Tag: New York

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 29 – U.S. border crossing then to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan again

Paul Sebastian, RN

We arrived in the US via the rainbow bridge. It was a Sunday August 18th 2019. We got there early to beat the traffic going through customs. We arrived at customs at 9:00 a.m. and waited a half hour. We went right through without an issue. Which made me think about border crossings it seems like the slower quieter ones have more time perhaps to look through RVs and such. Or perhaps they’re thinking is if you’re sneaking something through go through the quiet areas. But whatever the reason it always seems that going through customs at a high tourist area like Niagara falls even though we wait longer in line we don’t have our rig searched. In the past I had enjoyed seeing Niagara falls from the New York side where it’s quiet and more like a state park. Whilw we were in Canada we planned on walking across the bridge to the NY park from Canada but we saw the line of people standing and waiting to go through customs and decided it wasn’t worth it.

We arrived in Erie pa and stayed at another boondockers welcome location. We had never been to Erie before. We learned that the city has a lot of concerts and live music in the summer. Our hosts invited us to join them at a huge street fair. This was a part of their 3 day celebration which happens every year in August. They had three stages food art and a beer garden. But no wine. This year Sister Sledge and Scotty McCreery performed. The next day we paddled kayaks with them and their friendly neighbors at Presque Isle State Park for almost 3 hours. Halfway through the panel we stopped at a small Beach and had snacks and a glass of wine. The name got me wondering so I googled what a Presque is and it is a peninsula that is almost an island. Now you know lol.

The two of us then visited some covered bridges and wineries in Rome Ohio. We drove past Kent State University so of course we had to listen to The Crosby stills Nash & Young song. From there we went to Ashtabula which had a small main Street with a drawbridge and a great chocolate shop. From there we went over to Geneva on the lake well how do I explain this town? Think of the New Jersey shore without the crowds. A lot of shops food and arcades. It was August 20th it was a Tuesday. And it was empty! Many people say it’s packed earlier in the season and on the weekends. We had visited two wineries in the area one was South River winery which was a beautiful old church. Here’s a link to it http://southrivervineyard.com/ We really enjoyed that winery. And the other one was a ferrante winery. This one was an experience. They had two menus a dinner menu and a light self-serve menu. We got the muscles they were $14 and they were delicious but we got no forks or napkins. So he asked to waiter for some and he handed his silverware and cloth napkins and then he saw that we were not dinner guests but only self-serve guests so he took them away from us and gave us plastic wear and paper napkins. Unreal.

The next day we left that host and went to another boondockers welcome host location. As we’re backing into the site the host was guided me back on his hard pack driveway. I explained to him I don’t want to leave the hard pack because of all the rain lately we had gotten stuck in the mud in the past and I don’t want to get stuck again. Unfortunately I trusted him and not myself and he backed us off of the driveway and sank up to the rear axle in mud in the rig.

He said that his neighbor will be home the next day with the tractor and composed out. I shook my head the back of the rig was 2 to 3 ft lower than the front of the rig. And we were not going to be sleeping like that tonight. So I took out the tow strap hooked it to the front axle of the rig in the back of the Jeep Wrangler toad. I got in the rig Trish got in the Jeep we put it in 4 low. I told Trish hit the gas and keep going until I beep the horn on the rig. She did the rig pull immediately out of the mud and I beeped the horn. Yay trish. The next day August 23rd 2019 we were off to Nelson Kennedy ledges State Park in garrettsville Ohio. We figured to be there about an hour to hike the 3 miles of trails. We were there for four and a half hours. What fun. There’s waterfalls crevasses trails cliffs etc. It is probably the most unique State Park we have ever been to. It’s not long hikes but it is beautiful. The next day we visited Cleveland which we found to be a segmented City the New York City you can easily walk from one neighborhood to another like Little Italy to Chinatown. In Cleveland he really need to drive from one area to another. So that was a drag however there was no traffic at all. We visited the West side market. And then we saw that the house where the movie The Christmas story was filmed, was open as a museum. https://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/

Now we both knew the movie and loved it. We figured we would stay about a half hour and look at the museum stuff. Well it turned out that they do a tour of the house and we were there for just over 2 hours. It was amazing of all the movie props that they had on display. And you can actually walk through the rooms freely to see them. From there we went over to the flats the flats are wrenched right on the Cayahoga River on both sides the east side and the west side. To get from one side of the river to the other side was not easy unless you had a boat. So we pulled out Google maps and we decided which side to walk down. From there we went over to the Mill stream run reservation which is a single track bike trail. Certain days of the weeks it’s only for walkers and we were there one of those days which was really nice. We stopped at Gibbs butcher block and got some free samples and bought some of their excellent sausages

http://www.gibbsbutcherblock.com/

The next day we headed out of Ohio and into Michigan. Last year we saw very little of “Troll, below the bridge” part of Michigan. The main part of Michigan is referred to that way because it is south of Mackinac bridge which takes you to the U.P.

So this time we wanted to see more of Michigan. In the lower East side of Michigan we stayed in another boondock was welcome location. Our hosts were a couple from switzerland. Very nice people. The next day we took our toad into Kerrrytown in Ann arbor Michigan. Really nice town. We saw a farmer’s market that has been going on every Saturday for over 100 years. We really liked Kerrytown.

From there we went off to Manchester. Another cute town. They had a farmer’s market there and met the organizer. They take a portion of the profits and they print $1 coupons. You take those coupons and you can buy things from vendors that are run by kids selling their crafts and such. The organizer gave us $5 certificates to help encourage the kids. We spent those $5 and a bunch more by the end of the day. At the end of the day the kids can take their coupons and cash them in for money. When we were in Provincetown I bought a sweater from the Marine store and it had a hole in it so one of the things we bought it this market was yawn and Trish mended it for me. The next day we left this area and we’re heading over towards Grayling Michigan to yet another boondockers welcome host location. We had stayed at this location last year and really enjoyed their company. They offered 15 amp which was enough for us.

We figured they would be busy with Labor Day coming but they said absolutely come by you know where to park and our son will help you with the electric. Grayling is an interesting town this is where the annual au sable canoe marathon is held. Which is touted as the world’s toughest spectator race. It’s 120 mi of paneling it runs from one day at 9:00 p.m. to the next afternoon. Very interesting but not for us. We did a more relaxed paddle on the ausable River. We hired a livery and grayling. We dropped our car at Stephen bridge they met us there. Drove us back to grayling. We then peddled our kayak 4 hours over 13 miles back to our car and they charged us 20 bucks not bad. The previous year we did almost The identical paddle but on a different River and our host shuttled us one way to the put in.

You would have to go back and listen to that episode to hear about that. The next day was a laundry day. And then we went over to North Higgins lake State Park. It’s clear that Michigan is a water-based state in the summer and in the winter. The park had a boat launch a beach and a campground we rode our tandem bike for about 10 miles to Roscommon. Not much there today but apparently a hundred years ago it was the destination spot. In fact Groucho Marx has been time there at a hotel. That night we had dinner with our hosts and their grandson. And when we were leaving they gave us some homemade apple pie moonshine which was delicious. The next day we headed over towards traverse City. And we stayed at Hawkins farm cellers winery via Harvest hosts. We sampled a few of their wines and then bought a bottle and we enjoyed a glass sitting there. That afternoon we went over to suttons Bay and Northport. Half of the stores were closed and this was Labor Day weekend unbelievable. Although there were a lot of shoppers walking streets. The next day we drove to another Harvest host winery called Brengman Brothers winery and we visited traverse City. We weren’t impressed by traverse City. Expensive shops and the such.

podcast

Relax RV Podcast – Episode 22 We start our 2019 Northeast Trip

Paul Sebastian, RN

 

Here’s links to pictures from the places we visited in this episode:

Mystic Seaport in Connecticut

Rock Harbor Cape Cod, Massachusetts 

We drive on the beach in Cape Cod

A day at a lake on “the Cape”

Salem, Massachusetts

Gloucester Massachusetts

 

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 21 – Dewinterizing and destroyed our water heater

Paul Sebastian, RN

Spring is here. I did a break in trip and found I didn’t winterize our rig correctly, ….. our water heater is shot, I made a short video on this mistake

Here’s a video on the water heater replacement:

And along with spring comes wild life. Bears are awake and hungry. Here’s a link to Yellowstone’s podcast “Telemetry”, in episode 9 they talk with a family that were attacked with a bear less than 1 mile from their car. They had bear spray with them. As of 2018 we always hike with bear spray.

I talk about being careful taking selfies this season and always. stay hydrated while driving.

Our Summer 2019 Northeast Trip is starting next week (May 2019). We will be visiting Connecticut, Cape Cod, Salem, Boston in Massachusetts. Then New Brunswick Canada, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Then to Quebec City, Montreal, 1000 islands, Finger Lakes NY and possibly Pennsylvania.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 20 benefits of stress?

Paul Sebastian, RN

I talk about the benefits of stress. Wait, Stress has benefits? It sure does ! Ever get sweaty palms while driving? Well, that Stress response helps you grip the steering wheel better.

I also talk about downsizing. Can it help lower your stress level? Check this out:

Can downsizing lower your Stress? 

And ways we lowered our Stress like our new Bedlift kit to ease the access to un the bed storage. Here’s a video on that and other Stress reducing modifications we’ve made: https://youtu.be/D5Y5zNK4CzI

Check out the bedlift kit at: https://relaxrv.org/thingsweuse/

podcast

Relax RV Podcast – episode 19 find your passion

Paul Sebastian, RN

Find your passion in life. If you love what you do, it is never work. I met a retired S.W. on the road. We were talking about helping others. He said “don’t worry you’ll get over it”. That sure isn’t me.  

Between trips I’m keeping busy with my clients and teaching. Also spending time editing photos and working in the website. 

Podcasts I listen to: RV Navigator, RV Podcast, Campground of the week, Living the RV dream, Radio arizona RV, in the field camping.

Also spending time working on the RV. Our Fantastic Fan was getting really noisy, I contacted them and they sent me a new motor, so I swapped out the old one. 

We hit a RV show in Suffern NY, which gave us the itch to hit the road

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 16 Snow, Grandson, Cousins and Dad

Paul Sebastian, RN

So the last episode we left you when we were arriving at the winery. The day we arrived there we had driven 160 MI but it took us 7 hours to do that. We left from Prince William’s Forest campground Virginia to Cedar Valley winery in Logan township New Jersey. I was beat when we arrived at the winery but I was very glad that we stuck to our 3-hour drives per day. Planning for 3 hour drive day allowed us to get to the winery before bedtime. Lol. When we arrived I was beat. But I was very glad that I listened to my intuition and canceled our stay in Maryland. Have we gone there we would have been way off the beaten path and stranded in the snow with a flat tire. Yay intuition. Another problem was when we pulled into the winery I forgot to turn off the driving lights on the Jeep so the battery was dead and are towed. We unhooked I pulled the RV next to the Jeep and jump started it for more chassis battery. So we arrived during the storm of November 2018, do you remember that storm? It had dumped almost a foot of snow on New York City. We had gotten 5″ of snow in south Jersey.  That night it was supposed to be super cold so we planned on bringing the slide in to cut down on drafts however the slide would not come in. We thought it had broken again. But with the 5 in of snow up on top of the slide it would not come in so I had to climb up on top of those rig to clean off our topper.

George our repair guy from slate Hill New York had always said if it’s going to rain or snow pull the slide in. When we left this winery we drove a very short distance to the KOA in clarksboro New Jersey. Koa’s or not our first choice that’s for sure. And once again we were not surprised to find this isn’t a great campground. We pulled into our site and it was full of garbage that we had to clean up. The picnic table had a torn tablecloth on it. We went over we picked up Trish’s grandson and we took him to our rig. He was amazed by it he had his own bed over the cab. This was the first time we were having anybody sleep on that bed. He had a great time practicing climbing up and down the ladder getting on and off the bed. We had pizza delivered to our site. Then we had a nice campfire and sat outside. The next day we took him to an all-you-can-eat buffet which he loved. The next day we dropped him off at home and we drove over to spotswood New Jersey to visit Trish’s cousins and aunts. We parked the rig for a night of mooch docking. The next day we drove up to Bloomfield New Jersey and parked in Trish’s dad’s driveway and spent the night there. This was the first night that we slept outside the rig in over 5 months. It felt a little surreal. The next day we drove home I looked at the odometer and so that we had driven the rig over 8,000 miles and another $5,000 on our toad. We had stayed in 17 States, two countries.

Wow what a trip! We had our ups and downs. A ripped topper a broken generator. We slept in temperatures of over 100 degrees fahrenheit. We had to slide that wouldn’t work. Electrical problems. Killing our batteries. A trip to thor. Getting stuck in mud. A flat tire. Closet door falling off. And lots of rain leaks. And yet through it all we had a wonderful five-month trip we’ve seen so many sites and met really wonderful people.

It took us two days to unload everything from the rig. We organized RV stuff into bins so it’ll be easier to reload. Now it’s time to do an oil change.

So what are the things that we learned on this trip? First and foremost patience. Patience with each other and with the rig.

#2 help each other when you can. It really does take a pilot and a co-pilot to drive a rig. #3 set aside time for chores and root planning. #4 remember takes a lot longer to drive the rig a certain amount of Miles than a normal car. #5 set limits to driving times and distances to meet your needs. #plane driving days and off days a day off to do laundry and catch your breath is always helpful. #6 laugh! Laugh at yourselves and things .

The next thing we will add to this rig is a new mattress.

We ordered a 6″ inner coil mattress from Mattress Insider and wow do we love it !  And if you go to relaxrv.org/discounts you can get a discount on all if their bedding stuff like mattresses and sheets etc.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 15 Shenandoah and a flat tire

Paul Sebastian, RN

11/15/18

We visited Lewisburg West virginia. It was billed as the coolest town in America by NBC News in 2011. We have been through many towns of listed as quaint or cute or nice. We have found that if a town is listed as quaint or cute means it’s small. So Lewisburg, in our opinion, was a snooty town, you’ll see when as you read further. There were quite a bit of shops which are mainly overpriced. There’s a bunch of places for live music but only on Friday and Saturday. It was also a playhouse but they only had performances on The weekends. So perhaps Lewisburg is a nice weekend town? But perhaps not, we visited the smooth ambler distillery, we walked in and were ignored by the two women at the reception desk. We then went to the bar and was ignored there also. A woman working there was walking by we told her we were interested in doing some tastings. She said okay we’ll be with you in a couple of minutes. We walked out 5 minutes later. He then went to the brick house antique shop. We browsed for 10 mins and as we were leaving, the owner said, “come back when you can spend more time”. Really?? We then went into Robert’s antiques and wine shop. We complimented the owner on one of his pieces. He asked where we’re from we told him New York. He asked if we were from New York City, we said no upstate and he turned around and walked away from us. 

We then left town and walked in the Greenbrier trail which was really nice.

We then drove over into the state of virginia. Stopped at the Blue Stone winery in Bridgewater. They have a nice New tasting room up on a hill and it was a really nice fireplace inside. They had a big patio outside with a second fireplace and numerous heaters. We said enjoyed the view and the tastings and relaxed. What we do now with tastings is we ordered different wines for each of us and then we sample each other’s also.

We’ve been headed north to luray Virginia and camped at a Yogi Bear campground. This was our first Yogi Bear campground. We’re planning on staying there for three nights but they’re running a special stay for three nights and get one night free so we said hey boo boo that’s a pretty good deal. We were here so we could visit to Shenandoah national park. When we checked into the campground the woman gave us wristbands to attend the activities. We asked what the activities were and she said I have no idea. Unreal! They had to sign up saying new golf carts allowed. Yet the workers raced around the campground at more than the five mile an hour posted speed limit signs. And if you wanted to use a golf cart you could rent one for $60 per day. Unreal! Shenandoah national Park is a really interesting park it has one main road that runs north south and is 105 miles long the speed limit is 35 mph. And remember you’re in the national park so people are driving a lot slower than that while they are 16. They gave us a map of the park when we arrived but it did not have any of the hiking trails on it. We went to the visitor center we talked to one of the rangers we explained they were looking to do a four to five mile hiking the area she ended up giving us four maps for free and told us a lot a different hikes. Very nice. The Appalachian trail or the 80 wines back and forth across skyline drive. Any hike that you do from skyline drive you will be hiking down off of The ridge and then hiking back up onto the ridge. We ended up doing a nice 5-mile hike but it was really cold. The next day we went on a guided horseback ride through the park. It was super cold around 30°. Foggy rainy and snowy. It was a beautiful ride but no open vistas. And the guide was not friendly at all. Not once did she acknowledge that we were behind her. The night we ate at moonshadows restaurant in luray. Had a great meal and highly recommended eating there. A bit pricey but we don’t splurge very often while traveling in the rv. After dinner we went to a place called The speakeasy. There was a guy playing the guitar which was excellent. When we were leaving Shenandoah national Park we decided to drive up the skyline drive North and took us about an hour to drive 30 miles. I was a little concerned about driving a rig on this road but there was no issues at all. We stopped at one of the wineries in delaplane. We knew we were back in the east the tastings of two different wineries were 10 dolls each and the glass of wine was anywhere between 7:00 and $12. We miss the prices out west. We stayed at one of the wineries via Harvest hosts which was really nice to sit relax and sleep at the winery. Here’s a link to the discounts page on my website and from there you’ll see discounts for Harvest House boondockers welcome and other things. Relaxrv.org/discounts 

Then it stay we went to Prince William State Forest we stayed at the campground which was really nice. We did find that the sites were not very level and we needed a bunch of leveling pads under the wheels for our rig. We’re there to visit Tricia’s son who lives about 45 minutes away just outside of Washington DC. 

We were planning on spending the night at a boondock was welcome location. But there was a winter weather advisory coming in and we decided to head north a little further to stay at a harvest host winery in Logan’s township New Jersey. On the way there we got a flat on the highway in maryland. The left front tire blew out the rig-handled it beautifully. All I noticed was a little bit of a sway. We pulled over onto the shoulder. We had to wait 4 hours for truck to show up with a tire. Which he installed on the side of the highway. We then headed off to Cedar Valley Winery. the owner Marsha invited us to stay a second night because of the weather. They were super accommodating to us. We arrived 5 hours later than we expected. And we pulled in with 5″ of snow on the ground. They also pointed us to another winery just down the road that we visited during the snow storm. This storm as it turned out had caught many new yorkers and new jersians off guard and shut down the roads for many if our friends and family. Glad we were safe.