracted boat fishermen. We really found the drivers we had heard about, too, those who passed on hills, double lines, and even made double passes. A car passed us, and another one passed it at the same time, leaving us speechless with fright.

We found a place to stay in a Lions Club park on Penn Lake, just outside the town of Marathon. Our mail had not yet arrived, so we explored the town, which had a big pulp mill, and all the houses seemed two styles of two-story homes. One had a square roof, and the other a front-to-back peaked roof. There were three enormous heaps of logs on the shore of Lake Superior for the pulp mill, and we watched a conveyor take even more to the top of one pile and let them spill down the side. We never did see how they took them from the log raft for the mill. The log rafts were round, instead of rectangular, like the ones we were used to seeing in the Pacific Northwest.

Handwritten in the margin: Big dragon flies

The entire country was beautiful with so many lakes, but we did hear that the winters could be something. The manager of the park at Lake Helen told us that that lake froze about 5 feet deep in the winter there, and we could imagine that it would be much the same on Lake Superior. It had been too smoky earlier to take pictures, but that day we thought we got some good ones for a change.

In 1975 the Social Security office did not have automatic transfer of checks to your bank, one had to sign a power-of-attorney each year for the bank. Harry's power-of-attorney had to be signed and in the hands of the bank in Chehalis before September 1, so we started looking for a notary public in Marathon. The bank had none, but suggested that we try the Northern Affairs Office for Ontario Province, that man was on "holiday," but they suggested the municipal offices. There that man was on "holiday," too, and the other two notaries left in town were also on "holiday." Wee thought "holiday" much more exciting than "vacation." We decided to wait until we got to Sault Ste. Marie in a few days. We thought Ste. Marie meant Saint Mary, but no one could or would tell us about Sault, pronounced "Soo."

We had lots of good mail marked "hold for travelers." The next morning we went through a town called Wawa, and thought how could people make fun of Walla Walla, Washington? Every country, every state, had very different names, special to them.

The roads were quite good, mostly two-lane, but with sneaky "thank-you-ma'am"s that were not labeled "bump." Clothes jumped off the closet rod all the time, but the closet rod did stay up.

Agawa was a wonderful park right on Lake Superior, where I went wading (just to say I did), and, of course, Harry looked as though he did not know me. I found rocks and sand from Lake Superior to take home for the grandchildren. We decided that would be different, anyway.

At Sault Ste. Marie we found so much construction and so many detours we did not even try to get into town to find a notary. We just bought gasoline and took off of Bruce Mines, where we fixed our lunch in the trailer and played cards, parked on the main street, while we waited for the lawyer's office to open for the afternoon. Then we found that the notary public was on "holiday" and that the other barrister was not able to help us. He did suggest that there was on in Blind River, but when we got there later, we found no one. The man in Sudbury was very kind, was fascinated by our trip, charged nothing, and we got the letter in the mail. August was "holiday" time, we thought.

Handwritten between paragraphs: sea level of lakes

After Sault Ste. Marie our highway went along Lake Huron for quite a while. There was a big river named Missisagi (almost Mississippi), and there were many gold, copper, uranium, and nickel mines which offered tours which we could not do at that time.

In Canada the Indian reservations are "Indian reserves" in beautiful country, not in the desert or in the middle of nowhere, as in the United States. There were Indian pictographs at Agawa, too, and probably many more in other places. We loved the sign "Squeeze Left" on the construction areas on the highways, so clear and so obvious to all.

At the park in Sudbury we met a man from Massachusetts who carved miniature brewery horses and wagons, those in the parades with the beer wagons. In addition to these, he carved fishermen and sea captains, all of them lovely to look at.

The rural mailboxes on the way were so different from those in the United States; they looked like filing cabinets with legs to us. They were banks of locked boxes out in the country, and one day we saw the postman opening the entire front to deliver mail. It must have been that each customer had a key for his box. We took a picture to send home to our mailman, because it was so different for us. We were almost disappointed when we saw a regular rural box as we were used to.

We still wondered what the building sign we saw as we left Sudbury meant, "Cité de Jeune" sounded interesting, but we don't speak French. Now we tried to imagine how we would do in Quebec without French. We felt that we could only try.

After Thunder Bay we were on Highway 17 again. Matawa River and the Ottawa River met near the town of Matawa, where we were stopped at a roadblock by heavily armed police. They not only questioned us, but searched the trailer because they were looking for a man who had escaped from jail in North Bay, 11 days before. He had said he would not be captured by anyone. We wanted to go on our way, but the police seemed interested in what we were doing, and talked to us until several cars stacked up behind us. At last we got away.

That night at Deep River we realized that we had moved along during the week from Nipigon and that now we were just over a hundred miles from Ottawa. Harry was the driver but got a running commentary from me on the way. Out of North Bay we saw what we thought might be slag from the mines. It could have been, but later it was rocks and more rocks, a moonscape of black rocks. We crossed a Mississippi River at Armprior just west of Ottawa on the way to our trailer park at L'Orignal.

In town we found a "y" in the street, took the wrong fork, and it was almost 20 miles before we could find a place to turn around with the truck and the trailer. We were grateful we didn't have to go back all the way to Ottawa.

Our trip on the back road to Alfred was interesting, anyway. There was an enormous building labeled "Eastern Castings," where something huge was manufactured. I wondered if it could be railroad engines or cars? The signs could tell tourists driving past a bit more, we thought, because we like to know.

The French people in the city park in L'Orignal were very friendly. They took time to answer our questions. We found that the corner grocery stores are confectionaires, that Cité de Jeune should be a high school, and that Ecole Secondaire was also high school. The children were like all children, and Harry had some of the boys trying to learn his shrill whistle, and they were blowing whistles on a blade of grass. We met a couple from Ottawa whose names were Jean and Jeanne, but they were fascinated by Harry and Mary, too. I thought their last name, Louisseize, translated to Louis VI. I had known about Upper Canada (Quebec) and Lower Canada (Ontario) from the family history of my grandmother Wilson, but no one could tell me a translation of "Sault" in Sault Ste. Marie. Later I read that a Sieur de Sault was granted a seigniory in 1672, and it made me wonder if that might be the answer.

After the weekend in L'Orignal, we started for Montreal, hoping to avoid the traffic, but Montreal was like most big cities. There was never a lull to find.

The tourist information place when we entered Quebec was extremely good, we were given many tour books of Montreal, Quebec, the Gaspe peninsula, Isle d'Orleans, and Highway 138 on the north side of the St. Lawrence River to Quebec. The freeway did not come close to the river, and we wanted to see the country as tourists. Highway 138 was the King's Road, "Le Chemin du Roy," and had many small historical towns with really old houses and churches. I read to Harry as we went along because each little town is described in detail, the history and the sights to see. The road was narrow and winding, and we stopped often to let a string of cars go past because we wanted to see everything we could.

The St. Lawrence River was very blue and very wide, high bluffs with trees growing up the sides lined the river, and the tops of the bluffs were flat. The weather was wonderful, sunny and nice in the daytime, and cool at night. We could see many small towns across the river, and our map told us the names of them. We found that we were learning a few words of French from the road signs, because we had to do so: Nord, Sud, Est, Oest, Vient, Arrête.

At Trois-Rivieres they said there were the world's largest pulp mills, and the Great Lakes ships came up the St. Lawrence River to unload grain so the ocean-going ships can pick it up. Now we remembered that ships from the ocean at times could go through canals all the way into the Great Lakes. Here too the super canoes of birch bark used on the Western rivers were made, 35 to 40 feet long.

At a small roadside stand labeled "Fruit et Legume," we stopped to buy a basket of apples and a basket of tomatoes. The little lady and her grandson understood us, but they did not speak English. Even so, we had a nice visit with them, and found that they would like to see our house on wheels, so we showed them through it. Her eyes got big when she saw our license plate from Washington in the United States, and we understood she meant "so far away." By this time we had Canadian money to spend, and just held some out to her to pay for the apples and the tomatoes, because we didn't know how much. The innocents did not feel cheated.

No doubt we could have been in Quebec that evening had we traveled the freeway, but we were sightseeing, so we stayed in Neuville after a most pleasant day. The next day it was only 30 miles into Quebec, and we found our park on Isle d'Orleans eventually. We went across the bridge at Montmorency and wandered for a while until I showed the girls at a roadside stand the name of the park we were hunting. They drew a map for us, and we talked in sign language more or less. I remembered the word for "thank you" in French but was afraid to pronounce it, so English had to do. We did feel fortunate that the woman who ran the trailer park spoke English, so we had no problem getting settled.

The bridge at Montmorency was only built in 1935, and before that it needed boats in the summer and ice bridges in the winter to get to the island. There were six villages on the island, a couple of them were 7 miles long, and many old homes and churches. One house showed the marks of English cannon balls with really big dents in it. We assumed that the English ships shelled the island during the time of Montcalm and Wolfe, but there was no one to ask about it. At the north end of the island we found a 60-foot observation tower which we climbed to look at Quebec and take pictures. The island is 42 miles around with many interesting sights, including one church that was built in 1732. We thought the West builds for 10 years, and then tears down and rebuilds, because we have nothing old.

We did stop at a "Fruit et Legume" stand on the way around the island, and got many good fresh vegetables, and found a "Super Marche" to buy our necessary other groceries. We made arrangements to go on a tour of Quebec in a minibus from a place near Montmorency. We had been told that the bigger buses cannot park easily, and cannot go on the narrow streets of the city, so we bought tickets for a 2:00 tour next day on the minibus.

We thought we might throw away the loaf of bread that we had bought because now we found that homemade bread was for sale everywhere, and the smell of fresh bread was marvelous. Now it seemed that the Gaspe would have bread, "pain," signs all along the road. The bread is made in ovens right there, and we knew what we had to look forward to enjoying later on.

From Thunder Bay to L'Orignal, Ontario, the results of keeping track of the gasoline cost and milage were
1208 miles
95.1 imperial gallons (118.875)
10.16 mpg
$70.21

We did walk each day as usual, exploring each park we were in. The license plates on the cars were from everywhere, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, but in the park on Isle d'Orleans the licenses were all from Quebec. We had yet to see one from the state of Washington, but had hopes of later on. No one spoke English in the park, but we got acquainted with the children next door because of their kitten and the puppy.

Our tour of Quebec on August 20 was most enjoyable mainly because of the driver of our minibus with only 15 passengers. He told us his name in French, and then said to call him Frank. I did catch his last name, which I was told was a very common name on the Isle d'Orleans. Frank drove with one hand while holding his mike with the other, and told us that he only spoke English 4 months of the year during the tour season, and he had been driving for over 12 years. His English was different, but then we knew that our pronunciation of Joliet, Cartier, and Champlain was different, too. We thought, so what else was new, and he did tell us to ask if we did not understand him.

He took us on the narrowest street in North America, and could believe it was because the bus seemed to just miss the buildings ("one more coat of paint on the bus, and we would hit the building"). Above the street there were flimsy-looking catwalks to allow the people to cross the street from the 2nd and 3rd stories. Children hung on the back of the bus asking for money, and the driver told us "the slums will be re-done with Urban Renewal, and those people will move to the next slums."

We went up and down hills like in San Francisco, only very narrow, one-way with a sharp turn about halfway down. Another street was very narrow on the way up, two-lane, and with a hairpin turn in it. Frank told us to look up, rather than down, and that the street was not used in the Cold Season. Fifty percent of the drivers put their cars away in the winter, and use municipal transportation which was very good. The Winter Carnival in Quebec was quite like the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, he said. No drinking was allowed on the street from a bottle, so they sold white canes with a stopper, they held a pint. Everyone was blind with white canes during the Winter Carnival.

We were suckered when we went past what he said was the tallest building in Quebec, 32 stories, and that it was lighted all the time. Someone asked why, and he said it was the headquarters of the Income Tax Office and they had to work day and night. The very wealthy lived either in or near the parks in immense homes, and the side remarks of the driver suggested that many of them made lots of money working for the Canadian government.

The changing of the guard at the Citadel was at 10:00 in the morning, so our 2:00 tour was much too late for that. When we stopped there, the driver offered to use our cameras to take pictures of us with the young, intense guards. Of course, most of us asked him to use our cameras to have souvenir pictures. The guard was 2 hours on duty and 2 hours off, so we did get to see them drill with their rifles, and march away in unison. When it rained, the guards took shelter in the guardhouse, "the bearskin shako cost $200, so don't get it wet."

Quebec is built on solid rock with really steep hills, steps and elevators are used. Also they use a cable car like in San Francisco. One elevator went to the Chateau Frontenac. We drove through there on the way to the Plains of Abraham, "rooms start at $36 a day." When I asked why it was called the Plains of Abraham, we were told that a farmer named Abraham Martin had owned it in 1759, when the battle for Quebec was fought between the English general Wolfe and the French general Montcalm. The Plains is now a huge park on the highest point of Quebec on Cap Diamant overlooking the St. Lawrence River. We found it very interesting, but really liked to look at the rive 360 feet below, with the ships and a glimpse of the Isle d'Orleans.

The Citadel originally was built in 1693 as a fort, and expanded time after time until 1820. During World War II it was used by the Canadian Army and still had the grass camouflage over the top.

We stopped at the Place Royale, where the old Notre Dame church, built in 1688, still stands along with a statue of Louis XIV in the square, and prowled through old wine cellars, and took pictures of old restored houses. We saw one that was leased by Hilton of Canada for the last 99 years, the balcony was put together with wooden pine visible from the street.

A lot of Old Quebec was Urban Renewal. Our driver told us that the owners must not tear down anything, but can restore the outside to the way it was during the French rule before 1759. Help is available from the government for up to 60% of the cost of renewing, and some are used as boutiques, restaurants, and stores. The copper roofs all over Quebec turn green, last forever, and are lovely.

On one narrow street the driver remembered to tell us that the current laws now said that all doors on the houses must open toward the street because of fire. The doors are right on the sidewalk, and we all thought "ouch" for those walking by. Also now outside stairways in houses and apartments are forbidden because of danger, and some had gone to the third floor. They were built to save room inside the buildings. Everywhere we saw beautiful ironwork, and many lacy balconies.

We noticed that no horns were used in the rush hour traffic, and that there were policemen directing traffic. Holes opened up in the traffic miraculously for the driver, and he was an excellent bluffer to make the spaces. With only 250 police in the large city of Quebec, there is a very low crime rate.

This information was new to us, but suppose others had always known it. The driver said the horses on the many statues in Quebec and elsewhere have a meaning. If the left foot of the horse is up, the person had died when the statue was made. If the right foot was up, the person was alive; and, if both the front feet of the horse were up, the person was killed in battle. There were many statues with men on horses in Quebec, and now we watched the horse's feet to see which way, left, right, or both front feet.

There were many liberation signs painted on the buildings in Old Quebec, but none of us mentioned them "FLQ"—we all knew what it meant. We also knew why so many acted as though they did not speak English for the tourists, but hoped we would make out because they wanted our money.

We did not stop at the enormous farmers market where we could have had a lovely time. When we went by the Electric Building, we heard that electricity was to be cheaper under the Socialist government, but that it now cost twice as much. The Canadian government was as efficient as that in the United States and other countries.…

The original French settlers were mostly from Normandy, and because they were separated from their home country now their French was different from that in France. The driver said the people in Quebec are not wine drinkers, either, but drink beer and whiskey, and not much wine.

On the way in to find the tour we picked up hitchhikers which we had resolved never to do. However, we recognized them as young people who stayed overnight in our park. They did not speak English, but had a news clipping to show where they wanted to go, and it was right on our way into town. This I knew because I had studied our map of the area. I did give up trying to talk to them when I pointed to a field of strawberries. He said "raspberries" to agree with me. From then on we just smiled at each other until we let them out at their stop.

We had heard that 99% of the province of Quebec is French, and that very few are bilingual. It would have been great to find a radio station to broadcast in English, but we did find a few United States radio stations at times.

Our tour cost us $7, plus "tips accepted," and that dollar was well worth it. We heard that a large part of the driver's salary consists of his tips. We had the tour book of Quebec we had been given at the information station when we came into Quebec to treasure and reread later, too. We were delighted with our tour, could not imagine even finding downtown by ourselves, finding a place to park, and enjoying what we saw even with the aid of the tour book. We did take the tour of the Isle d'Orleans on our own because we were there, and it would have cost $8.

We went for dinner at Les Ancestres on the Island because I had hidden some money so we could have a French dinner at some time. Unfortunately for us, we had a nice little waitress who did not speak English, and we puzzled over the menu in French. I did recognize the words "porc," "boeuf," and "ragout," so we took a chance and ordered. But Harry did not get the beef a la mode as ordered but had ragout instead, which he said was good but much too rich. My pork was excellent, and we both enjoyed the French bread and wine. We had lots of change from our $20 bill that time.

We never did find any postcards of the Isle d'Orleans that we wanted to keep. I had declared that the postcards were much better than the scenery pictures we could take with our small camera, and that we should use it to take people pictures only. It was unfortunate that this did not always work, because the scenes look so wonderful.

On the morning of August 21 we were on our way to the Gaspe peninsula after crossing the bridge at Quebec. We had decided to take the freeway as far as Riviere du Loup, and then enjoy the river road after that. I read to Harry from the tour book all the way up the river.

The farms were lovely, very long, and very skinny fields with fences, and the houses were close together like a village. Now we saw square two-story houses again, but different from those on the Isle d'Orleans. There the houses were big, two-storied, and with three to five gables on each side, and the roof went from the front up and down in the back. Here on the St. Lawrence the houses had a roof with all four sides going into the peak. They were cutting peat from the bogs along the road, truckloads of it, and sacks and sacks of it in yards.

We discovered that Epicerie meant "grocery," because we needed to buy milk, and I read that Gaspe meant "Land's End," derived from an Indian word gaspeg. The trailer park at St. Felecitie almost seemed as though it were on the ocean, because the St. Lawrence was so wide.

On August 22 we realized that we had now gone from Pacific Daylight Time to Atlantic Daylight Time, a 4-hour difference. Instead of "Deer Crossing" signs with pictures of deer, we now saw Caribou and Moose crossing signs.

The roads on the Gaspe were awful for our trailer, up a mountain, down immediately, it almost seemed as though we were starting up while the trailer was still coming down behind us. The surface of the road was very rough, too. We could only go about 25 miles an hour, and I just gave up picking the clothes off the floor of the closet. The closet rod did stay up.

We found a very nice trailer park across a long bridge over the Bay of Gaspe, where the manager spoke English. She told us she had come there from Ontario. In perfectly beautiful weather over the weekend, we explored the town of Gaspe and discovered that "open" was ouvert, "closed" was ferme, and that "exit" was sortie. The fish market on the waterfront was "ferme," but was labeled Poisson a Vendre, which we assumed meant "Fish for Sale." Lobster was out of season, but we had hopes of finding it later in New Brunswick or Maine. We had good memories of lobster dinners in New England many years before and wanted them again.

On Monday August 25 we had good roads for a while after we left Gaspe, but then found construction that was unbelievable for many miles. The highway did need to be fixed because the surface of the road was almost worn away. When I could stay in my seat, even with a seatbelt that was hard to do, I read to Harry from the tour book about the towns we were going through. There were many detours and big rocks on the road, many of which we had to go over with both the truck and the trailer. Cars without trailers seemed to find easier going than the big trucks, motor homes, and those of us pulling trailers. We did think Perce and the other towns on the way were well worth seeing.

Bread from outdoor ovens was sold along the St. Lawrence highway, and the wonderful aroma of fresh bread drifting into the truck made us stop to buy the bread several times. It tasted as good as it smelled, too. Youngsters selling wooden sailing ships were always near the bread ovens. One postcard I bought told how the older men carved the ships during the long winter months for the young people to sell to tourists during the summer. We asked the price, and mistakenly thought $3.50 was too much for a small ship. It was getting late in the month of August, and what with paying cash for our gasoline, plus the other travel expenses, we knew we should watch all expenditures very closely. We still had a long way to go before we could get another check cashed.

Even in the midst of the many miles of construction, the young boys would rush out on the road yelling and making signs saying $2 for much larger ships. We couldn't stop very often because of the construction and the cars behind us, but when we did stop, the $2 turned into $12. We said too much, so it became $7. We started having fun bargaining because it was rather interesting to watch the price drop in such a hurry from $12 to $6, and do think that had we offered $2.50 we have had a ship to find a place for in the trailer. We bargained too long, however, and ran out of the young salesmen, and never did get even a ship as a souvenir of the Gaspe peninsula.

We crossed a bridge to Campbellton, New Brunswick, where we planned to stay at a park listed in our camping guide. The highway was being rebuilt, and we almost got lost leaving town, but with the help of some big construction workers, we did find Highway 17, which goes across the upper corner of New Brunswick. It was part of the Acadian Trail. However, the park we wanted had been left behind somewhere in the construction, so we went on for over 45 miles. The road surface here was gone just like that on the Gaspe, so the ride was really rough for most of the afternoon. About 6:00 we finally found a provincial park to stay the night.

Kedgewick Park had two red squirrels that were not afraid of anyone. They climbed our screen door looking for handouts, and would take peanuts from our hands. One of them even climbed the manager's shoulder and went into his pockets looking for food. They were delightful to watch, and would have been great to take with us.

The next day we used the last of our Canadian money (except for a couple of dollars of small change) to buy gasoline. We told the attendant to stop at $13, which was the exact amount we had in an envelope. He trusted us and did not count it! I had planned to buy and mail postcards using the last of my Canadian postage before leaving Canada, but Harry found a good highway along the St. John River, and we never stopped at all. At Woodstock we went west to Houlton, Maine, to reenter the United States. Then we found that we should have declared the rifle at the United States Customs when we entered Canada at Portal, Saskatchewan. After much discussion they allowed Harry to sign an affidavit that the rifle was the same one taken by us without a declaration into Canada on July 17, and we had no further problems about it.

We took I-95 from Houlton to Howland, where I convinced Harry that we must change to the highway on the other side of the Penobscot River in order to find a place to stay overnight. The highway all the way from New Brunswick through Maine had potato fields on each side, mile after mile of them. We wondered if they were the Aroostook potatoes we had always heard about.

Now we were again in Eastern Daylight Time after we entered Maine, so we did stop quite early at a park near Bangor. By now I had remembered that my father had much information about our family from Ellsworth, and Penobscot Bay, so we decided to go there to see about finding more about my roots.

Ellsworth (pronounced Ellswarth) was only 26 miles from Bangor (pronounced Bangore), but we did not go there immediately because Henry Truck needed attention. The front tires seemed to be wearing strangely, and there were odd noises in the front end. The Dodge garage was busy, but they suggested that we go to a tire/lineup shop where they found a leaky front shock. We had the tires rotated, too. It was then that we discovered that although we had been told that our warranty was good until October 12, which was the date we bought the truck in Portland, Oregon, the date was actually August 8. Apparently, that was the date the truck had first been sold, and the 500 miles on it in those 2 months counted, regardless of what the dealer in Portland said. We asked for copies of the bills to see if a letter to Chrysler Corporation would help, and I threw the garage into a tizzy by asking for the lifetime warranty on the new Mopar shock we had. It seemed that we were the first to ever ask about it. The innocents learn, but always late.

We found The Gatherings campground near Surry on Penobscot Bay, and had a lovely site until after Labor Day. Fortunately, we had a pressure gauge on our water hose, which would take care of the high PSI (pounds per square inch) water pressure at this park. For once the innocents were lucky enough not to have all the water pipes blown in the trailer.

The tides were very high because Penobscot Bay was close to the Bay of Fundy, where we had heard that the highest tides in the world occur. At one time back in the 1930s there was a plan to harness the tides at Passamaquoddy Bay for power, but the idea never worked out. I did get some rocks from Penobscot Bay to take home for the grandchildren, this was to add to the shale and sand from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.

Handwritten between paragraphs: The road signs are in one language. Quebec signs were in French, New Bruns. in English and French.

Searching for my roots was very interesting. The courthouse in Ellsworth could give us no help because all the records prior to 1930 had been sent to the Maine Archives in Augusta, but they told us about the "town offices" (city halls in the West).

Ellsworth and Bucksport were on a direct route on Penobscot Bay, so we went there first. The roads went crisscross every direction with ponds, rivers, lakes, and arms of the bay everywhere so it was seldom that a road went directly to where we wanted to go.

A lady at the information booth in Ellsworth gave us the names of two ladies in West Brooksville who knew the country and the people, and her sister-in-law had married into the Hawes family. I found two Hawes names in the Bangor telephone book, and was going to be brave enough to call them later. The town clerk in Bucksport was very kind, and looked up all the old private cemeteries near the town for us, and even gave us the directions to go to them. My notebook got very full of information.

The next day we went to Orland, where we found the town office was closed, but Castine's town office we did not find. However, we found The State of Maine, the trading ship for the Maine Maritime Academy, and went for a tour of the ship. Our guide, who was from California, took us all over the ship, the bridge, the wardroom, the decks, and even the engine room. He told us that there were 500 in the Academy from all over the United States, and that the ship had been given to the Academy by the Navy, and goes on a cruise once a year. The next one was to be in December of 1975, to Iran with cargo.

We did not find a restaurant in Castine, but on the way home just out of North Brooksville, we found a roadside stand with fried clams and picnic tables on the Bagaduce River. We did notice that the rapids under the bridge were going north at the time because the tide was going out. Later we found out more about this.

North Brooksville had no town office, so we went on to West Brooksville. On the way we saw a mail box with the name Dwight Hawes, one of the names in the Bangor phone book. Not many miles down the road we saw Girard Hawes, the other name, so we stopped there. I gathered my courage in both hands, and told the lady who I was and where I was from. They were very nice to us, and the great-great-grandfather was my great-great-grandfather, David. Girard's great-grandfather John was the oldest son of David, while my great-grandfather James was he youngest son of the family. They showed us books about the early history of the family in Penobscot Bay, and told us where the cemetery with the Hawes graves was located. No one knew exactly where David and his wife were buried, but said they thought perhaps they had been buried on the original farm.

The lady at the historical society where we bought one of the books about the history of Brooksville was very kind to us, and interested in what I knew about the Hawes family. My father had had information about the four generations in Massachusetts prior to David who moved to Maine after the American Revolution. I thought that maybe when next I had access to my notebook full of history it would be appreciated if I made copies for the people in Brooksville.

We were invited to return in a few days to see the Hawes brothers, and a very old lady in Brooksville who knew a great deal of the history of the town also asked us to visit her.

August 30 we had planned a trip to the Cranberry Islands on the mail boat, but the pouring rain made us stay home to do a laundry instead. We did go to find some boiled lobster to bring back to eat in the trailer. I refused to bring home a live one. After checking in the cookbook about lobster, we ate and enjoyed the two small ones we had, and wished for more.

The next day was beautiful so we took our trip from Southwest Harbor to the Cranberry Islands. The mail boat was a small passenger-type which perhaps would hold 30 people, and it made calls at Great Cranberry, Little Cranberry (Isleford) before coming back to Southwest Harbor with several trips each day. We stayed on Little Cranberry, missing several return trips, so we could explore. The houses on the island all seemed very large, maybe 14 to 20 rooms, they are mostly painted white, and all seemed to have shutters. We found the museum, well worth seeing because the island is very old, and we had lobster roll for lunch. It was like lobster salad on excellent bread, very filling and very good.

We talked to a lobster fisherman who told us that the lobster traps are weighted with cement, each one had a number, and that each fisherman had his own color on the markers. Harry asked about where the traps are placed, and found that there was an unwritten agreement about that, each one had an area of his own. I asked permission for us to go onto a lobster dock where we watched the sorting and selling of the lobsters. Pegs were put into the claws of the lobster so they could not open them to fight. One-clawed lobsters are worth less than those with two claws because of the large amount of meat in the claws. We were told that the claws replace themselves very soon. The lobster pounds had many crabs in them, too, much smaller than those we had seen on the West Coast. Now we wondered about "pound"—could be "impound" or "pond"?

Harry announced that if I kept collecting rocks from everywhere, the truck would not be able to carry them home, but he did remind me to get rocks from Little Cranberry. A lady from Oklahoma bought a lobster trap to carry with her in their motor home, and I told Harry I could have done that, too. He looked sick.

Herring was used for lobster bait, and there were big stinking bins of it on the lobster wharf at Cranberry. A fisherman showed us how a lobster trap worked and said the crabs that entered used to be thrown away as useless. How fortunate we felt to ask questions and be answered in a way to help us.

September 1 we went back to see Dwight and Girard Hawes and Abbie Tapley, the lady in Brooksville who had so much information for us. We were really impressed by the big old homes everywhere. Those in the country have ells that connect the house to the barn. I had problems imagining cleaning them, or heating them, because we were from the West with mostly ranch-style homes. We thought these homes simply wonderful.

Dwight and his charming wife lived in a very old house built by his grandfather and great-grandfather. The earth cellar had no dampness and was very cool with a floor as hard as cement. A separate butter cellar was where both Dwight and Girard mentioned that their mother [had] kept the milk and the butter. The nails in the house were all hand-made. They told us that their farm came into the family because the great-grandfather, a brother of my great-grandfather, had married into the Blodgett family. This was one of the first farms in Brooksville, but was not the one owned by our great-great-grandfather. That was farther down the road. Mrs. Hawes was very interested in the information that I had from my father, and she showed me a letter with the same story about the first generation Edward that my father had called a legend. Truly I had always thought Dad had made up the tale, but now I wondered.

Mrs. Tapley was an alert 91-year-old lady that we found on her knees setting out flowers when we arrived. We enjoyed our visit in the "barn" which was fixed like an indoor patio. They wanted us to have addresses and telephone numbers of relatives in Seattle, Raymond, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, so we went into the house where we could easily get lost. We declined their invitation to lunch because we wanted to avoid all the Labor Day traffic we could, but they sent us off with a gift of cucumbers from their garden and their best wishes. We had mentioned that everyone told us that New Englanders were supposed to be reserved, but that we had never found them so. Mrs. Tapley said that it depended on the people they met, so perhaps we were complimented.

We were made welcome at Girard's again, and they gave us the address of a cousin in Vermont who had David as a great-great-grandfather, too. He had a map showing the original farm in Brooksville and they were sure that he would share it with us. They had never heard of the information that I had, wills, guardianship papers, etc., and I promised to share with all. Girard retired from the Navy and wanted to come home to Maine. His house was very old, too, and had come to them from another branch of the family. Each house we were in had an enormous wood stove in the kitchen for heat, and also an electric or oil stove. We found ourselves entering through the kitchen door, the same as at the farm where I was brought up, and every house had many old things on display or in use. We were impressed. Girard had many tales to tell like my father had, and I kept waiting for "just then my hat blew off" as Dad did for us when we were children. The story never had an end sometimes.

Neither Dwight nor Girard have children to carry on the Hawes name in Brooksville, but we felt happy to have found them and their cousin John in Vermont, and now I had more information, too.

When we crossed the Bagaduce River on the way home, the tide was going the other direction, and the rapids in the river were going south that time. They were called the Reversing Falls, and we heard that there was one in Bangor on the Penobscot River which we had missed seeing. We didn't find restaurants open in Brooksville, or Blue Hill or Surry, so we went on the Ellsworth. Not many restaurants open there either, and the one we found was out of chowder, lobster, and clams, so we settled for scallop stew. It was very good, but we had wanted chowder for our dinner.

We called Seattle to talk to everyone before we left The Gatherings.

We noticed that the mailboxes in and around Ellsworth all have the names Grindle, Blodget, Tapley, Gray, so we assumed that they were the old families who stayed in and near Penobscot, and had lots of children.

"Blacktop" (asphalt roads) are "hot top" roads in Maine and Massachusetts. When the manager at The Gatherings told us we would have hot top roads all the way to Castine, we think we must have looked very blank until we realized what he meant.

We took so long enjoying Ontario and Quebec that we were later than we had hoped arriving in Andover, Massachusetts, where we had relatives awaiting us. This time we did not want to go on the freeways and toll roads to Andover, so we went on State 1 to Belfast, State 3 to Augusta, U.S. 202 to Rochester, New Hampshire, State 125 to Haverhill, Massachusetts, I-495 to Lawrence, and then State 28 to Andover. I asked Harry why he said I was not a good navigator, even though at times he goes so fast I either don't see the signs or know whether to turn right or left. In Andover we had to ask where Maple Avenue was, but a nice lady on the street told us. Roland greeted us at the house, and said that we could stay in the driveway because he had checked with the city about it. When Jean came home from work at the hospital, we talked all night, I think.

The days at Andover went so fast. Jean and Roland saw to it that we had lobster, stewed clams, fish chowder, clam chowder, and more lobster. Jean even gave me a real lobster fork, which is not like a seafood fork at all. I cleaned some of the lobster claws and dried them in the sun to keep as souvenirs, and saved some of the pegs they used to keep the claws open.

One day was only too exciting for us. Harry had been having trouble with a spot on his contact lens, and we thought it could have been a speck of dirt, or a chip, so Jean made and appointment with her eye doctor for him. The doctor said it may have been a spot of tar that dropped down when he was under the trailer checking while we were in Canada. The doctor suggested a different soaking solution to try to get it loose. So Harry took the lens out in the downstairs bathroom, and lost it down the drain. It was fortunate that the drain had been added long after the rest of the plumbing in the house, and the four of us took a sieve to the basement to open the drain. It didn't show up in the sieve, but Harry spotted it on the table under the drain just as we were about to give up and buy a new lens. After soaking overnight, the next morning I got the spot off with a toothpick, and all was well.

We went for a ride to Ipswich and Essex, so many houses there still lived in with dates from the 1650s on them. I was fascinated and all eyes, of course. Then the Indians still had the West, even until the 1850s, and until recently no one had thought to save an old building. It was a case of tear it down now if it was 30 years old, and build a new one. Our lunch was at a very nice restaurant overlooking a tidal river where the boats were going out into the bay all the time.

Jean took me to the oldest cemetery in Andover where the Revolution soldiers are buried, and I found the graves of Joshua and Mary Phelps, the great-great-grandfather and g-g-grandmother of my children. This was the same generation of David and Rebecca that I had not been able to find in Brooksville. Jean said she had not known where the Phelps graves were, so I felt rather like a detective. We took grave rubbings with the only equipment I had, crayons and shelf paper, and they really came out quite well.

Now I had a souvenir from Essex that said "Bless This Mess," and Harry put it on a cupboard door in our trailer. My moccasin sole went again, and I reglued it. We heard about a sale on moccasins, and went to buy shoes while we picked up our developed film.

There was no garage near Lawrence or Lowell or Andover that had time to take our truck for the 12,000-mile check, and I had a fight over the phone with the Customer Relations man for New England, who told us to go back to Oregon if we had problems. I thought about writing another letter to "Your Man in Detroit," as I did after that stupid breakdown in Vernal, Utah, but realized that I would only hear "go back to Oregon where you bought the truck." I did wonder if a letter to Ralph Nader would help? The pickup was not really a lemon, but there were many problems that we had not expected.

On September 9 we did not really say goodbye to Jean and Roland, because we had plans to see them in Manchester, Connecticut, on the 16th of September at their son John's first wedding anniversary dinner. The people we met in Andover were so very nice, and we had hopes of returning some day.

Away we went from a week on the driveway in Andover and found I-495, which we left at Bolton for the disposal station we knew about from our campground guide. No problems there, and we met a couple from Vancouver, Washington, who were spending the summer in New England. We left I-495 on State 16 where we supposedly would end up in Blackstone, Massachusetts, but soon I heard "You are going to get me where I cannot turn around," so I asked and found that Blackstone was just a mile down the road. I asked in the post office there how to find the Dicks family, and my cousin Arthur really rolled out the carpet for us. There was a nice place for the trailer under a big chestnut tree not far from the back door, and we had electricity and water connections available. We were invited to settle in the house, but we did not want to be in the way of so many people going to school and to work from that big organized family. The family consisted of Arthur, who was retired; Harry Also; Del Frederick; Bryan, who worked; Diane and Sheila in school; Nancy, a nurse on night shift; and Del had a bedridden patient who lived with them. There was also a housekeeper who came every day while Del worked, but she was on sick leave most of the time we were there.

They gave us more seafood: stuffed quahog, swordfish, and chowder.

Arthur, Del, Harry, and I went to Dedham, Massachusetts, to try to find the grave of Edward Hawes, who died in the late 1600s, as I had promised my cousin Dick in Denver to do if I could. St. Paul's Cemetery had the right names and wrong dates for the in-law families: Gay, Ware, Fales, but none for the name Hawes. A man from the building inspector's office came on his lunch hour to try to help us because he said he knew the name.

We had better luck in the town of Wrentham, thanks to the town clerk. The Wrentham Center Cemetery had the gravestones of my great-great-great-great-grandfather Hezekiah and that of his son Hezekiah, who was the father of the David I had tried to find in Maine. Handwritten between lines: Benjamin? John? My roots were really there now, and I made rubbings of the stones on my shelf paper to something with later, maybe a picture of them to share with my family.

Frederick, Del, and Arthur took us to the Mystic Marine Museum, buildings filled with old clocks and navigation instruments. I found out the difference between a sextant and a quadrant, and an octant, and hoped I would remember about it. It is really interesting with old sailing ships, old houses, old banks, and old blacksmith shop, a chandler shop, a rope shed, and so much more that we were there until closing time.

On the way home Frederick took us for a drive through Watch Hill, a town like Newport, Rhode Island, with the summer homes of the wealthy right on the ocean. We stopped for dinner: seafood again, of course. I had entirely too much and had to ask for a doggy bag, but Harry and Del managed to surround their lobster and steak, while Arthur and Frederick were much smarter than we were in ordering our dinners.

My Harry had worn his sandals the day before, so we came home in a terrific rainstorm, the sandals always get the blame, of course. I was sure that poor Frederick drove a submarine instead of the car on the way home, but it didn't seem to bother him.

Finally we had the 12,000-mile check on the truck in a small town in Rhode Island, less than 15 miles from Blackstone, Massachusetts. I found out that a man named William Blackstone had come to Rhode Island even before Roger Williams who founded the colony.

On Sunday I went to church with cousin Arthur, which pleased him. I liked it, although I found that I know none of the hymns except for the Doxology. I guess that the church was a Congregational one.

Cousin Harry Also was still Charlie Brown to me, and he called me Lucy like in the Peanuts cartoon. Our Scrabble games invoked the usual names, and he won most of the time, as always. Del had thought we would be much older because cousin Arthur was nearly 80, and we immediately found a Mutual Admiration Society. Harry and Frederick swapped tools and told stories, and seemed to like each other. A very nice family.

Handwritten at the top of the page: we picked blueberries and helped in the garden as migrant help

Harry Also wanted to take us into Boston on Sunday, but we asked to stay home and talk instead. I still had hopes of seeing a cardinal and a catbird, but I did see an oriole and a beautiful different bluejay from those in the West. The katydids/cicadas and peepers made noise all night, and we loved it. In a pond at Mystic we saw ducks diving on a pond who stayed and stayed under the water with their tails up and their feet going like mad, and it was fun to watch them.

September 15 we regretfully left our space under the chestnut tree in Blackstone to go to Rockville, Connecticut, where I had more cousins. We had quite a time finding our way out of Blackstone and we missed the disposal station in Phoenixville, but on we went.

Harry Also had told us how to find Maybelle and Howard in Tolland, but no one was at home. When trying to find Ruth and Werner, I heard "You are going t get me somewhere where I can't turn around," so we stopped to ask where to go at a bar with a big parking lot. Everyone in the Italian-American Club knew of Werner and where he lived, and all tried to tell me at once. I must have looked as confused as I was, because one of the men said he would lead us there, so we stopped at a gas station to call Dotty because I finally remembered the lawyer for whom she worked. The usual luck for the innocents, Dotty and her husband were on vacation in the Virgin Islands. But the lady in the office said she knew one of Dotty's sisters worked for an answering service in Rockville, and gave me the number. When I called there, I found that it was Marjorie who worked there, and she told us to go back to Maybelle's and that she would be there in 15 minutes. I told Marjorie I still was going to find Barbara later, but felt fortunate to locate one sister out of five in the same town.

We did go back to Shenipsic Lake Road as per Marjorie's directions, and moved into the driveway. When Marjorie arrived, I went home with her for a while, and left Harry to read the mail we had picked up, and explain to Maybelle and Howard who we were because it had been many years since we had seen them. He said a red carpet was rolled out for us. All the girls work, Marjorie at the answering service, Maybelle in Hartford, Ruth as a bookkeeper, Barbara as a medical secretary, and Dotty as a legal secretary; no wonder we did not find anyone at home. We should have allowed Arthur to call to warn them we were coming, as he wished to do.

Maybelle's sons went with Harry to a disposal station at a trailer park nearby before we settled the trailer in the yard, while Maybelle and I fixed dinner, we had brought big tomatoes and other goodies fro the garden to share from Del and Frederick.

Tuesday night we met Jean and Roland to have dinner with their son John and his family in Manchester. At the time he was driving every day to New London, but soon was to be transferred to Manchester, he hoped. After dinner we went to Jean and Roland's motel for a while, and she cried when we said goodbye.

Things did not work so we could see another cousin in Hartford, but I did call her and will send her the old family pictures I had brought from my mother's collection. Many of them I had shared with Arthur and his family, too.

Barbara and her family came to see us Wednesday evening while I was cutting Harry's hair. All the daughters of my cousin Florence (Arthur's sister) were delightful, and I was so glad I had kept in touch with them after my mother died. We had a wonderful time in Maybelle's yard, saw another oriole, a rose-breasted grosbeak and a catbird, and decided that their weeping willow trees were bigger than ours at home. That night we went to dinner at Ruth and Werner's, and we all went back to Maybelle's, where the fellows watched a Red Sox game while we women talked and talked in the kitchen. The weather news was important to all of us because of Hurricane Eloise with Dotty and Ed still in the Virgin Islands. Our goodbyes and thank-yous were said that night because everyone would be off to work and school before we left the next morning.

State Highway 44 going west in Connecticut was beautiful, the leaves were turning at that time of the year. State 199 to Kingston from Millerton, New York, was narrow but very nice, and we had no difficulty finding State 28 from Kingston to Phoenicia in the Catskills. Rip Van Winkle country was here with hardwood trees, hickory, beech, oak, maple, all turning color in foothills much like those in the Cascades in Washington. The foliage seemed much more startling in color than that in the West, a very pale gold to a very dark yellow, oranges, and pale pink to a very dark red. The mountain roads wander between the mountains, and they have mist near the tops much of the time.

We found a place to stay at Sleepy Hollow Camp near Phoenicia, and parked on the bank of the Esopus River, a wonderful fishing stream when we got a New York license. Small towns are wonderful, we had only a post office box number for son Allan in Chichester, and the post mistress closed the post office to call him for us. No answer sent us off on our own with some directions to find him, but we ended up at a General Store to call again. Here the lady knew Allan and where he lived, so she took us there, to the end of a very narrow winding road about 2 miles out of the town of Chichester. The trailer would never make it up there, so we were glad to have the spot in Sleepy Hollow.

Allan and Dodie seemed glad to see us, and the baby was a darling little girl, almost a year old. Their car broke down a couple of days later and had to be junked, saving only the tires. We took them into Kingston several times on errands. Kingston was a very old town, and was the first capital of New York, and captured by the British in 1777. More? Allan had a book about the Catskills which I borrowed and read about rattlesnakes in the Catskills. Before we had only thought of rattlesnakes in the deserts of the Southwest, but we had much to learn about snakes of all kinds. The only snakes we knew about in western Washington were garter snakes, the rattlers did not cross the Cascades there.

Harry wore his sandals again to bring bad luck for our fishing license in New York. Hurricane Eloise made it rain steadily and hard for a week, and now we wondered why we always heard "it always rains in Washington." Hurricane Agnes hit this country a few years ago, and we only said we did not get hurricanes in Washington.

Handwritten at the bottom of the page: we wondered about flooding

Harry had always said that his ideal job would be a crossing guard for a train that went one way each week, and back the next week. At Sleepy Hollow a little train went somewhere on a Wednesday, and back on Thursday, and the four slow freight cars did not seem to need a crossing guard. Anyway, Harry did not want to work now that he was retired.

State 214 where Allan lived was not far from Stony Clove, and we found that "clove" meant cleft, cut, or notch. One night we saw a deer in the middle of the road coming back to Sleepy Hollow from Allan's home.

Dodie wanted to learn to can all the produce from their garden, so I left all the pint jars and my canning book with her, and we canned applesauce, swiss chard, tomatoes, and carrots. The apples were from an old tree on an abandoned farm, and the jar lids were a problem as always at the time.

September 28 Dodie and Allan had a birthday party for Harry, they gave him a fishing license to fish in the "Beautiful Blue Bounteous Waters of New York State, provided he had attained the age of sixty-three years." Inside the folder was a very small twig with a long string which went into the B-B-B waters of New York, and attached to a very large fish with two New York lottery tickets. After the birthday cake I gave Harry the wonderful fly rod from Ireland my cousin in Denver had given me back in July because I knew that he would have a better time than I would with it.

My big brother from Washington called to wish Harry a happy birthday, and to ask how "the fugitives from the geriatric ward" were doing now. Earlier we had called Seattle to talk to everyone there. A new Social Security form to take the place of the one we had mailed from Sudbury, Ontario, came in the mail, and now we had to find the notary public in Phoenicia. Now the Social Security checks would always go to our bank in Chehalis, Washington, with us not having to do anything about it. The bank in Phoenicia would not cash a small check for us, though.

Corned beef was a bargain at the market, so we invited Allan ad Dodie to dinner, and ate outside for a change. During the rain I wrote a letter to our mailman in Centralia sending him a picture of the rural mailboxes in Ontario and Quebec that looked like filing boxes. I read lots of the Yankee magazines that Jean had given us, a wonderful little magazine. We shared much of the good things that Del and Frederick had given us in Blackstone: squash, tomatoes, peaches, apples, and a slow cooker which we kept. We had been given a fishing pole and a reel, a couple of TV trays, and jam and jelly along the way, but I did exchange tried and true recipes and received more interesting recipes from the East.

We stayed a free day at Sleepy Hollow and then took off on September 30 through Port Jervis and Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on Highway 209. Many big old stone houses all the way from Kingston to Port Jervis, New York, but the "stone houses tours" were at another time of year. I truly felt like a navigator from Stroudsburg for the rest of the day—I-80 west to join I-81, south on I-81 to Ravine, then State 125 to S501 at Pine Grove, and S501 to U.S. 30 at Lancaster. We took U.S. 30 east to our trailer park at Mill-Bridge on Pequea Creek, not too far from Lancaster. After all the highway changes we discovered that we had traveled 293 miles.

Now we wondered how we could collect on the lottery tickets Allan and Dodie had given him if we won. The other lottery tickets we had bought in New England either paid or lost at once with no waiting.

Our days in early October in the Pennsylvania Dutch country were fascinating. We bought eggs at the nearby Amish farm on the honor system, signed our name, left the proper amount of money for the size eggs we took from the refrigerator, and never saw the owners of the farm. There was a verse above the slot for the money about "your money and my money," which helped to enforce the honor system. Friends told us that some of the roadside stands had open boxes for the money, and they worked on the honor system, too. We could only hope that people would always cooperate with the Amish to allow them to keep their honor system.

Every morning wagons with two or more horses in harness went by on the road just across the creek from our park to get silage from the huge fields of corn across the way. The horses always seemed to trot, even after a day of work. We were told that most of the horses were not-winning harness racehorses, bought at auctions in New Holland.

During the week we saw carriages on all the roads, and heard that they were called "family buggies." These used only one horse, and they too were always trotting.

One day we went into Lancaster deciding on the biggest bank we could find to buy our October traveler's checks, they were very kind to us. On the way back home we toured a pretzel factory to watch how they made them on conveyor belts in and out of ovens, all by machines. Then we stopped to shop for a few groceries, and a bee stung me when I got back into the truck. It had been a long time since last a bee stung me, and it hurt for quite a while.

The next day we went to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum at Strasburg, there Harry recognized many like those (Shay and Heisler) his uncle and his father had been on in the logging camps when he was a child. We found what we thought was the Strasburg Railroad to Paradise, a round trip of 9 miles, which took nearly an hour. The conductor who gave us the guided tour, sounding like a real country boy and telling us about the nice countryside we went through.

Next we went on a tour of an Amish homestead, owned by "fancy people," but farmed by an Amish family. Our guide told us the the Amish had their own one-room schools, and that the children did not go beyond the eighth grade. Therefore, the Amish had no doctors, lawyers, or teachers, and must use the "fancy" ones.

The courting buggy cost about $1,700, the family carriage about $2,000, and the farm carriage about $2,200. There was a carriage maker nearby, and the Amish boys who did not or could not farm could train as a carriage maker, which was one of the approved trades. The Amish did not electricity, cars, television, or telephones because they were a connection to the outside world. State regulations required them to use milking machines, so some dairy farms had diesel engines to run them, as well as to pump water for the houses. Others still used windmills and waterwheels for power.

Decorations were all right if on something useful, like a chair or a chest, but there were no pictures in an Amish house. The postcards we bought, and the other pictures, were not part of the Amish but of actors or Mennonites. We learned that we could recognize an Amish house by the green window blinds, and the lack of electric wires going to the house.

Amish boys stayed clean-shaven, but grew a beard with no mustache when they married. Buttons were allowed on shirts because they were covered by a coat, and the top shirt button was hidden by a bow tie. I read that the pants had 12 or 14 buttons, other than that they were much like sailor pants which had 13 buttons. Their hats were "round top for a preacher or a little boy, and had a creased top for the men." Children dressed like the parents. The women could not use safety pins that showed, so they used straight pins to fasten their dresses and aprons. They wore a little white organdy prayer cap all the time, even under their bonnets, because they were supposed to have their heads covered when they prayed, and they might pray at any time. They could use gasoline washing machines, and oil stoves, but the stoves were painted black to make them different from the "fancy" ones. The Amish did not even ride in cars, but the Mennonites did.

Tobacco was the cash crop for most of the farms, the tobacco was for cigars because the land was wrong for cigarette tobacco. We saw the tobacco drying barns, and were told how the tobacco was harvested.

The farm had what was called a kettle room, enormous built-in kettles over a stove where they made apple butter, jelly, and jam. I lifted an empty cast-iron kettle and wondered how anyone could possibly lift it filled with water.

The farms all looked very prosperous with big white houses, barns, and silos, and the people looked peaceful and happy. They still lived the way their ancestors did 250 years ago, and did not want to change. I read that the Amish were a branch of the Mennonites, and still practiced "shunning," which meant that if one was read out of the church, no one could have anything to do with him or her, not even members of the family.

Church was on alternate Sundays, held in a home or barn, as were the weddings, baptisms, and funerals, because unlike the Mennonites, the Amish did not have churches. The hostess at the home where church is held fed the congregation, which might be as many as 250 people. Weddings were always in November, and the couple's honeymoon meant visiting all their friends and relatives until spring planting time. On the visits they picked up their wedding gifts, and when the buggy got full, the gifts were taken home, and a new start was made. Perhaps 400 people would come to a wedding.

Boys were given a courting buggy and a horse when 16, and Wednesday nights and Saturday and Sunday were the courting days "running around." The fathers tried to buy a farm for their sons, but the available land had become so expensive that many young people tenant-farm, hoping to save enough to buy a farm of their own. Some went into an approved line of work, some trade that was necessary to the Amish way of life.

On the way to Intercourse for dinner one night we saw an Amish school far out in the country that had apparently been bothered by tourists, as sign "No Tourists Wanted." Our dinner was family-style in a Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse: coleslaw, chowchow, applesauce, apple butter, corn, green beans, sausage, fried chicken, homemade bread, sweet potatoes, cherry pie, and shoo-fly pie with ice cream. I asked and found that shoo-fly pie was made with molasses, so I didn't have any, but Harry did. So much good food for only $4.50 each.

The next day we went to Lancaster to the Central Farmers Market, which had been in operation in the same building for many, many years. We got hungry as we walked through, and came home with carrots, potatoes, cabbage, green onions, celery, peppers, tomatoes, sausage, sauerkraut, round steak, club steaks, chowchow, homemade bread, horseradish, all of which we thought amazing bargains. We had to look in the cookbook to find what to do with the chestnuts we bought because there were no chestnuts on the West Coast as far as we knew. We had quite a time putting all that food away in the freezer and our small refrigerator, some of the vegetables just had to be left out.

Then we went to Lititz to tour the chocolate factory. The candy museum had old chocolate molds, and all kinds of candy cans and candy-making equipment. Harry bought chocolates, and I bought a welcome hex decal for our trailer door. Many of the barns in the area had hex designs on them.

When we came to the park we knew that we would have to move on Saturday because of weekend reservations, so after we were settled we toured the Mill-Bridge Craft Museum in the park. The old mill had been in operation since the early 1700s, a waterwheel on the creek powered it. We watched cornmeal being ground, both upstairs where the stones were and downstairs where the gears moved and the meal came out. This was fascinating to us because we had never seen a mill before. In another section the flax fibers were being soaked, broken on a hand machine, skutched (stripped), and heckled, then it came out like a long blond hank of hair ready to be spun and woven on an old foot-powered machine. We saw a lady spinning wool, and a boy making brooms from broom corn on a foot-powered machine, extremely interesting for us from the West.

Harry bought a shoo-fly pie, and I bought more homemade bread.

We heard the courting buggies going up and down the farm road every night, but Saturday and Sunday night there were many more, all lighted with the required flashing lights and a reflector on the back of the buggy. The state required this because there must have been many terrible accidents caused by cars coming up behind a slow-moving unlighted buggy after dark. Even in the daytime we waited to pass on the two-lane roads. Not many horses and buggies in Lancaster, but Strasburg and Lititz had many of them, as did Intercourse and Paradise. Now we learned that although the Amish do not drive cars, when necessary they do ride in them.

Sunday we went to the Pennsylvania Farm Museum near Neffesville for Harvest Days. So many old farm machines, a steam thresher, a cradle (the kind used to cut wheat), old harrows, plows, etc. There was even a steam calliope. Apple butter was made in big kettles over an open fire outside, they were making cider, soap, dipping candles, and we had an explanation of an old-time honey extractor by a man who had lived in Washington State. We watched a blacksmith make a trivet but were not there to see him shoe a horse. The museum was an old farm that had been donated to the state, and all the buildings are open to visitors. The reconstructed German-type farmhouse had open hearth cooking, and the women were making onion pie.

The local firemen's wives had a booth with lunch of extremely good chicken corn soup which I learned to make, very filling and very cheap at 25¢ a bowl.

On the way back we drove to Intercourse and then to Bird-in-the-Hand, nine small towns with names which for years had interested us. We decided that this must be the alternate church Sunday because everyone was "visiting." Roads were filled with courting buggies and family buggies, and the yards were full of people. Someone had told us that if the kids double-date, and they are courting, the girls sit on the boys' laps; otherwise, the boys sit on the girls' laps! That we didn't see, but we did see buggies with just boys, and ones with just girls, and quite a few of the girls were sitting on lawns as though waiting for the boys. A wonderful drive and we did take pictures.

Both Mill-Bridge and the farm museum had large collections of Conestoga wagons, one of which I climbed into trying to imagine living with a family for months in a covered wagon. Then I remembered that I lived in a modern covered wagon. People in Lancaster on the Conestoga River made most of the wagons that went west with the pioneers.

Handwritten at the bottom of the page: Geese came to be fed every day

There was still an unused covered bridge at Mill-Bridge: "Soudersburg Bridge," and most of the bird houses in the area were really big, almost like hotels for the birds.

October 6 we took off on U.S. 30 through York to Gettysburg, and first we went to see the Electric Map of the Battle of Gettysburg. Now Mr. Lincoln's Army by Bruce Caton would mean more to me the next time I read it after seeing that map. We didn't want to take the tour bus, and no guides were available to with us in our truck because of school buses and charter buses, so we took our own tour with the aid of our book. The battlefield was enormous, with nearly 2,400 monuments to different regiments of both the North and the South. We stopped on Cemetery Ridge to see where Pickett's charge almost succeeded, Little Round Top, Big Round Top, Devil's Den, the Wheat Field, the Peach Orchard, and Seminary Ridge. All these places were listed on our tour, with many explanations and many old cannon were everywhere.

The museum had many old rifles, one was a "market gun" nearly 6 feet long that had been used to shoot birds for market. There were pieces of wood from the houses, trees, and beds with bullet holes in them, and many cannon balls, bullets, and fused bullets that had met in midair. One article I read said "both armies retired to lick their wounds, Lee to try to get back to Virginia and Meade very cautiously following him, and they left a community in shambles."

Since the rain in the Catskills we had wonderful weather, and the nights were rather cold.

The next day in Front Royal, Virginia, we found the schoolteachers, Shirley and Carolyn, we had met at Stage Stop Campground in Colorado back in July. They did have some mountain dew for Harry, and we shared the chocolate shoo-fly pie with them after we enjoyed a steak dinner with them. Our trailer park was nice, and the girls said to stay for a while, but we said goodbye and hoped to see them again one day.

October 8 I did navigate again. It had only been 293 miles from the Catskills to Lancaster, and from Lancaster to Gettysburg, and from there to Front Royal each were only a couple of hours. That day was 313 miles into North Carolina by way of State 55 from Front Royal to Marshall, U.S. 17 to Falmouth just north of Fredericksburg, U.S. 1 to Petersburg, U.S. 1 to Emporia, and then to Enfield where we stayed overnight. Somehow we were anxious to settle down for a while in South Carolina, and just did not take the time to explore all the historic Civil War and Revolutionary War sites again while in Virginia.

In Enfield we found a postcard with a cotton boll attached to send to the grandchildren in Seattle, discovered that we could not send the card to the grandchildren in California because they raise cotton there, I guessed.

It was Highway 301 and 117 to Wilmington. On the way down we found out that the huge fields along the highway were soybeans, and the strange, little, high, square, barn-like structures were the drying barns for the soybeans. It had been years since we saw cotton growing in California, and there were fields where the peanuts had been turned over to mature. We asked questions, and people were kind enough to answer them.

Many of the houses along the road had neither foundation skirting or very good foundations under them. Perhaps the weather was such that they did not worry about heat loss, or maybe the space was needed for the dogs and chickens we saw around the houses.

In Wilmington, North Carolina, we bought a television so Harry could watch the World Series, and we saw the Atlantic Ocean again for the first time since Mystic, Connecticut, at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A coupon in our campground guide book offered "stay 3 days, the 4th one free" at Birch Canoe Campground, so we decided to stay for at least 1 week because of the World Series, plus we thought we wanted a rest after over 4 months of travel and visits.

The innocents should have known better than to use travelers checks to buy the television set. In Myrtle Beach we found a bank that had a firm policy of "absolutely no out-of-state personal checks." The Mastercharge we should have used for the television was used instead to borrow money for us for the month of October. That television would be for Christmas, birthday, anniversary presents.

We missed a tour of a cigarette factory in Richmond, Virginia, but had hopes of someday finding another one. I always liked tours and museums, but did think Harry might be through with them for a while. The tobacco auction was near Myrtle Beach, and I had hopes of getting there when the World Series baseball teams are traveling.

No longer did we think about the accents in different parts of the country, because we had been told by friends of son Allan in New York that we had an accent! Other parts of the United States have strange and wonderful names, the Pacific Northwest included, but now we remembered that Connecticut had a Pawcatuck, and Rhode Island a Pawtucket. We did wonder about those who could not pronounce Wenatchee, Yakima, Chehalis, and many more in the state of Washington, and made fun of us over the way we said Haverhill and Worcester, and lots more towns with names I had trouble saying.

Our map of North Carolina had a Motorist's Prayer printed on it:

Our heavenly Father, we ask this day a particular blessing as we take the wheel of our car. Grant us safe passage through all the perils of travel; shelter those who accompany us and protect us from harm by Thy mercy; steady our hands and quicken our eye that we may never take another's life; guide us to our destination safely, confident in the knowledge that Thy blessings go with us through darkness and light… sunshine and shower… forever and ever. Amen.

I spent our first few days at Myrtle Beach catching up on writing my journal, doing the laundry, a bit of sewing and mending, and watching Harry fix the pilot light on the hot water heater, and the connections on the stove. Such big projects for us.

At Myrtle Beach the shore was like a big half moon of white sand with many large hotels, motels, and condominiums, the beach was public and lots of people were there in 86-degree temperature. We paid 25¢ each to go look what went on at the fishing pier we had never seen but from a distance before. A couple of the women told us what they were fishing for, and a man lent Harry his extra fishing pole, tackle, and the shrimp bait. No license was required for ocean fishing on the Atlantic, but the pier wanted $1.50 for all or any part of a day's fishing. Flounder and trout we knew about, but other fish like croaker, spotted tail, made me think about buying a fishing book to find out more about the Atlantic fish.

On our long walks in the evening through the park we kept a sharp lookout for snakes, and did wonder what moccasins might look like. Many flocks of geese were going south following the shoreline of the beach, and there was a crane who stayed in the pond near the office, and lots of ducks who seemed to like people.

The fly swatter given to us at the trailer supply house in Thunder Bay, Ontario, when we had the trailer brakes checked back in August was no more because I had sat on it in Pennsylvania, so we spent 25¢ for a new one. We thanked heaven for no more black flies like in Canada and Maine, but swatted the regular flies all the time, and had no mosquitoes to contend with.

I had a can of black Derusto paint and painted anything that did not move, the waste basket, the match holder, the stabilizer jacks, and even a small tin can for a flower pot, as well as the TV trays given to us by Marjorie's husband in Connecticut. No Confederate flag decals were available, but I did use hex decals and Bicentennial decals on everything. Nice fulltime trailer people from California arrived in the midst of the paint job to stay across the street, and laughed at the black paint on me. We thought we would become friends with them.

The rent for a month with all hookups was $58.50, so now we were to stay for at least a month in Myrtle Beach. Live shrimp were strange-looking to us, but we bought a minnow bucket to fish off the pier, and I caught a 1-pound flounder, and the cookbook told us how to fillet it. A few more fish would give us a meal "from the sea." We knew we would go home with so much different fishing tackle, cheese hooks from Utah, minnow hooks from Canada, winding lead weights from New York, different lures from Canada, and now shrimp hooks. Only wondered what the friends at home would think about it all. We did surprise people in the East with some of the lures we used on the Columbia River for salmon.

The Grand Strand had hotels, motels, and summer homes like those at Newport and Watch Hill in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The local price of developing film seemed extremely high, so we decided to wait for a while.

Football games took the place of the rained-out World Series on October 18 and 19. Harry visited with neighbors while not watching football, and I cut more blocks for quilt tops, and spent time answering letters from friends.

Never had we seen a laundromat where one bought metal tickets to use in the machines, and we wondered who we could see to ask why. No one was available to answer us, so we never did find out the reason. There must have been a reason.

October 21 we again went fishing on the pier, and Harry caught a bluefish. It really did puff up like a balloon while he was getting it up on the pier, and looked horrible. We only hoped that it lived when he put it back into the water. My little friend Jimmie (aged 11) we had met another day on the pier showed me the ugly jellyfish down in the water. A wonderful day with no fish cost us less than $5, including bait and admission to the pier.

Cleveland had my house bet on the World Series on October 22, I won from Harry and put my 50¢ into the laundry money. I truly was rooting for Boston, though, the whole while, but Harry always got the first choice except for the Army-Navy game. Then I could always have Navy as my choice if I wished. Years ago there were times when I offered to bet 5¢ on a game, and he accepted my deal. Big-time gamblers we still were these days.

Another neighbor from Buffalo, New York, plays the accordion, and Harry and I danced on the street one night to his music. These neighbors planned to end up in Florida, as did we and most of those on the other street. Their dog was bitten by a snake and died in spite of the care given him. Now I knew why I was frightened of snakes.

We had cookouts with the people from California, Lenore and Willard, and they taught us a great deal about trailer life. They were now retired, but had always had a trailer for vacations and trips. the innocents asked questions, and we did learn.

Our mail brought many letters and pictures. Cousin Frederick in Blackstone had told us he had take a picture of "Bless This Mess" one night when he was out in the trailer with Harry, and he sent it to us. It unfortunately showed my housekeeping was exactly what I had always thought it might be. When away from home letters from family and friends are appreciated very much, and they came in bunches when forwarded. It was nice to know that Christine could pay bills, and take care of any emergency situations that came up. When we left the house with Donna, we did try to foresee all that could happen, but unfortunately our water pipes under the house broke, and the dryer gave up for good during the summer. Because Christine had grown up in Centralia, she could handle all these "minor" catastrophes by telephone from Seattle, with the help of our very good neighbor across the way at home.

On October 27 we went to Little River near the North Carolina line to watch the boats unload the fish on the docks. After lunch with hushpuppies in a restaurant that overlooked the Inland Waterway, where we watched enormous sailboats and big yachts go by, we decided to go to Cherry Grove Beach to watch fish being netted from the ocean. This we had never seen.

Naturally, we got lost trying to get there, and were stopped at the Little River bridge for boats to go past on the river, not by a drawbridge but by one that turned sideways. We now began to think that we probably had never traveled in the right places in our many years of exploring the United States because this we had not seen before, either.

When they started to bring the fish in with nets at low tide from cables running into the surf from a tractor and a big truck a quarter of a mile away, it was absolutely fascinating to watch. Three or four pickups and a big fish truck were standing by, and we could see the net out in the ocean, and spot the floats in the surf. One pickup with a four-wheel drive went down on the beach to start pulling in the net while at the same time the tractor was working on the net where we were. Finally all the floats were on the beach. Some of the large crew picked only crabs from the net, while many others went into the surf to straighten the net and keep the fish trapped while the net was being pulled in. the net got so heavy that a couple of crews had to bring in fish in smaller nets. They filled about 6 or 7 boxes with fish every time from the smaller nets, and we heard that each box might weigh 100 or 150 pounds. Meanwhile, the big net was still being held in the surf, with the trapped fish jumping all over. The onlookers were buying the fish called Spot from the filled boxes, and many fish were loose on the beach waiting to be picked up. A lady told me that they fished this way until after Thanksgiving when it must be very cold in the surf. Horrible-looking jellyfish littered the beach when we had to leave because of the wind about 4:30.

Football with Howard Cosell made me say:

I do not like thee, H. Cosell,
Why it is I cannot tell,
But this I do know very well:
I do not like thee, H. Cosell.

Harry did finally catch a flounder off the pier, so more fillets were added to those already in the freezer.

I had asked Allan in New York State to lend me his copy of the family history, and finished an original and 4 carbons while in the rain at Myrtle Beach. We mailed Allan's back to him, and a copy to the Historical Society in Brooksville, and the cousins there, too.

My hillbilly husband ("If the roof leaks, I can't fix it when it rains, and it doesn't need to be fixed when the weather is nice") did borrow a ladder and took care of a leak in the window over the sink. He really did always take care of the necessary repairs right away, but allowed me to tease him.

The bank sent a personal check through for us to Chehalis for collection, and 10 days later it arrived back at the bank in Myrtle Beach, after being treated as a sight draft. Only wondered why they had not done this in the first place (as we had asked) instead of talking us into borrowing money from Mastercharge so we got to pay interest. We remembered with gratitude the kind people in the banks in Denver, Thunder Bay, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who really helped us cash checks, and, of course, relatives who helped us in Andover and Blackstone.

Our mail brought a Thanksgiving dinner invitation with my brother Bob and his wife in St. Petersburg, and we thought we could make it there by way of Charleston and Brunswick before November 27. Plans for Key West and the Everglades could wait until later, we thought.

November 4 we went on a tour of Georgetown, 32 miles south of Myrtle Beach. Highway 701 through Conway was very different from the beach road, not too many farms that we could see, and two small towns, Yauhannah and Plantersville. the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce had many suggestions for us, and we took a tour in a little train. The rice museum had information about indigo ("the plantations always raised indigo and rice"). It was used for dye in the days before chemical dyes, and the plant was a member of the pea family, but we never found out if it was still raised. Rice was no longer raised commercially in the area, the War Between the States ruined the plantations and took the labor force of slaves. We were told there were seven poisonous snakes in the area, which made me shudder.

Some of the old houses in Georgetown are set at right angles to the streets, and many of them date from the early 1700s, none unfortunately were open for tours. Prince George Episcopal Church, never changed from 1750, was open, and there was an old cemetery next to the church.

Jim and Irma, neighbors from California, caught a 6-pound flounder that filled their sink. Someday we had hopes of catching a really big one, too.

There was a different kind of Bingo game at the Knights of Columbus in Myrtle Beach, never had we played paying for the cards each game, which really made it cost quite a bit.

November 8 we took our folding chairs and sat on the sidewalk to watch a Shriner's Parade in town. It was quite good, and chairs made an ideal way to watch, especially for those of us who were not very tall.

Christine in Seattle sent us some painted round TUITs made of baker's clay and baked, which we shared with the California neighbors. I now had the recipe to make more of them. A haircut for me at the local beauty school from a girl who was almost ready to graduate, and a South Carolina Tricentennial patch for Harry's hat were our last expenditures for a while, we thought.

A woman from Ontario in the park told me that the escaped convict in North Bay last summer had been caught not too far from the roadblock near Matawa, where we had been stopped for a search… a week later. She had heard no Canadian news and wondered about their postal strike, now going into the fourth week. We knew how she felt because we never seemed to hear United States news while we were in Canada.

November 13 we took off for Charleston after a party the night before with all the neighbors also going south, and whom we hoped to see again. Irma and Jim had left a couple of days before. There was a little rain in Myrtle Beach, but a tornado in Columbia, according to the news reports. Highway 17 was a very good road, part two-lane and part four-lane, and we saw many miles of stands on both sides where they sold woven palm or palmetto frond trays and baskets. We stopped to admire, but not to buy this time. Again we thought there might be more available later. The highway went through Francis Marion National Forest, named after the "Swamp Fox," a guerilla leader for the Americans during the Revolution.

That day 114 miles brought us to Oak Plantation Park, 6 miles south of Charleston. A terrific windstorm and rain the night before had made everything very wet in the area where the sewer hookups were, so we decided that we could stay for a few days anyway. Jim and Irma from Myrtle Beach were there, and came to see us with much information about Charleston, which they had spent 2 days exploring before we arrived.

Oak Plantation Park was run on the honor system, sign the register, money in an envelope for each day, and put it in the slot. We wondered about the problem of finding those who did not pay, because we never saw the managers of the park.

The South Carolina tourist information booth had given us much information, and I had sorted it over before we started exploring. We stopped on the harbor seawall, and watched the big ships enter the harbor. Some young men fishing on their lunch hour showed us where Castle Pinckney, Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, and Sullivan's Island were. We found Provost Dungeon and the slave market on our own, while looking for a restaurant. Lunch was finally at a fast food place, because we did not go too far from the center of town because of the Citadel dress parade we wanted to see, and we thought perhaps we might get lost (as usual). After lunch we walked through White Point Gardens with Confederate and Revolutionary monuments everywhere, and drove under the Cooper River bridges and the Ashley River bridges through industrial areas, and slum areas where people live.

The Citadel dress parade was only on Fridays at 3:30. We found a place to park next to the parade ground so we could stay out of the wind in the pickup to watch the big parade. The uniforms were different, but it was much like the dress parades at the Naval Academy many years before: a big band, and even bagpipers in kilts as part of the band. The firing of the sunset gun, and the lowering of the flag was an important part of the parade. It was Harry's idea to go to the museum before the parade started, and it was very good. General Mark Clark?

We had left a note in the "honor" office for Lenore and Willard telling them about the Citadel parade, and hoping they would make it in time. We really were not sure that Oak Plantation was the park where they planned to stay. They did find the note, and did make the parade, they told us later that evening.

November 15 was the day we had planned a tour of the harbor, and a carriage ride in Charleston, but in the morning there was frost on the ground and the temperature was 29 degrees. When the sun came out, it was pretty, so into the suitcases and found long johns and a wool shirt for Harry. I just added layers of clothes, and away we went into town.

The driver of our tour carriage was a nice softspoken young man who really gave us a most informative drive through Old Charleston. We went from North Market Street across from the market down Church Street to the waterfront, wandered up and down lots of narrow streets and alleys, and saw cobblestone streets. Our buggy did not have springs so we were glad we did not drive on them.

The driver of our carriage said that the Charleston Historical Society, the Bicentennial Commission, the DAR, and others agreed only that Old Charleston should be preserved, but not on how it should be done. Some own the buildings, some have the money to restore, but no agreement was ever reached.

A Savannah group bought one block of very dilapidated buildings, planning to erect a high-rise condominium, a double no-no to the people of Charleston. This because the people in Charleston thought that block should be restored, and they could now enforce the rule that any building on the waterfront, or nearby, cannot hide the church steeples or the old harbor skyline.

The Savannah people almost won until one woman formed a picket line by yelling "The Bulldozers are coming," riding her bike all over Charleston. Enough money was raised to buy the block, but not enough for restoration, so the buildings still waited.

A grand, three-storied house set sideways in the middle of a block was known as O'Donnell's Folly, the man kept postponing his marriage until the house was finished, the years passed, and the girl eloped with someone else.

I got brave enough to ask about carpetbaggers, and the driver agreed that post–Civil War building was done by scalawags and carpetbaggers because they had the money.

Our running commentary from the driver told us all about the old houses and the streets: "State Street used to be called Union Street until 1820, when 'Union' began to become a bad word in South Carolina." We stopped at the church cemetery where the South Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence were buried.

The horse went through red lights as if he knew it were safe; in fact, it seemed to go always the way it was safe. We were told that the city wished to put diapers on all the horses to help keep the streets clean. Diapers on horses puzzled us.

It was so cold along the sea wall that we did not go there, but the driver did tell us that the sea wall had been extended since the beginning of the city of Charleston, at least two blocks had been added to the city.

The harbor tour we took was 25 miles and 2 hours, past all the forts, Johnson, Moultrie, Sumter, and Castle Pinckney, called "the most disappointed fort" because it was never built. We went past all the docks with sea-going ships at the piers, and on into the Navy yard. We were told (and I had forgotten) that minesweepers were always made of wood, or else they could go BOOM. Destroyers, minesweepers, and submarines were in the Navy yard, and the carrier Yorktown was anchored permanently in the harbor at Patriots Point, to be used as a naval museum. A lovely, different day for us.

November 16 was 2 hours to get to Savannah, where we found Lenore and Willard from Myrtle Beach, and followed them to Bellaire Woods Campground, which seemed better than the one we had thought about. There we found Jim and Irma, also from Myrtle Beach, all the snowbirds were moving south. Going to the park we saw fireplugs painted red, white, and blue, with faces on them done by the high school young people for the coming Bicentennial.

Jim and Irma had explored the town, and left Savannah for Brunswick the next morning, but we had heard about "Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House," with no advertising and no signs, and found it for lunch that day. The squares on the streets in Savannah were beautiful, and we did enjoy them, but discovered that trying to go to Jones Street was not easy, even with a map of the city. Finding the restaurant meant an unmarked door with very happy, satisfied people outside. Inside, the hostess told us to sit at any table, and food in large bowls started to arrive immediately. Soon there were six others at our table, and we passed fried chicken, boiled beef, two kinds of rice, blackeye peas, three kinds of potatoes, squash, collard greens, salad, cornbread, biscuits, iced tea, and all kinds of dessert! We asked the others at the table how we knew what we would pay for lunch, and they told us we would find out when we took our dishes to the kitchen. That we did, and paid only $2.50 each.

I asked one lady at our table if there really was a Mrs. Wilkes, and heard that the place had originally started as a railroad boarding house, people started coming to eat during lunch hour, the railroad boarding house no longer seemed needed, but Mrs. Wilkes kept open only during lunch hours with a marvelous business. The place did not need any real advertising. After that wonderful "luncheon," we needed nothing to eat that evening, or even the next morning.

We found a place to park on Bay Street and walked up and down on Factor's Walk on River and Bay Streets. River Street had many converted warehouses, now with shops of many kinds. They were built against a bluff along the river, and across the tops of the buildings walks still were used to reach the offices. Many Greek and Russian ships came up the river into the port while we were there on the waterfront, the hammer and sickle on one ship was obvious, and we asked about the other alphabet. Again we did have a day to remember.

November 18 we drove 95 miles to Jekyll Island to find Cherokee Campground. Originally the island had been owned by a group of millionaires in the 1880s who build "cottages" for summer homes, our drive on the island through Millionaire's Village showed these to be very large homes indeed. We found Lenore and Willard, and Jim and Irma, our "snowbird friends" from Myrtle Beach, waiting in their trailers not far from the space where we parked our trailer. They said they knew we would be along, going to Florida.

The "Golden Isles" was a very apt name for these islands, and we did enjoy our ride to St. Simon's Island and Sea Island, and back to Brunswick. Handwritten: 5 big liberty ships in moth balls. We watched the shrimp boats unloading their catches on Jekyll Island, we asked and were allowed to go onto the boats. Some of the streets do not allow bus traffic because of sharp turns and trees, we thought perhaps campers and some motor homes would not make it either.

The state of Georgia bought the island in 1947 and made a lovely park with picnic benches everywhere. there was a free fishing pier near the campground, where we had no luck at all… but we watched others catch big sea trout. We stopped to get Atlantic Ocean sand here, and some shells to take home. The sand at this beach seemed very almost like dust, very different than other sand we had found. We never learned why the young people we saw kept the marked blue crab they said had come up from south Florida.

We put peanuts out for the squirrels in the park, but the grackles ate them. Perhaps we saw a courting dance of the grackles, a circle with many of the birds ruffling their tails and feathers, which went on until we had people come to visit us. Acorns hit the roof of our trailer so hard all night that it almost seemed as though rocks were being thrown at us.

We innocents had never seen alligators, so we decided to go to Okefenokee Swamp before going to St. Augustine. On Highway 84 from Brunswick we saw pine forests all along the road, and wondered about the bark off the trees, finally we saw how they were tapping for turpentine with a flat pan-type arrangement about 5 feet off the ground, and learned later the trees were slash pines.

At Okefenokee we stayed at Laura Walker State Park. We did see a bear cub along the side of the highway at a "Bear Crossing" along the way. Our admission fee to Okefenokee included a boat ride through the park, where we saw alligators and snakes of all sizes, and we did feel grateful that none were lively at that time of the year.

Our boatman explained about the still on planks, which could be very movable when revenuers came to look for it, and that "block and tackle" whiskey was made: Take a drink, walk a block, and tackle anything or anyone. Mirror Lake had a sign over it hung over it upside down and backward so that the very still water showed that it read as it should. The water was so dark that it looked black from the tannin leaked from the trees and the vegetation, but was weak tea, and pur and drinkable at all times. Cypress knees with pink tops of all sizes were there, but the boatman said he had no explanation of why they grew that way. For the first time ever we saw carnivorous plants eat insects, hooded and trumpet pitcher plants, these we had only read about before.

Skull Lake had many skulls of animals hanging in the trees; the Indians had a legend as the reason for this, but the boatman said that the human skulls might be those of revenuers. The Indian belief was rather gruesome, if when they slaughtered animals and hung them in the trees until the water ran red, when they drank it their year would be a success.

Remembering how I had to use "granny gear" going up the 60-foot observation tower on the Island of Orleans, we did not climb the 90-foot tower in the park. Signs everywhere read "Do Not Molest the Alligators," so we imagined that people were inclined to tease them. At the exhibit building there were stuffed animals of all kinds: hawks, owls, bobcats, possums, and one big stuffed alligator. Old Roy had been over 90 when he died, and we were told he had been moved from the big swamp because he tipped over the fishermen's boats in order to get their fish. At the big serpent house we saw live poisonous snakes, the Eastern rattlesnakes were different from the diamondback Western ones, and we remembered that he had heard that rattlers were in the Catskills, too. We thought it was so nice that western Washington had no poisonous snakes.

I looked for Pogo and Albert in Okefenokee, and Harry called for Chloe in the swamp. One of the most gorgeous sunsets, layers of pink and gold and blue through the pine trees around Lake Walker.

November 21 we went 110 miles to St. Augustine, Florida, and there we found Lenora and Willard at the Lazy J trailer park, where they planned to stay a month. Irma and Jim came into the park that afternoon, making us feel again that we were still playing tag down the coast with our friends from Myrtle Beach. They all planned to go on down the east coast while we were going to the Gulf for Thanksgiving in St. Petersburg.

In the afternoon we went to the Old Jail, a tourist trap, and took a tour through the town. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, and we did see the oldest house in the United States there. There was a cemetery with dates from the 1600s—Spanish, I supposed.

The next day we went free to Castillo de San Marcos because of Harry's Golden Age card. Castillo de San Marcos is [the rest of the sentence unfinished]

A girl who declared that she was not Molly Pitcher's great-granddaughter wore a leather apron when she shot a cannon. The cannon is very old, from the 1700s, so the heavy charge of powder was no longer used, plus they had to consider the neighbors and the sailboats in the harbor.

On the tour through the fort Harry saw a young man playing solitaire with cards that had no numbers on them, we didn't think to ask why. Harry showed him a new game of solitaire that could drive him up the wall before he finally wins, but winning is possible. Everywhere in the parks we had found buttons to push for informative talks, and here I pushed all the buttons on all the boxes to see what information was available, in a Spanish accent this time. There was a bed in the room where the young man was playing cards that he said was a replica of the beds for married people in the fort, it was only 30 inches wide.

St. George Stret was fascinating, one of the very narrow old streets in St. Augustine made of brick. It had been restored after many fires and captures, and was now lined with shops and old houses that asked admission to see them. There was a fire while we were shopping on the very narrow sidewalks and one-way streets, a man came rushing into a shop to get a key for an alley. We wondered how and why one locked an alley.

Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum was a remarkable experience for several very interesting hours. By the time we came out of the museum it was late so we missed the free tour of the sugar mill. Someday I had hopes of finding out more about raw sugar and brown sugar, and what is done with the sugar cane.

I had neglected to get myrtle from the street plantings in Myrtle Beach, but here I did remember to get ivy starts from a wall to have a new house plant.

The park manager told us to help ourselves to all the juice oranges we wanted from the tree in his yard, so we went away on November 24 with a large bag for my brother and his wife in St. Petersburg. It was so cold when we left that we told our friends that we thought we were smart to go to south Florida where it might be warmer for the winter, and we all promised to keep in touch with each other.

We took I-95 to Daytona and then I-4 to Plant City, where we found a park on U.S. 92 for the night. We had bought cheap gasoline in Savannah which made our truck "ping," but now paid over 60¢ for better gasoline and no longer had the ping.

This was copied from a tourist paper we got in Florida:

Apparently there are several ways of preparing rattlesnakes for eating. Some recipes say the meat should be salted overnight in brine (or perhaps vinegar), at least for a short time prior to actual cooking. It is usually cooked in a manner similar to rabbit or chicken. Served hot, it may be fried (if young and tender), baked served as a stew or soup. Cold, it makes a nice sandwich, sandwich spread, salad, or midnight snack.

5 pounds of snake meat
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Vinegar
Tabasco
Fat

Use only live healthy rattlesnakes (3–5 pounds live weight preferred). Decapitate with an axe about 6 inches behind the head. Remove skin and viscera. Cut remaining body diagonally into 1-inch steaks. Soak the steaks in vinegar for 10 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with hot sauce, salt and pepper. Roll in flour, fry in deep fat, and serve immediately.

Pressure-cooking snakes, especially large tough ones, is a good method for an amateur. While the thought of a large pink-fleshed rattle or moccasin body, coiled neatly in the family pressure cooker does not appeal to most homemakers, cooked in this manner the meat is tender and easily removed from the bones. Packed for the freezer, it then awaits use as a sandwich spread, or a rattlesnake salad (like tuna). Hearts of palm added to this salad make it more of a real Florida exotic food specialty.

Of course, the main danger of eating poisonous snakes is the risk of being bitten while catching them!

The next day we discovered that the streets and avenues in St. Petersburg were like those in Seattle, North and South. We found the intersection of 51st Avenue North and 51st Street North, and 51st Avenue South and 51st Street South, and it was fortunate that Central Avenue divided North and South. Finally we gave up trying to find the trailer park on Tyrone Boulevard, and attempted to find Bob and Katherine on 51st Street South. Trailer and all, we ended up driving through a very posh apartment compound much too far south, but kind people there helped us to find the cross street that would not dead-end before we found 51st Street South.

Katherine was in town, but Bob was waiting for us, as he had been for several days. He had grown up in New York City, while I grew up in Washington, so we had never met. It was almost a case of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume." We both remarked about how much he looked like our father and Uncle Jim, and we were immediate friends. He insisted that we were to stay in their driveway, but we asked him to call the police to see if it was all right, because some cities object. When Katherine arrived we became friends with her right away, too. I found the very spoiled orange Persian cat named Pussy Cat would be my friend, although Katherine said she did not like people at all.

Bob and Katherine decided to turn their house over to us after Thanksgiving while they went with friends to Lanark Village in north Florida to see about buying a house there. We played penny ante poker with these friends, and I lost all my pennies.

Thanksgiving dinner was with Katherine's sister in Holiday Estates, a little north of Clearwater. We had only one seat in the pickup, so Katherine and her mother rode with Harry. The mother, aged 92, was going to stay with Katherine's sister while they were away, and we would take care of Pussy Cat. Harry fixed cushions from our trailer dinette in the back of the truck, and Bob and I rode there in great comfort.

A brother of Katherine's from New York City also lived in Holiday Estates, and we thought that no doubt more of the six sisters and two brothers in her family would arrive in Florida when they retired. We sat down to dinner with nine people, and I enjoyed it very much because I did not have to cook it. I did bring sweet potatoes and applesauce to add to the dinner. We left rather early so Harry would not have to fight with the traffic lights on the way home; there was no twilight at all.

While Bob and Katherine were away, we found Tyrone Boulevard, a shopping center, and a bank. This time the bank called our bank in Chehalis, and they promised to have money for us on Monday, transferring it through Federal Reserve. We found hushpuppy mix, grits, and good steaks for Sunday dinner when Bob and Katherine returned.

Sunday they did get back quite late with the news that they had put a deposit on a house in Lanark Village, and would move there as soon as their house was sold. Gulfport had seemed what they wanted when Bob retired in New York City, but now all their friends were leaving for smaller, less expensive towns.

Bob had hats of all descriptions, everything from an African pith helmet, a fisherman's hat, to tams and berets. We told him that granddaughter Mary would be in seventh heaven if she could see them all. He wore a pith helmet when we went to a sing-along at the local pub while Harry watched football.

At last we had grown tired of fried bread instead of real toast, and when we went into St. Petersburg with Katherine, we found a toaster oven. This would be our Christmas present for us. The same afternoon we got our traveler's checks for the month of December at the bank in Tyrone Square, our bank in Chehalis had really cooperated.

Playing penny poker with Bob and Katherine and Marie and Gene met with my usual luck. Bob said my face always gave me away, and the rest always knew when I bluffed or had a good hand. Believe that I did not win at all.

December 2 Marie came to say goodbye bearing gifts, and we left with the promise that we would come back in February or March to see them all again. Highway 19 goes across Tampa Bay over a toll causeway, only $1.00 for the trailer and all, and then Highway 41 to Fort Myers. Woodsmoke Park had no spots for a month, so we rented for a week and decided to look elsewhere.

Something was planned for the people in the park almost every night. One night we had a talk from a Florida highway patrolman, and found that our mirrors were illegal in the state. A total of 8 feet was legal, and ours measured 8 feet 9 inches. We decided to hope for the best and left them alone.

I never did find the way to spell the real name of the paper tree that grew in the park. The bark always peeled off in great strips, and the tree had strange blossoms and berries. We had never seen Spanish bayonet, palm trees, and palmetto, and enjoyed our nice shady place in the park. After exploring in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, and Naples for another park, we asked about staying within Woodsmoke for the rest of the month because we liked it so much. Before December 31 we would have to move down the street a little because our space was reserved as of then. So we paid for the rest of the month, a total of $95 plus tax, and were given credit for what we had paid for the week.

Different Bingo games were played on Monday and Friday, but we did learn them. What we called Blackout was called Coverall, and never before had we played a Postage Stamp. It took a while, but we did finally win a little bit at the games.

Christmas was coming, and I realized that all our decorations were in the attic at home. It had never occurred to us that we would need them. I used silver paint on the little shells and cones and acorns I had collected on the East Coast, to use on the green net tree that I made for the front of the trailer. Everyone in the park decorated for Christmas, so we bought tinsel and decals for the windows. The liter milk cartons from Canada were unusual to us, and we had used them to make whirligigs to hang in the wind on the front of the trailer. These we covered with the tinsel, and wished that we had lights to add to our efforts. We asked permission to cut palmetto fronds to put around the front of the trailer, and ended up with something we were proud enough to take pictures of for our album.

Grits could be like mush, we discovered, and though I rather liked it, Harry did not. He was in misery because every since Jekyll Island his eyes had itched, the lids had puffed, and bright red bags had formed under his eyes. A doctor in Bonita Springs was recommended by the management of the park, and it seemed that his problem [the rest of the sentence unfinished]

Note from son Allan in 2009: That is the end of the "finished" (more writerly) draft of the 2-year odyssey (1975–1977). What follows are relevant journal entries, which Mary never finished transforming into a narrative draft.

Harry's eyes had itched, the lids had puffed, and bags had formed under the eyes, all bright red. This had started on Jekyll Island. Home remedies did no good, so Friday I finally made him go to the doctor in Bonita Springs (recommended by the management here). Poison Ivy, or Poison Oak, or Poison sumac,… probably from a campfire. Lots of soap and water and a salve seems to be the cure. We had never seen it before… and didn't recognize it. Do we have to watch out for it? The doctor said I probably didn't get it because of my glasses.

Mail from Chris came Friday morning… lots of letters and pictures. I have finally finished our Christmas cards and letters, too. And I finished reading Centennial, and another very good book This Is My Land by Richard Powell about this part of Florida 1895–1946.

Everyone got together to decorate the recreation hall Thursday night… it looks very nice. Harry went to get our camera and took pictures.

Sunday we had Delmonico steaks and baked potatoes fixed on the hibachi…very good…we have tried the GE oven for potatoes and meat loaf, and it works beautifully. Glad we have it.…

Monday we left two rolls of film to be developed…and some negatives to have reprints made…had to send some of the Triple-print ones to Miami to have them printed. NEVER AGAIN! We sent the insurance papers to the Teamsters in Seattle…hope they refund the $10 for Chris to deposit in the Chehalis account.

Mail today from Jean and Roland and from Dick Roush…we have given them this address.

12/17/75
Today there was an ice cream party for those with birthdays and anniversaries in December. I started making quilted pillow tops as gifts for those we visit… I think they will turn out the way I want them. We are thinking about next summer and know that we do not want to be in the Middle West or Texas then… we just may go back to New England to visit and explore again!

12/18-12/21/75
It rained! I suppose they did need it because it had not rained for 33 days. I made shorts for Harry by cutting off some trousers… no way would I buy them again for him. Three times I had bought at home and three times he gave them away…I may break down and stop teasing him about giving shorts away and he will eventually buy some…meanwhile these cut-offs look pretty good. We got our Christmas decorations on the Trailer…not much by comparison to the full-timers but we like it. Even made a sign that says "Merry Christmas to All."

George MacDonald (the man next door from Michigan) helped Harry grease and check the trailer wheels…the last time was in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Everything was fine, so they said. Friday we went into town to have the 16,000 mile check on Truck and found that the transmission was leaking a little, and that the gas tank had a small leak (it could be tightened)…told you that we thought Truck had been made July 5, 1974.

We picked up our pictures at the drug store…I guess it was a bargain. We got extra prints of everything, plus a roll of film if we bought one. I won at Bingo for a change…$6.

One of the couples in the park really works with the shells they collect on the beach…a philharmonic orchestra made complete with the conductor and the instruments. We took a picture of it. They make bouquets, too…rosebuds from shells. He gave us a "thing"…

I made "tuits"…my oven burned the bottoms of the biscuits a little but the paint covered it. Today after I get the varnish on them I think I will give some of them away…they don't look too bad, but I have a lot to learn. Next time I think I will air-dry them?

I did go to the craft class last week. They make lovely shell pictures and flowers, and crosses and necklaces from beads. Me, I went with my crocheting, and ended up teaching people to crochet!

"Grandpa's Girlie Calendar" has made a big hit around here…guess who is so very proud of it, and shows it?

Saturday we got a big envelope from Chris…"Time to Retire" stationery and covers which we really needed…they are very nice.

12/22/75
The mail just came…lots of good mail and pictures.

The park here is so full that they are letting people with tents camp on the strip next to the highway. It reminds us of when we came down from Carlsbad Caverns and had to camp next to the road with the station wagon. People are camped all over the park, some with no hookups of any kind. How glad we are that we decided that we needed a place over Christmas and New Years…even though we will have to move on the 31st in the park. Television news shows awful traffic jams, and remarks on how many have no place at all to stay.

We took our roll of film and some negatives to the drugstore…will be ready next Friday we hope.

12/23-12/25/75
We heard that the box from Seattle came late tonight (the 23rd) but it was delivered to our trailer the morning of the 24th. We decided to wait to open it until Christmas morning…and Chris made a rattling package for Pop when she said "Dad's present is completely washable"…you should have seen him shaking that big box and trying to guess. We delivered Tuits to our friends in the park…heard that more were wanted but I had only 18 to give away…saved 6 for later. We fell heir to aplets and cotlets, and stuffed figs and gumdrops on our way around camp. Lu and Day Freeman from Connecticut come each year for 6 months to help as Rec directors, and they have a daughter in Seattle who sent the aplets and cotlets. We didn't tell them how few we had had…we could never afford them except as gifts. We have a picture of Vincent and Oona for our wall…now we have all the grandkids up there with recent pictures! We are using the Jennie picture with the "Time to Retire" candle.

We opened the box this morning…pillows for Harry, a good book for me, and stationery. The box did help lots when we were alone this year…even though we had not expected to get it. There was no chance to get a call through to Seattle so we will wait until Sunday.

The dinner at the park was very good. I took sweet potatoes baked with applesauce for our share. There must have been at least 200 people there, maybe more…and how clever they were to get us to the food in the Rec Hall. The tables were numbered 1 through 6, and then the numbers were drawn from a hat. We were at Table #2, which was drawn first…we both ate too much!

12/26/75
This morning we were going into town to have Truck checked…Harry said that they put too much oil in when they did the 16,000 mile check. We gave up before we even got close to town…too much traffic even on a 4-lane. It moved at about 7 miles an hour when it moved at all…lots of tailgate accidents, but not for us, thank heaven. Highway 41 gets all the traffic from Tampa to Naples, and lots of it is 2-lane…I-75 waits to be completed. The Tamianmi Trail continues on from Naples, but Alligator Alley (toll) takes off to Miami from Naples.

I did get to the post office to mail our thank-you letters…

12/27-12/31/75
We called Seattle Sunday from the post office down the road a couple of blocks…we walked up. You can believe that we enjoyed every minute of our talk with Chris and the grandkids…didn't get to talk with Ed, though. Maybe Chris will tell us sometime how much $ that call was…who cares!?! It was wonderful.

Woodsmoke Park would have cashed our check to buy traveler's checks, but they never had that much cash,…so we got brave again and went to a bank. The man liked our letter from our bank, and we got our check cashed…for the first time since Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The banks in Myrtle Beach and St. Petersburg made us wait…

Some statistics…12/15 when we last bought gas here in Estero.
15622 speedometer reading
 3625 Centralia
11997 miles so far...

1126.9 gallons (converted for Canada)
$632.67 Cost!
55¢ average per gallon
10.5 miles per gallon (approximate)

Not too bad when we hear what the other people say…

So far we have bought 7 tanks of propane…30# each…at a total cost of $33.89. We do have an empty tank to fill before we leave here. Most of our gas has gone for cooking, because we haven't used the furnace since we were in the Catskills, and have had electricity for the refrigerator except when we were in Okefenokee.

Harry just put our most-used keys on the Tuit chains that came from NYC…we like them very much…but still think the homemade ones are better! We are waiting for the people from Ontario to move from the space we are to move int…the ones who are to have this space are here, and we have no place to go. We are paid thru January 5, so we will be okay somewhere…more later.

1/1/76
The New Year's party at the Rec Hall was lots of fun…Harry watched football and more football, so I went over by myself and stayed with Joan and George MacDonald until about 11:30 when I came back and woke Harry to have him go back with me…he liked it, too. they had very good roast beef, salads, and dips…and it was BYOL. They danced and had favors, horns, balloons and hats, and we didn't have to drive home…people here are so very nice.

1/2-1/5/76
I traded books again, and found an Allen Drury "Capable of Honor" that I had not read. An Italian down the way who had been across from us before he had to move on the first (yes, we moved New Year's Day) gave us some good bread that he finds at an Italian store in Fort Myers…I had given him a Tuit. The bread was just what we needed for our leftover stew! Their name is Fillipponi…Frank and Carmen, and we are invited to come to see them in Illinois or at their summer home in Minnesota. If we ever took up people on all the invitations we have…

Friday I won at Bingo again $18.00!

Finally got my green net finished and have Joan MacDonald almost through with hers…she bought some apricot-colored net for me so I am going to make another one later on. Right now I am trying to find a place to put them! Think I will have to hang them from the cupboard doors?

Trailer is clean again. I cleaned all the cupboards and drawers and the floor…even the closet for the first time since we finally made the rod stay up…guess that was in Vernal, Utah!…about six months ago. I THREW OUT THOSE MOCCASINS! The ones I was always glueing (gluing?) the sole…

We bought a sack of tangerines for $1…½peck. and a sack of pink grapefruit…½ bushel. We are so used to buying by the pound that it seems strange to buy this way. Our Washington apples are sold single…20 for $1.99? and I saw some Big ones 30¢ each!!! We paid 84¢ for 8 nice-sized ones.

We have the truck hitched to the trailer for tomorrow so will be ready to leave fairly early. Everyone has been around to say goodbye, and have told us to come back. After reading the letters from Irma and Lenora we think we are lucky that we came down this way first, rather than down the east coast. They say that parks and the people there are not as friendly. We heard tonight that one park in Fort Lauderdale wants $240 a month!…here we pay $97 plus tax. Only hope we can find about the same in Homestead.

Today we filled a propane tank, and the auxiliary gas tank in Truck…the regular tank still was 3/4 full…you can see that we did not use much gasoline while we were here! the last gas we bought was on 12/5…gas was only 51.9.

1/6/76
We left Woodsmoke about 9:30 this morning— lots of our friends came to say goodbye to us and they said that they hoped we would be back. There is a dinner-dance in town next week which we will miss…

We found a trailer park right away and took it for a week while we looked to see if we could find anything better— or cheaper. Here we are paying $75 a month plus electricity which is billed by the month. We have a nice space and friendly neighbors…no tables, though. We have a folding table with us.

We went to find Frank Johnston down on Useless Canal. We couldn't think of staying there—no hookups, and we could never turn trailer around. His motor home had broken down, and was in a garage in town. We found him there— he is living next to the garage in the motor home while they wait for parts. He was glad to see us, and doubly glad that we offered to take him to the store and the post office. We will see him again in a day or so. No mail at the post office for us yet.

1/7/76
We looked at other parks in Homestead—didn't like any of them nearly as well as Goldcoaster so we have decided to stay here at least until the middle of February. Tonight we called Dick Roush and told him where we are, and said that we would meet him in Miami on Sunday. We are to call again Friday to make sure what flight and what time…

We wander around in shorts all day and in the evening, too…the weather is really delightful. Stars are so close overhead that we feel as though we could reach up and touch them. We have discovered that we rather miss a hill or two—it has been since Front Royal in Virginia since we have seen a hill…even a high spot in the road!

1/8-1/20/76
So I was bragging about the wonderful weather here…the wind came up and blew and blew…the trailer even rocked it blew so hard! When we called Dick Roush Friday night to confirm when he was coming we nearly froze at the outdoor phone booth. We went on the Florida Turnpike to the airport…only when we got onto the Palmetto Expressway there were no signs or symbols for the airport, and of course it was too dark to read the map…so we went past Hialeah nearly to Fort Lauderdale before we turned around! Coming back south there were signs for the airport so we got there just before 7…Dick's plane had come in at 6:21, but he had not given up on us…it figures that we got lost again.

The weather was nice all week so we went to the beginning of Everglades Park and walked on all the trails…saw so many fantastic birds and lots of alligators. The anhinga bird is a large black shiny bird…the female has a brown head and neck and the immature ones have striped backs. They have no oil on their feathers and swim with just their heads and necks out of the water. When they come out they spread their wings and "hang them out to dry" for quite a while. There were blue herons and large white herons, too, as well as many coots and grebes. One sign said "Fishing here is reserved for the birds." One large blue heron stood at the side of the road for a long time at the Pa-hay-okee (River of Grass) observation tower where we also saw an alligator at the side of the road. The Indians called the Everglades the river of grass…they realized that it is a freshwater river that comes from Lake Okeechobee. On the Anhinga Trail we saw alligators on the banks of the canals…and even saw one come up out of the water, first his nose, then part of his head, and then his back. He must not have been hungry because the fish that the ranger told me were his food were swimming along with him…gar are a long skinny spotted fish. We saw bream ("brim") and largemouth bass, too…the water was very clear, but neither Dick or Harry wanted to go swimming there. We spent over 4 hours wandering there. The next time we will go down to Flamingo and take the boat ride there.

We heard about the Monkey Jungle where the people are in the cages and the monkeys are free…Chris had told us about it…and we expect to go there, too.

Saturday the 17th was extremely windy and the trailer rocked again…we thought we should go to Florida for the winter? But we do know that the other parts of the country have much worse weather than this. Arthur and Del write that New England is really getting it…the darn TV stations just ignore the Pacific Northwest and California. The broadcast from Miami of the Superbowl said that the wind was blowing on Sunday, to…and it really was.

Dick waked up Saturday morning with spots all over him like the measles…I tried to get the guys to go to the emergency room at the hospital, but no luck. Sunday it was worse so I nagged them into going…it was a delayed reaction to some heart medicine that he had just started taking about 3 weeks ago! The doctor said to stop, and prescribed something else…he is to go back on the 26th. Wonder what would have happened had he waited until Monday to find out?

I had bought a bushel of tomatoes on Saturday for $3 at the fruit stand, and the man gave me some nice ripe ones when he found that I was going to can them right away…he gave me a big bucket full. From the free ones I got 9 pints and 3 quarts…and I used all the empty jars I had and got 8 more pints. We still have a large sack to eat…and I made some tomato paste for spaghetti sauce.

Yesterday I had my hair cut again…the first time since early in November at Myrtle Beach.

1/21/76
Today we went to the Monkey Jungle…we, the people, were in cages and the monkeys were free. All the walkways were covered with wire. One monkey had a can that he lowered down to have filled with peanuts or raisins (the food that we were sold to feed the animals) and he would be so mad if nothing were in the can when he raised it! One of the monkeys wanted peanuts so much that he hung on the side of the cage and then stood on his head and reached out his hand…he, too, was mad when nothing fell into his hand (paw?). We did have a good time for several hours out there. Bulu, the gorilla, and Mitzi, his mate, are quite something, too…Bulu weighs over 600 pounds! He sat like a Buddha with his arms folded across his stomach, and looked at us (something) and every so often he would yawn…what an enormous mouth and teeth. One chimp that Dick was feeding through a trough into his cage clapped his hands for more now…and another chimp was so relaxed in the door of his cage that he only needed a cigar to look like a very rich gangster. There was a baby monkey with his mother…very tiny, and the mother was very protective. The rain jungle had four kinds of monkeys from South America…red howler, the white-faced marmoset, the spider monkey, and one with a red face and a short tail…

The Sunday paper [Miami Herald 18 January 1976, "Tropics"] is quoted…:

Florida is where many people go to go to the beach, for it has some of the pleasantest as well as some of the absolute worst…There are Florida beaches where the sand is coarse and tan. This is on the East coast, where…the sand is made of crushed and broken shell. There are other Florida beaches where the sand is glittery white and so powdery it squeaks when you walk on it. This is on the upper Gulf Coast,…the sand is made of crushed quartz rock. It is that way, too, on the Panhandle beaches.… Off the Florida Keys are the nation's only living coral reefs, some now dying at the hand of man.… If you strung a string around the coastline of Florida and then measured it, it would be 1197 miles long—399 miles of Atlantic and 798 of Gulf—more coastline than any state but Alaska. If you added the islands and inlets, the string would be 8000 miles long. Much of that is beach…only the saltwater beach. There are 1711 streams, rivers and creeks, totaling 10,550 miles in length, and many of these have sandy beaches.… The weather makes basking and bathing usually a pleasure, though sometimes a near-necessity, to avoid the muggy heat and mosquitoes. The average temperature in January ranges from 50 to 75 degrees, depending on whether you are in the Keys near Cuba or in the Panhandle near Alabama, and in July from 80 to 86. The water temperature is always tolerable or warmer.… Florida has more sun in winter than any state east of the Mississippi. On to the other hand, there are hazards. The melodramatic ones with jaws, the shark and the barracuda, are so rare as to be unworthy of attention beyond reasonable caution. More people die of bee-stings.… Fernandina Beach just below Georgia on the upper East Coast…lesser distinction is a paper mill which makes itself smell like a …sci-fi novel. When the state applied anti-pollution pressure a few years ago, the biggest protests came from the people who live there and breath it. They needed their jobs. The water in nearby beaches is said to be pure enough to swim in, but not to eat the products of.… Between Fernandina and Daytona is a long stretch of beach, some untouched and some "developed." Just south of Jacksonville the stretch of beach is interrupted by Ponta Vedra,… one of the most expensive real estate developments anywhere, with houses costing up to $200,000, plus land, each fronting on beach, lagoon, or golf course.… A1A is the highway that runs down the Atlantic coast, the way California One runs down the Pacific. it is the scenic beach route, less dramatic than the California version but pleasant enough. It is surprising that so much of the stretch is unspoiled.… in spots, especially in summer, the off-season, you can pull over and park and have a beach virtually to yourself. Not so in Daytona. The water is fine, the hotels are commodious. The trick, however, is in picking your way across the wide, hard-packed sand in between, because the traffic is terrific. Cars are sightseeing all up and down the beach, some of them observing the 10 mpg speed limit. There are umbrella stands, sailboat stands, raft stands, motorcycle stands, sandwich stands, T-shirt stands, you-name-it stands,… fils some need. Daytona and Fort Lauderdale traditionally share the Easter vacation college crowds. Fifteen years ago the guys all seemed to wear fake Harvard sweatshirts and Ivy League haircuts, and the beach ended up littered with beer cans. The bail bondsmen still prosper.… perhaps the finest East Coast beaches are a few miles south of here (Cape Canaveral) where the Indian River splits beach islands away from the mainland.… Sebastian Inlet, too.…

Vero Beach is a quiet resort town not far south, and its main distinction is that a wonderful man named Waldo Sexton once lived there. Waldo was an eccentric, and collected things…virtually anything: Spanish tile, wrought iron, ships' bells, portholes, old doors, cupolas, any number of things. Not remarkable alone, except that from it all he built the Driftwood Inn, which may be Florida's strangest resort inn, a bizarre architectural concoction Waldo contrived of driftwood and the fruits of his fanaticism. (Waldo once told an unhappy friend he knew of a good psychiatrist in Jacksonville, took the friend there to introduce him, and the shrink sent the friend home and kept Waldo). He also built the Ocean Grille, a fine seafood restaurant on the ocean which accepts no credit cards but its own, which is unacceptable any place else.…

Miles further south, Florida beaches turn into what they're mainly cracked up to be, which is overbuilt, overcrowded and overpriced. (I'm skipping over Palm Beach, though it is well worth a drive through to see the mansions, because the rich are different from you and me—at least their beaches are: we can't afford them). The condominiums and the big hotels start around Ft. Pierce, like gravemarkers between the public and the "public" beach. The beach itself is legally public below the highwater mark, but access to it, past the highrises, is another thing.

This entire business reaches its apotheosis in Miami Beach. Miami Beach is an easy place to knock, but this is no reason not to do so. Here, the beach experience is only a memory, overwhelmed by and buried under "improvements," like garish hotels and a neon nightclub scene: Vegas-by-the-Sea…development has turned Miami Beach's 17.1 square miles (10 of them waterways) into some 35,000 rooms-for-rent in some 400 hotels and 3,000 apartment buildings, the island of nearly shore-to-shore concrete. As for the beach itself, in many places it is almost nonexistent. The hotels were built too close and erosion did the rest. They are some of the most expensive in the world, yet at one, perhaps the best known, I phoned room service once and found nobody there spoke English, and at another my room had no towels, no washcloths, no ashtrays, no matches, no stationery. Outside, nearly no beach. And in the pool, no water. Of course, it was the off-season.

The Florida Keys are changing fast but still have some of the charm that brought Hemingway here in the late 1920s.… Despite the growing number of trailer parks and billboards like this collector's item—LOWER MATECUMBE, THE UNSPOILED KEY: CONDOMINIUMS, TOWN HOUSES—the drive down is still the most satisfying trip in the state, over bridge after bridge, with the pale green water stretching away dreamily.…

Up the Gulf Coast past Everglades National Park,past the Ten Thousand Islands where an unknown number of squatters and hermit fishermen live concealed in the mangroves, past Marco Island, which once was a fine unspoiled island and is now a housing development, past Naples, with one of the highest per capita incomes in the nation and some fine beaches, to Sanibel Island, lying athwart the northward-flowing Gulf Stream which heaps millions of shells onto its southern shore. Sanibel is known all over the world as a paradise for shellers…especially after storms, everywhere there are heaps and sprays and scatters of shells, large and coarse ones, tiny delicate ones, some occupied, some not.

Many of the beach communities of the West Coast are occupied largely by retirees, each community with its own character and economic level. Around St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, the beaches are sprouting more and more condominiums…the older, conservative residents who control most of these beach communities tend to fret about topless bars and Gulf Boulevard and pass city ordinances prohibiting naked babies on the beach, but seem unable to do much about the out-of-control growth of population and highrises, so the character of the area is rapidly changing. Pinellas County (St. Petersburg and more than a dozen beach towns) is already the most densely populated in the state.

If the ambience in the Keys is cosmopolitan (with its Latin, black and Bahamian influences), Miami is garish, at St. Petersburg calm and retiring, in the Panhandle it is country fried…distances between small towns are great and the road dull. The entire Panhandle of Florida is nearer, culturally as well as geographically, to Alabama than to the rest of the state; even the accent is different…the water at Seagrove and Grayton Beaches, small settlements halfway between Panama City and Fort Walton Beach, still justifies arty words like "cobalt," "azure," and "turquoise."…this being north Florida, the season is Memorial Day to Labor Day, and one-bedroom cottages rent then for $70 a week; three-bedroom ones for $150 a week. Off-season—any other time—they are $200 a month.

Finding a truly untouched beach in Florida, one where you can be utterly alone with the sun, sea, and silence is a very hard job…here are a few good places to look: The Florida Keys. The Indian River near Grant, Valkeria and Micco, some 20 miles south of Melbourne on the Atlantic Coast. The Ten Thousand Islands about 20 miles south of Naples on the Gulf Coast. The "Big Bend" area of the Gulf Coast, between the mouth of the Suwanee River and Apalachee Bay. And there is a truly perfect, Robinson Crusoe type of beach at…on second thought, never mind, I'll keep that one for myself.

1/22/76
Every Tuesday here at Goldcoaster there is an adult get-together…play any kind of game, talk, get acquainted…last Tuesday I got Harry to go over with me in the afternoon. I found a friend and stayed to play Yahtsee(?) with another couple…we had to teach them to play. Naturally, I lost, but made a very good friend that I now go play Bingo with on Thursday and Monday nights…the fellows send their money with me! When I came back from the friendship day last Tuesday George and Joan MacDonald (from Woodsmoke) were at the trailer with Harry and Dick. They were on the way back to Fort Myers from Key West, where they stayed one day…tomorrow they plan to go to the Everglades and then back to Fort Myers! We plan two more trips to the Everglades!

1/23-1/26/76
I have built another Nag List for Harry and Mary! We keep saying "when we get around to it"…which reminds me I must make more of them so I will have one for Bob when we get back to St. Pete. Jim and Irma Wiseman came in from Boca Raton…glad to see them again…it had been St. Augustine before Thanksgiving when we last saw them. We went fishing again at Card Sound Bridge and caught Sailor's Choice??? which made very good fillets for our dinner. I have bought a Fish Book so we can find out what it is that we have caught and will know whether we can eat it! Some of the saltwater fish here is poisonous.…

1/27/76
Today we went to Shark Valley…at the entrance to the Everglades off Highway 41. The Golden Age card got all of us in, and also took care of the Tram Ride. We liked the price! The tram ride lasted for 2 hours through a part of the Everglades…saw so many birds and alligators (all sizes)…even saw a wood ibis flying around. It is a lovely bird, and the ranger on the tram said it was quite rare now. He jumped off the tram once because he wanted to be sure we were paying attention to him! The water which looked quite deep was only up to his ankles…said they needed rain. We saw Anhinga dive and swim…they swim nearly under the water (Bird book…the new one…says that they are of the cormorant family). The tram stopped at an observation tower for quite a while during the ride…lots of alligators sunning themselves on the bank with turtles right next to them…guess they were not hungry? Looking out over the Everglades we saw one tree that looked as though it were full of white blossoms…they were egrets and herons resting!

We had met some very nice people from Bodega Bay in California who had much worse tales to tell about being lost ("I won't be able to turn around") than we do. They ended up in New York City during rush hour on a Friday night! Jim and Irma have wild tales to tell about Charleston, West Virginia, too…Harry has almost begun to believe that we haven't done too badly?!? We have had a couple of Happy Hours with them and Jim and Irma…glad they like each other, too.

We ate out on the way back from Shark Valley…I tried Spanish Mackerel (wasn't too very good, either, so I can imagine that it was not fresh) because I have heard that it is supposed to be excellent. We took a half-hour air boat ride after our dinner…fun and fast. We went to an abandoned Indian Village (Mickosukee Indians…a part of the Seminole Nation) on a hammock where we saw a banana tree and the blossom. Now we know how bananas grow! And papaya trees are really strange…they can be quite small and have dozens of papayas growing in a cluster…large fruit, too. Saw more flocks of birds on the air boat ride than we had seen before…they were everywhere over the saw grass.

1/28/76
We went fishing again at Card Sound with Ed and Marie (the people from Bodega Bay). We caught lots of grunt which we filleted and froze. Card Sound Bridge has a fishing area under the bridge…and the man next to us caught a grouper.

1/29/76
Today we went to Flamingo…on the way we saw a sign "Rock Reef Pass Elevation 3 feet." Guess we told you that we had missed hills, but that was just too much! On the way we stopped at Mahogany Hammock which has the last stand of mahogany in the United States. We must have been lucky because everyone we talked with later said that they had been eaten up by mosquitoes while they were there, and we didn't see or feel one. We saw a couple of Limpkin on the way down…they are a type of crane but crazy with fluffy tail feathers and red heads. At Flamingo we took the boat ride out to Coot Bay on the Bald Eagle…the ride was really fabulous through the canals and a river which was very much like the scenes in the African Queen. Our pilot told us that the movie was partly made in Fort Lauderdale on a river much like it…and that now it is paved and full of houses! He also showed us an eagle's nest with the young birds and an osprey's nest which we all got pictures of (with his help). He said that the school kids at Flamingo ride 55 miles one way every day to go to school in Homestead…and that if one kid stays after school they all have to stay! And did you know that CALIF meant "Come and live in Florida"? A comeback one time was FLA means "Fly to Los Angeles"…"but I can't find it!" The pilot also told us that hurricanes really don' t bother them down there…that they don't even get off work until there is a 14-hour warning. Then they go home to batten down the hatches…and make arrangements for a block party…there are One Bottle, Two Bottle, and Three Bottle hurricanes there. A Four Bottle one is really bad.

1/30-1/31/76
Irma is ill again…she must still be fighting the "bug" that she got in Savannah or St. Augustine. I went to Bingo with Marie and Ed Thursday night while Harry and Dick stayed with Frank Johnston…he finally got his motor home fixed and moved it here overnight. No…I didn't win!

2/1/76
Today we really had a rain and wind storm. I was at the laundromat and nearly got washed away at times…glad that I had my clothes anchored because they would have blown off the table where I was trying to fold them. Harry came in the truck to take me back…some of the girls walked back with their "dry" clothes. Papa always carries the clothes for me and comes to help take them back…bless him. The water was feet deep on the shuffleboard court, and on the streets in the park the kids were having a wonderful time wading. I saw a couple of youngsters sliding down the slide into waist-deep water…

2/2/76
Today we went to the bank in "beautiful downtown Homestead" and got a check cashed for $500 to buy traveler's checks…no problem. So Dick comes along after us (after listening to my con act) and he gets a check cashed for $350…no one believes this, of course.

2/3/76
Today we go to Key West…and are we glad that we decided to leave Trailer at the park. The road is beautiful, but so very narrow, and so very busy. There are many trailers and campers but I think that we had a much better drive than they did. We stopped at Marathon for lunch where I had conch chowder for the first time…Manhattan-style clam chowder but very good…Harry and Dick had clams. We crossed many bridges and causeways…people fish off most of them even though they are very narrow. We stopped on Big Pine Key at the Key Deer Refuge where we saw lots more alligators…the fellows almost stood on top of one to take his picture, and I scared a small one into the water unintentionally…they really move FAST. We were driving in the refuge when Harry spotted a couple of Key deer in the woods (he was driving!)…we think Dick got a picture with his fast camera…hope so, anyway. They say that the Key deer were disappearing so fast that at one time not too long ago there were only about 50…now they believe that there are over 500 in the refuge. the deer are only about 30 inches tall with very large ears and a white rear…

We found a motel right on the Atlantic…almost at Southernmost Beach where we walked several times…Cuba 90 miles. On the motel fishing pier we met a young man who was full of information…he told us where the shrimp boats come in, which way to look for Cuba, and where to find a good Cuban restaurant. "La Lechonera" at 900 Catherine Street. So we went there for dinner…wonderful. I had roast pork chunks, fried bananas, yellow rice and black beans…good! The fellows had the same except that they had seafood rather than pork. We walked to the restaurant—only about 6 blocks—our motel is in Old Key West. The conch homes are like those in New England combined with Bermuda and the Bahamas…narrow two-story frame with lots of gingerbread.

2/4/76
We were too late for the Conch Train yesterday but this morning we caught the 10 o'clock train which took us all over town—with a driver who talked all the time we were on the train…full of information. At one time due to the wreckers (deliberate?) Key West had the highest per capita income in the United States. Finally the government built lighthouses and set up a claims court which ruined the "rakeoff." There was at one time a cigar industry in Key West which was ruined by hurricanes and labor trouble…moved to Tampa. During the Depression the per capita income was the worst in the U.S. Finally the City Fathers thought of tourists by way of the Overseas Railway…the town was all ready to go when a hurricane at Islamorada ruined the town and the bridges…"forget it." However, they did talk the U.S. into helping rebuild the bridges as part of the highway…a toll road at first…but the tourist industry boomed at once. At one time the sponge fishermen had a good thing going…the Greeks came in and did better. The Greeks were frozen out, and moved to Tarpon Springs. The next year a blight hit the sponges at Key West. There were salt beds cut into the beach which did beautifully…a hurricane hit, and before the beds were rebuilt better and less expensive salt was found in Utah and Nevada. It almost sounds like the resume I wanted to write for Harry when he needed a job!

In addition to all of this, the Navy closed the base at Key West…now there is only a Navy Air Base there. But the Navy did bring in water by pipeline from Florida City, and there is a Westinghouse desalinization plant in Key West. Before this everyone depended on cisterns (which we saw in some of the old houses)…a system from the metal roof gutters to a tank in the yard. (Some of the cisterns in the East were in the attic?) There are so many different kinds of palm trees…Malayan, which have yellow nuts, and Indian which have brown nuts…lots of date palms, too.

The Turtal Kraal was very fascinating…kraal (corral) means impound. Dick and I climbed the observation tower and took pictures of the town, plus one of Harry wandering around down below. The guide told us how the conch fishermen got the conch cleaned…poke a hole in the shell…so you can believe that I shopped for one without holes!?! We saw some big turtles come up to feed.There is one street in Key West…Thompson Lane…which is so very narrow and 2-lane. We did not go to the Spanish galleon where there is a treasure brought up from the old Spanish wrecks…we were so tired that we even ignored the gift shops. We had walked all the old restored part of Key West. Someone told us that the Gulf Stream increases the speed of ships at least 100 miles a day.

We had trouble with a palm tree in Key West…it leaped out and hit us! The dumb tree was bent over the street and when we parked it left one of the clearance lights in very bad shape.

Back to La Lechonera for dinner…this time I had crawfish,which I shared with Harry and Dick because I had so much…good. The guys ordered seafood…shrimp, I think. The coffee is terrible, so we only tried breakfast once…a pancake house is better if the coffee is good.

The guys have named me "Tom"…logical?

2/5/76
We stopped at Flipper's Sea School on Grassy Key on the way back…we had never even been to a Marineland, so we did enjoy it. The dolphins are so intelligent and seem to enjoy everything they do. Sea lions are trained here, too, as well as the dolphins…for Northern zoos. On the way back we ate our dinner at Jawfish Creek…saw cans of conch chowder for $1.49!

2/9/76
Today we went to coral Castle built by a little man from Latvia as a tribute to the girl who had jilted him…he is supposed to have lifted all the enormous blocks by himself and set them in place. He declared that he knew the secret of the Egyptians and the pyramids. We saw some of his homemade tools…the whole place is very interesting. We also went to the Spice Farm where we finally found out what a Mango tree looks like when it is in bloom…they won't be ripe until May in spite of the fact that we were sold a Ripe Mango at a stand in Homestead…it wasn't good. Trees from all over the world are at the Spice Farm…we liked it. We found the Mennonite Farm Store, too, where we bought homemade bread for 80¢…and a strawberry milkshake. The Mennonites here have the strawberry farms, but we couldn't buy strawberry jam…the strawberries were just too expensive…$1.25 a small box.

There were lots of Baltimore Orioles in the Spice Park.…

2/10/76
I put out a TV tray with "Books to Trade" and have lots of new books now…new to me, anyway.

2/11-2/15/76
We went fishing several times and got enough for a meal. The man across the way from us is the one with the enormous motor home who was in Tomahawk Lodge on Lake of the Woods at Sioux Narrows when we were there. He told us what some of the fish that we had were, and that the barracuda was good to eat.

2/27/76
Dick was not feeling well this evening so Harry took him to the hospital…he is to stay for observation for a few days because he has fluid in his lungs.

2/18-2/19/76
We found a good trailer supply store on U.S. 1…bought new lamps for the trailer, and some of the other things that we had needed…Good Sam discount.

2/20/76
Dick was allowed to come home today…he had been ready to come long before this. Salt-free diet for him…so we bought a salt substitute.

2/22/76
Tonight we called Seattle…good to hear them. (Chris and Sue this time). Friends from Connecticut down the way have a slide projector they invited us down so we could see Dick's slides…very good.

2/23/76
Harry washed the truck yesterday…today we have rain and wind. We decided to stay over another day rather than fight the wind. Good thing we did because Frank Johnston showed up again…we had thought that he was going to stay in Texas…he told us a better way to go to Okeechobee so we wouldn't be on a 2-lane highway with sugarcane carriers.

2/24/76
The drive today was very different—cattle, oil wells, sugar cane and some orange groves. Most of the cattle were Brahma or a Brahma mixture—great curved horns and the hump on the back. We had lunch in Immokalee—a small, very prosperous farming town on State 29. Most of the people in the restaurant were either business people or were salesmen…very few looked like tourists the way we do.

We found a very nice place to stay at Okee-Tantie State Park, where the Kissimmee River enters Lake Okeechobee. There was a thunder storm after dinner, and it rained and rained for quite a while. The lights were out for about a half-hour, but we used the trailer lights. We drove 221 miles today!

A television commercial that we saw in Homestead showed how to fertilize your yard, shrubs, flowers, and trees…use fertilizer spikes. Just drive them into the ground once or twice a year! At Coral Castle we were told that southern Florida really has no soil—that when they plant a shrub or a tree or a flower, they dig a hole in the rock (with a pick, I guess) and then plant. It must work because the yards are full of flowers and trees. We saw truckloads of turf on the way here, and saw the fields where they were cutting it.…the beautiful lawns come this way?

2/25/76
More rain this morning so we decided to wait to buy our fishing licenses…we need them for freshwater fishing. After we went into the town of Okeechobee (about 7 miles) to do some shopping and explore, we found the access road to Lake Okeechobee at the intersection of State 78 and U.S. 441 (about 3 miles from our park). The lake is completely surrounded by an enormous levee and cannot be seen from the highways. In the book by Richard Powell (which I am sending to Seattle) it says that at one time a hurricane blew almost all the water out of the lake completely destroying the town of Moore Haven and the farms that had been carved out of the drained Everglades. Lake Okeechobee looks like an ocean, and the day we saw it it was very choppy…it is quite shallow, too. I picked up rocks and shells.…

2/26-2/29/76
We finally got our fishing licenses on Thursday the 26th…good for 14 days and they cost $3.50…just get $10.50 worth of fish! We did try quite often in the river, but had no luck catching speckled perch…other people had the knack of getting them by the dozens. We were there during the Speckled Perch Festival…a fishing derby with a prize for the largest fish, a Miss Speckled Perch, and George Wallace was there on the 28th! We should have gone into town because TV cameras and the news magazines were there to cover his speech…!! We heard that the traffic and the crowds were really something.

Sunday I talked the guys into taking me out for a catfish dinner.… Okeechobee catfish is supposed to be famous. It was really good (with hushpuppies) but entirely too much… I asked for a doggy bag again, and we all enjoyed a snack later of catfish and hushpuppies. We stopped by the Lake on the way back to take pictures…saw a complete double rainbow over the lake.

Tonight there was a terrific thunder and lightning storm just at sunset…a real show for hours in the north and west, but we had no rain at all…heard on TV that Orlando and Fort Myers really got drenched.

3/1/76
When we left Okeechobee we drove for miles straight north crossing and recrossing the Florida Turnpike…the land was as flat as a pancake. We passed the MacArthur Dairy…Barns One through Seven!…each of them with an enormous herd of cows—one herd might be Jersey, another Holstein, another Guernsey. Each Barn (dairy) had lots of tenant houses, too. We had thought that Leprechaun was a large dairy…not anymore.

We found Willard and Lenora Burns and got the last site in the park that had a sewer hookup…lucky. Lucky, too, because it started to pour after dinner and kept it up for quite a while. Willard came down with an umbrella to heckle us Washingtonians for bringing the rain…he did admit that they had had the rain we had seen on Sunday night.

3/2/76
Today we explored and got lost. We kept seeing lakes and finally found that we had circled Lake Tohoekaliga back to St. Cloud. It was an interesting drive and we saw so many Brahma cattle. When we got back I borrowed "This Land Is Mine" by Wyatt Blassingam for Dick to read…Lenora had lent it to me when we were in Myrtle Beach. It is about cattle ranching in Florida in the 1890s.…

3/3/76
Worked on my "homework" and got Journal caught up for a while.

3/4/76
We got lost a little bit when we went to Cypress Gardens…Harry threatens to fire his two navigators! We went just a little out of the way and saw some HILLS, and so many orange groves in bloom…some of the trees had oranges, too. The smell of the orange blossoms is wonderful, but it can get a little overpowering after a while.

The show at Cypress Gardens is really good…ballets, clowns, barefoot water skiing, jumps, pyramids, and the last a man lifted from skiis with a kite. He really went high into the air and stayed up for a long time. The gardens are lovely, and so beautifully cared for. There are girls in hoopskirts everywhere ready and willing to pose for pictures…there is a restored mansion that is just like Tara in Gone with the Wind. Cardinals and orioles were everywhere…and we had forgotten our camera in the truck! Our day was much less than $20 for the 3 of us…admission, lunch, and postcards.…

Srevotfel for dinner tonight.…

3/5/76
So glad it didn't rain yesterday. Today it poured several times. We managed to get to the Tupperware World Headquarters between showers(!?)…very interesting, and we got a free gift…salt and pepper shakers. They have no manufacturing there and no sales…the manufacturing is done at Jerome, Idaho, somewhere in Georgia, and in Blackstone, Massachusetts (we had seen that plant).

We had planned to have barbecued chicken…but used the pressure cooker for noodles and chicken.

3/6/76
We did have the barbecued chicken and potato salad tonight…and then it rained…

3/7/76
We got almost all squared away to leave tomorrow and spent quite a bit of time with Lenora and Willard…don't know when we will be seeing them again…no rain today.

Ponderosa Park is close to the Florida Turnpike and the first night we were here the trucks and traffic kept us awake…we did get so used to it that one night both Harry and I woke up because there was no traffic…and the silence was deafening. So far we have kept off it except for going into Miami to get Dick at the airport. We paid at two toll plazas that morning in less than 20 miles.…

3/8/76
We wandered south to Arcadia before we turned west to stay at Myakka State Park…drove all of 147 miles today. The park is really nice and is on a shallow lake…which is being invaded by the water hyacinth. We did see a couple of enormous alligators in a big pool near the picnic grounds…and lots of birds. The rangers told us that the water in the park had been found to have radium so they brought tanks of drinking water for us…fortunately I have a large teakettle and a gallon jug to carry water. We didn't hook up to the water supply at all because we didn't want to have it in our tank…the rest rooms were close and very clean. I couldn't get the fellows interested in fishing, so I guess that our fishing licenses will just have to expire without the $10.50 worth of fish!

Today I saw a sign at a nursery that said "Schrubbrey for Sale"…!

3/9/76
This morning I was up at daylight (as usual)…waked the guys because I saw 3 big deer very close to the trailer. They seemed lighter in color than our deer…

3/10/76
We had planned to go to the Circus Museum at Sarasota this morning…but we couldn't make a left turn to get there! The drivers down here speed up when they see a turn signal! No way will they let you change lanes…so we just skipped the whole thing. Bob and Kathryn were not at home when we got there…they were out shopping. Kathryn takes a bus, Bob rides his bike and brings part of the groceries home, and K brings the rest. K's mother remembered us, so we were here waiting for them…we couldn't figure how to surprise them with the truck and trailer in the yard. Besides, we had called from Kissimmee Sunday night to tell them that we would be here on Tuesday. We were welcomed with open arms and asked to "house-and-cat" sit again while they went to Lanark Village…K takes her mother to her sister in Holiday when they go away.

3/11-3/14/76
I got my hair cut again…really short this time. We went to the same bank that we had gone to in December…the girl remembered us and cashed a check for $600 right away! She cashed a check for Dick, too…by she did call his bank. She said she could tell that we had been in southern Florida by the tans we had.… We got our mail (for the first time we had to show identification to get it) and called to give Chris another address for next weekend. Bob and K are gone for 3 days and we are wandering around a HOUSE…

3/15-3/18/76
I had brought a pillow for Katherine (small blocks cross-stitched), and a round tuit for Bob when we came this time…and I made a gold hat for Katherine which I wish I had!! One of these days I shall make me a gold net hat…better color than the green one I have or the white one.

We went fishing from the pier several times at Gulfport…not too much luck except for catfish which we put back…did catch a yellowtail and some whiting. One little boy who didn't know how to cast hit me on the temple…surprise! Felt lucky that my glasses were not broken…couldn't be mad at him because he came over "are you all right, Ma'am?" and his mother was quite upset with him. One of our trips fishing gained us a lot of Sailor's Choice which I got to clean for the freezer…both Harry and Dick disappeared! Clever of them, wasn't it?

Our blankets are now washed…I have been afraid of the commercial washer temperatures so was waiting until I found a washer at home. However Katherine was not here and she has a front loading washing machine which I didn't feel sure about…so I did three blankets by hand in her sink! They came out beautifully dripping on the line in the breeze…

We all enjoyed our stay in a HOUSE for a while.…

3/19/76
The handwriting was not on the wall yet, but we decided to leave today, but we decided to leave today, anyway.…Bob did sound disappointed that we could not stay longer, and Katherine and I had become good friends…she even asked me to put up her lovely hair several times (it looked good, too), and I am not a good hair-putter-upper! All the guys like our hats…they say they can find us in a store!

We went to Tarpon Springs this morning…loved it, and the Greek food is really good. I had Greek salad for lunch (potato salad, cheese, anchovies, tomato, lettuce, etc.), and Harry and Dick had a souvaki sandwich…I asked (Sicilian bread, like a pancake), pork chunks, sour cream, etc.). They said it was good. We bought a loaf of Greek bread to take with us…it must weigh 3 pounds! and it is very good.

The trip out on the sponge fishing boat was interesting…but not as good as some of our other trips. We do think the sponges were planted for the diver to find in the harbor and the boat was overloaded.…however, we did see how the sponge divers work, and saw their diving suits…each shoe weighs 12 pounds, and all together their suit weighs 170 pounds! They can stay down 5 or 6 hours at a time, depending on the depth of the water…they send back the sponges along a line to the boat.… The diver on our boat was a commercial diver who was to go back to work in the Gulf early in April…he was really from Greece.

There were many, many shops along the street but we only bought postcards and the Greek bread…wish we could have done more! Tarpon Springs is smarter than some of the other towns…free parking even for trailers. The town is built around around all kinds of lakes and parks, and we wish we had stayed there for many days.

3/20/76
We found a KOA right on the Suwanee River for the weekend…230 acres that we found out was the original farm of the present owner's grandparents. We stopped at this KOA at Old Town because we hoped we might find the friends we had met in Lancaster who told us about it…they were not there but still were expected. We left a round tuit for them…as well as one for the owners. We went on a ride on the Suwanee river on an excursion boat…lovely. The man showed us the fences that his grandfather had built along the river, and told us about how the river had been used for transportation in early years. Something made me ask about "moonshine" and he laughed…no doubt I was right?

3/22/76
Today we drove 149 miles to Lanark Village where Katherine and Bob have bought a house (they will move here when they sell their house in Gulfport). It is really a lovely place and I hope they will enjoy living there… the seagulls come in crowds around us for food (stale bread). The road was spring…flowers all along the way. And one of the places here is the Brandun Arn…say it!

We got our mail here…the postmaster said it had just come in, and he wondered who it was for???? We found Marie and Gene Breen (the friends of Bob and K who have a home here now) and have been invited for dinner tomorrow. We got a refund check from Florida Power and Light for $2.82…which made our bill very little at Goldcoaster Park…we had had visions of $$$$ but $20 deposit plus $5 service charge really made a reasonable cost for over 7 weeks.…

3/23/76
Tonight we went to dinner with Marie and Gene…good chili she makes in less than an hour with canned kidney beans! She gave us the leftovers, and I left the coleslaw I had brought…asked where to leave her pan because they are going to go to St. Pete tomorrow. We stayed to play poker for a while…several of their friends came by. I stayed even, Harry won a bit and Dick lost a bit…can't get hurt by the way we play.

3/25/76
We went shelling today at low tide…wading in the Gulf. I asked Harry if he had really planned to go to Yucatan…he was so far out and only up to his knees. We didn't find too many shells, but did have a good time. Now to find what to do with the shells that we did get…clorox?

Dinner at a tiny place in Carrabelle that Marie and Gene had recommended…I had scamp which was very good. They guys had scallops and a seafood platter which they said was good, too.

Carrabelle is the second largest town in Franklin County…Apalachicola is the largest (neither of them are very big!)

3/26/76
Today we went around the point through Apalachicola to Port St. Joe and Panama City to Fort Walton Beach and Navarre, where we found a nice park. There must be lots of money at Port St. Joe and Panama City because of the payrolls and all the industry. Lovely homes that we saw near the highway…wisteria grows high in the trees, and the ground was really lavender at times because of the fallen blossoms. We have found painted fireplugs far out on the country roads…all red, white, and blue. There is still so much damage from Hurricane Eloise last September all along the Gulf…the roofs are off many of the houses and are still being repaired. Some of the motels and houses are beyond repair…I remember reading that Eloise was one hurricane that had no fatalities because of the warning system, but the property damage!!

Because of the rain and thunder and lightning we stopped for 2½ hours in Destin for a very long lunch hour. There was a break in the weather so we could go on to Navarre, where the Rain hit again. Now we are on Central Time.

3/27/76
We went into Pensacola today to find 1414 E. Hernandez, where I had lived 35 years ago…I did have to go downtown to find how to get there, but it came back to me. The house now has a porch enclosed, and of course the trees and shrubs have grown. I can't remember for sure, but I don't think the street was paved in 1940–41…it is now. Naturally downtown Pensacola is changed now, too…but I found the corner of Palafox and Cervantes and told the driver to start North and then I hoped to be able to tell him where to go (I could!)

3/28/76
Last night there was a wet fog that you wouldn't believe…it dripped like rain all night from the trees. We hear that these fogs happen often here…wonder what the roads are like with a drippy fog?

Today we had a housecleaning…beds outside in the sun, I did laundry, and Harry and Dick even cleaned the back of the Truck. We found a chameleon which we must have picked up in St. Pete or even earlier.… Harry has named him Izzard the Lizard…Izzy. Every day he is out sunning himself. We do wonder what will happen if it should get cold? We have put water and hamburger in the back of the Truck for him…no flies now.

3/29/76
Fort Pickens is an old fort built to protect the deep water port of Pensacola…in the 1830s, and added to during the Spanish-American War. the Union held it all during "The War Between The States"…we went to visit it today and enjoyed it very much. The ride down the Strip on Santa Rosa Island with the white, white sand was unbelievable…fishing in the surf looked good, but we had no luck. We stopped at the pier to look and watch, they had caught a 52-pound Ling (Cobia) plus lots of others…we didn't fish there, though. $2 each, and $1 for spectators! and we had no idea how to get a fish up from the water!

3/31/76
Would you believe that we drove 145 miles today…all the way to Gautier just the other side of Pascagoula, Mississippi. We had rolling hills, too, in Alabama…hills! Lots of farms in the very short stretch of Alabama near the coast, but we could not decide what they were growing…sweet potatoes?

We knew that there was a tornado watch in the Florida counties as we left Navarre, Escambia (Pensacola) was one county but we left it soon after Navarre…we did have to stop along the road because of the very hard rain for about ½ hour…then we headed west where the weather looked clear. Harry (driver) had us watching for tornadoes the whole time!

But the radio never told us about an Alert, t.g.…

One market we were in had Turnip Greens and Turnip Roots (our turnips).…

4/1-4/3/76
The weather here in Pascagoula has been wonderful…we hear that the bad weather went east…lucky us. We explored the town (went to the Chamber of Commerce to get all the goodies available) and found that "tourists" can not make the tours of the refinery.… We had hoped to do so because we saw that a school group had been on a tour (the newspaper article sounded fascinating). The traffic on U.S. 90 in the morning and afternoon is amazing…like Boeing shift changes because of the shipyard, the refinery, and the Continental Can company…lots of money here, too?? Today (4/3) there is no traffic out on the road…Saturday must not be a work day?

We went to the Old Spanish Fort on Friday…another museum, but we all loved it. The lady there was fascinated by our trip, and she was most informative and helpful about the museum. We had found the U.S. flag on the lawn before we went into the museum, and tried to put it back with the other flags…no soap, so we told her about it. The other flags were the Spanish, British, Confederate, etc.…naturally, it was the U.S. flag that had fallen out! Choctaw Indians were touring at the same time…she told me that they lived upstate near Philadelphia.…

Lots of old samplers, dolls, and furniture as well as a letter of George Washington…she told us that there had been much more, but that they have been robbed twice…why?

We planned to go on the riverboat ride from the Fort, but she told us they no longer stopped there…why, she didn't say. A call to Gautier Plantation told us that a ride was to start at 1:00 p.m. so we went to lunch at Tiki…a mistake if there ever was one because we saw the buffet! So we ate that instead of a hotdog or hamburger…and didn't eat our dinner because we just were not hungry.

Then we went to find our ride…Mrs. Gautier (in costume) told us that they had just started weekday rides and that a school tour had made them late on Friday (today). She told us about Sunday with a Dixieland band, Confederate cavalry, etc.…so Sunday we go.…

A little boy (like Jackie Foster) has adopted us…I have to send him home quite often, but I do like him! Today I asked him not to run under my clotheslines with his bicycle…so I sent him home! He was back soon "do you have any cookies?"

Tonight we had barbecued chicken, corn, and potato salad.…

4/4/76
The muumuu is finished.

Our riverboat trip on the Magnolia Blossom was really great…two and one-half hours from the Singing River (west Pascagoula) through a canal into the East Pascagoula and the harbor…down to Ingalls Shipyard which is part of Lytton Industries. We went past Todd Shipyard #7…Quaker Oats where they make Puss 'n Boots and Kennel Ration…and several shrimp processing plants. The whole harbor is full of industry, and jobs must be plentiful (if anyone wants to work). Ingalls was building 3 LHA's (Landing, Helicopter, Assault) ships…they are big. One was named the Tarawa and another the Saipan—didn't see the name of the third one. The big destroyers are made assembly-line style—gradually moved toward the water until they finally reach a drydock where they can be floated and moved across the river to be completed. There were at least a dozen destroyers in various stages of completion there. Nuclear submarines come in for repairs there, too—2 were in drydock. It was a lovely day.

The Gautier Plantation on the Singing River is still lived in by descendants of the original settler (the town was named for him) who was the son of people who had come from France…before the French Revolution. Fernando Upton Gautier came from New Orleans in the 1790s, bringing furniture with him that his mother and father had brought from France, and much of it is still in use in the house. The dining table seats 24 with lots of room, and has a puhka over the table…no doubt a little negro boy kept it swinging for ventilation and keeping the flies away. Mrs. Gautier (Go-shay) took us all over the house, and told tales of the family. Part of the silver came from her family in Richmond…and most of it had been buried during the "War Between the States." the kitchen had a fireplace to cook in with all the utensils hanging on cranes. Mrs. G. said that half of the kitchen had been partitioned off and that she had a modern kitchen there. The whole house was very cool because of the arrangement of the doors and windows…and it was filled with old furniture, porcelain, bisque, and fine china…and nothing was roped off from the tours! Unusual! She said that she could pack up everything and be ready to move out in 2 hours…and that she had had to pack up several times because of hurricanes.…

The Dixieland band was good, but we missed part of it because of our boat ride. The Confederate cavalry were armed with sabres…they are like our Western posses.

4/5/76
Today we drove all of 47 miles to Pass Christian where we got our mail, and decided to stay a few days because we liked the town and the beaches. Pass Christian is named for Christian L'Adnier who found the inner pass from the Gulf to where today's town is located. There was a street in Pascagoula named Ladnier—named for him or his brother who found the outer pass? Pass Christian is pronounced Pass Christianne…

Most of the radio stations here have telephone talk shows…try this:
Take your age
Multiply by 2
Add 5
Multiply by 50
Subtract 365
Add 50 (or whatever change you have in your pocket!)
Add 115
The answer is your age, and the change!

There are many long piers out into the Gulf for tourists…and the beach is supposed to be the longest manmade beach in the world—26 miles of lovely park.

4/6/76
Today we went fishing and as usual didn't catch anything, although the lady at the Chamber of Commerce told us that the Specks (speckled trout?) were supposed to be in. We did see schools of dolphins playing not far out—they had little ones with them…and I nearly had an enormous blue crab up onto the pier.

Went for a walk this evening to the little store and traded 2 books for 1…got a lot of good ones that I had not read. The sides of the road were filled with honeysuckle which smelled so good…and I got a close look at magnolia trees which are nearly in bloom!

We are going to move from here tomorrow even though the price is right $3 a night less 10% Good Sam…the no-see-ums are just too thick tonight, and are coming through the screens…wonder what it is like here in the summer?

4/7/76
Today we drove 59 miles to our park in New Orleans…we could get into the one we knew about from Lenora and Willard Burns. It is right on Highway 90 (called Chef Menteur)…I asked "why"…Chef is Chief and Menteur was Indian.…

Turtle soup for lunch…out of a can, though. It really was quite good.…

There are people here with a Washington license, so we knocked on their door. It turned out that they are from Bellvue, and that the man grew up in Doty (he and Harry knew lots of the same people), and not only that he is a cousin of Delmer and Elmer Olson from Centralia (remember Terrible Terry?). The man's uncle and dad had lived in Centralia, too.… Someday I will call Leo and Gil Wenner…

We called Seattle tonight to say where we are.

4/8/76
Our bus tour was over 50 miles long all over New Orleans. One of the stops was at an old cemetery which is still in use. Most of the burials were originally above ground because New Orleans is below sea level, and there are cemetery walls with crypts in them. Our driver said that after a year or two…the tomb is opened, the coffin burned, and the bones pushed back.…then a new coffin is pushed back in the crypt. Other tombs are built high in the air and one coffin is placed on top of another.… I think this was European style, and of course New Orleans was under both French and Spanish rule for many years. The cemeteries are well-kept with family names on them from the late 1700s…Highway I-10 has acres of cemeteries on both sides, but the one we stopped at was St. Louis #? in the French Quarter.

We stopped at Lake Pontchartrain to see it and the causeway…24 miles long. I hear that no land at all is visible when one is in the center of the bridge. Sailboats were all over the lake even though it was very choppy. Many lovely homes on the lakefront behind a levee.

The French Quarter is fascinating and we are going back to really walk all over it. The bus stopped and we went into a couple of patios which one would have never known were there from the street…behind locked grills and only open to the tours. The balconies that have always been pictured are just as interesting and lovely as I thought they would be, and the houses are in wonderful repair. Most of the shops have apartments over and behind them over the patios. The huge Pontalba Apartments around Jackson Square were built by a Spanish lady early in the 1850s…supposedly the first apartments in the U.S. Jackson Square was the original parade ground for the French and Spanish…and is now a lovely park with a statue of Old Hickory on a horse in the center…wonderfully balanced on the hind legs…lots of pigeons, too (wonder how often they have to clean the statue?). The old Spanish government buildings are now museums, and the old calabozo is behind them…"calaboose."

We walked along the waterfront on the crescent of the Mississippi…very hot today, but cool along the river. All in all, a lovely, lovely day.

4/9/76
When I got up this morning I took the thermos of coffee outside with me to watch birds—and play that game of solitaire—while the fellows were still asleep. I saw orioles and listened to them sing…a chameleon jumped from a tree onto the gray fence. It was a very bright green at first but I watched it change to gray, and catch flies.

We went to a big shopping center back on Highway 90 East about 3 miles from here. It was really the largest shopping plaza I have ever been in.…

We found a bank, "The First National Bank of Commerce"…and got a check cashed for our traveler's checks. The lady called our bank, and told us that Mr. Courtright said for us to "hurry home, the sun was shining today"!!

On our bus tour the driver showed us streets with duplex houses—"shotgun houses." They are very narrow with a dividing wall down the center…each room is in a line, and the doors are in line…"one could shoot a shotgun through the front door and hit a chicken in the backyard"…

4/10/76
Today we went on a riverboat ride through the bayous…the Cotton Blossom is smaller than the Natches and the President which can only stay in the harbor. We went down the river which seems "up" because of the crescent of the river…I looked at the map I had with me and it is/was down. Chalmette Battlefield is a park now…where Andrew Jackson (and the pirates under LaFitte) won a battle from the British long after the War of 1812 was officially over…he didn't get the word. There were many ships of all nations waiting in the river to get to the piers…they can stay free out there rather than pay $500–$600 a day while waiting for cargo. Tugs have to take all ships to and from the piers…and three different sets of pilots must be used on the river…one pilot from far out on the Delta to Pilottown to New Orleans, another one from New Orleans to Natchez, and another one from there. The piers were filled with many ships, too. This is a very busy harbor…3rd in the world…Rotterdam #1, NYC #2, and New Orleans #3…so we heard.

After Algiers Point we went through Algiers Lock…the first one I had been through…the river was 7½ feet higher than the canal here. All of New Orleans is behind levees because it is lower than the river…they have canals and more than 30 pumping stations all over the city. We saw lots more pumping stations all over the bayous, too…sending the water out to the Gulf of Mexico. We had to wait for highway bridges and railroad bridges to open for us, too.

The captain told us a story about a man who lived on the bayou whose wife wanted a pair of alligator shoes…he was busy trapping nutria (for Hudson Bay seal coats) and couldn't be bothered. She nagged and nagged until one morning he went out and finally got an alligator…he wrestled him over on his back…"Dang it, this one doesn't have any shoes!!"

Also he said that this part of the country had only had six kinds of poisonous snakes…until Hurricane Betsy when two snake farms were blown away. Now they have pythons, boss, etc. Only hope he was kidding us!

There were lots of small farms and homes on the islands in the bayous. We saw a man tending his trotline…he held up a big catfish that he had caught…supposed to be good like Okeechobee catfish.

On the way back we came through Harvey Canal…filled with industry, too. Mostly for the oil towers. They coat pipe, make special tugs, made Texas towers, engines, repair shops and wharves. It seemed as though something was needed and it came into being.

4/12/76
Yesterday was a lazy day…but today we caught the park bus to go to the French Quarter. We had a wonderful day in and out of shops and old buildings. We ate biscuits and had coffee in the patio of Zachary Taylor's old home…it is now a restaurant. Most of the Quarter is quite dirty because people throw trash on the street…but Bourbon Street is just dirty…adult movies, adult books, massage parlors (beautiful boys, too), topless and bottomless shows. Al Hirt's original place is here and so is Pete Fountain's, but Al Hirt has another one in the old French Market. I'm sure if we were younger, we might enjoy a night in the French Quarter…but it didn't seem quite we wanted to do now. It would mean driving down, hunting for a place to park, etc.…if we took the city bus we hear that gangs of kids wait to snatch purses! Cowards, aren't we?

Dick found a travel agency and got his ticket to California for Thursday…then we walked down Canal Street to the International Trade Mart Building, and went to the Top of the Mart to have a drink…it revolves like the Space Needle but is only a cocktail lounge. When we sat down, the view was over the river, and two drinks later we could see over the French Quarter…and I think it might have taken two more drinks to get back to overlooking the river! So we left and went to find a restaurant to find lunch…the cafeteria in the building isn't very good, but it had to do because we didn't have time to walk back into the Quarter.

4/13/76
Today was another lazy day, but we did go out to dinner at a little Italian place recommended by the lady who wheels and deals the park bus through the traffic (we gave her a "tuit").

4/15/76
Another lazy day yesterday…hot and muggy. We did have barbecued chicken outside, though. This morning we took Dick to the airport. His plane didn't leave until 1:30, but we thought of traffic and getting lost…we had no problems so we got there in 45 minutes! We ate lunch (dinner) in a nice restaurant at the airport…I Had Creole Shrimp Gumbo (good, but very spicy hot)…the guys had fried oysters which they say are smaller and sweeter than those at home.

We watched Dick go through the airport hijack search and waved goodbye. He had been warned that he was to be x-rayed so he left his camera with the girl at the entrance desk before the guards took over.

On the way back we missed Highway 610 which would have taken us across town to rejoin I-10 away from downtown…so we went on I-10 through town! It really wasn't too bad, but it figured that we would get lost again. It was one of those cases where if you were not in an inside lane you were shunted off, and there are no warning signs that this will happen to you…just glad we were not dragging the trailer.

Mail from Seattle this morning…

4/16/76
Started to clean Trailer…

4/17/76
More housecleaning, curtains, walls, ceilings…

We were watching the ball game this afternoon between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds when the bees got into the Giants dugout…amazing!

4/18/76
Finished the Trailer today, even the floors. It does look better…wonder if I should wait so long next time…don't think I will.

Today we had ham, sweet potatoes and applesauce and artichokes for our Easter dinner. The smallest half-ham we could find was over 6 pounds, so you know I'm going to have to take the rest of it apart and freeze it—sliced, chunked, etc. We do plan to have Red Beans and Rice New Orleans Style:

2 c. dried kidney beans
2½ qts water
3 Tbsp. shortening or bacon fat
1 large onion chopped
1 small green pepper chopped
¼ lb. salt pork (or ham bone)
1 pod garlic
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1½ c. uncooked rice
Salt and pepper

Soak beans in water overnight. Melt fat in iron pot and saute onion and green pepper. Add beans and the soaking water, plus enough additional water to make 2½ qts—pork (or ham bone), garlic and bay leaf. Simmer slowly 3–4 hours or until creamy. Season to taste. Add parsley. Serve over hot cooked rice. Serves 6.

1 Tbsp. butter
1 c. tiny shrimp
¼ tsp. chopped garlic
1 Tbsp. parsley chopped
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in saucepan. Add small shrimp. Stir in minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook over medium heat about 10 minutes. Add parsley. Serve with buttered rice. Serves 2.

The papers are huge almost every day here…so far we have found 2 New Orleans papers and like both of them very much.…The Times-Picayune and the Stateman-Item. The daily paper is 10¢ and Sunday is 25¢…competition? I think the Sunday paper is only 15¢, come to think about it.

Traffic is really heavy on Highway 90, and it does go so fast. The police are always stopping someone…but the rest just go on. We cross the highway (on foot or in Truck) only at a traffic light, and hope the…will stop.

We discovered after we were here that a train yard is directly in back of us…not that we would move because we are close to town and this is a nice park. But it has to be heard to believe it…engines must come 80 miles an hour to bump the freights into place. Crash, bang!

4/19/76
This morning we went into town to take the streetcar ride on St. Charles Street. We had a lovely 2 hours on the streetcar and "went to the back of the car." We had gone on St. Charles on our bus tour past Tulane and Loyola and St. Mary's Dominican college, Audobon Park and Zoo, and all the millionaire's homes…lots of big churches, too. Both Harry and I think it must have been 30 or more years since we had even been on a streetcar…I think a cable car in San Francisco was my last time. Exact change was necessary—30¢…the motorman has no money.

We walked all over the Quarter again, and found sidewalk cafes to sit on Royal Street and on Charles Street right across from the sidewalk artists on Jackson Square. Watched one do a portrait of a little boy…exactly like the child in just a short time.

The prices in the Farmers Market are high, so we didn't buy anything there.

We watched the river traffic from the Pavilion until our bus came for us…a big freighter was going up the river empty and fast…the President had to wait for it because it (President) had to cross the river to get to its dock…the ferry across the river made it ahead of the freighter. So glad they know what they are going to do.…

4/20/76
Had a letter from Dick this morning. We knew that there was a weather front over Texas when he left, and wondered what kind of a trip he had…quotes from his letter:

The trip as far as Dallas was fine, scattered clouds and sunshine, but about 10 minutes after we landed all h--- broke loose. Thunder and lightning you wouldn't believe. It put Okeechobee and Kissimmee to shame. It shook the building and made the floors bounce. The storm finally settled down after an hour and a half…no rain falling. We boarded the plane on time…after settling down the pilot said there would be a short delay of 5 or 10 minutes. After about 20 minutes he said we would be delayed 45 minutes on account of the storm to the west. After we sat there for an hour he said everyone would get a free drink because of the delay. We did get the drink and took off one hour and a half late. From Dallas over Arizona was one of the roughest trips I ever had. The rest of the way was fine…but when we landed in Ontario there was a drizzle and the temperature was 38 degrees…and me with no undershirt!

Some of the lawns on St. Charles Street have what they call "monkey grass"…very green, about 3–4 inches high, and never needs to be mowed…Harry liked the idea.

4/21/76
We still have Izzard the Lizard…he comes out from ? to sun himself in the window of the canopy every day…we don't know if he eats the food or not.

We walked to the little market about 3 blocks down the street to get milk and a book for me to read. They had no books or magazines, but pointed to a bookstore across the highway and down a block or so. So we were brave and crossed Highway 90. When we were in the store which had a sign outside "Paperbacks Books Magazines" were we surprised! I told the fellow that I guessed he didn't have my kind of books, "no, ma'am, we sell adult books"…so we left.

We went to the post office later to mail a gift to Bob and Katherine and a letter to Yasir—31¢ to Saudi Arabia…and stopped to buy me a book.

4/22/76
Yesterday there were thunderstorms all around New Orleans…especially to the west…so we delayed our trip to Cajun country until today. We found that Highway 90 is not the way to go through New Orleans…it twists and turns and backtracks…at one point we were on Canal Street with the skyscrapers and never did know how we got there. Once we were finally across Huey P. Long Bridge the country was beautiful…farms of all kinds, lots of sugar cane fields and sugar refineries/mills. There were vegetable gardens all along the bayou that we followed on State 1 (Bayou Lafourche).… Peas and corn were quite high and I saw blossoms on tomatoes! Sweet peas in bloom were growing over 8 feet high on fences.… Spring comes early in the South. The road was lined with shacks that must have been there many years…trees and shrubs and vines all over them…and there were big beautiful old homes set in acres of lawn and trees, and lots of new ranch-style brick homes. There were no rural mailboxes, but some of the tiniest wooden post offices in the small towns were open for business. the names over the business places were all French, but the signs were in English (not like in Quebec!). We were really in the country again.

After we reached Donaldsonville we went across the Sunshine Bridge (60¢ toll) in order to get to the side of the river we wanted to be on to get back to Chef Menteur…yes, we did have a city map and a state map with us! We followed the River Road (State 44) which follows every twist and turn of the river…we never did see the river after we crossed the toll bridge because of the high levee.

We were ready to have lunch but could not find a restaurant…just bars and lounges. The whole area which was once all plantations is now industry…oil refineries, sugar refineries, chemical plants, and other huge plants. There were no names on them, except for one sugar mill—Gaudreaux and Henderson, and a Dupont chemical plant. We could only guess what they were. The plants were on acres of ground on the left side of the highway going toward New Orleans and really quite close together…shacks and nice houses in between them! All kinds of pipes and shutes were over the highway…it must have been to send the oil, sugar, what-have-you over the levee and down to the river either directly to barges, ships, or to storage. We could not see over the levee, which must have been at least 15 feet above the highway. Friends we met here in the park had taken the 5-day trip to Natchez on the Delta Queen…no doubt they could have told us how and what was at the side of the river, but they have been gone for days.

We drove for 157 miles…and it was a lovely day.

4/23/76
We ran into lovebugs on our trip yesterday…we had heard about them…our windshield and the front of Truck was a mess. Lovebugs are a strange fly…but there always seem to be two of them together! Lovebugs!

We took Truck to be serviced for the 20,000-mile check today…used Mastercharge so we wouldn't use so many traveler's checks. We took the bus to a shopping center 5 miles down Highway 90 where we spent 4 hours…and not much money. We did watch a gang steal a radio from Walgreen Drugstore while we were eating our lunch, and reported them. They were so obvious about it that we couldn't believe that the clerks were not watching! We couldn't do anything about it until they ran out of the store with the radio under an extra shirt…and they were not caught. The security guard told Harry that the kids are never in school…blacks.

I have been feeding a cat here who looks like D.C.…she finally brought her three kittens to eat, too. I even bought cat food for her, and I do wish you could hear Harry talk nicely to her…he thinks the kittens are cute, too. When we leave who will feed her? She must be a lovely beggar because her kittens are very healthy.

Every time we went past the New Orleans Airport we saw the taxis lined up outside on Highway 61…they are redoing the airport, but what a crazy way to find a taxi into town.…

4/25/76
Today is Daylight Time. We drove into Gulfport, Mississippi, with our nice neighbors from Royal Oak, Michigan…Mike and Zada James who have asked us to come visit them! Harry especially liked the drive because Mike drove…and he could see the Rigoulets (the pass). I asked why "Rigoulets" and no one knows.…

4/26/76
Today we went to Gulfport again with Mike and Zada to go to Marine Land. It was closed because of difficulty with the water system, so we took the boat to Ship Island…one of the Gulf Islands. Twelve miles out only to find that Fort Massachusetts was closed because of repairs. Mike said that it just wasn't his day, but we loved the whole trip. The channel is extremely well marked for the banana boats which come into Gulfport…we saw many big trucks lined up by the dock to load bananas which may be going to Washington! On the way back a man gave me shells…guess he saw me give the one I had found to Zada…I waded into the Gulf all by myself to get them. Found that one must keep moving out in the Gulf at Ship Island because the sand washes out under your feet. On the way back we had a wonderful time with the terns who followed the boat…they loved the potato chips that we fed them…they could fish them out of the churned-up water. Found that the shells the man (part of the crew) gave me were moving across the floor at the trailer…Harry said "Hey, look!" and a shell was moving…it had a live crab in it. The other two shells we found under the bed, so we took them all outside… We took Mike and Zada to dinner in Gulfport as a "thank you"…

4/27/76
Three weeks of New Orleans was more than enough. Today we got gasoline and have Trailer ready to go tomorrow. The Freedom Train is to arrive here before too long…we wonder if they are better organized now than when they were in Seattle?

4/28/76
Today we drove all of 220 miles through lovely country on the back highways to Traceway Campground not far from Natchez…loved it all because it is country.

4/29/76
Naturally our first stop in town was the Chamber of Commerce to get a map and all the goodies…we took part of the walking tour of the city. Natchez-under-the-Hill is only one block of old buildings now…several years ago the River washed out 4 or 5 blocks of it. I read that the U.S. Corps of Engineers changed the course of the river! The view of the river and the bridge to Louisiana is fabulous…we were on the bluff where Natchez-on-the-Bluff is. Louisiana is river level, and the bluff is high. There are many stories about Natchez-under-the-Hill which was like Barbary Coast…the nice people lived on the bluff. On the way down to the river we saw a baby armadillo at the side of the road…quite pink. It was very busy finding something and did not seem a bit afraid. I found it again on the way back up the hill.

We still see lots of magnolias, and now oleanders are in bloom. Tonight it rained and rained…we are under trees so we got extra rain now and then.

4/30/76
We called home tonight and talked to Ed and Sue.… It finally stopped raining this evening, so we took a long walk on the trails here in the park. The roads were so muddy that our shoes were twice their size…had to stop every so often to scrape it off. We saw fireflies in the trees.

Washington was the first territorial capitol…moved after about 10 years to Jackson.

5/1/76
Today we went on a tour of Stanton Hill—really a palace. Frederick Stanton who built it made his $ from cotton before the Civil War. He had come from Belfast to Natchez and had 5 cotton plantations across the river in Louisiana. The "house" was over three years in building, and Stanton chartered a ship to bring marble, carved door frames, chandeliers, etc., etc., from France and Italy. The doors are 3 inches thick, and the hinges and locks are of Sheffield silver, and are still in perfect balance. The inside walls are 18 inches thick—brick with a hollow in the center for insulation. The ceilings are 18 feet and the doors are 10 feet. The rooms and furnishings are all wonderful. When they moved into the house in 1858 they had 19 servants!…the center main hall is 14 feet by 70 feet…four enormous rooms downstairs, and six huge bedrooms off a big hall upstairs. They needed 19 slaves.…

Today I finally got a ripe mango, and it is good.

5/2/76
We decided to go on a picnic on the Natchez Trace today. The entrance is only a hundred feet or so from our park.…The U.S. Park Service has built a wonderful parkway over most of it, and plan to finish it someday. We stopped at Emerald Mound where the early sun-worshipping Indians built a temple…starting with a hill they moved and carried dirt until they made like so [here Mary drew a small mesa plateau atop a larger plateau] about 70 feet high…700 feet long, and 400 feet wide.

Another stop was at Mt. Locust where they have a living history tavern…the people there do as they would do living there in the late 1700s or early 1800s—a blacksmith in colonial dress making nails, making soap, and the lady in costume offered to let us spend the night…on a bearskin on the floor, or in a bed ("no more than three to a bed"). She had a quilt in a frame she was working on.

Rocky Springs is a lovely park where we walked about 2 miles over part of the Old Trace…a very narrow shaded forest lane. One had visions of Daniel Boone and Indians. We DROVE over part of the Trace, too, in another section of the park. There is a campground at Rocky Springs, as well as picnic grounds, but we like the park where we are. But we had a very good day, and lovely weather…not humid here, t.g.

Would you believe that we have now been in 27 states and 5 provinces?

5/3/76
To the bank today. We tried to go at 1:00 so we would know that Mr. Cortright would be in the bank in Chehalis at 11:00, but guess what? the banks here in Natchez close at 1 until 2:30 for lunch just the way they did in Homestead. So we went shopping to buy a new rug for Trailer. I am looking for fine crochet thread, too…can only find bedspread cotton which is not what I need for handkerchiefs. One man told me, "Sorry, I cain't hep you, honey…but y'all come back y'hear."…it was wonderful. I managed to keep a straight face until we were out of the store when I looked at Harry and quoted.…

The man at the bank was wonderful (as usual)…Mr. Courtright was out to lunch, but a Vera in Chehalis okayed us, and told us to "have a good time!" They must be waiting for our calls each month by now.

5/4/76
Today we watched six of the Civil Rights Marchers go by here (Highway 61N) on their way to Washington, D.C.…drums, turbans, and placards. They started from New Orleans several weeks ago (with lots more people and there are cars to move them along, too). It seems that they want FREE food stamps, and one of them is objecting to the bombing of Hiroshima. Dumb, and why aren't they working? Who pays for the gas?

It has just dawned on me that Fayette, Mississippi (a town where we reentered the Trace Parkway), is where the first black mayor in the South—maybe in the U.S.—was elected several years ago…Charles Evers, the brother of Medger who was killed during the 60s Civil Rights upset down here.…Allan was down here then! Remember?

Anyway, Fayette is a rather pretty little town with the most fascinating old courthouse…don't know how big it is, but we saw only black faces on the street last Sunday.

We have found out why the tree is called Live Oak. We were told that they always have leaves…the old ones drop only when replaced. And we did see a sign for the EAST BANK OF THE MISSISSIPPI…always thought it was a joke! And at Stanton Hall we saw another petticoat mirror…one stands in front of a table with a mirror under it, and someone across the room tells you if the petticoats are okay. We had seen one at Gautier Plantation earlier and forgot to mention it…no doubt lots of things we have forgotten?!? We have mailed copies of Journal to Dick, Aunt Ann, Aunt Jean, and the Dicks family for the time that Dick was with us…he said he would like a copy and no way was I going to not make carbons even if it was day by day, rather than a composition of sorts…that I tried for Quebec and the Amish country when I shared.

Our new neighbors are from Pennsylvania, and she has given me the most wonderful idea for a flag of the states. Mine will be different from hers, but I am grateful for the idea…so now I have another project! They told us more about that occupation tax in Lancaster…remember the newspaper clipping I sent from there? It seems that most of Pennsylvania has this tax…and that Pat pays $15 a year as a HOUSEWIFE!! She said she was glad they had not assessed her as a piano teacher! that would have been much more. Just hope that Washington never thinks of the idea.…

I bought matches in Natchez…it does rhyme.

5/5/76
There was an ad in the Sunday paper for me…a sale on pants suits—jacket, top, and 2 pair of pants—so we went to Sears and they had my size. The pants were much too long, and I got what I paid for because the legs were not the same length! I'm still struggling to shorten them…never happened to me before. We are looking for a leisure suit for Harry…and having problems because it is either "dry clean" or they never have his size in both the coat and pants. We will find.…

5/7/76
Today was a "stay-at-home" day…we had a tornado watch for 6 hours. We only had thunderstorms and lots of rain, t.g. I wish I knew what to do for tornadoes besides Watch! We do stay off the road, and hope…what else?

We have walked in this park after a rain and came back with shoes that must have weighed 20 pounds…mud all over them. Mississippi Mud…it clings to your feet.

Yesterday we went over the bridge to Louisiana…hot and humid there because it was so much lower…hard to believe that Mississippi is that much higher.…

We had mail from Massachusetts on 5/5 that had been mailed 5/3…and would you believe that the mail from Seattle was not in until 5/6. The mail service is wonderful…but we always allow several days to be sure. Like here we have told everyone that May 10 is it and we will still ask n May 12…so far we have missed no mail, we hope. Anyway, it will be returned to the sender from General Delivery. Tomorrow we go to Vicksburg.…

5/9/76
We took the minibus tour of Vicksburg Battlefield…that way Harry could enjoy the tour because he did not have to drive the whole 2 hours and the 16 miles. the siege at Vicksburg lasted 47 days…General Pemberton surrendered the city on July 4, 1863. This gave control of the Mississippi to the Union forces, and Grant had a decisive victory. I must have read that the occupants of the city lived in caves during the shelling…we saw mockups of them, complete with rocking chairs, etc. The tour was very nice, and our little girl driver was from Connecticut…very informative, and seemed to be developing a Southern accent. She said that the Mississippi River changed its course about 100 years ago, which left Vicksburg high and dry…no longer on the river. Finally the Army Engineers made a diversion canal to bring the Yazoo River into the old Mississippi River bed…and Vicksburg was once again a port. The National Cemetery at Vicksburg has only Union veterans buried there…it figures that the Confederates would be buried in a cemetery in town. Of the over 17,000 dead in the cemetery at the Park, only 4,000 have been identified! Sad, isn't it? Many of the states, both North and South, have huge memorials to their dead.… Alabama and Georgia were late with theirs…in the 1950s! Money? Resentment?

Near Port Gibson…a quote from the entrance sign of the city "the town that General Grant said was too beautiful to burn"…we saw vines much like our morning glory all along the roadside like a carpet over the trees and shrubs. When I asked about it (it is lovely!) it seems that it had been planted as a deterrent to erosion back in the 30s…and it is now a real pest all over the Southern states because it spreads like morning glory, too! It is killing the trees which are really better at controlling erosion…"they" really thought ahead, huh? We see it everywhere, but it was so fascinating near Port Gibson that we stopped to take pictures. I think we heard "kudzu" (an import from the Orient) but I cannot find it in my dictionary, and neither could my neighbor in hers. Someday I may find out what it really is?

We drove over Vicksburg trying to find a restaurant open to have a Mother's Day dinner, and did the same in Port Gibson…saw two very nice towns with very old houses, but no restaurants open (except for fast food ones). There is an old pre–Civil War Presbyterian Church in Port Gibson where the tall steeple has a hand with an extended forefinger…pointing way to Heaven? And Vicksburg is named for a Reverend Vick who bought the land in the 1790s for $2 an acre.…

Anyway, we went all the way back to Natchez to find a place to eat because we decided that Fayette was a no-no…90% or more blacks there. (And we have found out that Fayette and Fayetteville are named for the Marquis de Lafayette which I had never thought of)… Naturally the Carriage House next to Stanton Hall was closed on Sunday, and we turned the wrong way to get to the Sidetrack Restaurant on the Bluff…we ate a very nice dinner at the Bonanza Sirloin Pit where Harry had a T-bone, and I had a strip steak. We were due for steak dinner anyway…but I had wanted a Mint Julep from the Carriage House. They are supposed to be famous for them. Before we leave the South or in Kentucky I will have a Mint Julep…and maybe even Bourbon and Branch Water.

It was a lovely Mother's Day.…

I don't know if I mentioned that when we were in Charleston, South Carolina, that there was soon to be a city ordinance that all the carriage tour horses would have to wear diapers…and that the city fathers had rescinded the order because of ridicule? We saw the horses wearing diapers when we were in New Orleans…a leather arrangement. In New Orleans the horses all wear Easter bonnets with flowers and feathers, and we even saw one with sunglasses…we always looked for him.

5/10/76
Today it really stormed…thunder and lightning. So glad we are not on the road. We taught the neighbors to play Kings in the Corner…Shut up and Deal. They had been playing a much simpler game called Spit…and liked our new game. They are fulltime trailerites from Washington's Crossing, Pennsylvania.

5/11/76
We discovered that Izzard the Lizard was dead today…he just couldn't stand the cold weather, I guess…but then it hasn't been all that cold.

The new sparkplugs and the engine tuneup have improved our gas mileage on Truck…without Trailer we have nearly 15 miles per gallon. Amazing!

5/12/76
A lovely day today all the way across Mississippi…all 316 miles of it from Natchez. We were on U.S. 84 with rolling hills and curvey narrow road with hardly any traffic…that we like…"shunpike." There are many new ranch-style houses, and some old plantation-style homes along the road, and the shacks would have to be seen to be believed! Really cobbled together…with tin roofs, and more junk on the porches (old stoves, refrigerators, papers, clothes,etc.), and lots of little children playing there. Most of the ones we saw were black…sharecroppers, welfare? There were nice cars and trucks in the yards, and no matter what time of the day people were resting in swings, rockers, and chairs on the porches. There must be jobs for them… New Orleans had city bus drivers, policemen, streetcar conductors, salespeople…all black. I don't think we saw a white face on any of those jobs. Here in Mississippi and Alabama the school bus drives all seem to be black, and most of the children are black on the buses and in the school yards. But then there are so many private academies down here, too.…

We saw a flock of geese heading north today.…

We forgot to check the auxiliary tank of gas and ran out…one of these days we may be on the freeway when we forget!?!

5/13/76
We spent the night at a very nice state park at Camden not far inside Alabama. This morning I went to get grapefruit from the back of Truck and left it open…and wrens immediately started to build a next in back of the spare tire. We hated to disturb them because they were working so hard…but when we washed the lovebugs off the windshield they stopped working, and gave up.

Yesterday we drove 316 miles…entirely too much. But there are not many places to stay on this highway…State 10…but it is a nice road. We see signs for churches…most of them Baptist…Primitive, Missionary, First, Second, etc.…Southern Baptist, no doubt. The road is always being moved, but the dark purple clover, and the brown-eyed Susans, and another flower like a cosmos come right back. Bob Whites keep whistling at us, and the meadowlarks seem to be saying "y'all come back"…I do wish we had one of those pecan orchards that are around many of the houses…enormous shade trees.

5/14/76
We had planned to leave this morning, but thunderstorms hit us, so we paid here at this KOA in Eufala, Alabama, until Sunday when we hope the weather will break. Yesterday we drove 185 miles, and are now across Mississippi and Alabama. When we do leave Eufala, we will cross the Chattahoochee River and be in Georgia again, and on Eastern Time again.

5/15/76
The rain comes down here as if someone were turning a faucet on and off…and the thunder sounds like people were playing in the attic! Bowling?

I transplanted my three very healthy tomato plants today. They became healthy plants after I managed to find some plant food in Pass Christian…and finally they outgrew the Cool Whip bowl…very rootbound. Anyway, they now have stakes, and are in a 2-pound coffee can…there are no 3-pound coffee cans for sale here. One lady who is on the way home from Florida to Wisconsin had Window Boxes of Petunias, Shrimp Plants (they are beautiful), tomatoes (which were ripe!), peppers, and lots of other flower pots. She must have a very patient husband to load and unload them. My three little pots fit into one side of the sink…wonder where she puts all of hers? If my tomatoes ever bloom, I will be sure to say so. The Natchez paper had the picture of the man with his First Ripe Tomato on May 9.…

Fishing licenses here in Alabama cost 15¢ for those over 65, and they last forever. And we hear that they are free in Georgia.… Whatever the age nonresident fishing licenses in Alabama are only $5 a year…Washington take note!

The nice neighbors from Tallahassee had shrimp pancakes for breakfast this morning, and they gave us some of them for lunch…good! They would seem better for lunch or supper.

5/16/76
Our stay in Andersonville was fascinating…now when I reread MacKinlay Kantor I will really know the country. Our book had a campground listed at Oglethorpe just north of Andersonville, and after we finally found it (had to ask to turn around in a black family's yard who were very pleasant about it) the park was closed! It was one that Georgia closed for economy…and there are no other parks of any kind within 40 miles of Andersonville! So we went back hoping to see what we could with Trailer…parked across the highway from the Visitor's Center at a roadside park, and found that no one would care if we stayed overnight. So we unhitched and went all through the Prison area and the Cemetery…they are beautiful now. There are still the wells and tunnels that were dug, and the Stockade and the Deadline are marked. The town of Andersonville is a nice little place that is trying to make a comeback as an historic place…they do have a bauxite industry there, now. In the center of the main street near what was once the railroad station (and is now the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Center, and museum) is an enormous monument erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of Captain Henry Wirz. The glowing tribute on the side says in part "he only did his duty"…"refused to incriminate President Jefferson Davis"…"etc., etc.…" The South is still fighting the War Between The States in many of the small towns…and New Orleans has an enormous monument at the edge of the French Quarter near the river erected to "those who fought for White Supremacy"…it had been splashed with black paint! The Andersonville Museum is small but quite interesting.

We came back to Trailer, and Harry plugged in TV and looked at the TV guide…me, I plugged in the radio. Then we looked at each other and collapsed…we had no electricity at that side of the road camp! We always unplug the TV because it is an instant on…and we have so many sudden thunderstorms down here.

5/17/76
Drove 188 miles today on mostly country highways until we were almost to Atlanta. There we found lots of traffic for the first time since New Orleans, so we took the belt route around the city…it was busy, busy. We listen to the rush hour traffic reports, so you can believe that we are glad we were there around noon. We are now at a very nice park on Lake Allatoona near Cartersville.

The people who own the park said we were the first they had ever had from the state of Washington…the wife was especially glad to see us because she is from Grants Pass, Oregon, and is lonesome here. We said that all the Southerners we had met had been so friendly…but she said it seemed different when transients went through than if one moved into the neighborhood? There is a very nice 6-foot-5-inch 21-year-old boy working here who is from Seattle…he has been being a gypsy on a motorcycle for over a year. When he said he was going back to Seattle soon we gave him your [Christine's?] telephone number so he could call to say that he had seen us since y'all have. His name is Dave Puki…think it is pronounced "Pooka"? He is tickled with his round tuit.…

5/18/76
The weather report last night was very wrong…it was not a nice sunny day at all this morning. We had rain and wind, so we are staying here at least one more night.

We were in Jimmy Carter country when we were in Andersonville.… Plains is near Americus a bit to the west. We didn't see his peanut farm, but did see lots of others, even some that had grown quite tall. the acres and acres of corn all must have been 3 feet or more tall, too. In Dawson where we found the highway to Americus we saw this huge plant/factory which bragged that they were the largest peanut factory/plant? in the world…and we smelled the peanuts all through town.

5/19/76
A beautiful day so we drove the last 220 miles to the Great Smokies…even if we had not planned to stay in one place over Memorial Day we would have to…gas is ruining budget! It has been over 1050 miles since we left Natchez.…

The small town of Chatsworth, Georgia, has lots of industry…mostly carpets, or yarn for carpets, and we recognized none of the names of the mills. the town on the Tennessee line is called Tennga.…

Most of the rivers in the South (including the Mississippi) are so very muddy…look like coffee with cream, but here in the mountains we are seeing green water again…and today we even saw some creeks that were "branches." State 73 from Maryville followed the Little River, and I mean it really followed it through the gorge. The road is very narrow and sharp turns…one after the other. In places the turns were marked with "overhanging rock 8'6", and our height is 8'4"! The road is closed at night…and I'm sure that many motor homes and campers cannot use that road…at all. The chipmunk on Trailer is named Alvin…and I'm sure that he was really dizzy by the time we finally left the river. There are places to camp in the park, but they have no hookups so we came to Pigeon Forge where we have a lovely spot for the next 2 weeks. Our Trailer Life Camping Guide has been a wonderful help to us.…

We waited until 9 to call Seattle because we are on Eastern Time again…by the time we talked to Chris and Jennie it was nearly 10 here, and getting cold outside. Mail will be on the way, and it was good to talk to them.

5/20/76
No wonder it was cold last night…down to about 40…and I'm glad that I protected my plants. We have discovered that our overhead light switch has broken so we have no electricity right now…the owner here is getting us another one in town "I can get it for you wholesale"…I'm cooking beans outside in Cooker.

5/21-5/23/76
The overhead light in Trailer is fixed, but will only take small lamps like appliance bulbs…a total of 80 watts instead of 120…so I'm using a side light that Harry and Dick installed when we were at Homestead.

I have a bouquet of honeysuckle and daisies that I picked on the way back from fishing. I slipped on the muddy bank and just sat there with my feet in the water…I was already very muddy so why worry about it. Didn't catch any fish, either. We like the sound that whippoorwills make…had never heard them before.

Karl (the owner) brought us some duck eggs…so I scrambled them for breakfast.

Gatlinburg is like a combination of Laguna Beach, California, Woodstock, N.Y., and Stateline, Nevada, at Lake Tahoe…really a tourist trap…all kinds of craft shops, gift shops, things to do all over the place. We are glad that we are not staying there. We are just out of Pigeon Forge, but the mailing address is Sevierville (pronounced Severe-ville).

We have been thinking about where we were on the holidays this past year.…
July 4…in the mountains out of Denver
Labor Day…Penobscot Bay, Maine
Halloween…Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Thanksgiving…Gulfport, Florida
Christmas…Fort Myers, Florida
New Year's…Fort Myers, Florida
Valentine's Day…Homestead, Florida
St. Patrick's Day…Gulfport, Florida
Easter…New Orleans, Louisiana
Memorial Day…Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
and July 4, 1976, we will be in Blackstone, Massachusetts!

5/24/76
Today we took a picnic lunch and drove over the mountains to the Cherokee Indian Reservation…the town of Cherokee is a tourist trap, too, but the drive was really lovely (glad we didn't have Trailer with us!) There were 20-mile curves, and loop signs like [loop sign] and other signs like [hairpin signs]. There is a loop like that in the Canadian Rockies for the train where we saw the end of the train going into the tunnel and saw the engine far above it. We had a nice day.

The mail came today.…

5/25/76
The tires on Truck were wearing funny again…so we had the tires switched again and got the wheels balanced and aligned again…it had been done in New Orleans, but never before did anyone take the weight of the trailer into account…the man at the lineup shop said this should be done…so now maybe the tires will wear the way they should…we hope.

I walked into a beauty shop in Sevierville this noon, and got my hair cut right away…it was really necessary this time.

When we got gas today
17,908 miles
$894.46
1637.1 gallons
10.94 miles per gallon
54.6 plus per gallon!!

I have been reading Peg Bracken's I Didn't Come Here to Argue, and like her new punctuation…Interrobang [a blend of a question mark with an explanation mark] it really adds emphasis, doesn't it? and the Levitation Mark [something like "@@"] "which indicates that the thing is still somewhat up in the air, or This doesn't exactly say what I meant to say, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances." That one I should use often!

She also says that she thinks "One day a year we should have an egg hunt in the morning, firecrackers with a turkey lunch, and a Christmas present all around before bedtime"…

The traffic helicopter in Knoxville speaks of Malfunction Junction so we asked Karl…it is the junction of I-40 and I-75 in downtown Knoxville!…they do not have a belt around the town yet, and things really get involved during rush hour.

This is the first time we have seen the word Prong used for Fork of a river…like the Middle Prong of the Pigeon River.…

5/26/76
Today we drove down Wears Valley Road to Townsend and then to Cade's Cove. There is an 11-mile one-way road around this lovely mountain valley where there are over 100 families living when the Park was established. They still allow some of the original families to farm there (special permits) in order to keep it from growing over with brush and trees. The farm cabins and barns have been restored and are open to the public…living history with families living and working there. We saw a place like this at the park entrance in North Carolina, too.

5/26/76
We bought some Georgia peaches…very small, but good. I managed to drop 4 duck eggs on the floor! They are ready to scramble.…

5/28/76
We told Eddie, the handyman here, that he should start a worm farm…nightcrawlers are $1 a dozen…we bought some so we could fish over the holidays…so far only one fish in the freezer. At least we haven't had to pay for a fishing license.

When we were at Cade's Cove on the 26th there was one old farm with many beehives…and the bees were swarming along the road. You can believe that our Truck windows went up in a hurry, but there was a man with no bee protection waiting patiently to get the queen…no fear of them at all.

And when we were across the mountain at the Ocanaluftee Visitor Center we saw a still…and saw the recipe for moonshine…
Recipe for Corn Liquor:
1 80-gal. still
1 60-gal. barrel
4 bu. corn, not too fine
½ bu. rye, ground coarse
½ bu. sprouted corn, dried and ground
Mix together, scald, and pat like dough. Let stand 24 hours. Then put in barrel, and fill with water. Let it work 8–10 days, or until the cap falls off. Makes 2 gal. to the bushel.

5/29/76
Yesterday we ran out of one tank of propane. We went into Gatlinburg to get it filled today (always we want to have one full tank). The traffic was really thick in Gatlinburg, wall-to-wall people, and even traffic cops. Harry bought himself a boomerang, but still no one has found out how to throw it.…

5/30-6/3/76
Karl (the owner) gave us some shad roe, and told us how to cook it with scrambled eggs…now to tell him that we didn't care for it! Supposed to be a great delicacy…but…Karl also gave us some frozen fish…felt sorry for us because we don't seem to catch very many?

The Freedom Train is to arrive in Knoxville on June 4…TV says they have had to change the engine to a smaller one here in the East because of the tunnels and bridges…smaller.

There have been thunderstorms almost every afternoon and night, but mornings are nice. We found one nice morning to take our bed outside and reverse all the foam cushions…now Bed looks and feels better…but it was really a job.

We have explored 73E to Cosby…we had forgotten to take our map so didn't know that we could have gone around to Sevierville from there, but now we know. Just glad that we did all our real exploring while we had good weather.

6/4/76
There are now 12 calendar pages on our wall…366 days because of Leap Year.

Had a call today from Pat and Barry Taylor (the kids from Virginia that we had met in the mountains last summer out of Denver). We had written them telling them where we were over Memorial Day with the hope that they might come down from Front Royal. But they had just got the card…now they live out of Richmond on Chesapeake Bay, and asked us to come see them. After thinking it over we called back to tell them that we would take a rain check, and they will come see us this next weekend in Breaks Interstate Park on the Kentucky-Virginia line…we are going to visit the mountains of western Virginia, where Harry's family came from.

We have never cared much for Danny Thomas, but his new show "The Practice" is lots of fun…no doubt the "kiss of death" if we like it, and it will go off the air!

The carpets of vines by Port Gibson were KUDZU…and I quote from the book Ode to Billy Joe:

Up a hill and through the wretched kudzu vines that covered everything, as in an Alice in Wonderland nightmare. It made the sun a thing of the past. The kudzu grew so thick and so quickly that some people claimed that it could be heard doing it. People also said that if a car was doing less than 10 miles an hour, the kudzu would drag it off the road…and that if anyone going through it ever stopped to say his name, the kudzu would grow down his throat and rip out his heart. The kudzu was to be avoided wherever possible. But that wasn't one of those times.

She moved in and out of the rich green tendrils, careful where she put each foot down because the kudzu could grow straight across the open hole and, in so doing, hide pits that could snare a leopard. Her swift actions caused the vines to undulate, and they brushed her as she sped by, whispering at her in Chinese, because that's where they originally came from, brought over to Mississippi for some purpose that long ago lost its significance.…

6/7/76
When we went shopping the other day we bought chicken. The prices were: Whole fryers 59¢ Cutup Fryers 65¢ Drumsticks 65¢ Thighs 67¢ Breasts 69¢ and Whole legs 59¢—guess what I bought to bring home to cut apart for myself! I really didn't understand the pricing!

We had 2 days of nothing but talking to the neighbors, and the owners, and fishing with no luck…finally gave our $1 a dozen worms to Eddie. Today we took off again and drove 234 miles through Tennessee and Virginia. As the crow flies, it was much, much less, but we had all kinds of mountains to go through. There were many fields of tobacco…the plants are transplanted much like cabbage plants. We were told that tobacco is a cash crop for many people…the fields are quite small, so there must be a good price for the tobacco.

@@ We must read again about the state of Franklin that almost became one of the United States. I am sure that this part of Kentucky and Tennessee and Virginia is where Franklin was supposed to be, and that Sevierville was one of the important places? Governor John Sevier? We did go by the birthplace of Davy Crockett and Andrew Johnson (the one who was impeached after Lincoln was killed) in Greenville, Tennessee, and we saw many historical markers for Daniel Boone…with Trailer we couldn't find a place to stop and read them! The highway from Big Stone Gap to Pound, Virginia, is called The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, and the road from Clintwood to Chinchco to Haysi (pronounced Hay-Sigh) to the Breaks is called Cumberland Scenic Trail. We do think we are in the Cumberland Mountains. Clinchco is the town where we took one of Harry's Kennedy cousins in 1950—Jim? We remember going on what we thought was called "Kennedy Ridge," but now find that it is Caney Ridge where Aunt Lou and Uncle Will lived…and that there are still many Kennedys there. We have left messages for cousins in Wise and in Clintwood.…

6/8/76
We explored in Grundy and went to the courthouse where we found some Ashbrook names, but none that were familiar…wrong county. We did find that Grundy is the county seat of Buchanan County (pronounced Buck-an-un!).

On the way back to Breaks we took the other highway from Grundy…all s-curves up and down the mountains. Coal trucks are everywhere on the roads and in the towns on the narrow main streets…even more so than our logging roads. Most of them have names…Mattahorne…Walking Tall No. 2…U.S. Male…Little Beaver…Pink Panther. The full ones really go slow on the roads, but the "lightning road" drivers pass anywhere at all. We can't understand how they can go so fast with all the deep chuckholes in the road…we just find a place to pull off and let them go by. One stretch of the road s-curved its way to the top of a mountain where there was one house (that we could see) and then s-curved its way down again.

There are many small family cemeteries everywhere…there is even one her in the Park…on the side hills or on the top/tip of the hills. We talked to a lady from Ohio who had come from the town of Wise originally…she said that she had seen a mausoleum at High Knob with the birthdates of the husband and wife…and it was waiting for them in their front yard! Must plan to keep the place in the family because how could it ever be sold? This lady—Naomi Olinger—was more like Chris than anyone we have ever met…hair, haircut, freckles, size, voice, actions…only the accent was different.

The gardens are on side hills, too…and we hope to get pictures of them, as well as pictures of houses in the "hollers." Many of the houses are below the roads, and strung along deep valleys with dirt roads leading to them. We do wonder how they ever managed to get mobile homes down some of the roads…and what about snow and rain on roads like / or \. Most of the gardens have scarecrows. Just hope that we will find a parking place to get the pictures we want, because there are no postcards of them.

We are much more impressed by the mountains here than in the Great Smokies…higher peaks, deeper valleys, and fewer people. No doubt one day these mountains will be overloaded with tourists, but now it is just "mountain" and very nice. We have bought a book called A Dictionary for Yankees and Other Uneducated Folks which has the pronunciation and definition of lots of words…that was for the Smokies, wonder if the words are different in the hills of Virginia?

6/9/76
Allan is 34 today. In Wise (the county seat of Wise County) we did find lots of records that dated back to 1856 when the county was established…and we found lots of the right names…Ashbrook, Damron, Greer, Jessee. Finally found the marriage records of James Ashbrook and Maxie Damron, too. The birth records were all mixed up…the early ones had just been located. From the marriage record we found that Pop Ashbrook was born in Russell County (not in Wise County, as we had all thought), but we don't have time to go there. Harry's grandparents were Billie and Nauncie (???) Ashbrook.

Clintwood is the county seat of Dickinson County, but their very early records had been lost or burned. However, we did meet a very nice old gentleman who had known Uncle Gel (Magellan) and Uncle Soto (DeSoto) and Aunt Lou…he also knew James Damron, Harry's grandfather…grandmother's name was Martha.

6/10-6/11/76
We explored all of the Park, and had lunch at the lodge on Friday. Yesterday we went to Haysi to do our shopping for the weekend…what a road! But we discovered that the one that goes to Breaks and on into Kentucky isn't much better. When we went to Wise we took the Kentucky side of the river to go to Pound and on down to Wise…it took hours so we decided not to do that again. Of course, when we leave here Monday we will go on into Kentucky and Ohio.

My third pair of moccasins have worn out! Guess I'll have to buy another pair.

We had no chance to stop to take pictures…always a coal truck and other pickups behind us!

6/12/76
We were alone in this part of the park until last night when the weekend people come in…now have lots of neighbors. Harry is busy making a slingshot for one boy now…and we may go fishing later on today. No fishing license is required here in the park.…

6/13/76
Pat and Barry Taylor came yesterday afternoon bringing fish from Chesapeake Bay where they live now…over 400 miles away. They brought crab, too, that they had caught in their own crab pots. We did have a great reunion…and even wrote to Stage Stop in Colorado "wish you were here." Pat said that one of the daughters from there (Sandy) is coming to visit them later this month. A big truck filed with people and hay went through our section of the park several times last night…people from the motel? We stayed up very late catching up with all that the kids have been doing…of course, we had lots to talk about, too.

Barry is now an occupational therapist at a retarded hospital in Virginia, and he likes the idea of Baker's Clay and the net hats for his sheltered workshop people. So I gave him the recipe for the clay…and helped Pat make the hat pattern (she wants one, too). I told him about the flat rock we had seen, too (when I find the right kind of a rock I'm going to make one!) The rock should be quite smooth, flat, and about 8"–10" long and 4"–5" wide. "Please turn me over" is painted on the top. Of course, you can't resist, and the other side says "Thank you"…with a Smilie.

Today after breakfast we went all through the park again because the kids said they had never been here…in fact had never heard of it before we mentioned it…and they wondered why we would stay in a park just off an interstate highway!

We had Poor Boy Steak and crab salad for dinner, and then the kids left us before dark to drive a part of the way tonight. They sleep in the back of their truck, and said that when they got tired they would stop for a while. We do hope to see them again.…

My tomato plants have a couple of blossoms on them!!

The birds all stay in the trees here…never any on the ground. We heard the bird calls of the birds in the park at the Information Center…they said that the scarlet tanager lives in the tree tops, and sounds rather like a robin with a cold.…

6/14/76
We decided to stay another day here, even though there isn't much to do.

6/15/76
Today we drove 275 miles…four states—Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio…of course, we started on the Kentucky-Virginia border, and just did go in and out of West Virginia in order to get across the Ohio river…onto State Route 7, which follows the river. We are at last out of the real mountains…farms, cows, silos, and very few coal trucks! The Ohio River is very wide, and not muddy like the Mississippi…lots of power plants along it, too…most of them we saw names on were for the Ohio Power Company.

Ohio has a lottery…and we each bought an Instant ticket for $1…we didn't win. We are now in a nice county park in Marietta. Did General Grant come from Marietta or Gallipolis? or neither? Gallipolis means "City of the Gauls"…it was an old French settlement on the Ohio.

We saw 3-pound cans of coffee today in the store for the first time in months…none in the South…price $5.59. And we saw Big, old houses again for the first time in a long time…they didn't seem to be any in the mountains…there it seemed mostly "company houses" for the mines.

Today at a rest area we got a drink of water from a pump…no faucets there.

6/16/76
Marietta is filled with old, Victorian-style 3-story houses…a lovely town. [Handwritten in the margin: on Muskingum on Ohio] On the outskirts one hillside lawn had big rocks in it…they made the best of the whole thing and painted them white. It looked like patches of snow.

In New Matamoras we met a mobile home on a very, very narrow street…Harry had to get truck and trailer on the sidewalk to let it by. The driver told him that the street was supposed to have been blocked off, but he guessed that someone goofed, because he had met a lot of cars, and then surprise, he met us!

There are lots of aluminum plants along the river, and of course, the steel mills! They are enormous…and there is "haze"…we think it is pollution! Smog! There are lots of coal mines, too.

We are staying at West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, just out of Youngstown, Ohio, at a nice park with acres and acres of lawn…and it is really raining. The news said that Youngstown had an inch of rain, and that Cincinnati had over 2 inches tonight. They needed the rain to clear the air, though. 208 miles today.…

6/17/76
I-80 needs to be repaired! There are deep chuckholes and no warning for some of them…others have "bump" sings. This is an Interstate?? There was lots of roadwork going on…but we doubt that they will catch up before next winter and more damage. Big freight trucks are coming and going on both sides of the highway…we thought "Convoy." Most of them passed us of course going down hill in the Allegheny Mountains, but we would have to pass them going up hill. There was one who passed at least 80 on a long sweeping curve…he made it. At some point today we crossed the Susquehanna River.…

We had quite a time finding our park tonight because the Pennsylvania DOT had made all the campgrounds (including the state parks) take down their signs from the highways. This was a farm camping park, and it is really quite nice. We saw a bluebird for the first time…really beautiful…and lots of pretty wild canaries, and rabbits (they ate just outside the trailer!). 281 miles today.…

6/18/76
This morning as we left the park there was a groundhog in the middle of the road. We had seen either one of them or a woodchuck at the side of the road in the Breaks.

There are so many big farms, big houses, big barns, and big silos in this part of Pennsylvania and New York…saw corn cribs, too. This is lovely country this time of year…rolling green hills, and lots of trees. The villages and towns all must be very old…big Victorian houses on narrow, tree-lined streets…we thought them very nice.

We got lost in Binghamton, New York…and found ourselves on the way to Scranton, Pennsylvania, on I-81. We were lucky to find the exit for U.S. 11, which I knew joined the Route 12 that we wanted going north to Utica…so we decided to exit and find a way to go north on 11…guess what? We could go north or south right there, and so we went downtown in Binghamton…all because they didn't have U.S. 11 signs at their Malfunction Junction! So what else is new…we got lost again.

We followed the Chenango River most of the way…pretty. There are lots of big registered Holstein farms along the river, and they look so prosperous and well-kept. The farmhouses would look good in a city. There was one sign for fishing bait "Night Walkers"…

We didn't want to get lost in Utica in Friday evening rush hour traffic, so the man at the gas station told us a way to get to our park by going around…it was fine except for one very steep hill going down into Mohawk. There was a sign saying "All trucks and cars with trailers exit here" so we did in order to read a Big Sign with an illustration of what we had to look forward to…three very steep hills in a row…"use low gear" "check your brakes" "maintain your brakes"…we still could have turned back, but saw a big fifth wheeler and other cars going on, so we did. It really was the steepest, longest hill we had ever been on…not quite as bad as some of the San Francisco streets, but close!

We are now at a very nice park just east of Utica for the weekend. 239 miles today…a total of 1003 miles since Tuesday! That's lots for us.…

This is a poem that Harry found about June…

June has many things to get done
Paint the sky blue, polish the sun
Iron the grass, make the flowers' dresses
Deck the trees with flowing tresses
Feed the birds and wash the earth
Fill children's hearts with gladness and mirth
When her work's completed as the days go by
She fades away making room for July.

6/19/76
The temperature is given in Centigrade again…close to Canada? One of these days we will have to learn metric measurements…it will be easier for the next generation than for us. We had to go into Utica this morning to get a new radiator hose…Harry found the top hose collapsed on Henry this morning. We found 3 pounds of coffee for $4.45…a bargain because coffee has been over $1.90 a pound recently.

6/20/76
We called Allan to see if they could come over for the weekend…only about 70 miles, but they have too much work on hand. Besides, it is raining very hard here, and no doubt the Catskills are worse…any rain there seems to bring on floods. Today was Father's Day (I forgot to buy a card!), but I let Father sleep in as a present!

6/21/76
Today we drove 160 miles along the Mohawk River…Last of the Mohicans country. Henry is heating up very strangely…the temperature zips up to almost boiling and immediately drops back to normal? We hoped to find a Dodge Truck garage in Amsterdam or Saratoga Springs, but no luck. Guess we will have to wait for Ticonderoga or Crown Point. Lake George and Lake Champlain are lovely…Northwest Passage country…Rogers' Rangers and Benedict Arnold! This is considered the actual birthplace of the United States Navy.…The British and French fought here always, and Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga were the scenes of constant battles during the Revolution. There are lots of historical markers everywhere.

6/22/76
The owner of the campground at Ticonderoga got us a new radiator pressure cap for Henry…maybe that is the answer to our heating problem. The garage in Crown Point could not help us at all, so on we go, hoping nothing will go wrong.

We crossed Lake Champlain into Vermont and picked up I-89 in Burlington, and then on to Montpelier where we went on U.S. 2 to South Lunenburg. John and Annette Hawes seemed glad to see us there…we stayed for supper with them. He is the first cousin of the old gentleman in Brooksville, Maine, whom we saw last Labor Day…we all share David Hawes as a great-great-grandfather. John was brought up in New York City and Connecticut. They have a lovely home on the Connecticut River…the state line of Vermont and New Hampshire. They told us that the house had originally been a ferry house (ran by another John Hawes…relation?), and that it had been moved to the present location and added to. Annette is a painter, and a collector and she used to have a shop and kiln for ceramics. John now has a tool-sharpening shop, and of course he and Harry had lots to talk about…as did Annette and I. She gave me one of her original ceramic boxes signed "Hawes."

We were so late getting away from there that it was really dark before we found a Crazy Horse Campground in Littleton…Harry was rather annoyed because he does not like to drive after dark, we were lost for a while, too…but he got glad again when the owners helped us get settled for the night.

We saw a sign on the highway at Montpelier in both English and French.…

6/23/76
I saw the Old Man in Franconia Notch, but there was no place for us to pull off the highway so Harry could see him. We had been looking for a sign for the Great Stone Face! and got past the parking area for the Old Man! There is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne about The Great Stone Face that I remember…it was in our readers in grade school and I am sure that it had some kind of moral (whatever it was I don't remember that).

We decided to stay at a park in Franklin, New Hampshire, to avoid the rush hour traffic in Concord and Lawrence…a fantastic place that had been an old farm. The man told us that the two remaining huge buildings set at angles to each other were once three buildings in a U-shape…a huge house, woodsheds and storage, and a very large barn for all the animals, plus a cellar under all three buildings!…and that the farm could be self-sufficient for months because of the way it was set to catch any sun and avoid the blowing snow during blizzards.

We called Jean and Roland to see if they would like to come spend a few days with us here, but she said Roland was not well enough to do so…must remember to pay her for the "collect" call…it would have been fun had they been able to come.

We finally got a "sensor" for the radiator (or whatever?) under the dashboard that may help the heating problems of Henry…Harry still thinks we may need a new thermostat.

Today was my birthday and we had planned to eat out…instead we bought a couple of steaks for dinner here in the park. There are some very nice children next door to us…a baby, and three other children, plus two quite large parents in a van!

6/24/76
Part of I-93 was toll road…55¢ for the distance from Concord to Manchester…but it seemed simpler than changing over to U.S. 3. Jean and Roland really had the Red Carpet out for us, and it seemed like Old Home Weeks.

6/25/76
Today is Jean's birthday…I had made a patchwork pillow for her.…

There is a street fair in Andover today so we went down to see what was going on…lots of things. A marching Scots band complete with kilts and bagpipes and girls who danced the Highland Fling at every intersection, and Jean even bought some yoghurt ice cream for us…sounds awful, but is good.

6/26-6/28/76
I have discovered that Jean has arthritis so badly in her knees that she cannot get down to do her lower cupboards…when we come back, I will do for her.

6/28 is the 44th anniversary for Jean and Roland, so we went with them back to York Village, Maine, where they met, and lived for years…Johnnie was born there, too. It was old home week for them…Golden Rod Saltwater Taffee people, the bowling alley, etc.…We watched from the sidewalk how they made the taffy with peanut butter…the taffy had been worked on a machine and the man made it into a very large rectangle…then he put 7 pounds of peanut butter on it (I asked how much later) and folded the whole thing over like a jelly roll, sealing the ends. Then it was taken to a machine where it was fed down a long tube and cut and wrapped into kisses…fantastic! The man looked up, saw Jean and Roland, beckoned, and we all went in to talk to him. York Village is a charming place, one of the "tourist" attractions, as is Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. We were taking them out for dinner as a present—naturally we had LOBSTER, again.

Roland loves to play dominos, and when he is up to it we play. They had to teach us to play Double Twelves, which is a very interesting game. We were told that there is a Double Fifteen game (must find it). I helped Jean make a green Net Hat to go with her new pants suit.

6/30/76
Today we went to Blackstone, which is only 94 miles down I-495 (which is still under repair!). The Red Carpet was out for us again, and our spot under the very old Horse Chestnut was awaiting us. There always seem to be 10-12 people around, but it is a very, very organized house. I went to Ringo with Dotty (the housekeeper) and didn't win, of course. Blackouts are called Full Cards (in Reno they are called Coveralls).

The patient that Del takes care of in the house has been thrown out of more than one (all?) of the nursing homes around, but she can manage him…she has for over 9 years. His son is a dentist in Woonsocket, and said that he could take care of the filling that Harry lost last summer in Canada…Hooray! Harry can get his teeth cleaned, too.…

Now to get Truck serviced for 24,000…everything is closed for the weeks before and after July 4.…

Harry Also has found the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne about The Great Stone Face for me…there is a moral, of sorts.

7/4/76
The Fourth of July here was great…it started years ago as a get-together of the Bailey family, but has now included all the Dicks family, too. All but one of the cousins from Connecticut and their husbands came this time, but the Dicks cousins from Woonsocket were out of town so will have to wait to see George and Dotty and Anna with her family…Elsie lives in Uxbridge but no one sees her?!? Anyway, there were over 50 people here under the trees and in the pool…badminton, horseshoes, frisbee, and lots of talking. Even the minister and his family of the little chapel down in Blackstone were here. Maybelle fell in love with Hat, and I have promised to make her one, and give the pattern so the other girls can have it.

7/5-7/10/76
We are being "migrant workers" here…blueberries and beans and beets. No one wants or likes beet tops, so I took them to freeze for us…the rest went into the freezer for Frederick and Del. The work seems fun for us after not having to work for such a long time. There is so much traffic in and out of this place, going here and there, that we told Frederick that maybe there should be a traffic light installed…he thought a toll plaza might be better. Frederick, Harry Also, Nancy, Brian, and Del's mother all have cars…Truck is here, and always there are other cars coming and going. Dotty, the housekeeper, has brought me several tops that were too small for her…she wants me to make her a Hat like I made for Del's mother before she went to Hampton Beach for 2 weeks…and will do.

Frederick and Del took us to Plymouth, and for a ride through the cranberry bogs on the Eadaville Railroad (narrow gauge) at Carver, Mass. The Rock is still there…although a few weeks ago some characters tried to bomb it. It is now guarded around the clock. In Plymouth we saw our first wax museum, too…the figures looked so lifelike depicting the history of the Pilgrim colony. We took Frederick and Del to dinner at the Mayflower…and Del and I got brave enough to order a drink called "The Red-Hot Mamma"…we watched the bartender make it from a book (guess it wasn't ordered often?)…crushed ice, powdered sugar, a lot of rum and whisky, either grenadine or Southern Comfort to make it pink, lots of shaking, and finally a slice of orange with a lighted brandy-soaked sugar cube! It was really good once we tried it…and only $1.75! Our dinner was good, too. And we are just glad that Frederick did the driving. The roads and highways are all very good—two-lane except for the freeways, but they go all directions and we need a map whenever we go anywhere…like to the dentist on Route 114. Del just knew the way the first time she took su there, but I spotted 114, and the next time we came through Woonsocket instead of the back turns and roads where we would have been thoroughly lost.

7/13/76
Got Truck fixed today at the same garage we went to last fall…in Mapleville, Rhode Island. Harry did have a new thermostat put in, as well as all the other things necessary at 24,000…we think the heating problem is solved now. We were supposed to go down to see cousin Anna at Point Judith with George and his wife, but begged off because we were just back from Mapleville. Arthur went, though.

We called Seattle last Friday to ask about mail, and talked to Mary. Also called Jean to see how Roland was…she said he was better, but had been quite ill.

7/15/76
Frederick took off work early today, and he and Del, Arthur, Harry and I went to Newport and Jamestown, Rhode Island. Bristol and several of the other towns on Narragansett Bay really outdid themselves for the Bicentennial…not only painted fireplugs, but the center stripes of the streets are painted red, white, and blue. We tried to remember the name of the street where Fred and Laura lived in 1950, but nothing looked at all familiar in Newport. We drove all over town, and out to the summer "cottages"…too late to go to The Breakers,but none of us felt too badly about not seeing how the other half lived. The homes and grounds are lovely to look at, though. There is now a bridge from Jamestown to Newport instead of the ferry…$1 an axle each way…so we paid $2. It would have been $4 had we had the Trailer. We had a very nice dinner in Narragansett…I had lobster salad, Harry a combination plate with lobster salad, Frederick and Arthur had a seafood plate with lots of clam cakes, and Del managed to surround a shore dinner…chowder, corn, clam cakes, steamed clams, corn bread, and dessert!

It was a lovely day…and wwe are glad that Frederick was driving and knew where he was going. No rain this time like last fall. After dinner we went to Point Judith and found cousin Anna and her family there at their summer home.…Anna is a widow and her daughter and son-in-law live with her, both at the summer place and in Woonsocket (the place where she grew up on 8th Avenue).

7/20-7/22/76
We finally got on the way to Nantucket Island with Arthur…lots of traffic and lousy freeways through Providence, but things improved through Fall River and New Bedford. After Buzzards Bay we crossed the Cape Cod Canal…where some of the Tall Ships had not been able to come because they were too tall for the bridges. Which reminds me, none of us had any desire to go to Newport when the Tall Ships were there…400,000 people must have been wall-to-wall! I did go with Harry Also one night on a collection trip in the suburbs of Boston…Brookline, Newton, Watertown, Framingham, and back to Blackstone…but no one of us wanted to go into Boston to see the Tall Ships, either. Both Harry and I want to avoid Big Cities as much as possible!

We found a motel for 2 nights in Hyannis which we thought quite reasonable for the three of us in season…$64 and a little bit for the 2 nights. After we were settled and had lunch at a restauraunt down near the harbor, we went on the scenic route to Provincetown…traffic was awful and the roads were narrow. Makes one wonder what it could be like on a summer holiday weekend. Harry's good Florida hat blew out the window near Truro…he looked for it right away with no luck. The wind seems to blow constantly near the end of the Cape. Provincetown is quite fascinating and old…but Nancy Dicks had told us that most of the young fellows there seem to be "gay"…she says what a waste! Anyway, we went clear out to Race Point Beach, and to the Pilgrim Monument…had it been a clear day we could have seen Boston across the Bay.

Handwritten in margin: "We looked and looked for Hat on the way back, too."

Handwritten between paragraphs: "Narrow cobble streets"

Our day boat to Nantucket left at 9:15 a.m. and we were in Nantucket by about 11:30. The crossing was a bit rough, but fortunately we seemed to be good sailors. In Nantucket we took a sightseeing bus trip all around the island. Many of the cottages are very low and small with roses growing over them. The hedges are trimmed beautifully, and flowers are everywhere. Some of the wealthy people who own summer homes have bought land to keep it from developers, so there is still quite a bit of open land that people can pick berries and enjoy, but no hunting is allowed. The man who wrote Cheaper by the Dozen still lives there (Frank Gilbreth) and Peter Benchley and his father are some of the permanent residents…Jaws.…The houses are a beautiful silver gray…the shingles are left to weather that way.

After a lunch at a restaurant on Easy Street, we went to the whaling museum. Nantucket at one time was the whaling capital of the world, and many of the houses in town have the figureheads from the old whaling ships either fastened to them or in the yards. We saw scrimshaw…whale ivory carvings which we heard is no longer done anywhere. There was a skeleton of an enormous whale in the museum, and the guide gae a lecture about sperm whales. They have a large reservoir in their heads which hold an enormous amount of very special lubricating oil (there has never been a satisfactory substitute for it). Ambergris…the whale can dive very deep to get the giant squid, but only the lower jaw has teeth whcih grind off large chunks of squid. The first stomach grinds, and the second stomach digests; however, the large bones of the squid do not digest, and give the whale indigestion, which cause him to have something like gallstones. Therefore, ambergris worth many $$$ because French perfume makers use it as a fixative. One whaling captain found an 800-pound chunk of it! Guess you know that we enjoyed the museum…learned how they harpooned whales, got them aboard, and tryed the blubber.

The motel owner gave us a card entitling us to a 15% discount on our dinners, so we went to The Fish and Lobster Shack both nights in Hyannis…much nicer than the name sounds. We were all very tired both nights…one night we were in bed before 9:30 and another before 10! We are glad we took Arthur with us…found that he had been many times on the Cape and in Buzzards Bay, but had never gone to either Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard.

We took him to visit a retired minister friend and his wife at Marston Hills on the way back…left him to visit while we went for gas and to explore Falmouth. Mrs. Jacques (pronounced Jakes) told us we wouldn't have any problem finding the house again because they live right across from an old cemetery. She said she tells her friends to "come see us, before we move across the road." Falmouth is another interesting old town. Before we picked up Arthur I explored the cemetery and found tombstones with wonderful verses on them. One read:

In Memory of
Mr. Allan Goodspeed
He died
January 7, 1831
Aged 62 years
and 2 days

Remember me as you pass by
So as you are, so once was I
So as I am, so must you be
Therefore, prepare to follow me

Blueberries grow really huge on the Cape…some at Marston Hills were the size of raspberries.

After we crossed Cape Cod Canal on the way back we decided that we would come back the way Arthur suggested through Taunton and Wrentham and Franklin. Liked it much better even if we did get lost in Franklin because Arthur missed the shortcut he and Hilda had always taken. So Harry now wants new navigators again.

We now have a map of the New England states to add to our United States map…will trace our trips for 1975 and 1976 on it separately.

7/23/76
Picked more blueberries and beans. Dotty took me to Bingo again…this time miles into Rhode Island. Can't win, of course. We have been playing the Masssachusetts state lottery, but can't win on it, either…considering it our substitute for Reno this year??

We have sent Chris checks to cover the Texaco gasoline tags…one on 6/29 for $56.70…and a check on 7/24 for a Texaco tag and the Mastercharge $45.92.

7/27/76
Arthur took us to lunch at Lake Nipmuc in Mendon…nice restaurant on a lovely lake. He wanted to do this because we had not let him pay anything on the Nantucket trip. I guess.

7/28/76
Back to Andover for a week. Roland is much better for a while. He and Harry watch Candlepins bowling…which I do not believe is in the West…and all the baseball games while Jean and I go hither and yon. I managed to catch a cold in the rains here, but no one else in the house got it! Was really afraid that Roland might catch it. It really rained hard here for a couple of days…it was needed…but it rained nearly 5 inches in less than 20 minutes in Providence. Cars were awash on the roads.

All of Jean's lower kitchen cupboards are clean—inside and out. I even put contact paper down for her, and moved what she wanted down into the cellar.

8/1/76
Called Seattle and talked to Sue this time. Ed will be in Boston on this coming Tuesday. We had planned to leave for Blackstone, but will stay over until he gets here. John Weeks and his wife and son will be here for the coming weekend, too…Jean has begged us to stay. We are both "migrant workers" here, too. Harry has done yard work, and I will finish the cupboards in the kitchen.

8/2/76
Today is our 30th anniversary. We went to Essex again to buy lobster the way we did last fall.… Jean and Roland insist that we must have good Maine lobster at least once more before we leave New England.

8/3-8/6/76
Roland is not feeling too well. Harry stays with him when Jean and I have to go out.… We did go to Salem, N.H., to buy an electric broom for her and some shoes for me (mocassins are completely worn out again)…cigarettes and liquor are cheaper up there too because of the tax.

8/7/76
Ed came from Boston on the bus this morning and we met him in town. Both Jean and Roland and, of course, Harry and I were delighted to see him. Jean took him on a "guided tour" of Andover this afternoon…I went along to see, too. A very good dinner…John and his family came in later after a sightseeing trip in Boston for Michael and Susie (Carole's niece from upstate New York). Jean found beds for all of us…even had a couple left over!

8/8/76
We took Ed into the airport this morning…dutifully following the map because otherwise we would have had no idea where to go. The Boston airport is arranged very differently from most of the others that we have been in…no place to even get a cup of coffee early in the morning…so we left Ed about 45 minutes before his plane was to take off. The ticket agent wasn't even there yet. No problems getting back to Andover, but we were there before the rest of the family were even up and about. Sunday traffic in Boston wasn't really too bad, but it was picking up a bit before we got out of town.…

Roland felt like playing dominoes again today.

The news said to expect Hurricane Belle tomorrow…it is supposed to hit the Boston area and Cape Cod, and there arre all kinds of directions about what to do to prepare for it…we are going to stay over until the weather clears again.

8/9-8/10/76
Belle was supposed to change directions today and hit Narragansett Bay tonight…Blackstone is directly in line. Guess Trailer will have to take care of itself.

We didn't really do anything but wait and watch for Belle…and Andover got no more wind and rain than one of our winter gales, t.g. Long Island was hit, and then Belle veered into Connecticut.…

We called Frederick and Del Tuesday morning to see how they made out…Fred said that all was well there. Jean called John in Connecticut, too…Carole said that the worst of the new tropical storm (no longer a hurricane) had hit west of Hartford. Thank heaven we have now missed a hurricane, too…as well as all the tornadoes.

Tuesday we all went to Lexington and Concord again…really tourist traps now, but still very nice towns. We were finally on Route 128 which circles Boston…Jean said that it was obsolete the day before it was opened, and that I-495 is now obsolete, too! She refused to take I-93 going home because it was rush hour…we went on Route 28 to Reading and then to Andover.

8/11/76
Back to Blackstone today…we will surely miss Jean and Roland and hope to hear that he is better very soon. We had begun to feel like "the Man who came to dinner"…went for one week, and stayed two! But I think they will miss us, too.…

Bless Frederick's heart…he had put everything away around Trailer just in case the wind did hit there, so all is well. They (Fred and Del) will take Arthur to visit another minister friend in Vermont tomorrow, and Harry Also will get him Saturday, so they insist that we stay over at least until Monday, or until Brian is married in September, etc. "the man who came to dinner"!!

8/12-8/15/76
I must have hurt my back cleaning cupboards or something because I really hurt for a couple of days…finally remembered the prescriptions that we had for Harry's back (and brought with us) and felt better by Friday…so I went to Bingo again with Dotty Friday night. Del and Frederick had asked us to go with them to a Theater-by-the-Sea way down by Manunick, but we thought they should go by themselves for a change…besides, I still hurt some. I always feel well enough to play Scrabble with Harry Also, though…even won a couple of games in the months we were there! There was a time I could win more often…he really has a vocabulary and lots of luck. He keeps score, too!

My tomato plant finally got one small tomato on it! I threw the whole plant away after that wonderful success. Just wait until next year.…

Tomorrow we head west through Connecticut…hope to see Clair and Dave Hicock in Southbury. They are friends we met in Goldcoaster last winter.…

8/16/76
On the way through Connecticut today we saw Frog Rock again (1950)…it is now in a highway rest area on Route 44. In Hartford we pucked up I-84 to go to Southbury to try to find our friends, Claire and Dave Hicock…Wild Bill was the same family, but the spelling of the name changed. We stayed in Kettletown State Park on the Housatonic River…called Claire and Dave, who came out to visit us for several hours after she was through work. She works for a brass company through Manpower. It seems that they had gone to Blackstone on July 31 to find us! Even had she had the right names (she tried Ashbrook and Hawes, but didn't know Dicks) we were in Andover at the time.…

132 miles today.

8/17/76
We went to dinner with the Hicocks on Jeremy Swamp Road…lovely name,huh?

8/18/76
We stayed on I-84 until we picked State 9 in Fishkill and went up the east side of the Hudson River through Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park…not only the Roosevelt mansion, but Vanderbilt and several others there. It was only 128 miles back to Sleepy Hollow Park…and the lady there recognized us and made us welcome again. We got our mail, and Jean sent Harry's driver's license.…

8/19-8/22/76
Allan and Oona came for dinner with us.…Dodie had a book to finish working on…a deadline for the publishers. I worked on TWO MONTHS of Journal! The New York fishing licenses have gone up…$10.75 for 10 days…so we do not expect to go fishing in the Esopus River this year. It is very high and very muddy now, anyway…but some of the other streams are lovely and clear. We understand that there is a "portal" that either has been, or has not been closed farther up the Esopus…but we aren't sure what the man on the radio was talking about. We have no TV reception here at all…saw friends here over the weekend that we had met last year. People are having lots of fun floating down the river on rafts and tubes.…

[Click the picture to enlarge it and to see another one.]

8/23/76
Finished Journal through August 16 and got it in the mail. We went for dinner with Allan and Dodie…Oona is a very sweet little girl who talks in sentences…we are Grandma and Grandpa Boots to her, too. We went for a walk after dinner…Allan had Oona in a backpack…the wild flowers are very different than ours, and I seemed to be asking all the time "What is this?"…goldenrod doesn't give me hay fever, t.g., because there is worlds of it! Finally found the flat rocks I need to paint "Please Turn Me Over"…

Allan has three cats…Kitty who is like D.C.,…Blanche, a white cat, of course…and Plaxie, a tortoise shell. They all use the kitchen window as a cat window.

Earlier in the summer I had written to Atlanta to the makers of Charcoal Brix telling them how much we liked their kind of charcoal, and saying that we could not find it. A letter came to Andover telling us that they enjoyed my letter, and saying that if I would send them an address they would send us a year's supply! You can believe that I did send c/o of Allan…and we now have an enormous box of "that funny kind of an egg box" of charcoal!!

We talked to Seattle tonight, and talked to Jennie.…

8/24/76
The pictures of the Seattle girls that I had loaned to Jean came back today, and they are now on loan to the Dicks family. We hated to say goodbye to Allan and Dodie and Oona.…

8/25/76
It was only 86 miles to Cooperstown where we went to the Baseball Hall of Fame…thoroughly enjoyed it. Also went to an Iroquois Indian Museum. Iroquois included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onandagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and the Tuscaroras (they were from North Carolina). In Oklahoma Indian Territory there were the Five Civilized Nations…Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole Tribes.

Our trailer park is on the Susquehanna River and is really nice. The radio station is in Oneonta (OH-KNEE-ON-TA)…and today I saw a sign "Milk 15¢ a pound…96% Fat Free"…2% milk weighs 8.2 pounds per gallon, and whole milk is 8.6 pounds per gallon. That was a new way of selling milk as far as we were concerned.

8/26/76
Today we drove 198 miles to Ithaca…the farms are big, and old, and the farmhouses are huge. We are finally out of the Catskills and now have rolling hills again. Signs on U.S. 20 said "Wrong Way…Go Back" instead of "Wrong Way…Do Not Enter." The farms seem to be mostly dairy farms, and they raise thousands of acres of corn for silage…saw one farm with eight huge silos.

No wonder Cornell has a wonderful rowing team…Lake Cayuga is really lovely.

We had just got into our trailer park when a thunderstorm hit…Wow! In a lull between showers we walked over to the trailer supply place to buy a new sewer hose because ours has split.…

I mentioned that I went to Bingo often in Blackstone with the housekeeper, Dotty. A couple of times we went to the Elks, but most often to Precious Blood Church…Woonsocket is filled with huge Catholic churches none of them with ordinary names like St. Marys or St. Josephs.…There is a big Catholic cemetery on Social Corner (so named because at one time there was a large mill there named the Social Mill)…the cemetery is also called Precious Blood, but in French. Del said that in a flood a few years ago the cemetery flooded and coffins were floating all over the streets.…

8/27/76
34 miles to Watkins Glen. This afternoon we went to Corning Glass Center where we spent hours…fascinating. We watched one team make a Steuben wine goblet and another one make a mink, and know why Steuben glass is so very expensive…all made by hand individually. The museum has all kinds of vases, goblets, etc.…some of them thousands of years old.

I quote from a pamphlet we were given…and we watched the teams!

Craftsmanship… In the Steuben factory at Corning Glass Center, Corning, New York, you may watch the forming of the molten crystal. In most factories where glass is still made by hand, craftsmen are organized on an assembly-line basis, each carrying out a particular operation in the sequence. In Steuben, a much older system is used: the "gaffer," or master glassmaker, is personally responsible for each piece and is assisted by the other craftsmen in his team. This older system produces fewer pieces of glass per hour, but ensures that each is made by the most skilled of the craftsmen. Each glassmaking team, or "shop," works around its own reheating furnace (glory hole) into which the glass is periodically thrust to maintain its working temperature.

On the end of a "blowing iron," the "gatherer" takes molten glass from the furnace, partially shapes it, then passes it to the "servitor." Revolving the glass to prevent sagging, the servitor develops the form before passing it to the gaffer. Together they may transfer it from the blowing iron to a solid "pontil" rod.

The gaffer completes the piece, shearing off excess glass, measuring dimensions, and opening or shaping the final form to its designer's specifications.

Sometimes small "bits" are gathered and brought to the servitor or gaffer by one or more "bit gatherers"; they also carry finished pieces to the "lehr," where the glass travels on an endless belt through gradually decreasing temperatures for six to eight hours, or to the "kiln," an oven used for heavy pieces whose slow cooling requires up to five days. This annealing removes internal stresses.

After cooling, many designs need further shaping—from the removal of the pontil mark to the cutting away of the large masses. Flat forms are ground against successively finer horizontal wheels fed with successively finer abrasives. Complex forms are ground against upright wheels, in the same way.

The abrasive action of the grinding and cutting wheels leaves glass rough and gray. After this roughness has been smoothed against wheels fed with pumice powder, cut sections are polished against felt wheels fed with jeweler's rouge to restore the original transparency and luster of the glass.

At each stage in its making, the glass is inspected. Examples not matching specifications are eliminated. Flawed crystal pieces made by Steuben are destroyed by Steuben. There are no seconds.

We watched true artists use copper wheels to etch designs and pictures on glass…they had the picture in front of them and copied it exactly.

A wonderful free trip…but we paid $1.50 to park!

We were too late to go to the winery (Taylor) that we had planned, but Gold Seal farther up Keuka Lake out of Hammondsport was open later…a very nice tour. We saw over 3 million bottles of champagne in "tierage" cellars, and found that their Cold Duck has champaign in it! Some of their white oak storage casks are over 111 years old, and can be used forever…and they can hold up to 6500 gallons each. At the end of the tour we were given four glasses of different kinds of wine…with something to eat.

There are acres and acres of vineyards around the lakes. We were told that the fog from the lakes help protect the grapes during the winter…Delaware, Catawba, and Concord are some of the varieties of grapes. There are many apple and peach orchards, too.…

The first casting of the Palomar mirror (which was not a success) is on display at the Corning Glass Center…it was never finished.

Back to the tour of the Glass Center…we watched from a balcony a bit above the workers so we could see what several of them were doing at one time. It was amazing that after the piece (goblet or mink) was formed it could be put back into the "glory hole" and become red hot without losing its shape. At times it was reheated with a burner and reshaped…maybe only a trifle to conform with the measurements that were constantly taken. Each worker used special tools to shape his blob of glass…fascinating1 The "bit gather" brought small hunks of hot glass for the "gaffer" to make ears, feet, etc., on the mink. When he brought the glass for the tail he worked on it at a table directly in front of us…making a piece rather like a sausage while it was still red-hot…the "gaffer" placed it on the proper place of the mink which had been heated with his burner, and shaped and cut it to specifications. We could see him making the whiskers and eyes, and placing the ears with the tiny bits that were brought to him.…

8/28/76
We took a picnic lunch with us to Watkins Glen State Park…and took a taxi to the upper end of the Gorge so we could walk down one and one-half miles. So very glad we did this! We were tired walking down steps and along very narrow, wet, slippery trails above the stream. At times we got wet from drips from the cliffs, and from spray from the falls…but liked it very much. the park is right in the town of Watkins Glen.

After lunch we went on a boat ride on Seneca Lake which is over 600 feet deep in spots…and very pretty. There are salt mines everywhere…the ones we saw are "mined" hydraulically…brine is pumped to the surface and evaporated. There are Indian paintings on the cliffs…said to be in memory of a defeat during the Revolution by General Sullivan…don't remember my history well enough to know which Indians?

8/29/76
Today I sold $5 worth of pennies to the owner of the KOA…she needed them, and I had been saving them for months. This KOA is not far from the Watkins Glen race track, and today we could hear them racing. Glad we did not go, because there were two accidents, and one fatality.

Back to the salt mines. The boat captain said there was an enormous crescent of salt over 2500 feet deep from West Virginia through Michigan to Ontario…so deep that it does not affect any of the freshwater lakes.

8/30-8/31/76
Today we drove 130 miles to Darien Lake just out of Buffalo, New York, where we found our friends that we played tag with down the East Coast last fall…Jean and Leo Denz. They are summer residents at the park, and winter residents in Florida or the South. When we walked around the lake, it took us over 30 minutes…a very nice park owned by the owner of the Buffalo Bills. We had a cookout and gabfest with Jean and Leo…who knows when, if ever, we will see them again?

9/1/76
We drove 220 miles to Strathroy, Ontario. This time we remembered to register the rifle before we left the U.S.…so no problems getting it back in when we go through Port Huron tomorrow! We saw a Centralia Avenue on Route 3 not long after we left Fort Erie! And we remembered to buy a Canadian half-gallon of milk to replace the very worn-out carton we have as a wind thingamabob on the front of Trailer.

9/2/76
All of 81 miles today to find George and Joan MacDonald on their farm just out of Emmett, Michigan. They too are friends from Florida (Fort Myers) last winter and they had asked us to come and see them…so we are going to stay over Labor Day.

Back to leaving the U.S. at Buffalo and crossing the Peace Bridge…decided we did not care if we went to Niagara Falls again (too late for a honeymoon, and besides we had been there in 1950 with the kids). There were acres and acres of tobacco all through Ontario, and the tobacco barns are very different from those in Pennsylvania and the South. The ones in Ontario are much smaller—most of the time in groups of six or eight or ten—and they seemed to have heat in them to dry the tobacco. In the Amish country boards on the sides of the barns were pulled out to let the air circulate to dry the tobacco. In the trailer park at Strathroy Harry talked to a man who seemed to know about tobacco farming. He said that the bottom three leaves are picked from each plant first, and finally the last set of three are picked. The top (it looked like a blossom) is picked last…for seed? Each farm seemed to have 2 or more huge greenhouses—no doubt where they start the tobacco plants. In the Smokies we had seen the new tobacco fields planted with what must have been transplants (they looked like cabbage plants when we saw them in late May and June).

Back again—after we crossed the Peace Bridge we were on King's Highway 3 and in Fort Erie we had to wait a long time for the bridge over the Welland Canal to lower so traffic could cross. The Welland Canal allows big ships to come from the St. Lawrence River through Lake Ontario (245 feet above sea level) around Niagara Falls to Lake Erie (570 feet above sea level)—and we saw the big ships inching their way through the canal while we waited. From Lake Erie the ships must go up the Detroit River to Lake St. Clair and the St. Claire River to Lake Huron (579 feet above sea level). Then to Lake Superior by Sault Ste. Marie, or to Lake Michigan (579 feet above sea level) at Mackinaw City. One time Susannah had a book about a toy of some kind that made the trip all through the Great Lakes.…

So far on the trip we have found the following—
Franconia Notch (New Hampshire), Big Stone Gap (Virginia), Stony Clove (Catskills), and Rock Reef Pass (Florida—elevation 3 feet!)
And we assume they all mean the same thing?

9/3-9/7/76
George took us to his bank in Capac to get a check cashed for traveler's checks—doubt that we would have had any trouble, but easier with someone who is known. Then we got our mail at the Emmett post office, and after lunch we went to Port Huron to buy a tire $79.01! The spare had never been used so we kept the best tire as a spare for now…before too long we will have to have two more tires, but feel safer now with new back tires. Sent checks to Christine for the Mastercharge $79.01, and the gasoline we charged with Shell in Canada $31.18.…

Just read that Jackman, Maine, has an annual rainfall of 118 inches!! Think that is more than Washington rain forests have.…

George and Joan won't let us eat out in Trailer so we have bought chicken and pork chops and corned beef…they have such a wonderful garden that there just isn't anything else we can get. The corned beef was only 89¢ a pound and was very good…shopped in Richmond at Muttonville Plaza (think it is the name of a town)…the nearest we got to Detroit where gangs of kids are harassing the freeway traffic. And the Sunday paper has HUD houses with minimum bids of $50…George says they are $50-$60,000 houses in what should be good districts, but!!…

We had met their youngest son at Christmas in Florida…Bruce. And over the weekend the oldest son and his wife came from Detroit…George and Margaret have a garden here. The daughter Judy, her husband Steve, and stepson Michael came out for lunch, and to their garden…they all live and work in Detroit…"never stop on the freeway or in town, and be sure to have the car doors locked and the windows up—even on a hot day"…Harry and I still like small towns!!

The day after Labor Day George and Joan took us on a ride to the St. Clair River and to Lake St. Clair…both are very lovely and very blue. They said that big ships come through, but none were there that day. I had decided that it was Harry's turn to cook (instead of Joan) so naturally we ate out…our treat.

9/8/76
Said goodbye to good friends this morning…who knows when we will see them again because they plan to go to Fort Myers again this year. Their house and farm are for sale now…they think they will stay in Florida if/when they sell. Joan will get mail that comes for us (the package from Jean had not come) and forward it to us when we settle down in a week or so…Missouri?

Flint was easy to get through…saw lots of big plants there, and saw Chevrolet Avenue and Buick Avenue. We went west on Route 21 to Route 66 where we turned south. Again acres and acres of corn, along with beans (George had said navy beans) and sunflowers—for seed? birdseed? Also saw a Rather School sign near Battle Creek. It was so hot and so dusty that we decided not to tour the cereal plants as we had intended. Just before we got to Sturgis we saw either Mennonite or Amish children walking home from school on the highway…the little boys had the round hats, long sleeves, etc., but the little girls had bonnets, long-sleeved black dresses and high shoes…and the temperature was 95 degrees! Bless their hearts…the houses (most of them) had no electric wires and no curtains at the windows, but we saw a sign for a Mennonite Church…and the Amish have no regular church. They meet in homes every other Sunday.…

246 miles today.…

9/9/76
RAIN all day, so we stayed over another day…found that they call this section "Michiana" on both radio and TV, and that the time zones are really fouled up here. Elkhart, Gary and Chicago are Central Time…Sturgis is Eastern Time, and we think the rest of Illinois is Eastern Time, but we have been told that none of the towns can agree. Like Harry and me…I have my watch on Central and he stays with Eastern.

9/10/76
Today we went past the Gene Stratton Porter State Memorial…she wrote the books I loved the most when I was growing up—Girl of the Limberlost, Freckles, Laddie, The Harvester, etc., etc.! One of these days I will reread them.…

132 miles

9/10-9/12/76
Settled down for the weekend at a very nice park in Logansport, Indiana. While I was doing the laundry at the Washing Well, Harry waited in the truck and saw an Amish/Mennonite funeral go by on the street…wish I had been watching, too.

Saturday the owners had a "bean feed" for all of us…they furnished the beans and the coffee…we brought whatever and our place settings. I took coleslaw, and thank heavens someone brought raw onions…I forgot! It was very good, and we got acquainted with people. Afterwards I went to Bingo and won! Here thay have a good thing going with their Bingo…75¢ a card, 17 games—15 of which give prizes picked from a table (a roll of paper towels and a large box of Kleenex—$1?), and one game which I won $1.50, and a blackout for $5. I do believe there must have been 50-60 people there…and they made money??? [handwritten in margin: "They DID"] Nice people, though.

Sunday we went looking for a Sunday paper, and I saw an historical marker for the Battle of Old Towne…so we found the remains of the Miami Indian Village which was burned in August 1791 by Kentucky troops under General James Wilkinson—he was directly mixed up with Aaron Burr, but whose side? American? British? Spanish? no one seems to know, but every book I read says differently.… Anyway, this battle stopped the raids on the settlements in Kentucky, and made the Indians trade their women and children prisoners back.… Harry is getting used to me chattering about the "some" of the history that I remember…wish I had more books to look up the things I either forgot or never knew.…

The trailer park is on the Wabash River which is truly beautiful…saw people fishing for bass and trout. Wish we had an Indiana license.…

The locusts here really sing/hum? sounds like a wire that has been set to thrumming. Wish we could see one of them.

Worked on Journal.…

9/13/76
Over the weekend we decided that we didn't really care how soon we went south, so we are on the way to Belvidere, Illinois, where Great-Grandfather James Hawes came from Maine before the Civil War…must have been after 1845 when Grandfather was born in Corinna, Maine? (I think I'm right in this)

We saw lots of sheep and pigs and lots more corn and soy beans on our way west. Seed corn…Cargill, Pioneer, De Kalb, MiGro, Golden Harvest, etc., etc.… on very flat prairie country…one little town said "the entrance to the prairies"…and they were right because we saw no more hills on the way almost to Peoria before we turned north on U.S. 51…which was awful—construction, bumps, corduroy, no shoulders.… Signs said that it was designated as a Freeway (someday) and Illinois does need a north-south freeway now…not that we would use it.…

"Back Home in Indiana" on U.S. 24 coming west at Monticello we crossed the Tippecanoe River…bang for me thinking of history! In 1811 William Henry Harrison (the 9th President of the U.S. who practically died before he was really in office) defeated Tecumseh in a battle on Tippecanoe…he was elected in 1840 with the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!"

I tried to persuade Harry to stop at Peru today but he thought Belvidere was not too far. So we got lost trying to go around Rockford at rush hour, and lost the way to Belvidere completely…couldn't even find Genoa which should have led us to Belvidere! The back roads here (like in Michigan) are not named.… We finally asked a nice young man who was painting his house "Where is Belvidere?"…and then "Where is Big Trout Campground?"…he drew a map for us, and 11 miles later we found it!…right out of Belvidere. The lady here lent me "Boone County Then and Now," which I have thorougly enjoyed. Blackhawk, the chief of the Sacs and the Foxes, was unhappy with the whites in 1832 and decided to take his country back…he was defeated and captured by the U.S., and eventually had to move west of the Mississippi. When this part of Illinois was first settled in 1835 after a treaty with the peaceful Pottawattomie Indians—the Illinois were to the south, and the Winnebago to the northwest—there was very little Indian trouble from then on. Wonder why the Indians gave up so easily…beautiful country!

There is an enormous Chrysler plant here…wonder if they have tours?

In the book I borrowed I found the name Hawes several times and will call a few names in the telephone book tomorrow…found seven Hawes names, including a David and a Thomas. Also found a recipe from a book at the Chamberlain Hotel in a Scotch settlement at Caledonia Center which is said to be good (will try it someday)
"Make-do" Katie's Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake
1 c. brown sugar
¼ c. water
1 c. seedless raisins (usually cut mine)
2 oz. citron, cut fine (didn't have any)
1/3 c. shortening (I use lard)
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg (was out so used ½ tsp. cloves)
2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder (don't like Calumet, but can't get anything else. Always used Royal or Rumford's. Calumet tastes)

I guess you just put it together, and bake it until it is done?

Tomorrow we must call a repair man for our holding tank on the trailer…it seems to be coming off!?! Some of the rough highways we have been over lately must be even worse than the Gaspé which we thought was the very worst that could ever be! Poor Trailer just may fall apart before we get home, because we must fit a plate together on the front tomorrow, too…all the metal screws have fallen out!

9/14/76
We bought gasoline today at an Amoco Standard station…and felt that we had been had!! The sign said 56.9¢…but too late we saw that the pump said 67.9¢! It seems that the sign was for the mini-pumps (self-service)…not only did the sign not mention this, but the self-service pumps were around the corner of the station. Naturally I complained…and made a resolution that we will always check the price on the pump! We bought over 40 gallons of gas…and paid 11¢ a gallon more than we should have?? @@@@@ Ugh.…

We found the Belvidere cemetery very easily thanks to the map of the city that the lady who owns the park had given us…and we found the gravestones of James and Frances and three of their daughters. Harry actually found them while I was wandering off in the wrong direction. He found the stones for Frances and Laura and Rebecca and Frances Ann, and then we found the fallen stone for James. After I pulled all the sod and grass and dirt off, it read:

Our Father
Jas Hawes
Formerly of
Corinna Maine	That really made it the right one
Born
Oct 12 1799
Died
Oct 16 1865

The one for Frances read:

Frances H	H is for Hancock
Lawrence
Wife of
James Hawes
Born
Aug 26 1803	Glad to know the date
Died
Mar 7 1888	My information had said 1887, and had Beloit Wisconsin as the town

Next was
Laura B.
Third Dau. of
James and F H Hawes
Died
Feb 3 1870

Then
Frances A.
Rogers
Second dau. of
James and F H Hawes
Born
June 19 1831
Died
Feb 1 1927

Then
Rebecca
Oldest dau. of
J and F Hawes
& wife of
… Bicknell
Died
April 16 1899
This shaft had also fallen, but the names of two children were listed on it

Laura was supposed to be unmarried…but Frances Ann and Rebecca were married to Maine men…did their husbands come west?

We found a man to fix the holding tank, but we think Trailer is taking a real beating on some of the roads that we find.

Felt very brave and started dialing the Hawes names in the telephone book…and hit the jackpot because Carl is the great-great-grandson of James…like so:

James
Frederick Webber	Byron (plus 7 other girls and boys)
Frederick Wilson	Colin Byron
Mary	Harold
Christine	Carl

Anyway, Carl asked us to come see him at his store in Capron tomorrow.…

It gets dark here before eight at night, and there is no twilight.

9/15/76
Today I canned 5 pints of tomatoes that a nice neighor in Logansport had given us, and Harry fixed the front of Trailer that had sprung loose. It took the distaff half of the Fixit Ashbrooks to come up with the idea to hold it in so it could be moved up…not bobbypins but kitchen matches! Then he could use the drill and all that good stuff.

Carl had told us that he works at a factory in Harvard, and then at his store, so it was about 3:30 before we took off for Capron in the east part of the county. His store is called "Carl's Country Market"…quite nice, and so is he. He is not a big man, but not as small as my cousin Dick. Carl told me that he had 15 children…several sets of twins. Anyway, I left a copy of the family history with him because he said he had an aunt in California who was interested. I left questions with him, too…what did James do when he came to Illinois? etc. etc. Probably no one but me could care less, but on this trip I have found where two Hezekiahs are (in Wrentham), and now James (in Belvidere)…and in Dedham, Massachusetts they knew about Edward and Daniel, but could not find the gravestones. The grae of David is lost on a farm somewhere in Brooksville or Castine.…

Again we forgot the camera! as we did for Girard and Dwight and John. It would have been nice to have the pictures of them.

9/16/76
Today in Freeport we saw an enormous Kelly-Springfield tire company…and a flock of geese going south with us (the first we have seen this year). As we crossed the Mississippi River at Savannah, Illinois, we saw lots of cranes or herons on the dikes.

For a change we are seeing acres and acres of alfalfa, as well as corn…lots of pigs, too. Alfalfa makes some of the farms green…the corn looks rather awful because of the lack of rain. The highway on the way to Galena was called the Gen. U.S. Grant Highway…we left it at Elizabeth to turn south to Savannah.

Diamond Lake Park in Montezuma is very nice…and Golden Age for $1.50!

9/17-9/19/76
Again we saw an Amish/Mennonite buggy on the road just before we got to Bloomfield, Iowa. The lady and little girl were off on the shoulder of the road with the buggy and horse…wonder if they are frightened of the traffic? Later we wished that we had realized what the "Bake-Sale" sign meant…there was an Amish man at a roadside stand with homemade bread and goodies. With the trailer we don't make all those quick moves, so we missed it.

We spent the weekend in Centralia…Missouri, that is. We have taken pictures of the town, and do hope they will come out. The football schedule reads like so…Mexico, Louisiana, California. There is a park in the center of town with the post office opposite, and the railroad station even looks like ours. At the park we found this:
Centralia, Missouri
Elevation 88.453 feet
Longitude 96° 7' 59" West
Latitude 39°12' 34" North

Sunday it rained…but not enough, so we hear.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a summary of last week's soap operas.…

9/20/76
There have been acres of a crop that we wondered about and finally asked
kaffir corn that makes sorghum. We are in orchard country again…apples.

After 728 miles from Belvidere we are settled here in the Ozarks until theend of October…$28 a month, but only from the first of the month. We figure that 11 days in September will cost $28 (a bargain), and the entire month of October is $28. This park closes October 31, when the fishing in Bennett Spring Park ends.

9/21/76
Today I cleaned house a bit, and then we went exploring Bennet Spring where we hope to go fishing…when we get a Missouri fishing license.

Last night we called Seattle, and talked to Mary this time…now we can wait patiently for mail.

9/22-9/26/76
Finally I have seen a really big fish hatchery…even bought food to feed them. Every morning and evening a siren blows to start and stop the fishing, and then the stream is restocked with 10-inch or bigger trout for the next day's wall-to-wall fishing. The stream is divided in zones…#1 is fly fishing only, #2 is for selected artificial lures, and #3 is natural bait and a few other lures. In addition to the Missouri fishing license one must buy a daily trout tag for $1.50…we may decide that it will be more fun and less crowded to fish in the Niangua River! But Bennett Spring stream is very clear, and very deep…once can see the fish everywhere in it. We know that we will have to get lighter line…all we have is much too heavy for here.

On the 24th we took a picture of the hillside as it is now…only hope we remember to take one before we leave after the trees have changed color.

We went into Lebanon to shop and explore…never did get to the Chamber of Commerce, but will next time we go. Left 4 rolls of film to be developed, and bought Harry his birthday present…a new pair of pajamas which he truly needed. Lebanon is a nice, busy small town which has a good-sized business district. We found a Consumer's Market which has Food Club discount items…but the meat at IOA is better.

The switch on the gas tanks had been leaking in Truck, so that is now fixed. It seems that it was being cut through by the clamps on it…?? What next?

We bought a boneless pot roast 4%frac12; pounds…I cut it in half, and used one part as a pot roast (very good)…and used the other half to make steaks for the grill, swiss steak, and pieces for stew or beef and noodles (all of which are in the freezer now). Sounds crazy maybe, but who can buy a good roast small enough for two?

Mail came Saturday morning…good stuff that we are still enjoying. Lots of letters to answer. We have sent requests for absentee ballots so we can vote in November.…

9/27-10/11/76
When we sit still for a while the days rather melt one by one…so @@@@@@ (Peg Bracken)…

We have had good mail here from Seattle, from Joan, Arlene, Dick, Ann Hudson, Jean, Arthur…and hope for more, of course. I did remember to tell Gordon that we have a Michigan State rock for him…Petoskey. It is rather like the back of a turtle, and the one we saw polished was very beautiful.

The FM station from Springfield that we listen to is "The Gentle Giant of the Ozarks."

We watched both parts of the movie Earthquake (9/26 and 10/3), and thought it very good. In a big theater it would be frightening…as it was, we wondered how they did it, and wished for "they lived happily ever after" ending.

Most of the time we have had wonderful fall weather, but there have been rainstorms. One day we did not even try to go out of the trailer, even to empty the garbage! There was a steady downpour all day. The weather reports say there will be thunderstorms, but they are not like some of the thunder and lightning storms that we have been in!1 The rain just comes down, more like home than as if "a faucet had been turned on up there"…"bowling up there?" However, on 9/26 we did have a real thunder and lightning storm at night…it was one to remember like those in Thunder Bay, and most places in the East.

September 28 was My Old Man's birthday…we had Swiss Steak for dinner, but sorry to say, no Birthday Cake. We had been to the town of Buffalo to find out what we could do about the bolts that hold Trailer. While there we were given a guided tour of the plant where they make canopies, campers, and trailers…Bison. In the West we had never heard of Bison, but they make mostly to order for local trade…Missouri and Kansas. The young man who took us through the plant said "they were as big as they wanted to be"…

There is a buffalo ranch on the way to Lebanon where we will stop one of these days to take pictures. The road is winding and narrow, and so far we have always had too much traffic on our tails to try to stop. There is a larger herd than we have ever seen in one place before…signs say "Buffalo for Sale."

We have finally lit the furnace for the first time since the Catskills last September…Trailer felt damp. Our electric heater which we usually use because of free electricity…the switch fell apart after all these years, and we cannot replace it without ordering. So we have stored it away, and for a Christmas present we have ordered a new heater, new jacks for the trailer, and the flares that are required for California roads…someday we will be there. All from J.C. Whitney catalog.

We have ordered a Christmas present for Aunt Jean and Uncle Roland from Harry and David catalog, too…they love the pears from there.

Joan writes that she is sending a CARE package for Harry…that means cookies, and Dick Roush has sent the Bicentennial edition of the Chronicle to us. It is very interesting…think I will send it to Aunt Jean and then ask her to send it on to Seattle for them to enjoy and SAVE for us. She knows the area well enough to appreciate, and knows that I enjoyed the history and stuff around Andover. She has sent a map of Andover…were we ever confused and backwards on the streets there! Maple Avenue runs NW and SE…

Some of the Middle West states allow people to ride in trailers…awful to even think about!

We must go back to the nice lady at the Chamber of Commerce in Lebanon to ask about the Swine Flu shots…where/when? And maybe she would know about a Family for my stray DAWG that I have been feeding for the last two weeks…he is really nice. The lady in the C of C thought our trip fascinating as does everyone…and the man in the bank at Lebanon called our bank in Chehalis, and got the reply "so that is where they are!" We have realized that we have cashed personal checks so far…some called our bank but not all of them.…

July 1975	Littleton, Colorado
August 1975	Thunder Bay, Ontario
* September 1975	Andover, Mass.
October 1975	Lancaster, Penn.
November 1975	Myrtle Beach, S.C. (had to wait for a sight draft)
** December 1975	St. Petersburg, Fla.
** January 1976	Fort Myers, Fla.
February 1976	Homestead, Fla.
March 1976	St. Petersburg, Fla.
April 1976	New Orleans, La.
** May 1976	Natchez, Miss.
* July 1976	Woonsocket, R.I.
* August 1976	Andover, Mass.
* September 1976	Capac, Michigan
* October 1976	Lebanon, Missouri
* friends and relatives ** called our bank

Progress report…Approximate.
27453 (9/24/76)
 3625 (6/4/75)
23838 miles on Truck

$1,327.75 for gasoline
2143.7 gallons (converted for the imperial gallons in Canada)
11.05 or so miles per gallon
61.4¢ per gallon... Canada threw us a bit.

We have finally found a game of Double 12 Dominoes…a fun game that we played in Andover with Roland and Jean. Now after the World Series and all the football games we will play Dominoes again.…

We do like Mr. T and Tina on Saturday, and The Practice on TV…now you can believe that it will go off the air because we like it…the kiss of Death! Would you believe that we find Peter Gunn and Wagon Train listed on TV. I do enjoy Little House on the Prairie before Harry's Monday night with Howard Cosell!

Someday I may write a screed on the subject of BUGS, ANTS (all sizes) and FLIES…thank heaven, so far we have never seen a cockroach! We are now using Professional Strength RAID which helps LOTS…so help me I must write a tirade about them sometime…we do not have so many types of bugs at home.…

Harry and the young man who is the boss here at the campground went target shooting (10/10)…I asked him to bring home some Sidehill Salmon…and he didn't know what I meant…"out of season deer"…he laughed and told us about an "Arkansas credit card"…a siphon hose. He is going elk hunting in Colorado tomorrow (10/12) for a couple of weeks.

10/12-10/30/76
One of the times when we were fishing on the Niangua I had caught a big rainbow and managed to land it by myself…the next cast I landed in a tree and lost all the goodies. Naturally, Harry looked thoroughly disgusted. You should have seen his face when I broke my pole pulling on it! I now have a new pole, and Papa is no longer mad, I hope.

We finally got to the post office and I mailed a package of books to Seattle…and the bicentennial Chronicle to Jean to enjoy before she sends it to Seattle. I finally found a copy of The Money Changers, too…

The weather has really changed here in the last couple of weeks…nights are cold…sometimes down in the 20s. I forgot to bring in my plants one night, and lost both of them.…no more swedish ivy and wandering jew that I had babied since last March in St. Petersburg. The morning of the 21st there was frost on the truck, but we stay warm in the trailer with the new heater and the furnace.

On the 20th we heard that they were going to "milk" the fish at the hatchery, so we delayed our fishing trip to watch. There are fish hatcheries all over at home, but this was new to both of us. We got in with a tour of school children wh were going through the hatchery…saw the incubators, and then watched the crews with the enormous female and male fish at the rearing pools. Some of the fish that they weighed were nearly 8 pounds. We were told that from the middle of October into December that the fish are "milked" once a week for eggs and milt.

A little store next to the park has a record rainbow mounted on the wall…almost 15 pounds!!

Some of the sunsets are a true lavender here.…

The people here at the campground are very, very nice. Harry goes after the mail every morning, and several hours later he gets back to Trailer. Of course, there are times when I go over to the office, and don't get back right away, either.

One ad for a car dealer in Springfield has a toy "much like the wonderful toy my Father had"…a baby chick on wheels that runs here and there…"the little Cheaper Dealer."

Harry went for a ride with Mr. Weaver one day and saw wild turkeys…we have gone for rides day after day to try to find them again so I could see them (with no luck). Field and Stream of May 1976 has a fascinating article about wild turkeys…Missouri has over 30,000 of them, Arkansas 150,000, and Alabama 250,000. Most of the states have some…even Washington with 2,000. There are special hunting seasons in the spring and fall.

Which reminds me, Paul did not get an elk on his hunting trip to Colorado…but he may keep and feed Dawg, I hope. Dawg needs a family like Laura and Fred…

We did get lots of fish (the freezer is full) and had a lot of fun. But in Texas we are going to be where saltwater fishing is FREE…we think we no doubt spent over $50 here in Missouri…licenses, trout tags, park tags, tags for our stringers, lighter line, different lures, a new fishing pole. We will have different types of fishing stuff when we get home.

When we went to Lebanon to get Truck serviced at 28,000 miles, we wanted to go to the museum…it was closed until next May! But I quote from a Chamber of Commerce pamphlet…

Lebanon, situated 1,265 feet above sea level in Missouri's Central Ozarks, was founded in 1849 as the seat of newly organized Leclede County. Southern settlers named the town for Lebanon, Tennessee. The county name honors the founder of St. Louis.

When Lebanon refused the South Pacific railroad (now the Frisco) free land for a depot, the track was laid a mile from town in 1869. Later, Lebanon moved to the railroad and the original site became "Old Town."

Novelist Harold Bell Wright (1872-1944) was pastor of the Christian Church here, 1905-1907. This was the setting of his book The Calling of Dan Matthews, published in 1909 in Lebanon. He also used Brice Village and Bennett's Mill, both of which once stood in the state park, as background (12 miles west of Lebanon on Highway 64). Lebanon lies midway between Rolla and Springfield on historic Route 66. Pioneers traveled over an Indian trail through here which later became a part of the St. Louis to Springfield road. Cherokee Indians on their "Trail of Tears" removal to Oklahoma in 1837 came along this road.

During the Civil War, the pioneer road became a military highway. A telegraph line strong from Rolls, Missouri, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, went along the road by 1862 and the telegraph road soon became known as "The Old Wire Road." Throughout the war, Lebanon was occupied alternately by Union and Confederate troops.…

Fifteen minutes to the west is Bennett Spring State Park, one of the largest and most scenic fishing, camping, and picnicking areas in the United States. The stream, which is fed by a very large spring, flowing 71,000,000 gallons of water daily, is stocked with rainbow trout and fishing is permitted from March 1 to October 31.

Years ago I read The Calling of Dan Matthews because it was there…and I must reread it if I still have it at home.

Our absentee ballots arrived here on October 27, and everyone here is interested in them…especially the OWL party!

10/31/76
We called Seattle to find out a bit of information about the ballots because we have not seen a Voter's Pamphlet this time…talked to Sue. Our ballots are ready to mail tomorrow, and hope that our votes will matter!

We are ready to leave tomorrow morning once I get a few things put away in Trailer.…Truck is all squared away. On we go by way of West Plains, Missouri, to visit where Arlene Thompson was born…and then on to Arkansas and Texas.

11/1/76
Today we mailed our absentee ballots from Cave City, Missouri, and the postmaster said that they would be cancelled as of today. Our instructions said to have them postmarked on or before Election Day.

The country around West Plains is as lovely as that around Bennett Spring…but it is not really in the Ozarks…more rolling hills and lots of stock farms, horses and cattle. Today we finally saw quite a few Missouri mules on a farm…I had been hoping to see them ever since we got into Missouri! The ones we saw were beautiful…big, and bright chestnut-colored. "Ozark" is a much-used word for businesses, buildings, etc.…

We came to West Plains for Arlene Thompson…she had asked us to go there to take notes of the town where she was born, so we did. It is a town of either 8,000 or 6,893, depending on which sign one can believe…the one for the college (SW Missouri?) said 8,000, but the city limit sign said 6,893. There are several very nice parks, one with a big armory. The highway goes around the courthouse, which is set in a central square…we stopped to take a picture of it because we had not been able to find a postcard of the town to send to her. Tourists must be very welcome in West Plains, but we were not ready to stay overnight there.

The names of the counties are great…Texas, then Howell (where West Plains is the county seat), and Oregon just before we entered Arkansas. The main drag of West Plains is MAIN STREET, East and West, naturally.

We do wish that we knew how to pronounce the name of one town…Koshkonong?? And the town of Bald Knob, Arkansas, is the "Strawberry Center of the World"…so they said on the town advertising! We had to drive 286 miles today in order to find a place to stay in Searcy, Arkansas…no trailer parks except miles off the road in the Arkansas Ozarks, until Searcy. It was a lovely day, though, and the fall colors are really beautiful. The weather is just right, too.…

11/2/76
Baptist churches have names that are hard to believe…Life Line, Landmark, Missionary, Free, Hebron, Sharon, Grace…I read them with epression to Harry.

The roads from Searcy to Arkadelphia were bouncy…Truck and Trailer were out of sync…which made for slower driving. How does one get in touch with the highway department? We do think it was in Arkansas in 1950 when Harry bounced Grandmother Hawes off the back seat onto Christine…Chris was madder than Grandmother!

We have again seen Kudzu along the road near Arkidelphia growing over trees and fences just like in Mississippi and the rest of the South. Finally saw a Safeway store and a Ben Franklin store again, too. There are more evergreens…pines…and not so many walnuts. Still lots of different kinds of oak, though. The colors are not as bright for fall, either. Just before we came to Murfreesburo, Arkansas, we saw a stretch of highway where the trees looked like overgrown nursery shrubbery…spruce?…we found later that the trees were left to grow when a landscape nursery went "bust"…leaving the trees to grow taller and taller.

Tonight we watched the election coverage almost all night…until Mississippi returns came in!

173 miles today.…

11/3/76
Today we went to dig for diamonds in the Crater of Diamonds State Park…at one time it was a working diamond mine, and then a private commerical enterprise. The state now has taken it over…for $2 one can dig all day with a spoon, a screen, or your hands! We rented a screen and used a big spoon and the shovel…with no luck, of course. We did have a lot of fun, though. The crater is kept turned over and over with a bulldozer…looks like an enormous potato field. There are sluice boxes, and old mine buildings…and the places where the GOOD diamonds were found are marked with signposts. Our neighbor had found a 43-point diamond…wonder what that means? Anyway, she had a card from the park certifying it…it was lovely, but quite little. The neighbors had a squirrel that they picked up as a baby 3 years ago in Seattle, and they take Buster everywhere with them. He is just like one of the squirrels in the backyard at Seattle…in a trailer?

11/4/76
This morning as we left the park in Murfreesboro we had SLEET for a while!!…but before long the sun came out and stayed out all day. Along the side of the road we saw a dead armadillo…a big one. For several days we have seen many large chicken houses…the frozen Arkansas fryers that we get at home?

We drove 229 miles to the town of Nacagdoches…"Nack-ah-do-shush"…

11/5/76
What we call county roads at home are called farm roads here in Texas…Farm-to-market roads, really…F-M roads. We came on Farm Road 1960 around Houston, and are sure that we were wise in doing so…in spite of the road construction that backed the traffic up for miles going into Houston.

We crossed the San Jacinto River today…somewhere there is a sign for the Battle of San Jacinto where Sam Houston, etc.…won independence for Texas after the Allamo? Alamo! We crossed the Brazos River, too.…

All the way to Houston from Nacogadoches we saw portable Bar-B-Q trucks along the highway…beef, shrimp, oysters, and catfish…and lots of Mexican places with tamales and chili. There are fruit trucks along the road, too, with oranges and grapefruit and tomatoes and yams…not too far from here is the town of Alamo where good ruby red grapefruit comes from at Christmas time. Today, too, I saw some palmetto in the trees.…We must be in the South again.

Gasoline prices are amazing…one Texaco station may say 56.9 and one block away 51.9…a Shell station says 58.9, and across the street a Gulf station has 53.9…!?!?

State highway signs along the road say "Drive Friendly"…and we wish that we could convince the people on Interstate 10 who were going west. There were real jam sessions because it was Busy on a Friday night.

229 miles today.…

11/6/76
We are here in Columbus for the weekend with lovely weather. Columbus is on the Colorado River (Texas, that is).

11/7/76
This morning a huge flock of geese went over the park. We went in to town to explore, but Sunday is a no-no here because everything is closed tight. However, I quote from a Columbus, Texas, pamphlet…

The approximate site of Columbus first appeared on a map of the general area as Montezuma, a village of the ferocious Karankawas Indian tribe. A small settlement was established on the high west bank of the Colorado River about Christmas 1821 by three settlers of the Austin colony. The site was subsequently surveyed and planted as a townsite for the capital of the Austin Colony by Stephen F. Austin and Baron de Bastrop in August 1823 to become the oldest Anglo-American town in Texas.

The capital was subsequently relocated on the Brazos River but a village remained on the site and became known, for a time, as Beason's Ferry. Numerous additional families from the Austin Colony settled in the area and by 1835 the village had been given the current name—Columbus.

The first "Fourth of July" celebrated in Texas occurred in this historic village on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of American Independence and two decades before Texas became a part of these United States. Early settlers in the area traveled as far as 70 miles to participate in the celebration.

When General Sam Houston's army retreated from Gonzales, following the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, they made camp on the east side of the Colorado River opposite the site of Columbus and began to train for further military operations. The Texans had been pursued by the Mexican Army under General Santa Anna who established a camp west of Columbus. When an additional Mexican Army under General Felisola joined forces with Santa Anna, General Houston's forces again retreated to the east and burned the town to deny the use of the facilities and stores to the Mexican forces.

Settlers returned to their homes after the Battle of San Jacinto and shortly after the organization of the Republic of Texas in January 1837 the first District Court Session in Texas was held under a century-old oak tree with Judge R. M. Williamson presiding.… [We saw this oak today…cut back very much as though they were trying to save it!]

Early transportation facilities in the area consisted of rafts and barges on the Colorado to the north of the city and paddle-wheeler boats southward to Matagorda. The first railroad was completed to Alleytown, three miles east of Columbus, in 1860 and the area was an important trans-shipment point for cotton exported to England through Mexico during the Civil War.…

11/8/76
We have decided that we came the long way round from New Orleans to Texas…something like over six months and almost 11,000 miles. "by way of Albuquerque"…

We came from Columbus on State 71 to El Campo, and then on U.S. 59 to Victoria, where we turned toward the Gulf to find State 35 to go to Rockport. All around El Campo there were rice fields and rice warehouses…we had quite a time figuring out what was growing in the fields. The name of one town was "Hillje"…would the "j" be pronounced "h"? The rice grew in enormous level fields…irrigation canals were used to flood it. We heard in South Carolina that after the slave labor was gone, no more rice because of the labor cost…and the coast of South Carolina is no longer rice country…

Rockport is as far south as St. Petersburg and/or Fort Myers, Florida, so we have decided that we will no doubt stay here over New Year's, and can only hope that the weather stays as nice as it is now with the temperature in the 80s with a nice breeze. At night the stars are out, and there is a beautiful orange moon.

Tonight we called Seattle and asked for mail…talked to Jennie this time. Then we went back to watch the rest of the second half of Gone with the Wind. Harry still got to watch some of his football game with Howard Cosell…"shut up!"…

173 miles today.

We left Bennett Spring on November 1…1105 miles ago.

11/9-11/14/76
This morning I sent a check to Chris for two gasoline charge slips…Texaco $19.39 and Shell $23.61…a total of $43. We charged gasoline in order to be sure that we had traveler's checks left in case we had a delay in getting more. We went to a bank in Rockport (population 3879) and had no trouble in cashing our check…that nice man will see us again next month, and maybe in January, too. Mr. Courtright is on vacation, but someone in the bank okayed our check with "oh, they are in Texas now."

The Chamber of Commerce told us where and when to go for our Swine Flu shots…next Monday in Rockport any time. Also we got some goodies from them about this area…

[The] pristine beach across Aransas Bay from Rockport, Texas, where the world's 50-odd feral Whooping Cranes, those not living in zoos, spend their winters. Rockport is famed, as well, as the seasonal home of thousands of other birds representing more than 300 species…here are stands of live oak trees unlike any in the world, their backs turned to prevailing sea breezes, their spray-sculptured crew-cut profiles landward like legions of Z's…the hunting and fishing around Rockport is the greatest.…Generations of outdoorsmen have known this. First there were the Karankawa Indians, those giants, whose presence hereabouts in pre-Columbian times is manifest today in more than 200 middens and burial sites an easy walk (or row) from Rockport. They doubtless settled here, historians tell us, because of plentiful fish and game.… "Indians almost always camped in places of natural beauty."… There is evidence that other Indian tribes found it congenial, too. (At their peril, though, for the Karankawas were not loath to slay and eat an alien.) The Commanche drifted hither in the distant past, and so did another tribe, the Aranzuzu, which is to say a mouthful in more ways than one. The Spanish tongue simply couldn't handle the tribal moniker and thus rendered it as "Aransas"…the storybook county that Rockport now seats… once known as "aransasland," and it fairly breathes history. It seems certain that the pirate, Jean LaFitte, harbored here…local lore says treasures are buriend hereabouts by him and fellow buccaneers. Legends of treasures often gain credence whenever a beachcomber wades upon a golden doubloon. And there is certainly no gainsaying that pirate ships have tacked Aransas Bay and the one opposite Rockport's Live Oak Peninsula, Copano Bay, in great numbers: in the 1770s the viceroy of Mexico established forts on both the bays to combat smuggling and piracy. (The very word "buccaneer" was probably born here, according to local historians, and in the same way that "Aransas" got its name. French pirates, such as LaFitte's, called themselves boucanieres [eaters of boucan, a smoked jerky practical on long sea cruises before the time of refrigeration]. The Spanish simply made it easier to say.)…It is, indeed, one of the oldest spas in Texas. In the late 1880s, there were four passenger trains daily in and out of Rockport, carrying tourists to and from San Antonio and Houston, and points north. There was a three-story hotel covering a city block… beaches alive with "bloomer girls in coveralls and pretty maids 'neath parasols."… Colonel George W. Fulton, a cousin of the steamboat's inventor, foresaw in 1869 this vision…mighty factories belching the smoke of Profit and Progress! Promoters of those days were calling Rockport "the Chicago of the South." Their optimism, if that is the word, was based on the location there of eight meat-packing enterprises. But the operations scarcely rivaled those of Chicago. Cattle, thousands of them, were rendered mainly for their hide and tallow; the beef itself, most of it, became food for fish and seagulls, transportation of it to northern markets being impractical in that day.… [Today] there is no meat packing whatever in Rockport, although a number of important ranches are nearby. There is, however, a thriving shrimp and commercial fishing fleet with attendant processing, and a spinoff specialized ship-building industry. Crabbing is of some importance, too, a fact attested to by a huge monument to the crab gracing the entrance to a lovely seaside park in downtown Rockport. But heavy industry is nowhere to be seen, nor is the smoke of Profit and Progress.… Rockport now fabricates and merchandises with singular flair, a life mode that…"is a little bit Cape Coddish."…

The main part of Palm Harbor is like a City By the Sea…houses with canals at the front/back door for boats. The travel trailer part is at the end of the city with a lighted breakwater on the edge of the Intercoastal Waterway where we fish. Lots of gulls (the ones with black heads) and we see geese flying over in great flocks. Guess they are on the way to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge a few miles up the coast…we are going there soon to see what we can, like enormous Texas deer and many different birds.

We are catching fish mostly for fun so far…what it is we catch we are not sure of (even with the fish book I bought in Florida)…pinfish, bream (brim), perch…everyone tells us different names. Whatever they are hit hard and are fun to get in…most of them are little, so unless they are hooked so that they are hurt, we let them go again. If they are hurt too badly, we save them for bait. Harry caught a flounder (which we want), but it was too little to save for fillets, so he let it go…one of these days. One afternoon I caught two fish at once…the hook went through the gill of the first one, bait and all, and a second hungry fish took it.…

I had just written a card home to Seattle saying what nice weather we had so far, when the Houston radio station said that they expected high winds and rain…and Thursday night late (within 15 minutes of the forecast time) we got winds here. The winds shook the trailer—some gusts 35 or 40 miles—and we had rain, too. The next forecast said that we would get winds and rain from the Brownsville area, and we did. Thursday and Friday nights we did not sleep too well…gusts of wind kept waking us up…but Saturday night was better with just a little rain. Today (Sunday) the sun is shining again.

Weather must be as hard to forecast here as it was in Blackstone, Massachusetts, a large variety of weather in a comparatively small area. The Houston weather was caused by something coming from the northwest going on east, and what we got came from the south! Quite frankly, the whole thing here was rather like a gale that we have at home in the winter…"Washington has lots of rain."

We spent our time penned up in Trailer playing Dominoes…a very fascinating game now that we have learned to play. Only wish we had played as well with Jean and Roland! One of our games went to over 400 each in the first round…but we had to learn to play the game with the help of Jean and Roland.

Saturday we needed milk and more chili powder (it was a chili day…joke) so we went to Aransas Pass which is about 7 miles south of Palm Harbor…Rockport is about 5 miles north. We had Mexican food for lunch…very good. One of these days we will go to Port Aransas and go shelling and beachcombing.…

I think I am spoiled…laundry here is 50¢, and for a long time I was used to 25¢.…

11/15-11/21/76
Mail came today with lots of goodies…11/15.

This morning we went in to Rockport to get our Swine Flu shpots…no reaction. We had asked for a recommendation of an eye doctor in Rockport so I could get new glasses, and Monday afternoon my eyes were checked and I am to pick up my new glasses next week. We plan to Mastercharge them, send the check to Seattle, and turn the paid bill in to the insurance company. If and when the insurance pays Chris can send the check ot our checking account in Chehalis…only hope the insurance picks up most of it.

Deer season opened here in east Texas on the 15th…they are supposed to be plentiful this year.

I quote from the Corpus Christi Caller of 11/20…

The drip, drip, drip of excess rain should end by noon today as the low pressure system that has been funneling moisture-laden air into south Texas all week weakens and gives up.…Partly cloudy skies—and maybe some sun—should take over during the afternoon, ending the slow south Texas water torture that has trickled measurable rainfall onto Corpus Christi streets and heads during six of the last eight days.… This week's rain has been characteristic of an unusually wet year. Though 1976 started out looking like a drought, Corpus Christi has received an official 36.06 inches of rain, a full 9.61 inches above normal.…

Saturday the sun did come out, and today (Sunday) is nice, too. We only hope the weather will stay nice for a while. We used lots of propane in the furnace during the wet and cold weather…we have to pay for electricity here at the park, so it was a tossup whether to use the heater or the furnace.

I finally have finished the flag of the states to fly from Trailer. It shows squares for all 50 states filled in with post-office abbreviations for those we have been in on this trip, and with stars for those we missed…Alaska, Hawaii, Delaware, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. New Mexico, Arizona, and Idaho are still blanks. NM and AZ are for sure, but we do not know about ID at this time. I got the basic idea from a lady in the park at Natchez last May, but she was entering the states in the order they were admitted to the Union while mine are alphabetical.

The Houston radio station tat we listen to most of the time has lots of talk shows…one we heard about was to be about sentencing convicted criminals to jail to full terms with no possibility of parole. The program was called "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time."

11/22-11/28/76
Monday we went for a ride out to Padre Island…from Aransas Pass to Port Aransas by way of a free ferry. There were 4 or 5 ferries running on a very short trip, so we had to wait only a short time. We heard that in the summer cars stack up and have to wait several hours to make the trip. We went beachcombing on Padre Island, but didn't find any good shells. There were lots of surf fishermen with waders out in real waves…the Gulf in Florida was not nearly as rough. We did not find any Portuguese Men of War, either…we had heard that these jellyfish might be on Padre Island. We stopped to fish at a canal on the way back to Corpus Christi…I stopped very fast when I realized that I had not brought my fishing license with me. Texas requires a license to fish in saltwater…not expensive…only $4.25 a year…and that takes care of all fishing in Texas. If Harry were 65…a senior citizen…the license is free. We came back through Corpus Christi over a long causeway past the Naval Air Station. Naturally we got lost for a while—"I am going to get me a NEW navigator!"—but finally found U.S. 181 and State 35 to get back to Rockport. We saw "beautiful" downtown Corpus Christi anyway.

There is an Ashland Chemical Plant "Carbon Black-Synthetic Rubber" on the highway between here and Aransas Pass. We call it Big Stinky, but it really doesn't smell as much as the pulp mills in Longview and Port Townsend. We only wish that we could find Ashland gasoline again as we did in Ohio and Kentucky…Truck really liked that gasoline.

Tuesday my glasses were ready…almost Granny glasses. We used Mastercharge to pay for them $77—and sent in the insurance papers to Seattle. Hopefully, the insurance will pay most of the cost, and they will send the check so it can be deposited in our checking account in Chehalis…will send a check to pay the Mastercharge.

Wednesday we left for San Antonio which is only a 3-hour drive from here. There are lots of rice fields—big and very flat—until about halfway to S.A.…then low rolling hills and lots of cattle. Later we heard that the Texas Bluebonnets grow along the road in the spring (the state plants them for tourists to admire) and that there are lots of cotton and peanuts grown near S.A., too…the wrong time of the year for us to see them.

We had started out not knowing where we were to stay, but found the Chamber of Commerce right downtown…we were on the right side of the street on a one-way street to turn into the parking lot! Anyway, they told us about a motel only 2 short blocks from the Alamo…we registered for only $15 a night! We went to the Alamo Theater and Museum…a description of the battle, and we found that the Museum is really a part of the Alamo…a street named Alamo Plaza now separated it from the main part. The film really made heroes out of the fellows…Jim Bowie, David Crockett, Travis, Bonham…and a thorough coward of Steven Fannin, the commander of the Goliad fort. We walked all over town trying to find a typewriter ribbon…it was an excuse to have fun, and save the Alamo for Thanksgiving Day when nothing else would be open.

When we went back to the motel before dinner I looked in the telephone book just because there wasn't anything else to do while Harry took a nap. I found seven Hawes names and two Ashbrooks. Local calls were free so I called an Ashbrook name…and think we hit the jackpot. This John Ashbrook said his family had come from Virginia early in the 1800s to Ohio and then to Illinois, that a family name is James and Aaron (Pop's name was James Aaron!), and that they have a family reunion each year in Matoon (Mattoon?), Illinois. He said that he and his brother Donald wanted to meet us, and asked us to go to Thanksgiving Dinner with them! We told him that we had planned to find a place in San Antonio…but he insisted that they would come for us! So we accepted…(we wanted to meet him and his brother, too…he said they had the family history from an original John Ashbrook who came to Pennsylvania in 1682…and, you can believe that we would like to have a copy of it!). Besides, we wouldn't have to eat alone like lonesome polecats!

We had a wonderful Mexican dinner on the river at the Casa Rio, and then took a boat ride on the San Antonio River which makes a horseshoe through downtown S.A.

a lovely, peaceful, winding river in the heart of a bustling city? Impossible!…a lazy old river was revitalized a few years ago, and it is the center of fun and relaxation for visitors and San Antonians alike. One story below the daily traffic jams, winds a separate world, a river community called Paseo del Rio… For years the area was neglected, and it became overgrown and flooded frequently. It was of little use to anyone. Gradually, however, people began to think about the potential of the river area.… a major entertainment center? It could, and it was…winding stone stairways down to the river…trees, shrubs, cobblestone paths, and balconies overlooking the river bend…a unique community…many small shops, restaurants, clubs and hotels… HemisFair Plaza, the site of the 1968 World's Fair, and the imposing 750-foot tall Tower of the Americas, are near the river. From the revolving restaurant or the observation deck at the summit of the Tower, you can see the city as it gradually fades into the Texas hills.…

Thursday we waked up to a warm, constant rain…so we stayed in all morning and part of the afternoon…we could find breakfast at the motel coffee shop. We played Dominoes, watched football games, etc.…until we decided rain or no we must go to see the Alamo…so on with leather coats and hats and boots, and away we went…two short blocks and we would have been soaked had we not been dressed for rain.

The Alamo Museum is fascinating…many momentoes of Crockett and a real Bowie knife and a Kentucky rifle said to have been Davy Crockett's. There are replicas of guns given by Colt and Winchester Arms…everything is well worth seeing, and admission is FREE.

I quote from Scene magazine…

"Remember the Alamo" is one of the most significant battle cries in the history of any nation. The story of the Alamo tells of much more than just a battle; it is a heroic epic of valor, sacrifice—and tragedy. It began in 1836.…For several months, fierce skirmishes and battles had raged around San Antonio, where was centered Texas's fight for independence from Mexico—rather from the tyranny of the Mexican President-Dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. This was a fight whose cause was supported both in principle and in fact by conscientious Mexican patriots of all classes, as well as liberty-seeking Texans.…The scales of war were precariously balanced in favor of the Texans after an important victory over General Martin Perfecto de Cos, brother-in-law of Santa Anna, who was forced to surrender the Battle of Bexar (San Antonio) in December 1835. Determined to revenge this humiliating defeat, the tyrant Santa Anna and the first of his mighty troops entered San Antonio on February 23, 1836.… The defending Texans, under the command of William B. (Barrett) Travis and James Bowie, numberred only about 187 citizen-soldiers, as compared with Santa Anna's army of 5,000. Resolved to halt the Mexican general in his march on the colonies, the Texans took their stand behind the thick walls of the Alamo, then an abandoned mission. Santa Anna's defense-weakening siege of the Alamo began on February 23 when the Texans replied to his request for a surrender with a cannon shot.… The siege lasted thirteen days, from February 23 to the morning of March 6 when the Mexican forces stormed over the walls of the old mission, and overwhelmed the stalwart defenders who, ammunition exhausted, resorted to hand-to-hand fighting with crude weapons. Each and every Alamo defender died fighting, including Bowie from his sick bed, and Davy Crockett at the post assigned him by Travis. All bodies were burned at Santa Anna's order. The only surviviors were 16 women and children noncombatants. Mexican losses numbered almost 1600.…

The weather was too awful to try to take the walk along the river…Paseo del Rio was not for us this time.

John and Donald came for us at 6:30 for dinner…it seemed miles to the Canyon Creek Country Club, and we worried to ourselves…"ties?"…"pants suit?"…but all was well…we had a very good dinner with much too much to eat. Both of the fellows are very nice…Jack is 44 and lives with his mother who is visiting in Illinois over the holidays, and Donald is 52 and retired from the Navy…we never did find out what Jack did…but he has a sailboat that he plans to christen soon…and take to Corpus Christi to anchor. It is a 24-foot one that looks much like Garden Tools. He, too, has a sign on his car that says "I'd rather be sailing"…and he talks about going across the Atlantic by himself…if his mother doesn't find out!!

After dinner Jack took us to his house where he called his mother to find out where the Ashbrook family history was…we found it, and it is fascinating. Now if Goldie and I are lucky we will find two missing generations…maybe? We know that Pop was born in 1884, and that his father was Billie and his mother Nancie (from the marriage license we found in Wise, Virginia)…Pop came from Russell County according to that…now to find out about Chesterfield County and Gloucester County. Goldie will have to help. I talked to Jack's mother and cousin in Illinois, and they said that they would send a copy of the history to us…either here in Rockport or to Seattle. And Jack said that he would bring his mother to see us here in a week or so…we will take them to dinner when we find a nice place to go.

Jack took us on a tour of San Antonio on the way back to the motel…past the Spanish Governor's palace and the Mexican Market (more than 2 blocks long). He told us that the San Antonio River floods, and that they close the gates to keep the tourist part open and calm! He said that S.A. has lots of light industries…electronics and data processing, as well as jet repair and conversion. There are many service facilities in S.A.…Brooks Air Force Base, Fort Sam Houston, Kelly Air Force Base, Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base. San Antonio is a busy, busy place what with the Service and Tourists and the light industry.… They don't really want heavy industry, although Jack said they have some steel fabricating plants. You can tell that we enjoyed the Ashbrooks, who may be related?? ??

The weather reports said that a storm was coming in from the Rockies on Saturday…so on Friday, a lovely day, we took off for Rockport. And are we glad that we came back! The storm hit here Saturday noon…a blue Norther…and today we see icecycles hanging form the rock shield of the trailer! There are travelers warnings out now, and the roads from San Antonio are closed! We have snow, sleet and freezing rain here and in Houston…come to Texas for the winter. Unusual weather, of course. Harry says that they do everyting BIG here in Texas, but what a way to settle the dust, and I say that now I know why they all wear Boots!

The San Antonio Light has an Action Line column:

English, of course, is the most widely spoken language in Texas, and Spanish is second. What is the third?… the three most widely spoken languages in Texas are English, Spanish, and German, in that order. The population in the southern part of the state is heavily Spanish. As you move north and west of San Antonio you lose this heavy concentration of Spanish-speaking people, and English becomes more prominent. Most German speakers are in the hill country north of San Antonio, and are descendants of the area's early German settlers.…the fourth most widely spoken language in Texas is Czech, with Polish and Slavic peoples in Houston and Waco…the fifth is Chinese…

Our last mail from Seattle was on November 15…hope for more tomorrow…or the next day.

11/29-12/4/76
We have discovered that our San Antionio trip cost us less than $65…and we had a great time. Christine writes that their Thanksgiving turkey is Hortense!! My turkeys were always Mabel or Thomas…common ordinary names…do wish I had thought of Hortense.

Here there is a big camp cat named Ringo…with eyes like Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion. She now comes to see us almost every day, and whien she is in the trailer she stands in front of the refrigerator…how can I resist? Harry lifted her the other day to put her out, and he found out how heavy she is. She gets all the fish cleaning stuff at the pier to keep her happy and healthy…when she is not bumming at the trailers.

We have several very nice neighbors here…Fred and Sally Strong from Illinois, and Marge and Bill Bland from Brookings, Oregon. Marge and Bill like to fish, too…just wish that the weather would settle down!

I got the best haircut ever at a man's barbershop in Aransas Pass…a woman barber. We bought ourselves a new Christmas tree at the dime store (Winn's)…I refused to dig out and remake the net tree from last year. Our new tree has blinking lights…and we plan to put it into a side window—or maybe hang it from the front window?

12/5-12/10/76
We decided to go to the Rio Grande Valley to see our friends…the weather here has been so awful that we decided to see if we could find a place to stay for a month in the Valley. Friends Marge and Bill said that they would watch our trailer while we were gone. We have lost nothing, but there have been motors and fishpoles and other goodies stolen here. Boats?…or kids and/or people from town?

We left here Sunday December 5 in the most horrible rainstorm, but by the time we got to Kingstown there was no more rain (we heard later that it rained here until Monday night). We saw many cotton fields on the way down, and a warehouse that said "delinted cotton." We do wish that we knew the name of the fluffy trees that we see along the road…like pines but much daintier. When we were close to Harlingen, we saw fileds of cabbage, pineapple, sugar cane…and there were trucks and trailers of cabbage in town. We thought of making sauerkraut. The palm trees are very tall and skinny down in the Valley…more like the ones in Hawaii.

We found our friends in Harlingen (Ed and Pat Hoffman) and in Alamo (Lenora and Willard Burns)…we really surprised them! Lenora and Willard went with us to find our motel, and then we called the Hoffmans to come for a Happy Hour with us. The guys went out for Kentucky Fried Chicken…and we had a wonderful reunion in the motel room for several hours.

Monday Ed and Pat went with us to look for a place for us to stay down there in the Valley. The place where they are is too big and too expensive…and the one where Lenora and Willard is the right price, but too big… We are almost sorry that we saw one place in Brownsville which was really wonderful…but $140 a month! Some of the places were nice and the right price, but very muddy…we almost gave up. But after we left Pat and Ed we found one that we liked while going back to our motel…and paid for it through January 15.

We went to tell Lenora and Willard what we had found, and we all went out to dinner together. Later Willard gave us a guided tour of McAllen and the towns farther out in the Valley. We do think that we will like it down here.…

Before we left town Tuesday we stopped to tell Pat and Ed where we would be. On the way back we saw a fire in the far distance…discovered later that it was more than 30 miles away. A natural gas well had exploded near Robbstown.

Marge and Bill liked the exploring we had done in the Valley, and they decided to leave here the day after we got back. We can hope that they are close, or at the same place that we are.

I have finally finished our Christmas cards, and have written cards to tell people that we will have a new address. We called Seattle the night of December 7 and talked to Mary. The package from Seattle arrived the night of December 8.… Harry says it does not rattle, but I still will not let him open it!

We bought oranges and grapefruit at a stand near Harlingen…the naval oranges are bigger than the grapefruit (we had bought the smaller red grapefruit). Pear tomatoes are new to us…but are very good.

12/13/76
Thursday we tried to fish again, but it is just too cold! and the wind is from the wrong direction? We have been told that a northeast wind is a no-no. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold and rainy again…the Valley sounds better and better.

The new sparkplugs on the Truck seem to have made a difference…the milage was 328 miles on the regular tank and we put 23.2 gallons in…14 plus miles per. We charged the gas at Texaco and will send the slip to Seattle with a check to cover.

Harry's Cardinal reel had broken so we went in today to pick it up at the tackle shop…only $1.75 to repair it. We bought oysters for our supper…good. Jean writes that Roland is not doing well at all.…

I lent my typewriter to a nice lady from Minnesota…and now I must figure out where she left the tabs and margins.…

We went into Rockport today to tell the bank that we thought they had been very good to us…and did they have a branch bank in the Valley? "No…but here is my card, and have a bank in the Valley call us.…" People here in Rockport have been very nice to us.

We have been charging our gasoline this month…hoping to be able to avoid buying as many traveler's checks next month…maybe.

I have lots more to quote from the newspapers here…this is priceless…Corpus Christi Caller 12/12/76

Tourist business is as gloomy as the skies.…Some days the temperature suggested nothing so much as a fine day to spruce up your igloo…an awful lot of cancellations at hotels over Thanksgiving…as much as 50%…not the most radiant of autumns in South Texas. Many of those who checked out headed south for the Valley where the weather was not a great deal better. Those on short vacations just turned north and headed home…the road to the Port Aransas ferry was jammed with the campers of snowbirds heading home…a cold spell as early as this hurts you, but things will come back.…

12/15/76
We said goodbye this morning to the nice people here in Palm Harbor and had a nice trip down to Harlingen…no rain, no wind, and even some sunshine. We saw roadrunners on the way down…the first we had ever seen. There is an enormous plant near the town of Bishop on the way down to U.S. 77…a refinery??? There is a long stretch of about 54 miles with nothing along the highway…big ranches, I guess. Anyway, from Sarita to almost Raymondsville there is absolutely nothing but a few relay stations…towns are named, but "this is a nice town we are coming to, wasn't it?"…

We were just getting settled in our spot in Emerald Grove Park when Pat Hffman came by to invite us for dinner with them at their trailer in Paradise Park. We did accept for dinner but not for the dance afterwards…they didn't go to the dance, either, but made us stay to learn to play Mexican Dominoes (which is the popular game here)…we still like the game that Roland and Jean taught us last summer much better, but "when in Rome…?"

Our spaces here are very nice…there is room for the trailer and the truck between grapefruit trees that are loaded with fruit. We share a space with only one other trailer and truck, and the way we are situated we have a lot of privacy. Our Kansas neighbors are very nice…she makes sure that we know what is going on in the park, and wants us to always join in the goings-on. We are welcome to help ourselves to all the grapefruit we want, and the oranges in the next lot, too…we made orange juice that was so-o-o sweet, and the grapefruit needs just a little sugar. We hear that in a couple of weeks the grapefruit will be sweet, too.…

We missed the first potluck supper here because we had gone for dinner with Pat and Ed Hoffman…but we did go to the pancake supper on Friday 12/17…very nice. Bingo is on Monday night, and they have nailed Harry to call for them while we are here…I won!! We did go to the potluck on Wednesday 12/22…"take enough of something for 8, and your own table service"…I took that cabbage salad with pineapple and miniature marshmallows which everyone seems to like.

We went to the Confederate Air Force Museum on Tuesday 12/21 with Pat and Ed. We had thought we would go shelling on South Padre Island and maybe fishing at Port Isabel, but the weather was awful…and we all decided to go to the museum. It is fascinating…World War II and earlier airplanes that are "flyable"…all those who belong to the CAF are Colonels (no one outranks anyone!) and the Leader is called "Jethro P. Culpepper"…nonexistent, but he had his own staff car and parking space.

…in the mid 50's, for pleasure, a group of ex-service pilots in the Valley bought a North American P-51 Mustang fighter sold as Air Force surplus. The men became enthusiastic and added other WWII aircraft to the collection, and as a result interest grew in preserving the fighter-type of aircraft in that world conflict. The men organized the Confederate Air Force and dedicated themselves, their time, money, and effort to these objectives.…by 1965 the CAF had 170 officer-members and an investment of $306,000 in aircraft and buildings…as the first bombers began to arrive it became obvious that the runway was not sufficient in length or base to support the heavy aircraft. In 1968, the CAF received and accepted an invitation from the enthusiastic and patriotic citizens of Harlingen, to move the "Ghost Squadron" and establish CAF headquarters at the International Airport…three large hangars…

We have found so many "tourist" papers here, and now know that the Valley was a nothing until the early 1900s when the railroad finally came through…and Harlingen was named for a Dutch town "Van Harlingen"…

We have heard that the tall palm trees here were planted on the resadas, but they are truly lovely…along with the shorter palms. The tall palms do make a wonderful skyline.…

Nextdoor neighbor Creta Baker came to pry me out the other morning to go to the Mall in Harlingen with her…I needed to buy a man's present for the gift exchange and was delighted that she asked me to go with her. I had a present for a woman (net hat) and found one for a man. It was a completely different gift exchange…trades all over the place before the evening was over. Harry ended up with the Stanley screwdriver that had gone everywhere all evening!! me, I almost kept the casserole that I had for a while. (Harry really wanted the dart game that was taken away early in the evening.…)

Our Christmas dinner was very nice at the Clubhouse…the owners furnished the turkey, coffee, etc., and we all bought potluck to go with the dinner. We fussed with the telephone outside for a while, but could never get even the operator…the manager let us call from the office, and we talked to everyone in Seattle on Xmas night.…

12/26/76
Football!!

12/27/76
Today we went shopping for the after-Christmas sales…looked for a new bedspread for Trailer, but found none the right color. I did find a new housecoat for me—one with butterflies! Did I ever mention that we thought Chris and Ed were giving us the opportunity to be butterflies! No bills to pay, no house to worry about, mail is taken care of…we can just be lazy and have fun.

We had lots of mail for the post office—books and film, as well as letters—and we needed stamps. We went to Alamo to see Lenora and Willard, but did not find them home—left the books and oranges for them, as well as a note. On the way back through Donna we stopped at Big Valley Trailer Park to see Fred and Sally who also had moved down here from Rockport.…

Lots of boat-tailed grackles here…they have a crazy laugh and also a wolf whistle.…

12/28/76
Today was another nice day so we called to make an appointment to go on a tour of the sugar mill at Santa Rosa…only to find that there are to be no more tours this year because they are just trying to harvest the sugar cane…the weather has been so awful that fields are flooded and/or muddy…equipment cannot get into the fields. We saw TV news coverage that showed them lifting cabbage out of the fields by helicopter. (We can buy wonderful solid heads of cabbage for 10¢ each, though.)…and we have discovered JICAMA—hick'-a-mah—which is like an enormous regular turnip but with a skin. One peels it and cuts it into strips…eat like raw turnips or carrots…it is sweet and quite watery, and very, very good! It only grows in Mexico…wonder if it is ever in the markets at home?

An article in the Valley Morning Star 1/2/77 says

It is difficult for anyone to remember when the Valley ended a year with such difficult harvest conditions as now exist… The prolonged rainy weather has seriously crimped the harvest processes all around. Citrus buying has been restrained because much citrus, already bought, can't be harvested because of muddy groves. The sugarcane stands in mud, much of it inaccessible to harvest crews, and sugar processing is months behind.… Light supplies of cabbage, carrots and peppers have been "mudded out" for the market, but some vegetables were just plain lost to the wet conditions.… A few long days of sunshine would help a lot.… Meanwhile, many cotton and grain growers have been unable to complete land preparation and herbicide planning for the 1977 crops, and planting time is just around the corner.…

No sugar mill tour, so we decided to go to the TexSun Citrus Plant in Weslaco…very interesting. The pulp and rind from the oranges and grapefruit are dehydrated and made into cattle food pellets. We came back through Elsa and Santa Rosa to see the sugar house and the cane fields anyway.

While we were gone Lenora and Willard were here two times…we left at 12:55, they were here at 1:10—we came back at 3:15, and they were here the second time at 2:45! they left a note, t.g.

12/30/76
We are at the intersectin of Business 83 and FM 800, so today we decided to go down to the Rio Grande on FM 800. We wandered through farm country for miles and finally found U.S. 281 along the river and came to the town of Progresso the long way around…acres and acres of sugarcane, but no sugar mill, unfortunately. We did stop at the bridge to see the Rio Grande River for the first time…not too impressed.

We came back through Mercedes and on to Valley Traveland to look at Trailers (just to have something to do!). There was one Carriage Trailer that had just been sold…35 feet long and double tipouts—one in the living area and one in the bedroom area. The people planned to bring it back and forth fall and winter from Kansas! We did like a 25-foot Holiday (someday maybe?)…but were really impressed by a 35-foot Holiday—Presidential Limited. Would you believe a built-in corner TV and bar, a stereo, a microwave oven, a Magic Chef stove with the overhead oven, plug-ins on the countertop with a blender, an ice maker, a very large bath with Venetian blinds, a big bedroom, beautiful paneling…and we found out later that we had missed the garbage disposal! Actually a house on wheels!! and who would want to travel with it?

1/1-1/5/77
New Year's Eve we stayed at home rather than go to the party at the Rec Hall…we were both trying to get colds, so we played Dominoes and watched the New Year come in…still don't believe 1977! We did get colds, but bless Contact! and the juice that we make from the oranges and grapefruit here in the park.

When we felt better we went to see Lenora and Willard again on Tuesday 1/4…made a date to go with them Friday to a Good Sam potluck in Mission. They were not there when we came, but had left a note saying when they would be back, so we did find some time this time.

Found some very good corned beef to go with our 10¢ cabbage…and turkey, ham, too.

1/6/77
Today we had our pictures taken at the Rec Hall. The man took lots of proofs…we are supposed to get a free book from the Park (and naturally, we know, the photographer hopes we will order pictures!) we may, but it will depend on whether we can see the proofs before we leave…and the price, of course!…For the first time in 19 months I got Harry into a coat and a tie (to have his picture taken) and he was to take me for dinner in town! But he did not feel good enough to have Mexican food…so we are going to wait for another "dress-up" day…he promised! Me…I have worn a dress only twice in 19 months…once in Blackstone, and once in Andover!!

1/7/77
This morning there was a Pink dawn so we knew that the day would be nice! I had fixed a cabbage salad with marshmallows and the very sweet oranges from the park to take to the potluck (Lenora took a Snack Cake). We found the Community Centy in Mission with no difficulty…would you believe about 600 people there for a noon potluck!! Lots of good food at our table…one went to the left around the table taking what was available rather than passing the food, which is really a good idea…because of course the table next to us had fried chicken! We met some very nice people (Kansas, Oklahoma, natch!) and enjoyed our lunch/dinner.…

The fellows all got up to tell jokes…all variations of the ones Harry has told for years…and then there was a Fashion Show…a breakfast dress (with toast to eat), a Tea Dress (with tea bags), a Box suit (she wore a BOX), a cocktail dress (dressed like a rooster!), a "CanCan" dress (with cans, of course), a double-breasted suit (front and back with a mask on the back to really confuse one!). One man wore a knit suit (long underwear), and of course there was a paper dress.… The last one was a very lame old lady in an evening gown (a long-sleeved red nightgown and she had an accessory—a chamberpot!). I almost forgot to mention the Sack Dress—potato. The Commentator acted as though it were really a fashion show, and the music was right, too.

Later they drew for door prizes…Willard's number was 4453 and Harry's 4451, and would you believe that they finally drew 4452??! Lots of canes, pillows, potholders, and square batteries…and lovely bouquets of flowers…no, we did not win!

It was only 2:30 when we left so we decided to go to Reynosa which has a population of 185,000. We have neer been impressed with border towns, and this one was no better…broken, narrow, dirty streets…food being prepared on the dusty corners, beggars (little babies with their mother? wiht runny noses? "5 cents?…penny?")…there were old men with bandages on terrible sores (no! I decided that I did not really believe it until I saw an old lady going through a garbage box sorting out what she wanted!). The poor old thing…I could have cried, but was too busy watching my purse for pickpockets! We had heard that they are much busier in Matamoros, so we left all but a few traveler's checks and our driver's license here, just in case.…

We went to the Market (after walking across the bridge…insurance in Mexico?) We were shopping for a belt for Harry and finally found the one he liked and the one that was the right price…one shop said $9.95 and came down to $5 in a hurry…finally found one for $2.95 that was just right. Me, I had heard about the Soap that is made by Procter & Gamble (only sold in Mexico) that must work like old Fels-Naptha…"ring around the collar"…both Lenora and I bought a couple of bars, and I found some postcards of Reynosa.

We were ready to stop for a rest…walking across the bridge and through the shops and the market…so we found a nice hotel bar to have some Mexican beer. Harry goofed, and ordered a highball with WATER, until Lenora and I said "Montezuma's revenge" so he had straight whiskey…no ice…He said the whiskey was HOT…we can see why only those who are used to Mexican whiskey bring it back across the border. Our waiter was the busiest, nicest man…and we had the cleanest ashtrays! and there was no "trash" in our bar, either…a couple of men went through with a carton of Pall Mall Filter cigarettes…$3.50…I said "no" because of the wrong brand, but the price was $2…so i decided that I would learn to light the right end! Cigarettes are over $5.00 in Texas! Carta Blanca beer is good.…

When we went across the bridge on foot we paid 10¢ each to go through the turnstyles…but when we came back I heard the Mexican attendant say "Mexican Money!" so the guys bought pesos…4 for a nickel! The peso is now 20 to 1…which makes us wonder what the Canadian money is now? Our money is no good, either!! Anyway, the turnstyles took only money the size of our 50¢ pieces.…

And we were impressed by the size of the Rio Grande River when we crossed the bridge…and we forgot our camera in the Truck, of course!! But I did buy some postcards.…

It was a GOOD DAY…and we plan a Mexican dinner in Harlingen next week.

1/9/77
Today we went to Brownsville with Pat and Ed hoping to find the shopping center at Amigoland open…no on a Sunday here…so we prowled around Brownsville anyway, and ate our lunch/dinner there…we had all decided that we did not want to go over the border again (the fellows really wanted to get back to watch the Super Bowl!)…Pat wanted to teach me to play Shuffleboard (no one had ever had time to do this before!!). We played Shuffleboard and Dominoes while the guys were watching the Super Bowl game…another very good day, and we will miss Pat and Ed when we leave.

Tomorrow we play our last Bingo game here…Harry has been replaced by the caller who came back for the rest of the winter (he isn't as good a caller!!).

1/10-1/14/77
We went to a bank in Weslaco to buy our traveler's check for January—no problem because here they like and want Winter Texans. Did we ever say that we had no reactions from our flu shots in Rockport? We are glad that we had them because who would want to be ill in a 20-foot trailer? or anywhere?!

Quite often we take Expressway 83 to move from one town to another here in the Valley—towns of 7 or 8 thousand are right next to each other all the way from Harlingen to Mission—and Business 83 seems rather like a Death Row. Three lanes—the center one for passing—and with "my cozzins" driving!…they cross where they want and ignore the traffic lights completely. You can believe that we do stay alert, and Harry says that he likes his side seat driver.…

Hopefully the books for Jennie's birthday got there in time…we found A.A. Milne books in the KOA at Columbus, Texas, and they could be repaired. We have sent for the license tabs for Truck and Trailer…$124.98! Trailer is until 4/27/78, and Truck is until sometime in May of 78. We have asked that they be sent to Hobbs, N.M.

We made 7 pints of sauerkraut on January 10…only took 2½ heads of the good 10¢ a head cabbage here in the Valley. We saw on TV where they could not get into the fields with trucks to pick up the cabbage, and were hauling it out by sacks with a helicopter. Most of the fields are either under water, or so muddy that no equipment can get into them. Not only the current harvest is hurt, but spring crops are being delayed. While we were finishing the sauerkraut, Fred and Sally Strong (from Illinois that we had met at Rockport) came to visit us…they laughted at what we were doing, of course!

On the 11th we fixed a leaky faucet in the sink in "kitchen," and bought new screen for the door…and it rained again so we didn't get the screen in. Nag List goes on!

We played one game of Dominoes that went all over the table with only one draw before Harry (or course) won the game…he is about 8 games ahead of me now.

On the 13th we went to Harlingen for a Mexican dinner with Lenora and Willard. When we finally found the restaurant that had been recommended to us, it was very good. Said goodbye to them for a while.… Friday night we went to the pancake supper at our park to say goodbye to our friends…we have met some very nice people here.

1/15/77
Today we left Emerald Grove in a "mist," but soon after Mission it was a lovely day all the way to Carrizo Springs…mostly along the Rio Grande River. The Freeway exits and on ramps here in the Valley are wonderful…frontage roads run parallel to the Freeway…guess it can be done because of the "flatlands"…

Before we got to Laredo, we found hills and cattle and horse ranches instead of the truck farms. Falcon Dam is lovely, but it was much too early to stop for the night. We had planned to stop at Laredo (in spite of the rabies scare), but missed the KOA signs, so we went on to Carrizo Springs driving through cactus, cattle, and more rolling hills…there was an immigration check for Wetbacks where we had to stop…no problem for us, but imagine the Mexicans are caught. Carrizo Springs is 283 miles from Harlingen…had a good barbecue dinner there.

1/16/77
We bought an Eagle Pass newspaper with grocery ads printed in Spanish…must send it home for "show and tell." Today we found both cattle and vegetable farms, big pecan groves and lots of alfalfa. We heard later that the vegetable farms are being replaced by pecans. Del Rio and vicinity is famous for the wool they produce…lots of sheep and angora goats, and many wool sheds. As we came toward Langtry wehre there are climbing lanes for safer passing, I guess…because there are no real hills for them. A goofball driving a big fifth-wheeler passed us without a climbing lane just when we wanted to turn into a view point, so we did not see the river just before we got to Langtry.

Langtry is a ghost town, but full of history about Judge Roy Bean and the "law west of the Pecos"…the museum is very good. Judge Roy Bean had one law book, but it is doubtful that he ever used it…one story is about a man who got off the train to get something to eat at the saloon. He had only a $20 gold piece to pay for his 35¢ meal, and raised a fuss when the Judge said he had no change…so the Judge left his place behind the bar and became the Judge. He find the man $19.95 for disturbing the peace…the man just made the train out of town in time. The fishing in the Rio Grande here in Langtry is supposed to be great down near where the Judge staged a prize fight between Fitzsimmons and Maher in 1896…in the middle of the Rio Grande where neither Mexico, the United States, or the Texas Rangers could get at him. I traded paperbacks at the little restaurant not far from the trailer park…the owners had come from El Paso just because Langtry is not big. They told us that the people in town take turns going to Del Rio to shop for each other every month or so. 175 miles today.

1/17/77
Found wind current warnings in the cuts in the hills today…no problems. Lots mor sheep and angora…looked for deer and antelope along the road. After Fort Stockton the country is high flatland and much like a desert…and filled with oil wells. We spent the nights at Monahans…195 miles today.

1/18/77
Only about 60 miles into Hobbs today…where we found 3 oil wells working away right near where Alec and Laura Mae live. On the way into town there were signs for "drilling mud" and "blasting sand"…Alec explained what it meant, but I think it is necessary for caulking or something…necessary for the drilling rigs, anyway. We have maps of the Texas Trails, and I quote from "Riding the Pecos Trail"…

oil fields, equipment, drilling rigs, and related activities of the industry make up the Permian Basin picture…historical markers along the Pecos Trail tell of a past when fictional happenings were paled by true happenings of the oil boom era.… Tall derricks, called "jack-knife" rigs because they can be folded and moved have replaced permanent structures of wood and steel which marked drilling sites in earlier days. Pump jacks, whose nodding arms of steel are called walking beams, are weighted at one end while a cable at the other pulls oil from beneath the surface.…

Found a postcard with the following verse on the back…

The sun has riz and the sun has set
And here we are in Texas yet

Alec and Laura Mae have a lovely mobile home set on a big lot…room for Trailer in the back yard, and we insist on staying nights there…keeps from upsetting their house, although they do have lots of room…2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Our license tabs were waiting here for us.

@@@@@@…remember Peg Bracken?

1/19-1/31/77
We had a wonderful time with Laura Mae and Alec…finally really got acquainted with them.…and they are so very hospitable. Rides all over the countryside, lots of good food (both eating out and at home) and met some of her kids again…here are Ella May, Joyce, Corrine, Earl, and Josavel…Alec's are Claudella, Davalee, and Doris Ann. It was Claudella who lived in Olympia when we went there when Mary was a baby…all of Alec's kids now live near Dallas–Fort Worth, while Laura Mae's are scattered all over New Mexico and Texas. Ella May and Joyce live in Hobbs and Lovington, respectively. It was Ella May's husband, Bobby Hamlett, who took Harry and Alec on a tour of the potash mine where he is a foreman…he didn't really want to take us women because he said he would have too much erasing to do on the walls down in the mine! Graffiti!! Women do work down in the mine now at men's wages…The mine is owned by Kerr-Magee, and it is only one of about six or eight near Carlsbad—really about halfway between Hobbs and Carlsbad out in the middle of nowhere. Because I did not go on the trip (Harry should be writing this!) I am quite at a loss to tell about it…but they have small battery-operated jitneys to run around in the tunnels, the machinery is huge (it is taken apart to get it into the mine and reassembled down there)…the ceiling is the "back," the floor is the "bottom," and the sides are the "ribs"…and the tour Bobby took them on was almost 3 hours of exploring while Laura Mae and I sat in the car, talking and watching rabbits come into the parking lot!

We have had a variety of weather…snow one morning, ice on the windshield several mornings (Alec had de-icer, we didn't bring any!), and blowing dust several times when the temperature was over 65. I asked what the big pits in the country were…and found that it is "caliche" which is used for adobe…many of them near the oil well rigs.

Alec has worked for many years in a machine shop that takes care of the oil wells, so he knew where to find rigs that were drilling…on the 24th he took us out to some near Lovington and Maljamar. (We had thought we saw some between Jal and Hobbs on our way into town, but they were just overhauling the wells.) The crew boss, "tool something or other," which I will have to ask Alec someday what he is called…Harry can't remember either!…was very kind to us at all the wells we stopped to see…they let us climb all over them, and get in the way! Saw one young fellow with an enormous cup of "drilling mud" that he was testing in some way…and he was smoking right under a "no smoking" sign.

We have had more good food here with the Alexanders…venison, quail, Rio Grande catfish…all from the freezer and due to Alec. Laura Mae makes the best biscuits and hushpuppies…she is a wonderful cook! Alec goes fishing in Mexico across the river from Del Rio (I think) and comes back with fillets from 40-pound catfish! Laura Mae makes good cornbread, too…. We bring in as much food as we can, and help around the kitchen as much as possible…but we know their freezer must be depleted by now. Harry gave Alec a round tuit, and then fixed faucets and light fixtures that had been "put off"…Alec is officially retired, but does work at a machine shop nearby some days, mostly doing office work.

We started playing Mexican Dominoes with Double Sixes…which to us was no fun at all, so we introduced them to the Double Twelves, and then Double Nines. Found that Double Nines are great for four people, and the Double Twelves are required for six or eight people. Jean Weeks had told us that Double Fifteens are available, but we have never seen them. We are looking for a set of Double Twelves for Alec and Laura Mae…hard to find. We know this because we looked all the way from New England to Missouri before we found a set.

New Mexico has something called "cost of energy" which is added to both their gas and electric bills. It seems that the power companies are allowed a charge to bring the service to the customer each month…which can double their bills! Joyce from Lovington said her bill was more than $70 for gas…this in a gas-producing area. Laura Mae said hers was over $30, and that her electric bill was over $40!! and most of it was because of the "cost of energy" allowance.… Now we wonder about our gas bill at home?? which we knew has been increased since we left.

Now for the good news…we went to a shopping mall just to look, and came back with $18 and $16 pants for Harry that were on sale for $8 and $3…Farah, Levi, and Hagar.… Only when we got back Harry discovered that there was only one hip pocket in the good green ones. He was unhappy about it, so we women went back on Sunday to exchange them. He had told me to bring him a "surprise," so I did…clothes for me! They were on sale, too. So now I have some new slacks and tops.…

The Truck was due for servicing here…good thing because they discovered that the universal joints need replacing…$$$$

We finally managed to take Alec and Laura Mae out for dinner a couple of times… Harry announced that it was his turn to cook.

I did find a nice Mexican vase for the plants that Lenora had given me, and Laura Mae bought me an aloe vera plant…now to keep them alive if the weather gets cold!

We walked around 9 holes of golf one day with them, and it was fun and good exercise for us. Alec wonders why we don't take up golf…and we say that we have so much invested in fishing equipment (like $1000) that we don't think we can afford it…besides we like fishing.…

After much urging, I went to church with Alec and Laura Mae on the last Sunday evening we were in Hobbs.…I had to find a dress! The church is still standing, and I found that I knew none of the hymns, but I am glad that I went.

2/1/77
This morning we said goodbye to the nicest people, but we hope to see them in California in late April or early May—along with Ann and the Andersons. We found salt mines, as well as potash mines, on the way to Carlsbad this morning.… Guadalupe Pass is beautiful, and we are glad that we came this way rather than finding the freeway to El Paso…our ears popped in the mountains for the first time in months. In the park the north side of El Paso we saw two trailers with interesting and funny signs…a Nomad with "We Nomad R-U," and an Open Road with "Closed Road." We now have a sign (thanks to Laura Mae) that says "Grandma and Grandpa's Playhouse"…277 miles today.

2/2/77
Today we drove 270 miles from El Paso to Benson across high desert…the Continental Divide was between Deming and Lordsburg. We would not have known except for a sign along the road! The Stuckey Park we stayed at had lost their water wells, but we decided it made no difference because we are self-contained…didn't want to drive any farther today. Benson is the junction for Tombstone where we were enjoying ourselves about 15 years ago.…

2/3/77
We know that we like small towns and smaller campgrounds, so the map showed Coolidge for us…near enough to the cities and large enough to have all the shopping we need, so Ho Ho Kam we tried first. There was room for us here, and we hear that there is no room in Mesa or Apache Junction…so we are here for at least a month…$80 with the electricity less Good Sam.…

We called Seattle to say where we are, and talked to Sue this time…called Dick Roush in California and he said that he would/could be here Tuesday. Harry was speared by a century plant outside our door…he didn't watch for it! Another mean plant here is the Crucifixion, with lots of big mean thorns, as I have found out.

2/6/77
Today we went to Mesa to find friends from California that we had met last year in Florida…only to find that they were not at home. We left a note, and spent hours on the way back in a shopping mall where I found moccasins for me (had hunted for them for months and months…most comfortable walking shoes!) We went through Florence Junction, Apache Junction (the Superstition Mountains) and came back through Chandler.

2/7/77
Found Dominoes for Laura Mae and Alec, went to the Chamber of Commerce to find goodies, and found the tailpipe extension for Truck. Today was 73 which we liked! Dick came in this evening to find a place next door to us…he had not been able to find a place to stay before and after Phoenix this evening…

2/8/77
Today we went to the Casa Grande Ruins, which are just north of Coolidge…it is what is left (and protected) of an old adobe tower of the Indians who preceded the Pimas here in the Gila Bend country. Ho Ho Kam means "those who have gone" in the Pima language…it is possible that the old people were assimilated with the Pimas or did just go away.… Anyway, from the relics it is clear that they must have been in contact with the Aztecs in Mexico at some time, and they are the ones who first irrigated the Gila River Valley. Our landlady told us that the engineers who planned the irrigation here in the Valley could find no better places for the ditches than those used by the early Indians.…

2/11/77
Today tour-minded Mary nagged so we went to Roosevelt Dam (Theodore, that is) across the Superstition Mountains on the clockwise tour recommended by the map we have…glad we did this!! Fish Creek Canyon on a gravel road would scare one to death one way!! but we could go back through Miami and Superior without retracing that canyon. Roosevelt Dam is the first of the reclamation project dams started in 1906 and finished in 1912…and the lake is lovely up there in the mountains. But can you believe a gravel road for 24 miles with the grader behind us!?! So glad that Harry was driving! The Tonto Rim cliff dweller ruins were just after Roosevelt, so we stopped to see and admire.…Dick was not able to climb, and we had been to Mesa Verde so we did not go up the mountain, either…we could see the cliff dweller ruins from the museum below…and bought postcards as usual.

Came back through Globe, Miami, and Superior where the tailings from the copper mines are like mountains. Queen Creek Canyon is beautiful…paved and with wonderful and strange palisade-type mountains all the way…we hope to find a postcard of it when we go back for a tour of the mine at Miami…198 miles today.

2/13/77
The Coolidge Chamber of Commerce is great…today they have a Winter Visitors Dinner…a free ham dinner for all of us here who want to go. We did sign up, had our name tags, and a wonderful time. the state of Iowa had the most there—34. Wisconsin had 32, and Washington had 29!! Who is minding the store at home? We have signed for more Chamber of Commerce tours on the 17th and 18th.…

There is a nice gentleman here at the park from the North who has arthritis so badly that he cannot livve in the North, so he cooks for the park here…25¢ for soup each weekday, and dinners that one must sign for…he is a good cook! And we go as often as we can…can't fix lunch for 25¢.

2/15/77
Today we had an appointment with a man for the income tax…and then on to Casa Grande to look for trailer parks for us…see the income tax tomorrow?

2/16/77
Today I cleaned the Box in Truck…part of Nag List! and I nagged Harry to take care of part of his Nag List.…

Dick told me that those "fluffy Trees" are Tamarask…they grow in the desert with little water, and look wonderful.…

We missed the appointment with the income tax man…he forgot that his appointment for this morning was in Phoenix! So I had a lovely time with his office girl who is from Port Angeles (Crescent Lake) and made a new appointment for later. Meanwhile we missed the coffee hour here at the Park to tell us more about our trip to Mazatlan…but we have given them a $50 deposit and still owe $148 for the trip on 3/2/77.

2/17/77
Income tax is all squared away…will pick up the finished copies on Friday 2/25. Today we went on a Chamber of Commerce tour of the 400,000-acre Gila River Indian Reservation…they call it the Gila River Indian Community according to the signs on the police cars…Pima Indians. This was a tour where we took our own cars and followed the leader who was a lovely 87-year-old lady…cute and feisty. Most of the tour was to missions and Presbyterian churches…the old missions had paintings on the walls by an Indian—James Stevens. One painting of Jesus that he had painted at the age of 11 and attracted the notice of the teachers at the Indian School, and they saw that his talent was developed…I think he was an Apache Indian. We had lunch at the Central Arizona College near Coolidge…the college is a Career Center to teach Indian vocational trades, and the cafeteria was managed by the college kids. One of our stops was at the Ira Hayes Monument…he was one of the flag raisers at Iwo Jima. Unfortunately, he became an alcoholic and died soon after WWII…firewater for the Indians?

In a book I found about the Superstition Mountains I read where the Pima Indians irrigated their crops from the Gila River, and that there were fish in it…this was before the White Man diverted the water for their crops. The Gila River now seems to have no water in it…and the Indians are fighting in court for a share of some/any water.

We stopped at the Cultural Center near the freeway which is managed and owned by the Indians…only bought postcards, though. There were many beautiful things…pottery, baskets, and jewelry, but all too expensive for us. One sign said that "it was not true that the Indians were scalping the white man"… there were Acoma pottery bowls like the one that Mother bought me in 1934 near Gallup, New Mexico…but I am sure that thre price then was not $80!!

2/18/77
Today was another Chamber of Commerce tour to the Woodruff Ranch…a beautiful rock house built Santa Fe style by an Army family in the early 30s. Mrs. Woodruff told us that her father-in-law had been with the army who chased Pancho Villa across the border to Vera Cruz (and didn't catch him). Also the Woodruffs were related in some way to the Sanford White family—Harry K. Thaw and the "Girl in the Red Velvet Swing" was a murder scandal in the early 1900s. It seems that Miss Marth White had a Mexican cook in Santa Fe who was told to be sure to "wash her hands before cooking"…Miss White later asked where the wash water was…and was told that "it was in the bread"…

We all had taken our lunch with us, but Mrs. Woodruff had homemade lemon pies and punch for all of us. There was an enormous Saguaro cactus near the road which was a bird condominium…many kinds of birds made their homes in this one cactus, woodpeckers, wrens, swallows, and no doubt elf owls, too. Met friends from Kirkland who told us more about the Washington State picnic in Mesa on 2/22.

Came home to have our dinner of liver and onions…beef liver was only 29¢ across the street at the market.

2/19/77
Today we wnet to Casa Grande to the O' Ohdam Tash ("Gathering of the Tribes")—a three-day celebration the town has each year. It was one of the biggest parades we had ever seen…Indians from all over Arizona and New Mexico, beauty queens, the governor of Arizona, marching groups, bands, posses…there was one horse that had a goat friend who trotted beside the horse and did exactly the same things. We were lucky enough to find a place to park in the high school grounds right on the parade route. The barbecue lines were much too long, as were the lines for the Indian fried bread, so we went to a Mexican food place. Later we went west to the Red River Cattle Company feed lots at Stanfield…thousands of cattle and the wind was wrong.… We had decided not to go to the rodeo, and were very glad because we went home past the rodeo grounds…thousands of cars trying to get in, and the bleachers were open to the hot sun. Came home a different way through the Sacaton Mountains.

2/20/77
We went to a dinner at the park…the same man who cooks the soup every day for lunch has dinners 3 or 4 times a week which we sign up for. Today was a turkey dinner for $1.50…all you wanted, and all the ice cream, too.

2/21/77
Today we paid the rest of the Mexican tour…$148.

2/22/77
We took our lunch to the Washington State picnic in Pioneer Park in Mesa…fried chicken and goodies. I made a sign post…Skookumchuck, Tower Avenue, Fort Borst, Maple Lane…to put on our table, and we did attract people from Lewis County. Hugh Goodreau's mother, the ex-superintendent of schools from Chehalis (Chet Rhodes), the ex-coach from Centralia (Ralph Morris now from Mossyrock), Wayne Read's cousin from Packwood, people from Winlock who were friends of Dick's…as well as others who just recognized the names. And Bud Myers from Longview whom I had grown up with…There must have been over 1800 people there…made us wonder who was still at home. Unfortunately, there was a wind and dust storms came often through the park…the people from eastern Washington said "like home," but we didn't like it. "Skookumchuck" attracted the attention of the loudspeaker, too…"What's a skookumchuck?"

We came back to Coolidge to find that dust storms had been busy there, too…inches of dust in the trailer, and tumbleweed piled high against the fence.

2/23/77
Today Harry and Dick put on the new door lock for Trailer…it had been acting up so that we were afraid we might be locked out some day. We now have our new screen door, too…finally used the new screen that we had bought in Harlingen, Texas, right after Christmas.

2/24/77
I nagged until we all went on a tour of the Inspiration Copper mine at Miami in the Superstition Mountains today. It was another tour where we followed the leader after being issued hard hats and safety glasses. We only saw one of the open pits…there are about 4 or 5 being worked…they no longer mine underground. We had an explanation of the leaching ponds…sulphuric acid is used there, and also in the building where sheets of almost pure copper are dipped for a week or so before being taken to the smelter. We saw the molten copper being poured, but Harry was most disappointed because the rod plant was not working today. We took lots of pictures. The fellows each bought a "splash copper" bolo tie, and I bought a copper bracelet for Jean. Both Harry and Dick say they are glad that I nag them into going places.…

Stopped in Florence to see Bud and Maxine Myers but they were not at home.…

2/25/77
Today I got the income tax and mailed it…nothing to pay this time. Bud Myers stopped to see us today while Maxine was at the beauty shop…glad to see him again…he is leaving on Sunday to go home.

2/26-3/1/77
Spent the time before the Mexico trip resting, shopping, doing laundry. Ed and Marie Hoard whom we had met in Florida stopped by to see us…they were on the way to Tombstone with their new trailer and truck. Found out more about Mexico, and got our tourist cards and name tags at the coffee hour on Tuesday morning.…

3/2-3/7/77
We left about 8 Wednesday morning to go to Nogales with Dick's camper…we plan a side trip on the way back for a couple of nights. Got to Nogales in plenty of time to explore after parking the camper for 5 days in a guarded lot for $12.50. We went to a bank to buy Mexican money because we had heard that the exchange was better on the United States side…but I almost fainted when $60 bought 1,320 in pesos…a couple of 500s, 3 100s, and a 20. The bank exchange was 22 to 1, while the regular exchange was 20 to 1. told ourselves to remember that a peso was 5¢.…

After lunch we went back to the parking lot to find that everyone was leaving for the border…so we collected our goodies and caught a taxi, too…only to find that we could wait and wait in the train station in Nogales, Senora, for our tickets to be taken care of, our compartments to be assigned, and at last to go through Mexican immigration…our tourist cards had to be stamped and signed, and we had to show something that identified us as U.S. citizens…we used the voter registration cards we had been sent last summer while we were in Massachusetts because they were much more convenient than birth certificates. We waited and waited on the platform even after the train was in the station because our luggage was still somewhere in transit, and we couldn't go into our cars without our suitcases. It was C-O-L-D and windy…but we finally got on the train and settled in our compartment…Dick was about 4 cars away from us.

The train south left at 4 in the afternoon (on time!) so we had about three hours of daylight to watch the countryside, and wish that we could join in the party-partys that were going on. Our packing had been done so closely for the two of us that we had no beer or booze with us…we had to take our own water on the train, but were told that the hotel had bottled water.

The train rocked and rolled and bumped and made lots of noise all night…we woke up when it was quite in the station! We were 21 hours on the train going down to Mazatlan…5 hours late…because the train waited for passengers from a bus wreck somewhere in the middle of the night. Dick, Harry and I went to the bar car in the morning hoping to get into the diner in time for lunch…we had run out of munching stuff and water and juice…but found that the diner would not be open soon enough for lunch before Mazatlan. We did stay there and enjoy seeing the view from the windows…the blue, blue of the Gulf of California. During the morning from our compartment we had watched the thousands and thousands of acres of irrigated farms, orchards, papayas, bananas, and sugar cane…and the poverty-stricken villages adjoining the farms. Ther must be no middle class in Mexico…at least we saw only the "haves" and the "have nots." The poor live in dreadful little hovels made out of mesquite, mud, and straw…even in abandoned box cars…some of the shacks are just there next to the railroad tracks. The train must be the event of the day because everyone was out to watch it go by. The city of Culiacán was beautiful from the train with wide tree-lined avenues and prosperous-looking people, but we were told that it is one of the towns that does not like Americans…signs everywhere for "Viva Reolutiono"…or something. The train station in Nogales had several young women begging with babies slung over their backs.…

We had to pay $5 for the taxi from the border to the train station in Nogales even though we had been told it would be $3…but we were met at the station in Mazatlan by the tour people with a bunch of taxis (free). We never saw an accident but the cars and taxis were battered…and they drive the way we had heard about Rome and Madrid and Mexico City…New Orleans, too!

We found that we had very nice rooms in the Hotel Costa de Oro…Dick was one floor up from us. Before dinner we all met (37 of us) in the patio of the hotel for a welcome round of Margaritas…tequilla, juice?, with a rim of salt on the glass, and they are very, very good. The tour included our dinners and breakfast at the hotel…anything we wanted we could have.

All of us went on the bus tour of the city Friday morning with a darling guide named Rosita…she had all of chanting "How about that?"…and sometimes "How about that?" She would tell us about the city, and then say "how about that?" A friend from Coolidge told us about a Mexican who was so pround that he could count in English…on his fingers "one, two, three, four, five"…his friend said "Can't you count any higher than that?"…so the Mexican raised his hands and counted "one, two, three, four five"…

The bus tour was over three hours…stops here and there to shop if we liked. I bought a medallion from a little boy for $1…a bargain because the shops had them for $1.50. There were beggars all over the streets…women with babies over their backs and little children. One darling dirty-faced little girl was begging…she had her hands full of dimes, quarters, pesos, but wouldn't open her little box purse…finally one of the tour group did and found it full of money. Harry tried to get a picture of her, but someone was always in the way.…

We saw an iguana in the street from the bus in one street.…

Friday night after dinner in the hotel Dick saw Bud Breen from Chehalis in the dining room…Harry had grown up with him, too, so we went over to the table and found Jack and Hazel Breckenridge there. It became old home week.…

Saturday morning most of us went on a boat ride in the harbor for 3 hours. It was a rough trip part of the way, but I told the fellows about never watching the sea-sky horizon…and it worked for us. Lots of our friends were very seasick, and no doubt they didn't enjoy the trip very much. A marimba band played in the lounge (loud), and we were suckered into a buying a picture.…

We went to a "super mercado" to buy juice, booze, beer, cigarettes, a book, and munching stuff for the trip home…and the slip from the register said 418.20!! That slip I didn't save, but I do have one that says 375.80…Mexican cash registers have to carry lots of pesos.…

Saturday night we went to a Fiesta at the Hotel Playa Mazatlán a few blocks down the beach…a dinner dance with a floor show, and the entire evening for $10 each. It included dinner, drinks, the floor show, as well as dancing all evening. Harry, Dick, and I were seated with a couple of very nice women from Ontario…and we were the first to be served because of where we were seated…it was buffet style, and very good…steak, chicken, Mexican food, salad, lots more, and there was an enormous variety of desserts…margaritas all evening long! The floor show was Mexican dancing by 3 couples in costume…they even did the Mexican Hat Dance. A little girl was very good with a jump rope, and a young fellow was wonderful with a lariat. There were comedy acts, too…and finally a Conga line which Harry and Dick joined. I would have liked to get into it, but I had a dumb big purse to look after! I had watered my margaritas all evening so I was able to drag the fellows back to our hotel.… We saw Jack and Hazel Breckenridge at the Fiesta, too.…

Sunday was a lazy day…we had to be checked out of our rooms by one o'clock, but had a room to store our luggage until time to leave for the train station about 4:30. We walked along the beach and watched our friends haggle with the vendors "cheap-a-skate"…Harry did bargain until he got a leather hat for $3.50 instead of $10…the vendor hit his elbow when he said "cheap-a-skate"…real cheapskate!

It was another wait-wait at the train station before the train left at 6…our compartment was in the same position in the car about in the middle and away from the wheels, and this time Dick's roommate was in the same car…not several cars away.

Both Dick and I were feeling rotten all the way back…we had caught colds. Harry came down with his cold later. Guess it was the cold, cold wait on the platform in Nogales that finally caught up with us?

The taxi fare from the train station back to the border was $5 again, but this time we had five in the taxi… We had no problems at the U.S. side of the border, although they did open our suitcase, and asked about the box lunches we had left. The Mexicans had taken the fruit away from us at a station long before we got to the border.…

From Nogales we went through Patagonia where we bought cold medicine and cough drops, and then on to Tombstone where we stayed overnight.

3/8/77
We explored the town "too tough to die:…heard the story of Tombstone narrated by Vincent Price…all about Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and Doc Halliday, the OK Corrall…how Tombstone had burned several times, and how the mines finally flooded. Boot Hill Cemetery has "Here lies Les Moore, 4 slugs from a 44, No Les, No More"…someone who "was hanged by mistake"…"natural death," and lots more epitaphs that are most unusual, like "dragged by his feet by a rope because he died of smallpox."

We went to Bisbee again, and admired the big Lavender open pit copper mine…it is no longer being worked, but the viewpoint from the highway is still there. We heard that the Copper Queen Hotel is no longer open, either…that is where we enjoyed such a wonderful breakfast back in the 1960s.

We stayed overnight in Douglas and came back from Tucson by way of the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, which had all the cactus labeled for us. There is a monument to Tom Mix there…he was killed in an automobile accident there?? Before we got to Tucson we came through Texas Canyon again, where there are rocks balanced everywhere…saw the "AH Rock" this time…I had sent a postcard of it to Mary.

Came back to Coolidge to take care of our colds and get ready to leave on Monday. We had to buy gasoline, propane, and money. There was a get-together for all the Mexican tour people on Saturday night…a take your own steak-type and potluck. Some of the people had had their Mexican pictures developed already…wish I had one of Harry leaning over our balcony saying "how about that?" from 3 floors up. I have promised to write to several of them, and do hope to see the people from Prosser again some day.

Sunday the man cooked a pork roast dinner at the park, so we went…$1.25! The nice people here at Ho Ho Kam say they want us to come back next year…??

3/14/77
West from Phoenix to Quartzsite, and then north along the Colorado River to Parker…244 miles today through desert and mountains. I managed to forget the mirror that hung on the curtain rod in the bathroom—it fell and broke one side.

3/15-3/16/77
212 miles today to Las Vegas, where we found a place to stay right on The Strip behind the Stardust Hotel…convenient for us to play Keno. We are now on Pacific Time again…the last time was in July of 1975. Today we saw Lake Havasu…a lot and a home would be nice there this time of the year, but wonder what it would be like in the summer. The desert is blooming already…carpeted with purple, gold, and white…poppies, daisies, and desert verbena. I read that

what is commonly called a Joshua Tree is really a giant desert lily. the trunk is sometimes 3 feet thick and the grotesque bayonet-shaped arms grow almost 50 feet high. The lily is found mostly on the western edge of the desert, starting at the southern end of the Sierra and running along the eastern side of the San Gabriel and San Bernadino mountains into the Joshua Tree National Monument.

3/17/77
Dick had been "our leader" because he has cruise control on his truck and camper…it is lots of fun to follow a steady pace ahead of us. We always leave enough room for passing cars/trucks…but most of I-15 from Las Vegas is four-lane. Tonight we stayed in a KOA in Victorville…and Dick and his daughter Nancy came to visit us. She is bright-eyed and bubbly…we did hate to say goodbye to Dick. 201 miles today.

3/18/77
Dick came by this morning to say goodbye (and help us get hooked up!) again, bless his heart. We found SNOW on the ground in Cajon Pass on the way to San Bernadino, and lots of snow in the mountains…but the weather was lovely all the way with some gusty winds. Only 83 miles to the trailer park here in the mountains south of Corona…these mountains also have snow on them.

Called Seattle tonight, and talked to Mary this time…will have mail soon, we hope. Ann did not answer her phone so will try again tomorrow.

3/19/77
Today we called Ann again with no answer, so we tried Kay…found Ann there in Garden Grove. We had to call her back to give her our address and phone number because I forgot when I was talking to her!

3/20/77
Went to Lake Elsinore to look for another trailer park…saw several, but decided that we have the best one (not crowded on weekends) in spite of a short section of bad road to get here. Then we got brave with our maps and went into Garden Grove to see Ann and Kay and Maryann (she is cute and very friendly). We did surprise Ann and Kay… The freeways here in the Los Angeles area are very good and easy to follow (if one has a navigator), but we still wonder about downtown Los Angeles…!?!

3/21-3/22/77
The laundry here is down the hill and one must get a key! so I did some hand washing. It blew dry in a big hurry in the nice wind and sun.…

3/23-3/24/77
Today we went in to Ann's in Bell Gardens to stay overnight…and stayed two nights because we were having so much fun. Harry fixed a lamp for Ann, and heard that she had many more "handyman" jobs for him which he will love. Me, I had a couple of letters to mail, so I went walking and got "lost." I finally found Eastern again, but was going the wrong direction (as usual)…stopped at a Chinese grocery to ask, but they didn't know where Muller Street was. From being the navigator I remembered the names of a couple of streets near Muller…Fostoria? Cecelia? Rio Hondo?…that rang a bell, and I found that I was going north on Eastern instead of south. I got back after about an hour (I really had been lost) to find that Harry and Ann were in the truck about to come looking for me. Now if I had called, no one would have been home…right? Doubt that I will live the whole thing down for a while.…

Kay got Disneyland books of tickets for us…paid Ann. We have maps and goodies about Disneyland…and we had mail at Ann's, too. Curt died 2/27.…

3/25/77
We tried a different way back…I-5 is busy, busy through LA! We are still looking for the best (easiest) way to get the trailer into Bell Gardens to the park across the street from Ann's so we all be together the last part of April for the family reunion.…there are still a couple of other ways to try…without the trailer, of course. At this point we do not think too much of I-5.…

Mail here for us from Seattle.…

3/26/77
My night cough must be wearing me down…today was a lazy day. But I did make a vvery good beef stew from beef shanks that I had bought.…

3/27/77
Another lazy day.…

3/28/77
Today I answered a letter about the Hawes family that I had received from a sister of the Carl Hawes we had found in Capron, Illinois, last September…she lives near Denver, Colorado. When she asked how we might be related…I had to write it out, but think she must be second cousin once-removed…Christine and she would be third cousins, I think. Later we went into Corona to do a laundry and some shopping. Called Ann to see how she was doing because she had had an attack of a bladder infection just before we left on Friday…she said all was okay because the doctor had given her an antibiotic and drinking all the water was the right idea…gallons of it.

3/29/77
Another lazy day…that darn cough is going to get better.

3/30/77
Did a little house cleaning to make it easier to make the bed up for Sue.…

Note from son Allan in 2009: The preceding entry—March 30, 1977—was the last one in Mary's journal for the 2-year odyssey, which still had a couple more months to run, before they returned at last to Centralia. Here is a half page that Mary wrote in longhand and inserted at the end: I never finished this because of the Ashbrook family reunion when we moved to Bell Gardens. Then sister Ann put us to work "fixing up" her house to sell (until late in May!) I was very ill with bronchitis when we got back to Washington, and on and on— Always I had hoped to write a book "Innocents on Wheels" but had a cancer operation etc. & Harry had several heart attacks—the h--- with it! The following pieces are other short writings by Mary, about subsequent adventures they had.

An Adventure in Juarez

or

A Usual Day for Harry and Mary

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992
Written October 12, 1978

We had not intended to drive across into Juarez because we had no Mexican insurance, and did not want to buy any. We had watched Mexican drivers, and had ridden in taxis in Mazatlán so we were sure that we did not want to be a part of that traffic. However, in spite of the good directions we had been given, we crossed the first bridge we found that went to Juarez—which turned out not to be the Stanton or the Santa Fe bridge. By the time we saw a parking lot (naturally, on the wrong side of the street because the Cordova bridge does not allow pedestrians) no way could we get across in front of all the cars coming from Mexico. So we looked at each other, gulped, and bravely drove across the bridge, thinking we would just turn around, come back to El Paso, and maybe find the right bridge. The Mexican border guard asked where we were going, and we said the dentist. He asked if we spoke Spanish, and we said no, and asked which way to the American Dental Clinic. We went the way he said, turned the corner, and heard "Lady!" We stopped, and a young boy ran up politely asking if we were going shopping. We said no, that we were going to the dentist, and when he asked we told him which one, and away we went. The road was country for so long that we decided that we really should go back to El Paso and start all over again. We made a U-turn and immediately a taxi honked at us, so we stopped, wondering what we had done wrong. The same young boy ran up and offered to show us the way to the dentist. We asked how much, and he said whatever we wanted, we said all right. He got in with us and told us to follow the taxi—which meant that we turned around again. He volunteered that his name was Arthur ("you know, Arturo"), and so we adopted Arthur and the taxi driver—who led us not to the American Dental Clinic, but to the Fontana Dental Clinic. We objected a little bit, Arthur promised to fix everything and ran across the street, leaving us to talk to the taxi driver who did not speak English—we all tried to talk, and he was a very pleasant man. We think Arthur must have called the clinic because very soon a dentist came down the stairs and came over to talk to us. We made a deal with Dr. Castellanos for my teeth, and Harry was to have his teeth cleaned while I waited the 2½ or 3 hours for mine. We paid Arthur $2, and he offered to bring cigarettes to us for $2.75…said we were allowed six cartons, and that we could pay him later. The dentist didn't have change for a $100 bill which Harry needed to pay his dentist, so Dr. Castellanos took the bill somewhere and came back—after deducting the amount of my bill, naturally. I waited with a book and minus my teeth while Harry took the taxi and Arthur several blocks to another office because the cleaning equipment was not working at the Fontana Clinic, naturally. When we left to go back to El Paso we gave Arthur and the taxi driver $3 more…$5 well spent because they led us to the Santa Fe bridge where we waved goodbye. The U.S. immigration guard asked our nationality, and what we had bought. We told him about the cigarettes, and then he asked if we had luggage. He thought he wanted to go through the back of the truck, but changed his mind when we told him we were full-time trailer people. No doubt we would still be there had he really been an eager beaver. We know the Mexican border guard told Arthur and the taxi driver about us, and that no doubt they all worked for the dentist…but they did wait around for us, and the dentist spoke good English and did a fine job.

Come to Mexico with us?????

To Zapata (Autumn 1978)(101)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992
Written November 1979

After our two grand months at Blueside, north of Spokane, Washington, we started south on September 6. We decided to come by way of central Oregon—Pendleton, John Day, Burns—into Nevada. My Keno card did very well in Carson City…5 out of 5 numbers…28, 37, 39, 40, 41 paid very well for us. After 3 weeks in Clay Canyon Camp out of Corona, California, where we saw our young friends Sue and Jon Crane and their "two under two" plus Misty (dog)…and sister Ann in Riverside, we started for Texas. It was 101 degrees in Yuma our first night, but the weather was beautiful the rest of the way. How we were so lucky to miss hot weather in Gila Bend and Casa Grande we can't imagine…it can be HOT there.

After our Adventure in Juarez, we stayed over an extra day because the wind on Highway 62 was too much for us to travel to Carlsbad…gusts up to 50 and 60 miles. The next day was fine, so away we went on to Hobbs where we stayed in the backyard at Harry's brother's house for 2 weeks. There we had the first rain since we left Spokane, and that was only for one night.

On the way back from Lubbock we stopped to buy watermelon at a roadside truck, and parked next to a cotton field. I now have a stolen cotton boll! One day we went to an Oil Show in Odessa—like a gigantic fair with all the exhibits related to the oil industry. We signed up at all the booths for prizes (none, of course) and got lots of gifts…one was a marvelous top, and there was one pencil with an eraser at each end. The Air Show at Hobbs was great, too…some of the stunts we had never seen before.

It was 3,006 miles to Zapata from Blueside…Bonnie, our trailer, sat part of the time while Clyde Truck did the running around—the actual mileage was much less because of the running around. When we left on October 30 from Hobbs we almost immediately gained the hour we had lost on Sunday September 29 when Standard Time returned—6 miles east of Hobbs we found Central Time. (Most of Texas is on Central Time except in the El Paso area.) Most of the way to San Angelo was flatland and cotton fields, but we did leave the many, many oil fields…even found climbing lanes here and there. After San Angelo we did find more cotton, and at last saw cotton being picked by machine at Wall. The fields are really brown before they pick, and they are plowed or disced almost immediately. There is a lot of cotton left in the fields, but even that waste must make for less expense than hand picking. On the way we saw long-haired sheep and goats (angora?) for the first time, too. The Hill Country of Texas is very pretty and very different.

The "streets of Laredo" are different…one-way and very narrow. Try it with a trailer sometime…one does what one can and hopes for the best. We made it okay. They do need street repair and rerouting through the town.

Zapata is only about 3,000—an unincorporated town—but it has everything we need except an eye doctor for my new glasses, and a good BIG market. Laredo is 50 miles, and Rio Grande City 54 miles to the east. Our neighbors here are so very nice, and they helped us get settled in our spot (I don't have to work this time!). I read that Falcon Lake is named for an early Spanish settler named Captain Miguel de la Garza Falcon…not for a bird. The lake is well-known for its black bass, white bass, crappie, catfish, perch.… Here we can fish from several of the docks, or rent a boat with a guide (too many $ for us)…fun to fish from the dock!

Finally we got to Laredo for new glasses, and they wanted to keep my glasses for 2 weeks to replace the lenses! Me, who needs glasses to find glasses, had to buy new frames which were not necessary! so now I have two pair of glasses, of course.

Most of Texas brags about being under six flags, but this area has been under 7 flags…Spain, France, Mexico, Rio Grande, Texas, Confederate, and the U.S.

January 1979: Zapata, Texas (#1)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

You should go with us to the meat markets down in this country sometime. Tripe is sold to make something? One time when we were in Nogales Menudo was on the menu in a restaurant, and, of course, I asked what it was?? I was told tripe (my Spanish dictionary says menudo is "entrails"). You haven't lived until you see a whole hog's head in a bin, either…imagine a nice, clean, scrubbed one with its little pink nose, upright, with the ears and all there, too. I think they are sold to make tamales. Frajitas [sic] are good—they are beef skirt steaks which need long, slow cooking, in spite of the fact that they sell them to grill. I have baked them stuffed with dressing.…Here we haven't seen "chittlins" or "jowls," but will when we get in the right section of the South. We doubt that we will ever forget the time we saw "turnip greens" and "turnip roots"…roots were purple-top turnips to us.

I read in this Quaker prayer the other day, and want to share it…

God made the sun,
And God made the tree,
God made the mountain,
And God made me.

I thank thee, O Lord,
For the sun and the tree,
For making the mountain,
And for making me.

Our sauerkraut turned out very good…we have eaten some of it and liked it. With the freeze that hit the Valley I imagine that the vegetables and citrus fruit crops are badly hurt, and the prices will go UP for all of us. California was hit in December, too. I am looking forward to getting my social security to help pay for our groceries. Every little bit will help.…

We are on TV cable here—sometimes from Laredo, sometimes from Weslaco, and sometimes from Corpus Christi—all on the same station. At times the network is ABC or NBC or CBS—all on the same stations. You can believe that a TV Guide is not much help, but we do get a good picture along with many surprises. Hooray, the football season is almost over.… Most of our news is about Texas, and the misdeeds of the officials. The little town of Hidalgo says they will not hold the election for mayor as required on January 20…will wait until May. So there

Weather here in Texas changes in a hurry…and here on the Rio Grande is so very different from the other parts of the state. The weather maps show a line across the middle of the state with cold parts north of the line, and almost always mild below the line. Christmas day it was 78 degrees here, and the next day and night we had rain and more rain—and then freezing weather. We aren't complaining, though, because the rest of the country is much worse off than we are.

San Ygnacio is 15 miles from here, and we explored there the other day. The streets are very narrow, and the buildings are very old.… I read that it was first settled in 1830. Most of the buildings sit right on the street—no sidewalks—and the adobe is falling off the sides of the houses. We must find out if we can go into the old fort and the old church the next time we go there. Soon we are going back to Roma to explore again, too.…

Our neighbors are very good to us. Most of them go fishing with a boat, and get so many fish that they don't want to clean them—so we fall heir to lots of good crappie and bass. We didn't know how to filet fish at first, but were told about using an electric knife…it works like a charm, and we no longer waste so much, or get cuts from the fins. Our freezer is filled with fish, thanks to our friends. We were lucky enough to hit an after-Christmas sale to buy a Sunbeam pint-size cooker which can fry, stew, steam, and even make doughnuts. It is the right size for the two of us, and now I won't make too much chili or stew or soup!

Each lot here in the park has an orange tree, and we can pick the fruit as we please. Fortunately, our tree has very good, sweet oranges—some of the trees have bitter or sour fruit—and we think it is fun to get our own oranges as we please. Quite often I make cabbage salad with oranges and marshmallows…and find it as good as with pineapples.

Time has gone fast for us here…over two months now. We are still thinking about where we will go for the summer, but expect to come up with someplace very interesting, we hope. The Missouri Ozarks? Wisconsin? New England? Catskills? Will keep in touch with you, so expect to hear from almost anywhere.

January 21, 1979: Zapata, Texas (#2)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

The Super Bowl is on…Friend Dick Roush from home arrived this morning from Victorsville, California, with his camper and boat. He said he had found snow, dust, and wind on the way, but the most interesting time was the Truck Route he followed through Laredo. He ended up in Mexico! It sounded like our trip to Mexico…Juarez. Dick has a space not too far from us, and will put his boat into the water before long…the guys must watch Super Bowl. We have delayed most of our exploring and visiting friends in the Valley until he came, so the next few weeks will be busy for us all.

There is a county airstrip next to the park here, and the planes come on down the road to park next to the Rec Hall. They have the right-of-way, so we must watch out for them. Very interesting, but so far we have not had to stop for a plane. Nice weekend weather brings quite a few planes here.

I need a haircut but have to find a shop that will take me when I remember that I am tired of looking like a sheepdog. Lucky Papa, I cut his hair for him, but somehow I don't trust him to cut mine.…

Last year I repaired an old quilt for Christine—one that had been made by Harry's great aunt. It took 6 weeks, but know that with care it will last for a long time now. To keep busy here, I have repaired another one that my mother made many years ago, and plan to give it to Allan's little boy. Now I am making a quilt to use as a bedspread, so I can give the crocheted spread made by Mom to Allan's litttle girl, Oona. I find that I still do not care if I have Things.…

There are times when we find good food sales to stock our pantry. The other day we got canned peaches for 35¢, and made tomato sauce 8 for $1…meat is not cheap, though. In California we could find bargains on first-cut blade roasts, and learned how to cut them for steak, hamburger, strip beef, stew meat, etc. Our little friends tell us that they can still find them for 79¢ a pound, and that their freezer is full of steak. One day we will find bargain roasts again.…

The grass from the mowing around the trailer sticks on the carpet like the willow leaves at home, so Papa keeps busy with the vacuum. He says the threads from my sewing don't help much either. One of these days we will do real housework, again.…

We fish off the dock near us, rather than go over to the covered dock (which is nice if it is raining). There are turtles, herons, gulls, and lots of mud hens. Some of the ducks catch themselves on the trot lines that are set for catfish off the dock. The other day some of the boys were chasing a big snake with a boat—they said it was a mocassin. They tell us that snakes are near the dock often, but we haven't seen them…t.g.

A friend a couple of years ago talked about "my cozzens"…and we are here with my cozzens. Very few of the stores or other businesses are owned by other than my cozzens…and I know they talk about us because they pretend not to speak English. At times they stand around talking to each other, and refuse to wait on the customers. One of my friends laid money down the other day, and walked out with an unwrapped purchase because she got very annoyed. Right now we are annoyed, too…two weeks ago we left negatives at the drug store, asked for them yesterday, and were told that it might be another week or so. It seems that they wait until there is a complete shipment to send them back from ??. I have been waiting to write letters until I had the pictures to send of our Christmas, but can't wait longer…maybe by Easter we will have them.

Pretending not to speak English reminds us of being in Quebec…there they also pretended not to understand us. We were lucky to communicate with writing, and found trailer parks run by people from Ontario, mostly. Now we know why the man in Uvalde said he did not like it down here, but we do…the park is filled with Winter Texans, rather than "my cozzens"…

The cattle around here mostly have horns—long ones. It could be that they are part longhorn or brahma. Some of the ranches have Charlois cattle, but the Santa Gertrudis are at the King Ranch (where we will go when we leave the Valley to go to San Antonio and Corpus Christi).

On the way to town the garbage dump is off the road, and from the looks of the side of the road filled with junk, no one ever gets to it. We drive defensively here, because my cozzens drive differently.…

February 9, 1979: Zapata, Texas (#3)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Our trip to the Valley was a mixed success and failure. We found some of our friends at home and others were away—the weather was wonderful in Harlingen and Brownsville, but windy and cold on South Padre Island…nice on the way to Corpus Christi, but cold, windy and rainy in Rockport. When we heard the report of rain and 37 degrees in San Antonio we gave up the idea of exploring there, and came back to Zapata to better weather…do hope we will try again for the Alamo and the River Walk before friend Richard has to leave for California. We did go through the King Ranch, and at Robstown (near Corpus Christi) found that the high school team is called The Cottonpickers, and that they play on Picker Field.

Several weeks ago a high wind was forecast so we took down our awning—left the tiedown stakes in the ground with red ribbons on them so no one would fall over them. Guess who fell over one of them? The top of my foot was cut quite badly and is just now almost healed…you can believe that all the stakes were out of the ground right away. There have been several days when we wished for the awning again, but then we get cold and rain, so the awning stays up—at least for a while. There have been days when we could spend the day on the lake trying for fish, but no one is catching any lately…wrong time of the year?

We drove across Falcon Dam the other day to the little town of Guerro where some of the streets are great, and some have chuckholes and mud. They do have the strangest stores by comparison to U.S. markets—and no way would we buy meat there! I was looking for the Mr. Clean-type bars of soap (works better than Spray and Wash), but had no luck where we were. My neighbor says she knows where to find it, and will bring some back.…

Another neighbor (Mr. Harper from Muleshoe, Texas) has a card he gives out…

WHAT IS IT?
Len has it before—
Paul had it behind—
Bryan never had it at all—
Ralph had it once.
All girls have it once, boys can't have it.
Old Mrs. Mulligan had it twice in succession—
Dr. Lowell had it before and behind, he had it twice as bad behind as before.

February 21, 1979: Zapata, Texas (#4)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Last Saturday the temperature dropped 30 degrees in one hour in the Panhandle and the northern part of Texas, and they had freezing rain and ice. We were listening to the San Antonio radio station and heard that the highways and streets were being closed, and that there were so many accidents that the police couldn't keep up with them. Here we had some fog and drizzle, but it wasn't really cold. Texas weather is strange. On February 15 I got a sunburn out on the lake, but the next day it was warm rain and drizzle again. A good thing we have the awning out again because it has been warm enough to sit out there late at night quite often—mostly Harry and Dick. Dick left for California Monday morning, and we do hope that he watches the weather closely on the way.

Now that we have sunshine and warm weather (most of the time), the owl who lives in the park water tower hoots all night, and the pelicans and egrets are back on the lake. The fish are supposed to start biting again, too—will let you know about that. It seems that January and February are the months when the fishing is not good—but we did have fish to put in Dick's freezer before we left.

George Washington's birthday is a Big Deal in Laredo. Quotes from the Laredo Times…

Laredo has been staging the giant fandango since 1898…is the only city in the U.S. which celebrates the birthday of Washington in grand style. The governor of Texas and other officials join a large number of Mexican officials—governors of the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahila, Jalisco and San Luis Potosi. Also among the honorees are the personal envoys of the President of Mexico and the President of the U.S.

In April we plan to go to Bennett Springs, Missouri, for a while—will have to think more about the summer, and the price of gasoline.…

March 11, 1979: Zapata, Texas (#5)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

February 24 there was a high wind—gusts—and a small plane tried to land on the airstrip. The pilot cut power too fast, dropped when the wind died, and a wheel of the plane went through the rear window of a car on the road. No one was hurt—unbelievable. The plane was flipped over in the front yard of a mobile home, which makes us glad that we do not live so close to the runway. We do watch for planes when we are on the road out that way—sometimes big planes come in, too.

There is a laundromat in the park—lots of washers but only 3 dryers, and usually one of them is not working. We now go to beautiful downtown Zapata to do our washing. Tomorrow is the day, and we need stamps at the post office, too. A Big Day for the Ashbrooks. We can't go fishing for a while—the freezer is full, and we don't want to eat fish again soon—hard to believe that at last we are full of fish. We do go down on the dock at night quite often now that it is lighted so brightly…wonder why the lights weren't there before?

The weather was lovely for a couple of weeks (we now have a tan), and several times Laredo was supposed to have been the hot spot of the nation. Friday night was actually hot, and Saturday morning we waked up to rain and wind! We think it was probably because Zapata was having a Fair, and the parade was Saturday morning? A really nice parade in spite of the rain. The Laredo TV stations were more than generous with publicity for the Zapato County Fair.

The orange trees are full of blossoms, and they do smell so good. We may try to send a few to those in the cold country.…

We had planned to go the the Catskills to see Allan and his family, and on to New England to see friends and family this summer, and to Florida next winter—but are losing our nerve about "going" too far from where we want to spend both summer and winter. Gasoline has gone up steadily ever since we have been here, and in the last two weeks it has raised another 4¢…now regular is 65.9¢. We do think we will go to Bennett Springs, Missouri, in April, and there decide if we can get gasoline, or pay for it. We are not ready to stop being gypsies, but may have to head for southern California to stay…probably Hemet, near Riverside. Letters will always reach us…c/o 811 South Silver, Centralia, Washington 98531.

March 19, 1979: Zapata, Texas (#6)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Spring arrived here on the Rio Grande several weeks ago. The tamarisk trees are leafed out (I call them Fluffy trees), bluebonnets are in bloom, poppies and daisies and buttercup, plus some I don't know, fill the fields, and, the orange blossoms are out. Bluebonnets are a type of lupine.… There is a bush that is rather like a forsythia from a distance, but the yellow "blooms" are like the things that grow on hazelnut trees. I am afraid to go too close to them because snakes might be there—they come out in the spring, too. This morning we have a mockingbird singing on the wire outside the window, and the meadowlarks are so brave that we can walk up to them on the ground.

Every day the park gets a bit more empty with the snowbirds now taking off for home. Why those who live in the upper Midwest and the Panhandle leave now we can't imagine—the weather is still awful up there. Yesterday there were tornadoes in the Panhandle and in Tulsa. Some of the wives don't want to leave, but the men get antsy about going. Our rent is paid until the end of April, so we will stay until it really gets hot.

We still think we will try for Bennett Springs, and go through Henryetta, Oklahoma on the way. That is the town where my sister and I were born, and where my grandfather had a harness and saddle shop. I doubt that there is anyone there now who knew my grandparents, but maybe someone who knew my father and my uncle? The graves of Grandfather and Grandmother should be there, I think…I have a copy of my grandmother's will where she specifies perpetual care for the graves. Wonder?? She died in 1915, and Grandfather in 1911.…

We saw salmon in the market on "sale" for over $5 a pound—we didn't buy any. And last week in Rio Grande City enormous fish heads were wrapped in plastic in the meat counter. Do people eat them? Hog's heads were enough to look at, but imagine a BIG FISH HEAD looking at you!…guess we don't appreciate the proper things to eat.

Recently read Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke…the time is 2276:

Duncan felt sorry for poor President Claire Hansen. As a gesture of courtesy, in the Centennial year she was President not only of the United States, but also of Earth. And, of course, she had not asked for either job; if she had done so—or even if she had been suspected of such a faux pas—she would have been automatically eliminated. For the last century, almost all top political appointments on Terra had been made by random computer selection from the pool of individuals who had the necessary qualifications. It had taken the human race several thousand years to realize that there were some jobs that should never be given to the people who volunteered for them, especially if they showed too much enthusiasm. As one shrewd political commentator had remarked: "We want a President who has to carried screaming and kicking into the White House—but then will do the best job he possibly can, so that he'll get time off for good behavior."…

March 23, 1979
One year ago today we left western Washington to wander hither and yon. We had big hopes until this gasoline situation, but we are grateful for what fun we did have. We are now asking that our friends and family not to send mail here to us in Zapata after April 15…use the Centralia address, please, until further notice.

Last week in Miguel Alemán (across from Roma) Harry went to the dentist again to have a big double filling fixed. He had pulled it out a month or so ago eating popcorn! In the U.S. it would have been much more than $10.…

We went with the neighbors the other evening on a long walk down by the lake to get cactus plants of all kinds. There were enough of us to watch out for snakes! The neighbors wanted them to take home, but we plan to take ours to give away at Bennett Springs.

May 2, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#1)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

We are here for at least 2 months—only $36 a month. We told Paul that we planned to use the electric heater, but don't know if he will charge us for it. We stayed here in the fall of 1976, and were greeted with open arms when we arrived Monday. Buck Weaver is now quite ill with emphysema, and no longer works around the park, but Fern and Paul seem to be managing okay.

We had wonderful weather all 1041 miles from Zapata—Tornado Alley was not acting up last week. Just south of San Antonio we no longer saw cactus, sand, and sagebrush—lovely green rolling hills covered with wildflowers of all colors. The highway (I-35) must have planted with flowers—bluebonnets, buttercup, daisies, Indian paintbrush, and many that we did not recognize. Several times we saw a turtle on the highway—unfortunately, Harry did hit one of them. Cattle grazed on fields that seemed to be covered with bluebonnets—wonder if they eat them? We also discovered all over again that big cities "stink"—Austin and San Antonio, for instance.

Lake Texoma was very nice, even prettier than Falcon Lake. We used our Texas fishing license there for the last time, and explored Denison where my Dad lived in the 1890s. There were cardinals and beautiful butterflies at Lake Texoma—love to hear the cardinals whistle.

We stayed at Territory Town Park in Okemah near Henryetta—a very nice museum of the Old West there. The manager of the Chamber of Commerce in Henryetta had known both my Dad and Uncle Jim—found that the town was named for Hugh Henry, a Creek Indian, who founded the town before the 1890s in what was then Indian Territory…and did find the gravemarker of my Grandfather and Grandmother in the old section of the cemetery. Saturday morning (4/28) we found water all over the floor, and spent the day mopping up. Guess that moving the trailer after 6 months jiggled a fitting loose on the hot water heater…it is now cemented, and will be checked often.

There are now many lakes in eastern Oklahoma—on I-40 south of Muscogee we found one sign that said "Lotawatah"—and had to do a double take to realize that it was "Lot of Water"!

Here the dogwood and lilacs are in blook—Spring like in Washington. The nights are cool enough for the electric blanket back on the bed—39 degrees the other night.…

May 14, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#2)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

We doubt that we will ever get used to thunderstorms…last week there was a "severe" one, and even a tornado watch! And the Springfield radio station keeps talking about the "tornado season"! Also we wonder how we can be asked "you come from Washington where it rains all the time?"…never had we had 2 inches of rain in less than 6 hours the way it was one night last week! The wind blew so hard that all the syrup was out of the hummingbird feeder and all over the front of the trailer, but it is now filled again and we hope to attract the hummers up here. So far the sparrows are the only ones to come to the bird feeders, the hungry little guys can empty it in one day! We still have hopes that the cardinals will find it.…

In Lebanon the other day I talked the library into giving me a card to borrow books, and I'm now having a great time choosing books to read for a change…instead of taking what is available to trade or borrow. Lebanon was on the Trail of Tears for the Indians on their way to reservations in Oklahoma many years ago.…

So far here we have had no problems about gasoline…and we may never end up in California! The drivers there must be out of their minds…and the odd-even license rationing would not be good for us because we have an even license number, and 5/6 months have even numbers. Those with odd numbers can buy gasoline 2 days in a row, right? Like May 31 and June 1. Gasoline is "only" 74.9 here in Missouri, and we feel brave enough to plan a trip soon to Springfield and down to the lakes on the Arkansas line.

Buck Weaver is in the hospital in Springfield (has been for over a week, and is improving) so both Fern and Paul can go fishing in the mornings…we go over to the park after 7:30 in the evenings to get their trout tags for them to get started early the next day. Bless them, they gave us eight big rainbow trout the other day, and we still have six of them in the outside freezer with our name on them. We don't think the hatchery fish are as good as those that have been in the fresh water for quite a while, but who looks a gift horse in the mouth? We have been fishing in the Niangua River several times, but release our fish because we have no place to keep them. Fun to catch them.…

May 18, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#3)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

To us the whip-poor-wills seem to say potpourri (po-poor-ree)…we had never heard them before, and had to ask to be sure that is what we were hearing during the night. The bird book says they are a night bird, and lists them with night hawks.… Yesterday evening we saw a Big Black Snake on the ground near the picnic tables in the camping area—it must have been at least 5 feet long. Paul says they are not poisonous, but will attack if picked no…also that lots of them are showing up there now. We know that we would not like to be in a tent! and when we try metal detecting we are now definitely on the lookout for snakes. Paul said we can go anywhere here, and we have asked at the Park—they said that they really didn't encourage it, but would not stop us. We never leave holes in the ground, and try to go to the picnic grounds after a big weekend…have found some nickels, dimes, pennies, and quarters so far. Whatever we find it is fun to try.

We have been picking up the trout tags for Paul and his mother after 7:30 p.m. at the park (they go to Springfield to see Buck in the hospital), and while we wait for the time we watch the fishermen trying for that last fish before the whistle blows. There is a wonderful hole where people are practically on top of each other, and the beaver on the other side of the stream ignore fishermen, spectators, and cars. The other night they came out of the water onto the steep bank—BIG ones. One of them but branches to take home for midnight snacks, I guess—but one stayed on the bank and ate and ate and ate. It seems that they come out every evening…and we want to go as often as we can to see them. The sparrows made such pigs of themselves at our bird feeder (emptied it in less than a day!) that we have taken it down, and now spread seed on the ground for them, and we still hope for cardinals…Fern says they are nesting down at her house. Hummingbirds have finally come to the feeder here.…

We knew that Missouri bordered on 8 states—Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee—now we know that Tennessee also has 8 bordering states—North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia.

Markets are much nicer up here than on the Rio Grande—the meat looks better, and prices are better, too…found big strawberries in town. The man who helps here brings us large brown eggs once a week for 70¢.…

June 3, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#4)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Lebanon is a nice town 13 miles to the east—the highway is good but full of curves and hills, much of it has a double yellow line (no passing). The country is really lovely this time of the year, but we hear that it will be hot, humid and horrible before too long. We think we will go to the mountains in Colorado when we leave here after the Fourth of July—back to Stage Stop with friends. When we were here in 1976 we saw buffalo on a ranch near Lebanon, but there is now a high solid fence along the highway…and lots of other animals. Wonder if they had to fence it because of gawking drivers, or if it is to be an animal park?

Finally found out about Sunday Beer (lots of signs for it)…3.2 sold only on Sunday with a special permit. Apparently, local option sales like Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas.…

I now have a curly permanent—feel like Haywire (a wire-haired terrier), and I think I look like Poor Old Uncle Ned. However, I am comfortable with it, and Harry says he likes it! Me, I wonder who that is in the mirror!

Memorial Day weekend here was busy, busy…and the state park was completely full. All kinds of recreational vehicles and tents, and children everywhere. No doubt after school is out weekdays will be jammmed, too.

We do believe that we have been lucky here only to have rain, thunder and lightning…Kansas City had hailstones the size of tennis balls! There are hail damage sales often…trees, RVs, cars, name it.…

My driver's license came the other day (without a picture, of course, but good for 2 years)…I had to use an address in New England to get it, because with a California address they would only extend my current one for 2 months "time to return to Washington to get a new one"… Which reminds me, we heard last week that gasoline was 1.01.9 in Tacoma, Washington! and going up. Here it has reached 80.9.…

The hummingbirds here are the ruby-throated ones—very pretty…

June 20, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#5)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

The weekend of June 10 the camping area was filled with Indian Guides and their fathers—at times the swimming pool could have been stirred with a spoon! They must have had a wonderful time on their canoe trip down the river, too. Indian Guides are rather like Cub Scouts but the fathers must belong, too—sponsored by the YMCA.

Father got new boxer shorts (necessary!) and a knife sharpener for electric and serrated knives for his day—great to have a sharp electric knife again. Willie next door is a REAL fisherman, even makes his own lures and sells them—bless him, he made several for Harry and gave them to him yesterday…his wife Pauline is nursing a sprained ankle, but she gets around very well.

Today is HOT and HUMID and I am in the trailer while Harry is down with Paul—the air conditioner is on and I am cool and comfortable…sneezing as always with air conditioning, of course. I finally made me some cool tank-type tops to wear, and now the floor is full of threads again! Papa must vacuum tomorrow—I hope.

The lighting in this trailer was not what we wanted, and our radio went flooey…we now have an extension-type lamp on the wall near the chair, and a bed lamp for me. It took almost a year to find what we wanted. We had wanted a clock, but now have a clock-radio.

There have been quite a few big fish caught recently, and the young fishermen are having their catch mounted…I think I would have a 7-pound 15-ounce fish mounted, too. That is the size of one rainbow a young fellow caught last Sunday.

HillBilly Days here and in Lebanon was extremely interesting last weekend…the stores in town had sales and the clerks wore overalls and straw hats, etc. The park was filled with events—hog calling, fish fries, square dances, greased pigs, fiddling, antique cars, canoes, old guns, country music—there was a good time for 3 days. We were brave enough to try the park one afternoon and evening to see the arts and crafts—lovely quilts and inlaid wood items, plus almost everything else. There was one quilt like Aunt Fallie's there—$75! Fern here at the camp is a tiny person, and she looked so cute in her overalls and straw hat…

The beaver are still busy down at GUT HOLE (that is the name of it!)…and we have seen muskrat there, too.

July 14, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#6)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Highway 64 on the way to Lebanon has many black walnut and white oak trees (plus others) on each side. We noticed what looked like blue wooden mailboxes nailed to the trees, and now find that they are bird houses built for the state bird of Missouri…the bluebird. I made a funny about whether they were blue birdhouses or bluebird houses…yesterday I saw a bird at the door feeding the young ones. That buffalo ranch is now NOAH'S ARC ANIMAL LAND…a walk-through safari with zebra, eland, ibex, bear, lion, leopard. They do spell it "arc" not "ark"…wonder why?

The neighbors across the way who come down from Columbia almost every weekend had mice in their trailer last week…Papa set traps for them all week, but only caught two. Guess that is all that there were. The nice people brought us string beans and onions and radishes from their garden when they came yesterday…so glad to have them because the beans in the store are terrible. I am going to give her the empty quart jars that we have…pints are all we will want from now on. Another neighbor came with a lovely zucchini (sp?) for us. Pauline found that her ankle was not sprained but broken. She has the most fantastic walking cast now…new to us. It does not have that metal brace across the bottom of the foot, but there is a thick sandal fastened with velcro to make it look neat (so much nicer than that sock one had to use).

Last Wednesday we wondered if we should be like Chicken Little and say "the sky is falling," but we finally found out that Australia would know more about Skylab.…

We watch fireflies everywhere (hear they are supposed to be called lightning bugs). It reminds us of when we first saw them in the Cumberland Gap in 1950, and Grandmother Hawes had to tell us what we were seeing…and how Christine and Allan caught bottles of them in New England. Katydids sound loud in the evening, too. Last Sunday night we had the VERY WORST THUNDER AND LIGHTNING STORM EVER! even worse than in Thunder Bay in 1975. Thank goodness it passed over us in just over an hour…strong winds and hail with it. The nice little girls who had stayed overnight with us (they lived in back with a pop-up tent trailer and an added room which leaked)…there was company for them on July 5, and no way could eight people stay in the pop-up…we were delighted to have Suzanne (7) and Michelle (9) to stay with us. Today we had a letter from their mother saying that she had returned the added room to Sears, and that "you can keep your darned old jack"… I had told her about that story (worrying ahead of time the way all of us do).

Georgia peaches are about the size of a large apricot in Washington…we tried them once and now buy California peaches (which are not nearly as nice as the Washington ones). We find fair canteloupe, but not nearly as good as the Pecos River ones.…

I remember when we were here in 1976 and adopted a DAWG…a stray one that was so very nice. I named him RAWLPH… now it seems that there are packs of wild dogs who haunt the campground, and they must be shot. Three or four of the men here and Paul and Papa went out Thursday and had to shoot a family of them…it makes me feel badly, but I know it was necessary because they were attacking the campers. DAWG was not like that!

Allen Drury writes the most wonderful books…I am rereading his Advise and Consent series…Advise and Consent, A Shade of Difference, Capable of Honor, Preserve and Protect, and the two different endings Come Nineveh, Come Tyre and Promise of Joy. His Return to Thebes about King Tut is fantastic, too…someday I will find the first book A God against the Gods in that series, too. Somewhere The Throne of Saturn fits in with all the books, too. I do believe that our news is/can be slanted as they say.…

We are "promised" thunderstorms again for this evening…I will find the pillow to put my head under as usual, and talk back to the "gods" in the sky, as usual. How sorry we feel for the tent campers.…

August 2, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#7)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

We did have a very good time on our 3-day trip to Branson and Springfield last week. On the way down to Branson we stopped at Buena Vista Animal Park which is supposed to be the largest one on this continent…it is a drive-through of 9 miles, and the animals are free to roam in different sections. Loved the ostriches, emus and rheas, and were very impressed by most of the other animals from all over the world. We did feel sorry for the big cats, and the grizzly bears who were caged—imagine two huge grizzly bears in one cage! I called "Kitty, Kitty" to the tiger and was growled at… Would you believe that the restaurant we ate dinner Tuesday night at in Branson gave us a ticket (for the driver) for the animal park—it was worth $4! So we have given it away now.

We know that you will believe that our motel bill for 2 nights was almost as much as 2 months for us here! The lake area of the Ozarks is really busy during this part of the year—big crowds…everywhere. We decided not to go to Silver Dollar City because of the price and what they had…it is a combination Disneyland, crafts fair, living history, museum, and shopping arcade. Most of those we have seen often, and Disneyland-type is no fun for us without children, so we decided to use the money for a helicopter ride over the lakes and the town. On our boat ride on Lake Taneycomo (Taney County, Missouri) we met a fascinating English couple who were on a three-months trip through the U.S.…heard that coffee is now $2.65 in Brussels, Belgium. They had had their borrowed car stolen in St. Louis…found in a few hours by a lady policeman with nothing missing but the CB, and the car was not damaged. They were impressed.

The School of the Ozarks has a train-type trip through the campus, but the hours were wrong for us…so we went through the school on our own. The museum is great—and Lake Honor has the largest fountain we had ever seen. The water is used for the grist mill where we bought biscuit mix which they declared was the best ever. Harry had finally found biscuits and gravy on the menu for breakfast—unheard of in our part of the country, isn't it? The School of the Ozarks is a 4-year accredited college where the students work their way—think it was Presbyterian-founded. The greenhouses there have over 10,000 orchids with lots of them in bloom.…

We had Chinese food for a change down there, too.…

August 27, 1979: Bennett Springs, Missouri (#8)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

After we reached the Lake of the Ozarks on the way to Jefferson City we began to lose the hills, and found flatlands with acres and acres of soybeans, sorghum, and corn. We knew that a "front" was moving south with rain, thunder, and lightning—but had no idea that it would be so much that we couldn't even see what was along the side of the road! So we stopped at a motel in Mexico at two in the afternoon, and didn't leave until after eleven the next morning—we did get our money's worth. We met local people at lunch in Hannibal, and they told us how and where to find everything. Our first project was a Twaintour—a long ride around Hannibal both north and south of town, and out to Mark Twain Cave. Then we went for a ride on the Mississippi on the Mark Twain (a paddlewheeler)—around Jefferson Island, the one Twain used in Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. That island is becoming covered with kudzu, the horrible vine we first saw in Port Gibson, Mississippi. It is worse than morning glory, the roots go 7–8 feet into the ground, it grows over trees and kills them, covers telephone poles, and looks like a lovely green carpet. It seems that it was first planted on purpose back in the thirties to prevent erosion, and now they can't get rid of it! The next day we explored all over town—found the homes where Twain and Becky (Laura Hawkins) had lived in what is now the tourist section of Hannibal near the waterfront. We had heard that the Mississippi Queen was in port, so went to see it. The Delta Queen with President Carter was to be in the next week, but we didn't bother to wait.

We came back by Highway 79 along the river (lovely) until we found Highway 47 to go west and then south across the Missouri River…kudzu was even worse on those roads. We do like to "shunpike" rather than the interstate highways—much more to see, and much more time to see it. Whenever possible we do the same when we have the trailer with us. However, some of the small towns leave lots to be desired in the way of restaurants—there was only one in Louisiana on the river, and there we had the world's worst lunch for $5.33!

Tuesday (August 21) we worked in the store for Paul and Fern all day so they could make a business trip to Springfield—we had fun, and they said we had a good day for them. We went to dinner with them the next day…and Papa had lobster for a change…not Maine lobster, but he said it was very good.

For some reason that patch of psoriasis on my arm near the elbow has moved…it is now on the side of my wrist near my watch, and the other is completely cleared up. "Don't scratch, Mary!" was the word from all my friends, but the salve I now use keeps me from scratching, t.g.

Our little girls from Independence were here again this last weekend, the last time before school starts on Monday. They have decided they want us for "extra" grandparents…and they hope to come down before we leave here about the middle of September.…

November 29, 1979: Hemet, California (#1)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

We left Bennett Springs on September 18 with hugs, kisses, and tears from Fern and Paul Weaver…we will miss them, and have promised to be back with them next summer, if it is at all possible. Our friends at the campground say they expect to see us next year, too.

On the way back from our Hannibal trip we saw vineyards and wineries in the central part of Missouri…never had realized that grapes were grown in Missouri! Most of them seem to be Concord grapes.… And I did forget to say that the little pigs were back growing to be big pigs on the lots going to Lebanon again…hundreds of them. We understand that they are there to grow up for marketing later on. All of them are so very cute now.

Our hummingbirds are still so busy…and they spend their time fighting with each other over the feeder. Must always be some bully to take care of the others. We are about to put the feeder away because the birds are going to go south soon. They do like to have a perch to sit on while feeding, or while they wait to feed again…our feeder does not have the perches but we have invented some with popcycle sticks.

They have a miniature golf course next door…and we go there once in a while. Would you believe that the other night I won a FREE game for us next time…accidentally hit the last ball in the right place!

We had liked the katydids and the lightning bugs and the crickets in Missouri, but had not intended to bring anything with us. However, there was a cricket in the bottom of my aloe vera plant and we had it with us for several days.…I do believe it was okay until Papa thought he should use bug spray in the house…never heard the cricket again!

We went west from Missouri through Kansas and on through the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles…do believe that the roads in the Oklahoma Panhandle were some of the worst we have ever been on with the exception of I-80 in western Pennsylvania, and Highway 51 going north from Peru in Illinois!

We noticed and admired all the cotton and green peppers growing in the Texas Panhandle. And Cal Farley Davis Boys Ranch south of Dalhart was well worth seeing. We read that the Canadian River is really underground.…

905 miles from Missouri to Hobbs, N.M. and our cheapest gasoline was in Texas Panhandle for 85.9.…

As usual we stayed in the backyard in Hobbs wiht Harry's brother, and had our usual very good time…for over a month. Everyone is trying to learn to crochet, and I do my best to help them…and lots for them to learn to do. One day when we were coming back from town Laura Mae called our attention to a little horned toad…the color of the ground, and impossible for us to see without help! One day we found cotton balls again on the way back from Lubbock…we were buying watermelons again at the side of the road.

We left Hobbs on October 17 to go to Roswell to have the toilet in the trailer fixed…it had been seeping for months and months, and we could not find a place in Hobbs who could/would take care of it for us. Harry saw the last World Series game of 1979 in a KOA there. There were more skunks that had been killed on the road, and when we came to Vaughn there was a detour sign and we missed the return detour! So we went to Estancia and back to Moriarty…an extra FIFTY miles because we could not turn around with the trailer!

The wind was so strong all the way from Albuquerque and on to Kingman that we know we had terrible gas milage all the way. There was horrible dust in the town of Holbrook, Arizona, too…and a hard rain started about 40 miles east of Kingman so we stopped for the night at about 1:30 in the afternoon…decided to go on to Las Vegas the next day even if it were a Sunday.

We found Sue and Jon Crane in Las Vegas (10/21) and decided to stay in the state park…Hacienda Camperland… Would you believe that we started with 3 days, added 2 more, then 3 more, and finally had to stay 2 more because of the winds in the desert that started on the Monday we planned to leave. And there were roadrunners in the Hacienda Park! We met the most charming lady from Denmark and her husband in the casino, and a wonderful man and his wife from Oslo, Norway, too…so very interesting to talk to.

When we left on 10/31 we had to wait to get the fuse on the water pump fixed…fortunately, Harry had one to replace. Found Zyxxzy Road again on our way to Barstow, and decided to stay TWO days in Victorville to rest after our ten days in Las Vegas! On to Clay Canyon in Corona, where we just stayed for a week to wash the truck and trailer…our friends Jack and Eleanor no longer own the park. We found our friends in Hemet and have decided to stay here for 6 months…near Harry's sister in Riverside. Another 1188 miles from Hobbs, N.M. to here…will have to figure the gasoline later.

January 9, 1980: Hemet, California (#1)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

We moved into Roadrunner Resort exactly 2 months ago today, and do like it very much. So far we have not lighted the trailer furnace because we seem to keep warm with just the electric heater—even though we pay for the electricity it is less than a tank of propane each week! Using propane for cooking and hot water means only about a tank of propane a month.

Would you believe that Santa brought Harry a pair of dark glasses for Christmas? Quite often the sun is so bright that they are needed, and his dark glasses had become scratched on one lens from laying on the dashboard. He now uses a felt holder for them.… I carry mine in my purse.

Christmas was truly wonderful again for us this year because we could be with family in Riverside. We did put up our little tree with flashing lights, and had green heavy tinsel across the rock shield in front—with an enormous red bow in the center. We do have a wreath for the door, too. We left all of this to go to Ann's for over a week, but we did manage to get the decorations down before the football games on New Year's. They are put away for another year.

Poor Clyde Truck was hurt in a supermarket parking lot in Riverside around Thanksgiving…his very first OUCH. It was only a dent high up on the radiator grill, but the rotten people didn't even leave a note!

Gasoline is now 1.07 or more for regular, and no doubt it will be more before long.…hear it is still just over 92 in New Mexico!

Today we have RAIN, but we hear that the Pacific Northwest has lots of snow. The drivers in California must not know how to drive in rain, because there are so many reports of freeway accidents today. We plan to stay home today!

No. 2 granddaughter in Seattle sent us this poem for Christmas…

ELETEPHONY
Once there was an elephant
Who tried to use the telephant—
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone—
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right)
Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee—
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong)……Laura E. Richards

We keep records of our expenditures, and have finally totaled 1979. Gasoline, including the move from Zapata, Texas, to Missouri, and to New Mexico, and to southern California by way of Las Vegas … $617.50
Store 1,144.13
Lodging 1,217.66
Propane 49.76
Postage 129.32 (this was more than usual because of returning important family papers to Vermont)
Laundry 48.10
Books 97.97
Bonnie and Clyde 633.53 (repairs, new lamps, file cabinet, truck service, etc.)

We think we would have spent much more staying in one place than
Gasoline 617.50
Store 1,144.13
Lodging 1,217.66
Propane 49.76
plus
insurance 600.00 plus
and car & trailer licenses 163.55

Of course, Miscellaneous amounted to a Great Deal!

February 8, 1980: Hemet, California (#2)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

We came back from Riverside yesterday afternoon where we finally got the fence painted for Harry's sister…had gone up the week before to do it but it RAINED and RAINED, so we came home until the weather changed after washing windows and curtains. A very good thing we did return for a few days because we had forgotten to close an upper vent in our house! It did rain in and got the carpet wet, and no doubt would have lost the vent in the wind had not our neighbors found the extra key…they came in and closed it before our new chair was damaged. We spent 2 days drying the rug, and being very grateful to our good neighbors. Naturally we have resolved never to forget again.

We think of ourselves as "migrant help" and have now become Molestar and Maria. I looked in the Spanish dictionary, but there is no name Harry listed, but did find the word harry.

The other day we bought a new broom for the house, and Harry made the clerk's day when he said he planned to buy a watermelon and would like the broom and the watermelon wrapped together1 She was still laughing when we left the store.…

Gasoline is now 1.14 or more for regular here…and most of the time the station with the 1.14 is out of gas, of course.

Today is sunny and bright, and both Mt. San Gorgonio and Mt. San Jacinto are snowcovered…we can see both from the trailer park…and are told that they will still have snow on them until at least July. There is still a strong wind, but here is not as bad as farther to the west. We don't plan to put the awning back up for a while, and will postpone putting up the hummingbird feeder, too. We saw hummingbirds in the bushes at Ann's in Riverside a few days ago…but would lose all the syrup in this wind.

The typewriter has been to the shop, and now works beautifully…discovered that I had been sold the wrong typewriter ribbon in Missouri last summer, and now know why there was trouble when it was supposed to reverse.

The February 1980 Reader's Digest has stories that do apply to us…

A friend of ours in his 70s told us of his trouble with a road test that he had recently taken to renew his driver's license. He and the testing officer drove a few blocks through town with no apparent difficulty, but when they returned to the courthouse, the officer told him, "Mr. Kelly, I'm sorry to say you didn't pass this part of the test." Surprised, Mr. Kelly asked what the problem was. The officer told him that whenever they pulled away from an intersection, he didn't look to the right to see if it was clear. "I never do," said our friend firmly, "That's Mum's side to look."

A retired couple decided that they should walk two miles a day to stay in shape. They chose to walk a mile out on a lonely country road so they would have no choice but to walk back. At the one-mile mark on their first venture, the man asked his wife, "Do you think you can make it back all right, or are you too tired?" "Oh, no," she said, "I'm not tired. I can make it fine." "Good," he replied, "I'll wait here. You go back and get the car, and come get me."

March 5, 1980: Hemet, California (#3)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Across Acacia Avenue from the trailer park there was an enormous field of carrots which they harvested by machine a few weeks ago…leaving many, many carrots behind. So all the senior citizens here went with buckets and bags to harvest the remainder of the field…we did like the price of the good sweet small carrots. Even after the rains people were over there digging with shovels to find them in knee-deep mud. Now the field has been plowed and replanted with something…could be carrots again? Whatever it is, maybe we can glean the field again, and do hope we like it.

Speaking of rain…California has had its "unusual weather" this year. Would you believe that normal rainfall is less than 11 inches by this time of year, and the 8-day February storm brought the total to over 20 inches!?! San Jacinto had a real flood because the levee broke, and the whole town had to be evacuated to Hemet for a couple of days…some were picked off roofs by helicopter and brought to Hemet. People were finally allowed to return to their homes but were still trying to clean the mud and water from their homes. Lake Elsinore is getting the runoff from the mountains, and the lake is still rising…many homes have been lost in the lake there. How glad we are that we did not decide to spend the winter at Lake Elsinore!! We did think about it before we found this place. Since February we have had another storm with 2 inches of rain, and are promised more rain this evening.… The canyons and hills are sliding and ruining houses everywhere. People have been allowed to build in old river beds and lake bottoms and on hillsides…and this "unusual" rain makes this area a disaster. The summer fires take the brush and grass that would hold back the water runoff and help save the homes, too.

One morning during the February MONSOON RAINS I was still in bed and happened to see a drop of water fall in the kitchen part of our trailer. I watched and saw that every so often it came from the corner of the air conditioner. We took it apart during a lull in the storm, and found that the holding bolts were loose! Harry tightened them, and we have had no further leaks. Our poor neighbors in the park have not been as lucky. Fixing the air conditioner led us to Spring House Cleaning which we had not done since we were in Zapata last year…the walls and screns really needed taking care of.

Gasoline is now 116.8 for regular…if the stations are open when we want it.

The hummingbirds have arrived for us, but they are different from the ones in Missouri. The dumb sparrows try to get the syrup. We do hear meadowlarks but have not seen them as yet…lots of doves are around here.

February 24 we went to a luau here in the park, and did enjoy ourselves very much. And during the early morning hours Monday morning (2/25) we had an earthquake. There was no damage for us, but I did tell you that Las Vegas may someday be a seaport, didn't I? We were awakened by the noise and the trailer rocked and rocked. There were aftershocks for several hours, but we didn't feel them.

When Mary Barrett Came to Visit from Seattle

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

March 29, 1980
We were at the Ontario airport very early to meet Mary's plane…so early, in fact, that we ate our lunch there and had time to watch lots of planes arrive and depart. Grandpa went to find Mary when she came off the plane, and when they came up the walk I was truly amazed to see that Mary was nearly as tall as I am. We went to Ann's in Riverside for dinner and to stay overnight. There we were surprised to find Rita and Chappie again after their trip to Carlsbad Caverns, and their visit in New Mexico with Aunt Laura Mae and Uncle Alex…so I slept with Ann, Harry had the couch, and Mary B. had the sleeping bag on the floor in Ann's bedroom because Rita and Chappie were there first to get the spare bed. Everyone seemed to like Mary very much, and she and Maryann had a good time together.

3/30
We came home to Hemet about 1 o'clock. Harry took Mary to the office to get a guest tag for her, she rode the bicycle around, and met some of our friends in the park. I made a lunch to take with us to Lion Country because we had been told that there was a picnic area there.

3/31
We didn't leave until almost 10 o'clock in order to avoid as much freeway rush hour traffic as possible…however, there was still lots of traffic, especially on I-5. We did find Lion Country easily, though. On the drive we saw ostriches,cheetahs, swans, llamas, lions…baby cheetahs and baby lions, too…and lots more animals and birds. We had to keep the windows of the truck closed always, and Mary used our camera because heres was in the back of the truck and unavailable! Later we saw lots of rhinoceros, elephants, gnus, elands, oryx, and much more…including flandingoes, peacocks, and other interesting birds. For some reason the tigers and leopards were not to be seen on the drive.

We found the petting zoo with the fattest baby goats who liked people, and a llama who seemed doubtful about people. Nearby was Tiny Bubbles, a 2-year-old son of Bubbles the Hippo who was accidentally killed during an escape a couple of years ago. The Animal Nursery had five little baby black bears, tiny alligators, aardvark, and lots more. We didn't find the picnic area so we ate our lunch on the tailgate of the truck. Then we left to find a motel (Marco Polo) for two nights near Disneyland within walking distance.

4/1
I tried to make an April Fool joke by telling Harry and Mary that it was raining, but it didn't work!! After breakfast we went to stand in line with all the children on vacation…"hurry up and wait." We thought it worthwhile to stand in the lines for Bear Country, Small World, Jungle Cruise, Mark Twain paddlewheel boat, the Train Ride around the park, Great Moments with Lincoln, the Aerial Tram over the Matterhorn, and some others. Harry and Mary went on the Autopia Freeway, and Mary went by herself to the Swiss Family Tree House, and to Tom Sawyer's Island.

The line for the Jungle Cruise was extremely long, but it was worth it. The boat ahead of ours stopped (went off the track) so we went backward and forward several times past the elephants and the big apes. Because of the delay we were given extra tickets good for anything in the park…and we had not minded at all.

After dinner at the Plaza (standing in line again) we took a chance to go back to the motel by a shortcut across busy Harbor Boulevard…we were all very tired and our feet hurt up to our ears after standing in lines for hours and hours.

4/2
With no success we tried again to avoid traffic on I-5 and the Hollywood Freeway by starting late after breakfast to go to Universal Studios. Our northbound lanes did move faster than the southbound ones loaded with trucks. The turnoff the freeway at Lankershim/Universal City was easy to find, but we stood in lines again and again and again.

Our Tram Ride tickets were not good until 2:15 so we explored…saw the Animal Training Show with Fred (the cockatoo from Berotta), other birds, and the son of Bendit (the dog on Little House on the Prairie). We went to the Screen Test Theater where they picked actors from the audience for Airport 77…later we saw the finished show. We were never near the Stunt Show at the right time to stand in the lines.

Our Tram Ride line finally got started about 2:30 to go through the gate, but we discovered that the line went around and around later because it was at least 3:15 before we got on the Tram. We were taken past the trailers for B.J. and the Bear, the sheriff cars for Dukes of Hazard and B.J. (they looked in good condition), the dressing room/office of Edith Head, and went into the dressing room of Robert Wagner…bigger than many small homes! The storage lot had lots of props, so many that it looked like a huge garbage dump, but they keep an inventory of it all.

We were on three sound stages where they showed us how the Bionic Woman worked, the lighting and indoor sets, and how they make moving vehicles seem to move on a highway…like a stationary motorcycle and a moving highway scene are run through a camera at the same time. For us a little Japanese boy was on the motorcycle first, and we saw the result. Rain comes from a garden hose on the windows during the day only (night rain does not show on film), and the ceilings are not there at all because they are filled with lights…ecept for a show like Marcus Welby, where a white canvas is used.

Halfway through our ride we got off the Tram for food, and a rest. There we saw the big telephones used on the Land of the Giants, and had a cartoon made of Mary. We were in Hollywood Hills and could look down on Burbank (Mary made stops coming and going at Burbank Airport). We went through several different "country" sets like Israel where they soon are to shoot the film Masada, the Tower of London, a Western town, and the Alps, where they really shook us by making us think we were falling. There was a flash flood, the opening of the Red Sea, Jaws where the dock tipped and the shark came up next to the Tram after he ate a fisherman and his boat.

After we went by the set (a small lake and a sandy beach) where they made Gilligan's Island, our Tram got stuck going up a hill, and we had to wait a while until a Jeep came to tow us up over the top. We now began to feel like perhaps we were a jinx…the Tram and the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland?

Because of all the delays we were late getting out of the parking lot, and were again delayed behind a car on the freeway that had stalled in our lane just before we were to get on I-10. Long after dark we ended up in a motel in West Covina…only to find that all the restaurants were on the south side of the freeway, and the motels were on the north side, so we missed dinner that night. Fortunately, we still had some of our picnic lunch left on ice…but we knew we would be hungry by the time we found breakfast! Once again we were very tired, but had had a good day. Lines, and "hurry up and wait"…

4/3
Home in Hemet by early afternoon…weather overcast, so no swimming for Mary.

4/4
To the post office, K-Mart, and called Continental Airlines to confirm Mary's return flight. I did a laundry while Mary and Harry watched TV to find out about Mount St. Helens, and they worked a jigsaw puzzle in the library.

4/5
Mary and I packed her suitcase with all kinds of goodies, stuffed all the rest in her backpack…the extra Samsonite key we had did not work, unfortunately. There was plenty of time for Mary to check in at the airport because we went by the Van Buren-Mission shortcut I had found on the map…much better than the freeway route. Once the plane was in the air, we called Seattle to say that Mary was safely on her way home…and that we missed her already.

Mary and Harry Ashbrook
Grandma and Grandpa Boots

April 8, 1980: Hemet, California (#4)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Gasoline is still 116.6 if and when we can find it…many times the red flag is out in front of the station.

We made 24 pints of sauerkraut because it is fun to do, cabbage was 9¢ a pound, and we had used and given away all that we had made last summer in Missouri. Anyone who would like the recipe for making sauerkraut in jars rather than in the crock we will be glad to share it.

We saw an ad on the bulleting board for a Schwinn girl's bicycle for sale at a neighbor's for only $20…so we bought it. Papa has fun riding it, and Mary Barrett rode it when she was here from Seattle…some night when it is dark, I am going to try again just to see if I have forgotten how to ride. One never forgets, I hope. So far I have not felt energetic enough to try.

Our good neighbors next door left for the Salton Sea and then on to Las Vegas. Now we are going to take the spot that they had tomorrow (5 months in this place). Next door has a street light and more trees, and if we are going to take it by the year why not get what we want? Our neighbors from Texas across the way have leased a mobile home at Soboba Springs and are now sending for their stored furniture…we hope to see them often. He wants Papa to help him move furniture that they have bought…can do.

Our new address is

Roadrunner RV Park K-5 (it was K-7)
2750 W. Acacia Avenue
Hemet, California 92343

One Sunday a couple of weeks ago, Ann, Rita, and Chappie (who are shirttail relatives from Kennewick, Washington) came to spend the day with us. We went to the rehearsal of the Ramona Play and explored the town of San Jacinto where there was so much flood damage. Rita and Chappie had been here earlier in the week to have their car fixed at a garage we knew about before they went on to New Mexico. They did not feel cheated at all…t.g. Small towns can be great sometimes, if one considers over 20,000 a small town.

We have some nice neighbors from St. Louis, Missouri, who are going to work at the Teton National Park this summer…we say "why work?" They plan to leave this week to explore all the way up the length of California, Oregon, before they go to Wyoming…must be there by the 15th of May. Frank has been going to Loma Linda University Hospital for a thyroid condition, a couple of times Papa has gone with him just for the ride. Frank and June are very nice people…as are all of our neighbors. The park is no longer filled with trailers because everyone is going home for the summer. We hear that gasoline may keep lots of the people away for next winter.…

A neighbor next door had an owl in his tree every day…and he has wild canaries which we hope will come to our bird feeder when he leaves next week. At this time we have doves, and lots of finches here…the bird feeder needs to be filled every other day! Once in a while we do have the hummingbirds again, but not as often as we would like.

Mary Barrett (the 12-year-old from Seattle) came to visit us on March 29 and stayed until April 5…we had a good time at Lion Country, Disneyland, and Universal Studios. I have written a separate screed on our days with Mary B.…

April 30, 1980: Hemet, California (#5)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Gasoline is still 116.6.…

No matter what we decide to do this summer we will always have this nice spot to come back to next winter because we are now paying by the year. Not only that, we bought the storage shed rather than pay $7.50 a month rent for it…no longer will we have to take everything we own with us. Now, if Papa would only get going to build more shelves.…

April 11 and 12 we had a bad Santa Ana wind with lots of dust…it got into the trailer, and we still find it! There were high gusts, but the awning made it okay thanks to the "hurricane" wind strap that we bought last year in Zapata…noticed that some of the neighbors now have a wind strap, too.

We planted some tomatoes and green peppers…some of them are in the flower garden next to the patio. Only hope that they will grow.…

April 16 we took our friends (the ones we had met in 1976 in South Carolina) to see the desert flowers and cactus in bloom. We went over the mountains to Beaumont and Twentynine Palms and then through the Joshua Tree National Monument…a fascinating trip for all of us. On the way back we detoured a little to go through Palm Springs…an interesting town, but Hemet is much better for us. Here it is much cooler, too. The snow is now melting off Mt. San Jacinto into Palm Springs, and the streets are awash in many places.

Recently we met a man and his wife from Melbourne, Australia, who were just starting on a big 4½-month "holiday" through the United States and Canada in a rented "caravan" (in this case, it was a motor home). It could be that we will see them again because he had a cousin here in the park.…

Rain again today, but we are promised good weather soon.

Our address is

Roadrunner RV Park K-5
2750 W. Acacia Avenue
Hemet, California 92343
or
c/o 811 South Silver Street
Centralia, Washington 98531

June 23, 1980: Hemet, California (#6)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Today is the 24th anniversary of my 39th birthday…one must never stop celebrating birthdays, right?

Gasoline is 121.3 for regular if the green flag is flying…some stations want a lot more, though.

A few months ago we bought a 26" bicycle from a neighbor who was leaving the park…a very good Schwinn for only $20. Harry has no problems riding it, and I would be all right if I had longer legs, and were as agile as I used to be. As it is, I fall off when I try to alight, and damage elbows and knees! So went looking for a 24" bike for me…and another neighbor had a 20" folding bike for sale, almost new. I could ride it very easily, so we bought it for $65, and the two of us had many good times riding around the park. That is, until the evening of June 9, when I fell on a gravel corner going around a curve and up a hill…the bike "attacked me." Harry fixed the bolt (for folding) that cut the calf of my leg very badly. We did get the bleeding stopped, and bandaged the cut, and the next morning off we go to the doctor for stitches. He scolded me for not coming in immediately, but stitches and penicillin made it okay. After 2 weeks I still limp a little, but know that soon all will be well. that $65 bicycle has now become a lot more…a doctor bill of $50 and a prescription of $5.… Would you believe that Harry threatens me with training wheels if I fall just once more. But I do plan to ride again in a week or so…sounds like riding a horse after being thrown, doesn't it?

We have discovered a Senior Citizens Tour Group here, and on June 17 we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. We found it fascinating…one could make a bet on where the next bubble would come to the surface (and lose). The museum with the saber-tooth tiger, the mammoth, the mastodon, the sloth, and many other extinct animals hold your interest, too…there is a skeleton of a 9,000-year-old woman. Our first stop was at the Farmers Market where we explored and had our lunch…good seafood. The fruit and vegetables and meat are beautiful there, but much too expensive for us…cantaloupe was 98¢ a pound, tomatoes $1.39 a pound, asparagus $1.79 a pound, etc., etc.…! However, we did find sourdough bread (day old) for 60¢!! and it was good…at a winery. At the end of next month (if we are here) we may go to Las Vegas on a 9-hour turn-around which will cost each of us only $4.50. We do hope that sooner or later there will be a trip to the Queen Mary and to Marineland.…

Our awning needed washing a few weeks back so we did it…only to find that the wind strap was falling apart. Would you believe that it took five different stops to find a new one? All we wanted was the strap itself, not the springs and tiedowns. Now that we are set up again, we know that the awning needs washing again! Tomorrow is the day.…

The field across the way where the carrots were last fall is now full of potatoes…all in blossom. We can only hope that the harvest is the same for us as for the carrots…lots left in the field for us to glean!!

The weather has not been too bad here since summer started a few days ago…only had the air conditioner on a couple of times, and the evenings are so cool that Harry wants the electric blanket on…it is great in the early morning. Our tomatoes must be doing well, because they now have little tomatoes on…but the pepper plants froze earlier.

We think we must be getting OLD…either that, or we are financing extremely good vacations for the dentist, the optometrist, and the doctor! The optometrist collected for two contact lenses for Harry (he lost one, and the spare one had a chip which hurt his eye), and a new pair of glasses for me…much more expensive nowadays. Then Harry lost a front cap from his teeth, and my bottom denture broke in half…and THEN we both found that our blood pressure was very, very high. By now my b.p. seems all right, and we are working on Harry's. Hooray for Medicare, and for the insurance which takes care of lots of the $$$$.

I guess I forgot to tell you that I burned all ten of my fingers the end of May while stupidly trying to move a very hot platter…and can only bless Ann's son-in-law for helping me with lots of ice cubes. In much less than a week all was well for me. That was Number 1, Number 2 was the bike, and please no for Number 3.…

July 23, 1980: Hemet, California (#7)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

Gasoline is now anywhere from 1.20 to 1.26 depending on the station…needless to say we hope to find the 1.20 stations.

We have had 4H weather here for the last week…4H is HOT, HUMID, HAZY, and HORRIBLE!! Yesterday was 111 according to the paper, and it was smoggy. Today there is more smog, but the temperature has only reached 100, we think. How did people live in this country before the days of air conditioning?

Mt. St. Helens went up again yesterday…we can only hope it was not as bad as on May 18, May 25, and June 12! The news here is now rather shrugging the eruptions off…so what else is new? We wonder how the high school reunion this coming weekend will be?? It would be the 47th for Harry, and the 45th for Mary!! We only hope that Centralia High School had/has a wonderful time.

Hooray!! We had a ripe cherry tomato when we came back from Riverside on Monday. There are so many green ones and lots of blossoms on the two plants in the patio planter…our good friends water them while we are away. We had planted green peper plants…they died immediately! I have never had a green thumb.…

We went to Riverside last week to take sister Ann to the doctor in Fontana, and stayed at her home several days to try to help her…she does not feel well these days. Harry built more shelves for her, and I re-upholstered a small footstool for her. When she felt able we played Skip-Bo which is a fascinating game…both she and Harry can beat me. I know they do not cheat! they are just very lucky! Before we left we rearranged the furniture in her living room, and vacuumed and dusted. Next time we do the rest of the house. We do have to go again to take her to the doctor in Fontana on August 5.…

The braces on our storage shed had warped, and while we were gone the company fixed it…guaranty took care of it. We do feel so fortunate to have a storage shed to get the "stuff" out of the back of the truck!

My leg as in #6 is almost well now. Our nice neighbors are teaching us to play shuffleboard, and Harry is teaching me to play pool. Hopefully, next week I ride the bike again.…

September 8, 1980: Hemet, California (#8)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992

August 2 was our 34th wedding anniversary…somehow friends in the park found out about it, and we were surprised to receive cards and congratulations. Papa took me out to dinner at one of the nice restaurants in town. And yesterday was Grandparents Day which also called for dinner out on the town.…

Gasoline prices have come down a little bit…saw a station with 117.9 the other day. Unfortunately, our tanks were filled the previous week at 120.7!!

Our 4-H weather (Hot, Humid, Hazy, Horrible) is no more for a while, we hope. We had several days around 105 degrees which I spent in the trailer with the air conditioner going on high…the nights weren't too bad, though, so we always went for a walk. Guess we were rather lucky at that…Bermuda Dunes reached 124 degrees on August 8…and Palm Springs was always much hotter than Hemet. Now we have cool mornings and very nice afternoons and evenings…sweaters are necessary in the evenings. There was a big fire near Palm Springs for the last 2 weeks (started by some boys with matches), and the fire-fighting planes with chemicals and water flew out of Ryan field next to us hour after hour every day. Sometimes we thought they might land on our roof! We could see the smoke from the fire on the other side of Mt. San Jacinto from here, but the flames never crossed the mountain. The fire is now under control, and it is possible that the parents of the boys will have to pay a part of the nearly 3 million needed to fight the fire…quite a few of the firefighters were injured, too.

I have discovered Julia Child (The French Chef) on PBS here…she is quite remarkable, and fun to listen to every Saturday morning at 11:30. She can make her cooking seem so very simple…and when she goofs (not too often) she says "ERFF…" according to the captions. I would not like to be the one to clean up the dishes and pans after her.…

Most of the men, and lots of the women here have their own pool cues (sectional ones). The house cues are all right if you find a straight one, those I use because it's okay. However, I had a friend buy one for me to give Harry for his birthday the last part of September, case and all. Naturally, I was weak and gave it to Papa over a month before his birthday. I found out later that the whole park was waiting to see how long I could hold out!! Everyone watches to see what Harry and Mary will do next…I think?

That potato harvest across the way seemed to take weeks and weeks…they started at daylight and worked until about noon on the very hot days. When they were finally through all of us here investigated the "gleanings"…not much left, and they seemed to be the wrong kind of potatoes for us. Guess they had been raised for chips or dehydrated potatoes or something. But I did can apricots which we bought by the lug at one of the local orchards. Hemet at one time was one of the BIG apricot orchard areas, but is now being "paved over" for shopping malls and housing of all kinds for retirement people. The orange groves around Riverside are disappearing, too, for the same reasons. We read that the dairy farms are being crowded out, too, but there are still big Holstein farms north of here on the Ramona Expressway. Almost makes one think that someday there may be no farms at all. Anyway, this week we are going to try to find peaches at a local orchard to can…Papa loves canned fruit, and I like to cook with canned tomatoes. We fell heir to green peppers from a neighbor during the HOT weather, and I dried them in the sun. Now I have a jar of dried green peppers, and a pint of dried tomatoes, too.… I got carried away and dried them. Usually, I freeze the green peppers, but our freezer was FULL with bargains from the store. We found chicken for 49¢ a pound, and smoked ham hocks for 79¢…plus hamburger for 99¢. On the way back from sister Ann's after Labor Day we found tomatoes at a produce stand for $4 a lug…lovely big ones. We had lots to eat, and lots to give away…and I canned 15 pints.

August 17 we went on a 9-hour turnaround trip to Las Vegas on a bus through the Senior Citizens Tours…it was fun, and we came home with most of the money we left home with after 9 hours of playing Keno and the slot machines. I slept on Papa's shoulder most of the way home (next time we will take a pillow for each of us!). Next time is October 29…we pick up the bus at a mobile home park a block away from here, and get home about three in the morning. Would you believe that there was an 89-year-old lady on the bus?

The Bingo games are still going this summer but the pots are very small…so are the crowds. Soon the winter people will start to arrive, and the park will be filled.

Basic Sourdough Cooking

First start with a suitable container, such as a crockery bean pot or a plastic bowl. Never use a metal container. The bowl should be scalded before using to inhibit the growth of unwanted bacteria. In cold weather, starters lose some of their potency, but can be revived with a tablespoon of pure sugar vinegar.

Some secrets of good sourdough cooking are: First, avoid mixing the batter too much. Overmixing knocks the gases out of the dough which are needed for the raising process. Second, sourdough cooking requires slightly more heat or a longer cooking time than ordinary baking. Third, never put back into the starter pot anything but flour and water…especially, no sugar, salt, eggs, soda, or cooking oil. Fourth, baking soda tends to turn sourdough yellow, so you may wish to use baking powder instead. Fifth, the batter should always be at room temperature before using. Sixth, buttermilk usually requires a bit more leavening when used in most recipes.…

There is usually some confusion among readers over the use of yeast in sourdough cooking. The use of yeast is a modern innovation. The original sourdough did not use it. Sourdough manufactures its own yeast. Nowadays, we use it to speed things up a bit, and the same goes for baking soda.

Although a starter is simply flour and water, there are a number of ways you can make it…and, in truth, most sourdough cooks have their own personal modus operandi. Here are some of the variations to choose from:

1. The basic recipe or formula can be made by mixing 2 cups of flour with enough lukewarm water to form a thick batter. Allow to stand for 4 or 5 days or until it begins working. This recipe requires a carefully scalded container. Then it is ready to use.
2. This formula is simply 2½ cups of flour with a package of dry active yeast stirred in, and enough lukewarm water to make a thick batter. Let stand in a warm place, uncovered, for at least 24 hours or until the house is filled with a delectable yeast odor.
3. **** [This is the one that I think Aunt Jane Foster used]…Boil some raw potatoes for supper, save the potato water and use it lukewarm with the above #2 formula, without the yeast. Let it stand for a day or so, or until it smells right.

Sourdough Flapjacks

No. 1
Mix ½ cup active starter, ½ cup pancake mix, 1 egg, 1 T cooking oil, ½ cup milk, ½ tsp soda. Lightly grease a hot griddle. Drop on griddle with a large spoon while batter is still rising.

No. 2
Mix 1 cup starter, 1 cup flour, 1 egg, 2 T cooking oil, ¼ cup instant or evaporated milk. Blend in 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp soda, 2 T sugar. Let mixture bubble and foam a minute, then drop on hot griddle.

No. 3
Mix 2 cups starter, 2 cups flour, and 1 tsp baking soda, 2 well-beaten eggs, 1 T sugar, 1 tsp salt. Stir in 2 or 3 T bacon fat, butter or margarine, and cook on hot griddle.

No. 4
Mix 1 cup buttermilk pancake mix, ½ cup starter, ½ cup milk, 1 egg, 1 T cooking oil, ½ tsp baking powder. Let stand a few moments, then drop on hot griddle.

** Berries can be added to any of these recipes.

Sourdough Donuts

Mix ½ cup sourdough batter, 2 egg yolks or 1 whole egg, ½ cup sugar, 2 T shortening, 1/3 cup sour milk or buttermilk, 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt. Sift dry ingredients together, stir into the liquid. Let dough stand a half hour after rolling out and cutting. Deep fry in the usual way. They keep indefinitely in the freezer.

Sourdough Waffles

Beat well 2 eggs, mix with ¼ cup cooking oil, ½ cup milk, 1 cup buttermilk pancake and waffle mix, ¼ tsp baking powder, ½ cup sourdough starter. Spoon the mixed batter in the usual way in waffle iron (preheated) and close the lid. Done when it quits steaming.

Sourdough French Bread

Dissolve a package of dry yeast in 1½ cups hot water, mix with 1 cup sourdough starter in a large bowl, adding 4 cups flour, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp salt. Cover with cloth and let rise in a warm place until twice size. Then mix a cup of flour and ½ tsp baking soda and stir this into the dough, adding enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead on a flour-dusted board, until smooth and shiny. This kneading is the secret of good bread. Shape the dough into half-loaf sizes, place on greased paper (or sheet sprinkled with cornmeal) and leave in warm place until double in size. Brush the top lightly with cold water, make a sharp slash about ¼ inch deep in top of loaf, and place in 400° oven in a shallow pan with a little hot water in the bottom. [Question! The loaf of bread in one pan which is placed in another pan with the hot water, so I think.] Bake until dark almond brown. Brush with melted butter and hot water and then crisp in oven for 3 to 5 minutes. Glaze, if desired, with a mixture of canned cow or fresh cream and egg yolk.

Sourdough Chocolate Cake

Mix ½ cup sourdough starter with ¼ cup non-fat dry milk, 1½ cups flour, and 1 cup water. Mix well and let stand a couple of hours in a warm place, until there is a delectable yeast smell in the house. Cream ½ cup shortening and 1 cup sugar. Add 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp red vegetable coloring, ½ tsp salt, 1½ tsp soda. Add 2 eggs one at a time and mix well. Then add 3 squares melted chocolate. Stir this creamed mixture into the sourdough mix. Gently blend. Pour into a cake tin about 7 by 11. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes.

Dakota Prairie Muffins

1 cup whole bran, 1 cup buttermilk, ¼ cup shortening, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 egg, ½ cup sourdough starter. Sift together 1½ cups flour, 1½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp soda. To soften the bran, soak in buttermilk. Cream the shortening and sugar, and beat in the egg. Stir in the bran mixture and starter, then fold in dry ingredients until just moist. Add ½ cup raisins if desired. Drop in greased muffin pans. Bake at 375° for 35 minutes. Makes 8 muffins. (Note: as with all sourdough recipes, slightly longer baking is required…as much as 10 minutes. Testing is recommended.)

Ghosttown Sourdough Cookies

1 cup shortening
1½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup buttermilk or sour milk
½ cup sourdough starter
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
3 cups quick cooked rolled oats
1 cup raisins
½ cup walnuts
Cream shortening, sugar, and eggs to a light and fluffy mixture. Stir in buttermilk and starter, then stir in sifted dry ingredients and rolled oats, nuts, and raisins. Drop cookie-sized globs 2 inches apart on greased sheet and bake at 375° for 10 minutes.

Sourdough Biscuits

Mix in a large bowl 1 cup of active starter, 1¼ cup prepared biscuit mix, ½ tsp baking powder, and 1 T cooking oil. After mixing thoroughly, turn out onto a floured board, knead, and then roll out gently and cut into biscuits. Brush lightly with melted butter or margarine. Bake on greased cookie sheet about 15 minutes at 450°. This makes about 9 large biscuits that will almost literally melt in your mouth.

To Washington and Back (Autumn 1980)(102)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992
Written December 7, 1980

September 24, 1980–October 15, 1980

Harry's driver's license renewal had been sent in care of Aunt Jean in Connecticut, and it seemed as though it would never arrive here in time for his birthday. Another form came from Washington, and we thought that perhaps we might make a rush trip back to Washington to make sure he would have a valid license on or before September 28. The license arrived from Connecticut by September 19…so no problem there. However, by that time the idea of a trip to see our family and friends seemed absolutely wonderful…so we put air mattresses, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, an ice chest, etc., in Clyde and away we went.

We found friends in Carson City, in Westwood, California—both for one-night stands.… The friends in Kennewick, Washington, were not at home, we called their daughter who told us they were fishing up near the Canadian border…they asked us to stay with them, but we said we wanted to get on our way to have more time to spend in Seattle.

The son of the dairy people we had worked for before retiring lived in Othello, called him and were invited out to visit. There is where we first saw the horrible ash from the May 18 St. Helens explosion…Mike manages two huge dairies there in Othello, and the ash is still thick in the country.

Later that Sunday we found my brother and his wife (and many of the kids and grandkids) in George, Washington. Bess was quite ill, and was to go to the Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle the next day. We did what we could to help there, but left Tuesday a.m. for Seattle…bearing many gifts—a sack of fresh corn, and a box of Italian prunes to share. It was good to see the grands and Chris and Ed in Seattle, but they seemed so busy that we only stayed a couple of days there…probably another time we won't surprise them. Christine gave us apples and Walla Walla sweet onions to share.…

We had lunch with a niece and her family in Tacoma, where we found that Aunt Bess was suffering from potassium deficiency…her blood pressure pills had caused it. Both Harry and I had been warned about this, and so far we have had no problems.

Centralia was wonderful…Arlene and Robbie took us in ("glad you came to play pinochle"). When we lived in the neighborhood we spent many Saturday nights playing pinochle and eating popcorn…they even came to the Pend Orielle River to visit and play pinochle when we were there in 1978. We used their house as a turnaround to visit and sleep, saw all the old neighbors, had dinner with several of them, and talked miles a minute.

The people at Leprechaun Dairy greeted us with open arms (Doc even kissed me!)…and they ended up giving us enormous rib steaks and a half-gallon of milk. They told us that they wished we still worked for them, but "work" is a four-letter word to us. We promptly gave the steaks and the milk to Arlene and Robbie, of course.

Gordon and Joan Harper still call us Mom and Dad, and their children call us Grandma and Grandpa (Crystal is nearly 6, and Jimmy is 2). Their new house on Scammon Creem Road is going to be lovely—Gordon built it almost all by himself over a period of nearly 6 years. Jo is still recuperating from a hysterectomy last summer and hasn't had too much energy to really put the house together. They gave us home-canned carrots, string beans, and razor clams, and lots of filberts which Harry loves. We also fell heir to lots of walnuts from Robbie and Arlene, and his brother Richard gave us two big packages of frozen razor clams to take with us in the Igloo.

We finally found brother Fred home in Oakville on Sunday, and Rick and Sue came to visit with their two—Holly 3 and Roy about 18 months. Fred and Elizabeth were going to Fort Lewis the next day.

We had missed Marlene when we went to Onalaska because she was in Tacoma that day…however, she called the next morning and talked for a long time. Their farm is just on the outskirts of Onalaska, and they are really working it over…and would you believe long-haired goats (angora or mohair?).

We had called a friend in Kelso to try to find her for lunch on the Thursday we left Centralia. It turned out that she didn't go to work until noon so we stopped by in the morning…she had a surprise wild blackberry pie baked for us. Her dog Scruffy who had been Haywire's friend remembered us after so many years (as did Robbie and Arlene's dog Scroodles, who always let us into the house with no fuss).

We found Jo Sayrs and Margo in Salem where we shared the razor clams that Richard Thompson had given us. Poor Jo has had so many operations that now she no longer has a real stomach…just a kind of pouch in the small intestine. This means that she must eat often. She loves Harry so much that she had a fit when we said that we just wanted to stop to say hello…we ended up staying overnight, and talking and talking. They have a very nice apartment in the southwest part of Salem not far from Sylvia's. I'm sure Jo and Margo like me, too…just that Harry is really special!

Then we found a good friend whom we had met on the Pend Orielle River who now lives in Sutherlin, Oregon…she gave us jelly, jam, pickles, etc.…and we left her lots of walnuts. We did have fun trying to find her…Sutherlin has grown so much now that it is off the freeway…but with the help of the post office and local stores we finally found the right address on Route 1. She cried when we showed up at her door.…

Martha was not at home in Palo Cedro near Redding, and they had a great big Doberman with "Beware of the Dog" signs all over the place. So we left a note taped to the front door where the dog could not reach us, asking where her mother was, giving our address again, and our phone number. We also asked about her dad. Chris had told us that Jane was in Cottonwood, so we stopped there to try to find her…no phone, and no one knew about her. So far we have heard nothing from either Martha or Jane.

Then things started to go right again. We know now that we would have been welcome to stay with Janna and Rich, but found a motel not too far from them. When we called both Rich and Janna were in San Francisco with a group of Girl Scouts, but Steven said "when wil you be here?" Janna called before long, and we spent all day Sunday with them. Harry and Rich get along so well, and Janna and I went here and there to pick up kids all day from here and there. We went to a spaghetti dinner at the church that night, very nice. They even serve wine! The kids have newts, lizards, rats, rabbits, etc., etc.…must take hours to feed all of them. They wanted us to move inn with them to save our motel bill, which we would have done no doubt because we had the sleeping bags with us…we were having fun. However, I had warning signs to "get home to the doctor now"…no I didn't tell Janna my problems, either. We were home by the 15th, and I shared Papa's appointment on the 17th.

Back to Centralia fun…Robbie and Arlene took us out to the Eagles on Saturday night to find friends, and Sunday we went to the Adna Grange for a steamed clam dinner.

It may be years before we can do another vacation like this—but it was worth it.

The Alaska Cruise (September 1984)(103)

--by Mary Anna Hawes Edmands Ashbrook, 1917–1992
Written Autumn 1984

We decided to go with a tour group for our Alaska cruise because it seemed much easier to have someone else taking care of tickets, luggage, reservations, etc. Besides, we have always met nice people on the tours.

Our two suitcases each could be taken to the Tour Office on Labor Day so we wouldn't have to bother with them on Tuesday morning…then we would only have carry-on luggage. Great, except the bus to LAX left Hemet at 4:30 in the morning! Ordinarily, we could have left the car in the guarded parking lot next to the tour office, but the whole lot was being renovated and resurfaced. Thanks to a very good friend who offered to take us to the bus, we had no problem Tuesday morning. It was a grand idea because taxi and bus service at that hour of the morning is impossible here. Because the parking lot was so torn up, the public telephones had been taken out, and it would be difficult for anyone to come get us when we got back late on September 14. Most of our friends were still away for the summer. We made a deal with the security people at the Plaza to get home, we hoped.

Four-thirty in the morning got us to LAX long before the plane left for Vancouver at 8:30, so it was the first of many "hurry-up-and-wait"s for us. Our flight was on CP (we had to ask to find that meant Canadian Pacific). We were in Vancouver long before noon…made us think of the way we drive, which would have meant five days??

Before we went to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver we were taken on a bus tour of the city…very impressive, very clean, and especially liked Stanley Park right downtown. Vancouver is now in the middle of a busy construction boom for an Exposition in a year or so. Our driver was the first of many we had that was fun…jokes, etc., along with information. No rain in Vancouver that day, and we enjoyed the cooler weather.

However! We had to catch an early bus Wednesday morning to get the ferry to Victoria, and it rained and rained and rained all that day. The Buchart Gardens were lovely, even in the rain, and umbrellas were furnished for all by the park. We finally found a place to sit down under a leaky awning to wait for the bus to leave. The bus driver was originally from Holland, and he made good (and corny) jokes. He spoke of Juan de Fuca Strait, and it came out "June de Fuca," and something strange happened to the way he said "madrona" tree. It was long after dark when we got back to the hotel, so we ate our dinner on the ferry. Darling twin boys were at the next table waiting with their big brother for the parents to bring dinner for all of them. We had a good time with them. Meanwhile, a young woman with a baby at another table had been watching us, and when she had to leave for a few minutes, she trusted us to take care of her little one. We had fun, of course.

Thursday we could do as we wished, and, naturally, we slept in! Finally we had brunch in the hotel mall, and walked around the city near the hotel, admiring the plantings in the patios everywhere. I even took a picture of one patio from our ninth floor hotel room…it was part of our view. Dinner that night was part of the tour…I do not like poached salmon!

Friday was more "hurry-up-and-wait" for the bus to the dock to board the Daphne, and "hurry-up-and-wait" to go on the ship. Here we were greeted very nicely, and led to our cabin so fast that we had no idea how we got there, or where we were! I found a map of the ship along with the goodies waiting for us in our room, so we could try to make our way back. It wasn't long before we were sure about directions (took me longer, of course), and could remember that the dining room was closed during many hours of the day. That meant that we had to around it on another deck to reach the main lounge. Elevators are wonderful! The lounge and the dining room were on the 4th deck, and our room was on the 6th.

Casual dress meant anything, Informal and Formal seemed the same for women, and so did Formal for the men. I wore a long skirt with a blouse and sandals for the Captain's reception, but thereafter wore a dress (as did most of the other women). Harry always had to wear a jacket and a tie1 Casual dress was always on the days when we were in a port because of the shore tours. One night we even wore our Geritol Gypsy sweatshirts because we had just come back from Juneau. Only the Captain's cocktail party and reception and the Captain's dinner were actually formal…3 nights were Casual, and the others Informal. Some of the men even wore leisure jackets with no ties at any time…what else is new?

Two of the women on the tour had their daughters join them for the cruise, lucky them. Others were met in Vancouver at the hotel by family for a day or so. The lady from Hemet whose daughter joined her seemed to get younger by the minute while she had company. Unfortunately, she reverted, and we all took turns taking care of her until we got back. Harry and I saw her home late on the night of September 14. Our ride was not waiting for us at the Plaza, but the bus driver was kind enough to take us home on his way back to San Bernadino.

Every day we could keep busy doing the things the Cruise Director thought of, or do as we pleased. I discovered a wonderful cup of coffee—cappacinni (?)—coffee, brandy, and cream. It was very warming when I got so cold on the deck just before arriving at Juneau going by the glaciers, and it made me think I might live after all. Every night until eleven or later, shows of all kinds were in the lounge—amateur, talent, Broadway, fun and games. On Greek night our cabin steward was the main attraction with a starring role in a native dance. Several nights I had to give up early and leave Harry with a friend.

Our cabin steward was Stavros who told us to call him Steve…he was nice and very helpful, but we didn't see him as often as Yannis, our dining room steward. Yannis tried to make us eat everything on the menu, even though we said "No, thank you!" He was very young, and very cute. I asked him where he came from, "an island" "Yannis, there are at least 1,702 islands in Greece." He came back soon to tell me 2,700 islands, so I was only 998 off. Yannis called the men at the table "Boy," and the women "girl. Finally, he called me sweetie! and always teased me about not having dessert. The others always took ice cream and everything. I was impressed when they doused the lights and brought in flaming Baked Alaska in the dark…a long line of trays in flames. It was the first time I had tried Baked Alaska…rather ordinary and not too special.

The Daphne is actually Greek with a Greek crew, but sails with Italian registry under the Costa line, out of Miami. We had no real difficulty talking to them, even though their English was a bit different.

We did go on the city tour of Skagway, where we saw a melodrama about Soapy Smith, the local badman/hero. Skagway is benefitting enormously from the Prudhoe Bay oil money. So far they have a new school, and paved streets with more to come. In Ketchikan we had an abbreviated tour because one of the buses had broken down, and the tender service to and from the ship was always late. We docked at Wrangel, moored out with tender service at Juneau, docked at Skagway, and tender service at Ketchikan. In Wrangel we saw the Inland Passage ferry Columbia docked, and in Skagway the Island Princess, the Cunard Princess, and the ferry Taku were all docked. The little town was full of tourists that day.

We had to have our large bags packed and in the passageway before dinner our last night aboard. All else, but carry-on, had to be out before we went to bed. The next morning the whole reception area on deck 6 was FULL of suitcases.

After early breakfast—no more Continental breakfasts in our room—we waited again in the lounge for the luggage to be unloaded from the ship. We had docked in Vancouver at 8 a.m., but it was nearly noon before we got the bus to the airport for a 3:00 flight. There we had Canadian customs again, and the U.S. customs…we had only bought postcards in Canada! The Vancouver airport has very few seats or restaurants, but Harry wandered and found the daughter of our Hemet passenger who was waiting for her flight to Oregon. There were extra seats near her, and then Harry went to find her mother. They could spend a couple of hours together, and had a place to sit!

Our tour guide held an umbrella over all our luggage, we found it, and stowed it on a cart waiting for customs…no problem. Still waited and waited for the plane, but finally took off.

We found our luggage and our bus at LAX, but then we found that our bus driver had been give no count for passengers or luggage. Problem was—were we minus a couple of people? We waited and waited and checked, but finally left late with those we had on board. Still don't know if we left anyone in Vancouver or LAX.

We did have a grand time, and will gladly do it again anytime, in spite of "hurry-up-and-wait"…only one day of rain, too.