Hammond Castle and Salem Witch Museum

In 1969 Craig and I spent a summer in Boston. 

He was on a short term project, and our two year old daughter and I came along. While there, one of my friends and I took a "tourist" day trip to Gloucester to see the Hammond Castle. While not an actual castle, it looks and feels like one, and has many elements that were once parts of European castles.

It was built by John H. Hammond (not of the Hammond Organ family) in the 1920's both as his home and as a museum to showcase his collections of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts.

When I realized our travel route would take us near, I booked a few days in Gloucester so that Craig could visit it with me.

Our timing was just right, in that we arrived just a few minutes before a guided tour started. 

The front door is indeed accessed by going across a drawbridge, but there is no moat.

The great hall is huge and medieval, but has several modern amenities, such as a heating system, hidden behind the curtained  and stucco walls. Still it is quite a "living room"!

The pipes for this organ are also hidden in the walls and above in the ceiling space. It is no longer functioning, but when it was the entire room was part of the organ.  It must have been amazing. 

There were fascinating details all around, both inside and out. Mr. and Mrs. Hammond were quite a pair, at a time when rich characters built huge private homes. We are glad they still exist, and have had many enjoyable tours all around the country.

Hammond Castle, image from the web

We left the castle about 1:30 PM, and decided we still had plenty of time for a second "tourist" stop.  Salem, the location of the 17th century witch trials and executions, is only about sixteen miles away from Gloucester. I had picked up a promotional flyer for the Salem Witch Museum, and although we knew the history, and thought it might be hokey, we couldn't pass it up.

No photography was allowed inside, so the above is my only picture. The museum is does not have self guided, walk through exhibits. Instead it has two presentations.  For the first, your group were led into a darkened room with seating on both sides, and benches in the middle area. We were told by the guide that the presentation will move around the entire room, and we should feel free to change our seats as it progressed. Then the guide left, and a recording took over telling the story of the Witch Trials as life-size dioramas were illuminated one by one. It brought to mind a static Disneyland ride, or a series of wax museum displays.

The second presentation was in another room and differed in that the descriptions were given by a live guide, followed by a soundtrack for each diorama.

[From Craig] The second presentation divided events related to witchcraft into a "Western timeline" and a "Pagan timeline".  Lots of events were classified strangely, like building the Egyptian pyramids was western. Pronouncements by four Popes were on the pagan timeline, while in the same general time frame, John Calvin was on the western timeline.  I know Massachusetts was settled by Puritans and remains fairly Protestant, but classifying Popes as pagan is a bit much!  :-)

I think it was all reasonably well done, and the modest entry fee of $9.50 for seniors was just about right. The amazing thing was the town parking garage only cost $1.50 for 2 hours. When was the last time you saw a paid parking building with that rate?

We drive again on Friday.  One of the things you really must do if you are a full time RVer is have plans and reservations for holiday weekends. In June I started looking for a reservation on Cape Cod for the Labor Day weekend.  No luck, so we booked a few days at a park in Rhode Island.  It is one of the last states on the East Coast that we have not yet visited.

Not All RVing Days are an Adventure, and crossing Canadian Border

When you are living and traveling in an RV full time, not all days are remarkable. In fact, many are really quite ordinary. The big difference is that instead of living in a house, in a community where you know your neighbors and local facilities, you are living in a smaller space and often looking for the local businesses you need day to day. We are in that kind of period right now. We are spending eight days just living, before starting another round of adventure and discovery.

I guess you could call it a vacation from being on vacation!

We have many good memories of our time in the Canadian Maritime Provinces this summer. There are two things I want to make note of for anyone who might be planning on going there in the future.

First is telephone and internet access. In the States we have an excellent, unlimited data plan from Verizon. It is expensive, but we have pretty good connections wherever we go. We do not use campground WiFi. Because Verizon has no towers in Canada, Craig looked into getting a plan from Rogers, one of the Canadian companies, but discovered the cost of pay-in-advance plans was prohibitive, and because we did not have a Canadian address we could not get a regular plan. He settled on an Canada and Mexico Add-on  to our Verizon plan that gave us 200 calls and 1 gigabyte per month and cost $25+tax. We were able to have a working phone and limited use of Google Maps and Google Search. Wifi at most parks was minimal at best. But there are always Tim Horton Coffee shops and other open-WiFi locations!

The second is crossing the boarder. 

I mentioned this in a Facebook post, but since it might be of interest to those who have never crossed into Canada, I am writing about it in a blog post as well.

Some crossing points are busy, some are not. That is something that you should be prepared for so that if you are stuck in a long wait line you don't get frustrated. 

We have crossed a total of six times, and all went smoothly except for the last. Typically we pulled up to the window, showed passports and driver's licenses, answered a few questions, and we were on our way. I had read the web pages about what is prohibited so we knew what not to have in the coach, including firewood, guns,  plants, fresh fruit, or more than four bottles of liquor. The information about groceries is a little confusing, so my approach has been to limit shopping before a crossing.

Last week we crossed back into the USA at Madawaska. We had no wait, with only one car ahead when we pulled up to the customs booth, but after answering the usual questions we were asked to pull over to the side and go inside the office.

The Alfa was searched by an agent, and after about fifteen minutes she came in carrying a single orange bell pepper from our refrigerator.

The interesting thing was I got to keep a head of lettuce, an onion and some limp celery and scallions. 

We were asked about meat, but they did not confiscate the one-pound package of frozen hamburger nor the frozen scallops and cod filets. 

So after signing a "declaration of abandonment" for the pepper, we were free to continue into the USA. I wonder if we were searched because we had gone into and out of Canada at different places twice in a few month period. Who knows? 

We spent several quiet days at three Maine campgrounds, just relaxing. We went on a couple of nice walks, spent a rainy day planning future routes, and when in Bangor went to an afternoon  movie.

I sometimes kid Craig that our travels are really "all about the food"! We have had some spectacular fresh seafood this month, both at restaurants and at home, after buying the catch of the day at local fish markets. We also had some interesting local grub, Donairs and Poutine. 

My favorite, of course is the lobster. I am particularly fond of lobster rolls because they are so much easier than tackling a full steamed lobster in its shell! 

A lobster roll is a generous amount of cooked fresh lobster, sometimes with drawn butter, sometimes with a little mayo and celery, stuffed into a soft bun.

Happy driver munching on lobster roll as we left Maine!

On our last day in Rockport, Maine we stopped at a fish market and bought a nice piece of salmon for the grill, and a half pound of cooked lobster meat. At $44 per pound, it was worth not having to steam and shell the live ones ourselves! I had looked up recipes for lobster rolls to see if there was any special ingredients I didn't know about, but there were not. So I made up four rolls in the morning for our "driving lunch" on Monday.

Evening at high tide on the waterway across from our campsite at Cape Ann, in Gloucester MA

I hope I can get back to posting more regularly again. We have a full month of adventures planned! I hope you will "ride along."

Back in the USA

We hopped along the Southern Shore and Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, staying a few days at each of four parks. All of them had very poor or almost nonexistent WiFi connections. I am so far behind in posting, that I have decided to defer writing about this part of our travels until sometime in the future when I have more time. Perhaps I will do a "back in time" post or two when we are wintering at Jojoba Hills.

For now, Craig wanted to post the following: 

[From Craig] Our last stop in Nova Scotia was at the Five Islands Ocean Resort. The main things of interest there are the five islands close to the north shore of the Minas Basin, a branch of the Bay of Fundy, and the tides which are the biggest in the world.  (Why do I remember learning that the biggest tides were in Scotland as a child?)

So I spent two days taking pictures of the islands and the tides.  Here are two panoramas put together with Photoshop, each spanning about 180 degrees, a half-circle.

The lower image (of low tide) needs a bit of explanation.  The Minas Basin is still visible as the little blue horizontal strip in the middle of the picture.  The white areas that are closer, have no depth but are reflective water films on top of the muddy ocean floor.  I tried to walk to Moose Island, the big one in the center.  But the mud kept trying to take my shoes off, so I turned back about 2% of the way there.

Longtime readers may remember that we visited Key West in December 2014.  At the time, I took this picture of Merikay at the south end of US Highway 1.  

Somehow it didn't make it into the blog at the time, but I've remembered it as part of a fun memory.





























Today (Sunday August 21 2016) we re-entered the US after six weeks in Canada's maritime provinces: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.  

Since we were in northern Maine, I persuaded Merikay to take a short detour to the north end of US Highway 1 in Fort Kent, Maine.  We found that there was no corresponding sign marking the end (or start) of US 1, but the Fort Kent police dispatcher suggested this sign as the best one available.

So now we have visited both ends of our country's "first highway".

Do you like adventures like this?

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Up until now, in the Maritime Provinces, I have not had problems getting a space in an RV park, for as long as we wanted, by calling only a day or two ahead. Up until now. We had heard several recommendations for a stop in the little coastal town of Lunenburg which is not far from Halifax. So, while visiting the Halifax area I called ahead. We wanted four nights, but were lucky to get two. It seems there was going to be a big Folk Music Festival starting on the next weekend.

Please use the right lane

In Lunenburg we visited the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.  As we entered there was a "Meet a Lobster" program.  We learned how to tell a boy lobster from a girl lobster, and several other interesting things about these tasty crustaceans.

Cod fishing built the wealth of the area and the equipment and history of the industry was well displayed.

There are two ships that belong to the Museum on display in the harbour. One was a fishing boat that we were able to board and explore.

The other was a replica of the Bluenose II, a fishing schooner that has quite a history and has been on the Canadian dime.

It is a beautiful ship, and takes passengers out for a sail.

Our friends, Jan and Jim, had also given us a heads up about a community produced musical production called "Glimpses" that had shows, in the Fisheries Museum 100 seat theatre, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

It has been running for nine seasons, and was a true delight. It tells the story of Lunenburg in song and dance.  All the music is original, well-paced and delightful. I'm so glad we didn't miss it!

On Wednesday we went on a guided walking tour. We got there a bit early, and so explored the old cemetery adjacent to the meeting place.

We didn't do a complete search, but this was the oldest, almost readable, stone we could find: 1770 - 1779.

The tour started at the Academy. It was once the public school building. Our guide, who appeared to be in her late 40's, said that she had gone to school there as a child. It is now under restoration.  

Our tour took us down through the historic district and we learned much about the archeticture styles and the people who lived in the town of Lunenburg over the centuries.

Our guide was 8th-generation on her mother's side. At one point we crossed paths with a rather feisty old lady. Our guide knew her and greeted her with the question of did she remember our guide's mother? They had gone to school together. "Of course, of course, but did our guide know about the house across the way"? 

She told the group she wanted to make sure these young people were getting the stories right!

Lots of pride in the town!

On our walk we went into two beautiful churches in town, and walked by a couple of others. As with many communities, their history is told in reference to the churches.

All in all our brief visit to this wonderful little town was very pleasant. I wish we could have stayed longer. 

I end this post with a picture of one of the shoreline views. The tide is low and patches of seaweed are exposed. This area is called the Blue Rocks. The rocks are in fact more gray than blue and are slate.

We have moved down along the coast about 80 miles, near Lockport. We will be here five nights and I'm looking forward to some nice walks along some of the coastal overlooks.

Meeting New Friends on the Road

As we were getting settled at Wayside Campground outside of Halifax on Friday, we noticed the coach next to us had a US sticker map that was more full than ours, and also had South Dakota license plates.  Aha!  They must be full-timers.

On Saturday we watched, and when they got back from their day's adventure, I went out to say "hi" while the husband, Jim, was setting up their grill. 

Jan and Jim

A conversation quickly took hold, and soon Craig was out and Jim's wife, Jan, joined in.

Realizing they still had not cooked their dinner, I asked if they would like to join us for a campfire later. 

Although we don't have campfires very often, the evening was quite nice and company is always good.

They have been on the road just a little longer than we have and enjoy the life much the same. We shared stories and things we have learned along the way. They went to Alaska last year, and since that is on our wish list, their experiences were very interesting to us. 

Darkness settled over us, and as the last log was added to the fire I was startled to see a very large meteor flash across the sky. The evening ended with smiles and "see you tomorrows." We each had our own plans for the day.

The next day, Jan brought over one of their contact cards and told me there was a free outdoor Cèilidh, a musical gathering, that evening in a nearby town that they were going to. 

Yes! Sounded like fun, so we decided to follow them there so we could all sit together. We had tried to attend a one a week before, but it was an indoor event and was sold out.

Apparently, a Cèilidh can be many things. Traditionally they are held in a church or town hall and include folk music and story telling. In modern times they have also come to include an event like we went to. It was an annual, local celebration of "Natal Day", Halifax's birthday! It involved several bands playing a variety of popular music, plus fireworks and a fund raising BBQ.

Quite a crowd gathered on a hillside overlooking a cove and marina. Jim and Jan said that the flyer they saw had suggested bringing lawn chairs, so we did.

The bands started playing around six in the evening. The air was warm, the scene was beautiful. As more and more boats came in the sky began to color.














All sunsets are beautiful.

As time passed, the colors became more and more intense. The vibrance of the image above has not been adjusted!

What a fantastic setting! 

You may notice the keyboard player is glowing red. He was in the direct line of a red stage light, and indeed appeared that color!




Once darkness descended, the music ended and there was a nice fireworks display. The entire evening was one of those little treasures we have been lucky enough to come across. 

I am writing this on Monday afternoon. Our new friends have left, and the spot next to us is empty. They are heading up to Baddock where we were last week. Tomorrow we will be going to Lunenburg, where they had just been. 

We will keep in touch on Facebook.  I love modern technology! Who knows if or when we will cross paths again, but it is really nice to meet new friends, and know they are out on the road as well.

Happy Trails Jan and Jim!

Survey of Ability to Comment on RV Blogs

[From Craig]  In the last few weeks, we've noticed that Blogger doesn't offer the ability to comment on some of our favorite blogs.  So I've been doing some research.

We first noticed this problem on Pursuit Of Idle Pleasures.  Last night I looked at that site with all of the browsers we have.  Since we used to have our own commercial web site, we have almost all available browsers.  

I found that POIP did not offer the ability to comment on any of the following Mac OS X browsers: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, SeaMonkey, and iCab.

Then I flipped my computer over to being a Windows 10 machine, and found that POIP did not offer the ability to comment on any of the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.  Finally I tried Safari, to which Blogger served POIP's front page WITH the ability to comment.  Then I went back to try Edge and Chrome again, and both now also offered the ability to comment.  Somewhere something had changed.  Very confusing!

Today I surveyed how many blogs are affected by this problem.  My sample includes all of the "favorite" blogs on our blog site, that have posted within the last 2 months.  The problem affected 4 of 41 sites:

Blog Name	Comments?
Da Girls RV	N
Phannie and Mae	N
Pursuit Of Idle Pleasures	N
The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales	N
Adventures With Dear Miss Mermaid Child Of The Planet	Y
BIGDAWG AND FREEWAY	Y
Desert Diva	Y
Down the Road	Y
Erik's RV Blog	Y
Flamingo on a Stick	Y
Geeky Explorers	Y
GROWING OLDER GRACEFULLY	Y
How to Love Where You Are and Eat Where the Locals Eat!!	Y
It's About Time	Y
Just Wanderin'	Y
Land Cruising Adventure	Y
Life's Little Adventures	Y
Me and My Dog ...and My RV	Y
On the Road Abode: Trading a zip code for a toad	Y
On the Road Again	Y
On the Road of Retirement	Y
Our Awesome Travels	Y
Owens on the Road	Y
R Sanity RV Adventures	Y
RV Days with Jessica and Harry	Y
RV Khronicles of Kevelyn	Y
RV SHRINK, Common Sense Peddler	Y
RVing: The USA is our BIG Backyard	Y
The Good Luck Duck	Y
The Odd Essay	Y
The Roadrunner Chronicles	Y
The Wandering Camels	Y
Travel Bug	Y
Travel With The Bayfield Bunch	Y
Traveling with the Longdogs	Y
Walkabout with wheels	Y
We are............Seeing The USA	Y
What's up with Susan and Company	Y
Wheeling It	Y
WHERE ARE THE DIXONS TODAY?	Y
Where's Eldo?	Y

An interesting sidelight is that the 4 sites that don't always offer the ability to comment, happen to be 4 of our best friends in the RV world.  Seems like the best way to avoid the problem is to stay away from us.  :-)

I worked in the computer and software fields for 48 years, and have no patience with trying to correspond with Google (which owns Blogger) about this problem.  If anyone else does, send them the table above. Or perhaps all-seeing Google will notice this by themselves. In any case, I hope they can explain and solve it.  My guess is that the 4 sites with the problem have implemented their comments differently than the other 37.  

Data provided.  Craig over and out.

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

Before I get into my usual "what we did..." I have to include a picture of this interesting rig we saw in the campground:

I wonder how they get in? 

On Tuesday we woke to a raging rain storm, so just stayed in bed almost all morning.  It continued to rain most of the day, but we didn't really mind. We both have books we are enjoying.

It was sunny again on Wednesday, so we went to Louisbourg, another of the "must see" places in northeastern Nova Scotia.  In the early period of Canadian History there was a fishing town and then a fort there, that changed hands between the French and English several times before it was eventually abandoned. 

In the 1960's, all that was left were a series of stone foundations, but because it had been an important location, there was recorded documentation of who, when, and what had been there. At that time, due to the closing of the local mines, there were many unemployed but skilled workmen who needed jobs. 

The Canadian government sponsored a retraining program that taught carpentry and stonework to the miners. Using the techniques of the 1700s they reconstructed the fort and part of the town.

Wool lady

It is now a National Historic site, and is staffed by costumed docents playing the parts of residents and soldiers.

As we walked from building to building, home to home, the residents told us a bit about their lives and their history.

This was a very large kitchen in the spacious harbor master's home. The cook told us about the foods and how they were prepared. No potatoes or tomatoes were eaten because they thought they were poisonous. Almost everything except fish and a few garden vegetables had to be shipped from France or England, depending on who was in control at the time.

Three to a bed, twenty four to a room, a soldier's lot was not so good, but we were told that for most it was a better life than they had had before on the streets of Paris.

The men pooled their rations and cooked them together in a communal pot. Fish head soup was often the base.

One of the events for a small extra cost, was a tasting of the rum typical of the time. We were taken in a group to an upper tavern room where we learned about the rum trade, and the importance it had in the lives of the troops.

We tasted both the strong rum that a soldier would drink and a rum-punch that was consumed by the officers' wives in the afternoon.

By the end of the day we were a bit hungry because I didn't bring our usual lunch. The tavern restaurant was closing for the day, but we were able to get bread and soup next door. It was very authentic. I asked for some ice for my water, and was reminded that there was no ice for the common folk in the 1700s!

We enjoyed the day very much. We are so lucky to be able to go to so many of these places on our own time. 

Friday we hit the road again and head toward Halifax. We were lucky to get a spot for this weekend because it is Halifax's birthday. (Probably of the city rather than of the 2nd Earl of Halifax, for whom the city is named.) The park we are staying at normally gives a Passport America discount, but not on holiday weekends. I have reserved for our usual four day stop. I hope they have decent WiFi!