Frederick Vanderbilt's Little Hovel

After leaving the great state of Pennsylvania, I ended up in the Hudson River Valley in New York. The land of Vanderbilts and Roosevelts -new money vs. old money. As far as I'm concerned, money is money. Who cares how long you have had it? Evidently it was a big deal back in the day. Sarah Roosevelt, FDR's mother seemed to look down quite a bit on her neighbors, the Vanderbilts, and their ostentatious wealth displays.

Frederick Vanderbilt, grandson of the Commodore who started building the Vanderbilt fortune , bought the land which was called Hyde Park and built the Vanderbilt Mansion in 1895. This house was meant to be a spring and fall cottage where the Vanderbilts would come to play.  I guess this particular Vanderbilt house is rather understated when you compare the house to the Vanderbilt summer cottages in Newport, Rhode Island. It only took 26 months to build which is rather impressive. As the tour Ranger pointed out, though, is that the construction workers worked twelve hour days with no coffee breaks or days off.  

When the Vanderbilts were in court, they had upward of 60 staff to help take care of them 

Can we say Downton Abbey?

The formal gardens predate Vanderbilt ownership. Frederick redesigned the gardens and planted hundreds of trees and shrubs.  On weekends Frederick and his wife Louise liked to walk through the gardens twice a day.  Today the gardens have been restored to its 1930s appearance.  The gardens encompass five acres.

Steamtown

I am now going to leave Pittsburgh and travel almost all the way across the state of Pennsylvania to Scranton. Pennsylvania is a beautiful state and I can only imagine how great it must look when the leaves all turn. Huge rolling hills and deep valleys give great pleasure as you travel down the road. That said, even though Pennsylvania is a beautiful state, I just don't feel the joy, the connection that I have felt in other states. That is ok, there are 49 other states to find that ever elusive connection.

I know I've mentioned it before but my favorite Eleanor Franklin quote is “Do something everyday that scares you” which I have always interpreted as 'get outside of your comfort zone. Don't settle'. Today I am going to do my best to follow this adage. I am going to take this big honkin' fifth wheel into a Pennsylvania state park and back into a site. I do really good going forward with this FW. I do pretty good backing up in a straight line, but this is going to be backing up at an angle. As I approach my site, the nerves are beginning to get to me. I start sounding like Thomas The Train. I think I can, I think I can. I round a curve, see my camping site and start pulling past it. What do I see in the road, but the corner of a boat, sticking out. The picture doesn't look like much, but it is going to be just enough to cause intense worry because my truck is going to swing out in that direction. Ok, though, I can do this, I am woman, I am strong. I start my backward attack and get past the boat with a mere inch to spare. I even missed the motor. All of a sudden, as I start backing in, I am surrounded by people who are all going to help me. I find I don't need them (well, the guy in the very back telling me when to stop backing was helpful) because I've got it. Yay Me!!!! I am now officially state park ready.

It may not look like it is all that far into the road.  

Keep in mind that a lot of times when I'm backing, the truck ends up in the weeds on the right side of the road.

And I'm in.  I may be a tad too far to the left but I didn't hit anything which is the important part.

I have come to the Scranton area to go to a National Historic Site called Steamtown. It was developed to tell us all about steam railroading and it's people. I am not particular excited about this – railroading just doesn't seem all that interesting. Boy, was I wrong. Fascinating. Steamtown is the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (D,L&W) train yard. There are two roundhouses where they are working on restoring old steam locomotives. The History building told the story of steam railroading, in particular the D.L&W line. The Technology building was interesting and very interactive. You could watch how the steam powered these huge machines. There was place where you could blow steam engines horns – it is like a secret language.  Ex. Four blasts mean you are approaching a crossing. One blast means you have stopped and set the brake. There was even a Turntable that they would drive the locomotives on. It would turn to the appropriate roundhouse track where that locomotive would be getting maintenance. 

The turntable. See the little house in the center.  

Somebody would sit in there and make the turntable go around and around.  

I guess it would be like his own little merry-go-around.

I even got to take a steam locomotive train ride which basically just went up a hill and then back down for a total of 45 minutes. It was just pleasant to hear the whistles, the chugging along because it was a most beautiful day. 

The mighty engine that dragged me up the hill

You need to burn coal to make steam.  I guess this is not the most ecologically correct form of transportation

And the passenger car

I was a little disappointed though that there was no mention of the legendary Casey Jones.  I'm not talking the Casey Jones whose dramatic death happened while trying to stop his train and save the lives of his passengers.  Nosiree Bob.  I'm talking about Casey Jones of Lunch With Casey fame.  I spent almost every day as a little kid watching tv and having lunch with Casey Jones and his buddy Roundhouse Rodney.

JoggerCat seems to have found 'his' spot

The Steel City - Pittsburgh

I'm heading to the Hudson River Valley.  Where I want to go is only two hours north of New York City so I figured that I should, dare I say, make reservations. We all know what a commitment phobe I am so it was tough. I just didn't want to have all those hordes of New Yorkers wrecking my camping plans. Turns out that the campground I had picked was unavailable for several days after I needed it so I had to make some filler plans. I looked at a map and saw that Pittsburgh was only an inch or so away. So, off to Pittsburgh I go.

I found this campground called Mountain Top RV Park. It was actually on top of a mountain - go figure. My campsite was right on the edge, overlooking a valley. Very very nice. The park also has live bluegrass music on Saturdays. I was going to miss that, but I am definitely putting this campground on places to return to. As I said, the view was wonderful and I faced west so I could watch for sunsets.

My daytime view

My sunset view

I did venture off the Mountain Top into Pittsburgh. I'm now driving a ¾ ton pickup and this thing is a monster. Pittsburgh is an old town with many narrow streets, some even with cobblestones. It was a challenge driving around. I liked Pittsburgh, it had a nice vibe. But then, I was driving around perhaps the more upscale parts of Pittsburgh.

I had heard about Randyland, a place on the north side of town. Randy Gilson bought Randyland on a credit card in 1995. Every day after waiting tables, he came home to paint and bring happiness to his neighborhood. He even started painting his neighbors' houses. Randyland had such a nice vibe – outsider art at it's best.

Randy's House

And here is Randy.  He had various cardboard cutouts of himself in different poses scattered around

Randy's neighbor's house

There was even a huge sandpit that kids could play in

No visit to Pittsburgh is complete without going to see the Andy Warhol Museum. As a child of the sixties, Andy was a household name to me. Everybody knew Andy Warhol. I have to admit, I was/am not much of a fan of his art. Again, my definition of art is 'if I can do it, it ain't art'. While I may not have the technical expertise to paint a soup can, at least I could visualize it. Of course, Andy's genius was that he not only visualized it, he put it out there for everybody to see. He was not only into the painting, but he also worked on film and graphic design. One interesting note is that he designed the cover for the Rolling Stones 'Sticky Fingers' album, the one with the jeans with the working zipper. That was a very cool album cover, if I do say so myself.

Art critic that I am (not), I just don't get it

But I love Pepper Pot soup, the best soup ever. Alas, they no longer make it.  I mourn.

from the sublime to the ????

And here is the Oxidation Picture (sorry folks)

Eastern Ohio - Pretty but .....

My master travel plan this time was to head south after the rally in Indiana. I thought spending a few weeks in the Smoky Mountains would be perfect. It would be perfect except that one day I woke up and decided I should go east instead. Perhaps this time I will get all the way to Maine.  I don’t know if I will make it to Maine,  but that is my current direction.

Normally I try to stay off of interstates, let alone turnpikes. It just seemed silly to pay big bucks for roads that aren’t any better than your average road. And big bucks they are when you are pulling a fifth wheel since they charge you by the number of axles you have. In my case that would be four- twice as many as a car.  I decided to throw caution to the winds though and drive the turnpike this time.

On the Ohio Turnpike there are service plazas where you can get gas, food, picnic areas and, as I discovered, in some of the areas, you can spend the night in your RV in special RV sections. For $20 you can even hook up to electricity. How exciting to be able to do that....or so I thought. Basically you are in a parking lot with the semis roaring past you most of the night. But now I can say I’ve camped in a Ohio Service Plaza. Check that off the old bucket list.

Ohio has a National Park. I visited it back in 2015 but that was before my Junior Ranger days so I felt I needed to go back and “do” the park right.  

Here is the link to the original Cuyahoga post

I meant to stay at a County park but I’m not confident enough yet to try to park this fifth wheel if it means backing into a site with a lot of trees that I have to avoid. So I ended up at a KOA campground. Normally I loathe KOA campgrounds because they put everybody right on top of each other but this one wasn’t too bad. Got to see a new breed of dog – a Pomsky – Pomeranian and Husky. Another manmade designer dog but it sure was cute. It had these piercing blue eyes and at dusk they really stood out.  It was a little bit spooky as in Cujo spooky.

Her name was Princess

I show up at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and do my Junior Ranger tasks for the badge. I ask Ranger Sage what the best hike to take and she said to definitely do the Ledges Trail. Miko and I head over there and as I pull into the parking lot I realize that I have done this trail before. As in 2015 when I was here before. Geez, I should read my own blog and find out where I've been. It still is a nice little trail and we had a good time walking and talking to other hikers. 

I just thought they were pretty

The Cuyahoga River with the Interstate going over it

This was part of the canal where they would tow the boats through.  I was surprised at how narrow it was.  

Mules would walk on the towpath on the right of the picture

Miko looking all regal as she is on Chipmunk alert

Traveled down to Canton Ohio which was about an hour away. The First Ladies National Historic Site is here. I was a little disappointed. They have very limited space and they can only display seven First Ladies at a time. They change the exhibit every six months. The display, this time, was on the seven Ohio First Ladies. You could also tour the childhood home of Ida McKinley, wife of William McKinley. She was ahead of her time for a Victorian lady. She was well educated and actually had a job as a cashier in her daddy's bank. She didn't need a job as they were very well off but there she was cashiering away. 

Ida McKinley's childhood home

I had a private tour of the McKinley house and got into a conversation about corsets. Ida was very proud of her 18” waist. There is a theory that corsets would rearrange a woman's internal organs. Not too sure if that is true, but Ranger Sue said that women who were corseted their whole life had problems standing upright without their corsets in later life.

I did go to the President McKinley National Library and Museum. Another rather disappointing trek. All poor President McKinley had to show was a rather small room with a few artifacts. Maybe they were keeping everything from his administration in somebody's basement. They did have some mannequins that would spring into life and chat which actually was rather creepy. It actually scared me the first time they went into action. 

Tell me that there isn't something wrong with these two

The McKinley Monument was impressive. William, his wife Ida and their two children are buried in the Monument. It seemed like it was the physical fitness center of Canton. There were kids sliding down the slick sides and there were people running up and down the stairs. One woman had gone up five times while I was there. Impressive. 

Eat Your Heart Out Rocky!!

A Day At The Races

The Grand Design National Rally is over. People are pulling out left and right. I have decided that I need to stay one more day at the Fairgrounds for the simple fact that it is Labor Day Weekend. Given my normal lack-of-planning, I had not given that much thought. Of course this means I have no place to stay because all the people who plan ahead have reserved campsites leaving nothing for us seat of the pants type people.

That said, it was an exciting day. This morning there was a horse show. They were judging baby horses of the Dutch Harness breed. I had never heard of this breed and it was fascinating. They are tall, elegant and fancy horses. Besides that, who doesn't love looking at babies. 

Look at the lift of that little guy's front legs.  Pretty fancy.

I don't think this was his most photogenic side.  I'm thinking he might be part giraffe.

Later, at the fairground race track there was harness racing. I've never seen this in person and I loved it. I need to know more about this sport. The only problem is that each race is over so quickly. They were only going once around the track.

The horses all start off following a truck with big metal wings. They start off about a quarter of the track before the starting line. The truck and horses go faster and faster until they cross the starting line and the truck takes off allowing the horses to race. During this time, if something goes wrong such as a driver interferes with another or a horse trips, the drivers start yelling recall and they all have to start over again. The offending driver is penalized by having to start at the back of the pack. There was a rookie driver who fouled another driver and had to move from third starting position to the last starting position. When the race started, he moved his horse to the outside and as they turned down the home stretch he made his move, passed all the other horses and won. It was thrilling. Yup, going to have to get into this a bit more.

I also went to the RV/MH Hall of Fame where they had many campers on display. These campers demonstrated how the camper evolved from tents you pulled behind your car to the modern day RV.

I must admit, the campers from the thirties were my favorites. Most of these were hand made in somebody's garage and the workmanship was stellar. It was like doing house tours of old houses but these all had wheels on them. Some of these campers even came complete with the musty smell of your grandma's old house. 

You can't really read the sign over the door.  It says something like Low Entry - Watch Your Head. 

 It is posted both on the outside and the inside of the door.  Guess who smashed their head on the doorframe?

1935 Travel Trailer

The exterior is "genuine leatherette" over plywood and the roof is coated canvas stretched over tarpaper

Isn't this just the cutest little thing ever?

Pretty futuristic

It's A Grand Design Thing

I am so out of practice with this traveling thing. It has been almost a year since I hit the road. Life...and death.... sort of got in the way of the road. Yes, I did drive the new fifth wheel back up to Minnesota, but that was just a cross country dash. I don't think it really counts in the grand scheme of things.

I am the first to admit it – I am a lousy packer. Who else packs a steam iron to go on a weekend trip? I have. I just never seem to get it right. If I am traveling someplace warm and it is minus degrees as I pack, I pack nothing but cold weather clothes and vice versa. This wasn't going to happen to me again – as I got ready for this trip, I packed just about everything in the house. My nice new-to-me spacious, roomy fifth wheel? Not so roomy now. Oh well.

This time I'm traveling with multiple companions. There is, of course, Miko – the dog who loves to be there once we get there but is terrified of riding in a vehicle. Also along for the ride is JoggerCat – my Bengal cat. Jogger is not terrified of riding in the truck – he is just plain ornery and has to yell at me every time the radio comes on or I speak or even if the speed I am traveling down the highway changes. I think I may soon go deaf. He does settle down eventually, at least for a moment or two.

Our first night out, we stay at a Walmart in Ottawa Illinois. I have never been spent the night in a Walmart with such a crowded overnight crowd. I counted 30 semis and about 6 Rvs. Granted about half of the semis were just the truck part, not the trailer part, but they all kept their trucks running all night long. For those people who like to sleep with white noise, this would be Nirvana. I'm not one of those people. I was a little worried about my RV battery. It doesn't seem to be getting charged from the truck as we drive down the road. I keep getting a 'check trailer wiring' message on my truck.

I am heading to Goshen Indiana for the national Grand Design RV Rally. Grand Design is the maker of my fifth wheel. We are at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds where they have crammed in over 500 Rvs. That means that there are probably over 1000 people here. This is not my usual scene here being the quiet, unassuming child that I am. This is my very first RV rally put on by a manufacturer. I'm thinking that there are way too many old people here until I realize that they are all my age. Ouch. But...I'm here for the experience and we shall remain open to the experience.

In the center field of the racetrack

Another section

This was my parking section.  All the other sections were parked all nice and in neat, tidy rows.  

My section was sort of a free for all.

That is Not me in the picture

The first hurdle is parking this rig. They put me on the end of a row but as I'm parking I am blocking the entrance to 'C' section. I am supposed to hurry up and disconnect my truck so all the people that are now waiting to park can get past me. Remember that 'check trailer wiring' message that I was getting. What that meant was that my Fifth Wheel battery was not getting charged as I went down the road. So when I tried to lower my levelers there was not enough battery power to lower them, which meant that I could not disconnect the truck from the trailer which means that that ever growing crowd has to wait to park . Talk about pressure. They had to call a service technician to see if he could help. Evidently there is a wire in Chevy trucks that needs to be hooked up to the truck battery so that the Fifth Wheel battery will charge. He had this fixed in 20 seconds.

The thing about Grand Design Rallies is that you can put in service requests to have items fixed on your rig and in most cases they will fix them free of charge. These are not minor little issues either. Fridge doesn't work? We will replace it for you. Your springs have flattened out? We will put new springs in.

I was a little late to the game – I only had one minor thing that I wanted fixed. One minor thing until I realized what was possible. Even so, I was one of the lightweights in the group as far as maintenance items go. I had the following fixed/replaced

• a brand new water pump -old one wasn't working
• a brand new air doughnut that goes on my hitch
• a brand new solar connector where you plug in your portable solar panels

I probably spent way too much money but I was able to put slide toppers on two of my three slides. I also upgraded my TPMS(Tire Pressure Monitoring System) and bought some SnapPads for my levelers. I had to buy these because they were discounted Rally prices. What else could I do?

The Rally was interesting. There were seminars on RV Life, field trips and I learned a lot just hanging around people's fire pits. Because I was stationary for a week I did a lot of maintenance items that you just never seem to get around to when you move around a lot. I am so very impressed with Grand Design, the products they put out and the service techs. Every single one of those techs from the cute young Amish boys to the roughneck grizzly old rednecks were so incredibly talented, helpful and polite. Although I am a little disappointed that I did not win any of the spiffy door prizes. 

They fed us each night - as I said Masses and Masses of people

A note on the fairgrounds:  The fairgrounds were very much into stuffing jeans and boots with flowers.  They also had mannequins all dressed up in various places.  It was a little disconcerting at times.