The Road to Nova Scotia (continued...)

Okay. So where was I?

Oh, yes. We left Concord, New Hampshire and began coming down out of the mountains, toward the sea. One final word on the Adirondack Mountains we left behind us. A travel brochure I picked up informs me that Adirondack National Park has over six million acres, is one mile high, holds 30,000 miles of streams, 1,000 miles of rivers, 3,000 ponds and lakes, and 2,000 miles of trails.

It's a big place. And very big with hikers and bikers and all manner of nature enthusiast. My father, who will be 80 years young at the end of this trip, no longer qualifies for any of those activities. But we cheered them on as we motored up and down those big, big hills.

We arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire before noon and stopped at the re-created village of Strawbery Banke, which was the original name of Portsmouth. And just goes to show how spelling has changed over the years. Here there were a good many houses restored to their late 1700s, or 1800s, or even early 1900s condition. The big difference, however, was the houses were only restored ... not moved. Every single house sat where it originally had back in the day. We walked through the very same ground that those settlers did when the town was just a small port - so small the shipping yard was called "Puddle Dock" - and enjoyed the weight of history as we moved through each home's exhibits. (The picture above is my Dad with one of the "characters" of Strawbery Banke - Sarah Goodwin, the mayor's wife, who kept a lovely Victorian garden.)

From there it was across the river and on to meet one of Dad's chat room friends near Rockland, Maine.

As always find photos of the trip at my Facebook fan page here. Click "Photos" and then "The Road to Nova Scotia."

Refurbished and Reactivated

...at least temporarily.

This blog came to an ignominious end about a year ago. It started with my Mom entering Hospice, followed about 10 weeks later by her death in June. About a month after that, my schedule took me to three different states and about six weeks of traveling. Most of this is detailed in a previous post.

But then, last fall, my father-in-law passed away.

By then blogging had pretty much slipped away from me and it is a hard habit to get back. I regret that I didn't give more of you a heads-up on what was happening and I thank ALL of you for your patience and indulgence as my life situation kept me tied up and away from the blog.

I'm still not really back. At least not full time. But I did update and refresh and kind of overhaul the blog to get it going again for really just one reason ... you see, in just a few days my Dad and I will be taking another trip. This time for two weeks, and by vehicle, from Michigan all the way out to Nova Scotia and back.

Here's a pic from a couple years back of Dad and I.

I wanted a place to blog about the trip, to post a "picture of the day" kind of thing, and make a space to remember it all and share it with you, my friends, and my family. Dad may be kicking in a few of his thoughts, too.

If you're on Facebook, you'll be able to see more photos of the trip if you "Like" my fan page there. Here's the link.

At the end of our trip, my Dad will be 80 years young. Who knows? This may be the last, greatest chance we'll ever have at spending some really quality time together. I hope not. I pray not. He's a spry old guy and he's forgotten more about life than I may ever know.

I'm sure looking forward to the rest of July, 2012.