2015-06-13 NH Trip

This was an awesome trip! We went to NH (where I relocated from 12+ years ago) to visit family. We dragged the T@B along and made a great camping trip of the visit. Carie had never been to NH or even New England before so that was even cooler for her and we did the family stuff along with the whole touristy thing. We stayed at a great little campground in Northwood, NH called Saddleback Campground. The first full day in NH we did a family picnic at the campground then throughout the week we did a huge variety of things including Segwaying Portsmouth, we went to the USS Albacore/museum, did a Portsmouth harbor cruise which took us out through Portsmouth harbor into the mouth of the Atlantic then back up the Piscataqua River. We went to Hampton Beach where they just happened to be having a sand sculpture competition and that was really fascinating! We went up into the White Mountains and crossed it via the Kancamagus Hwy then went up to the US/Canada border to find a moose for Carie since she has never seen one...we saw three! It was dark by then, though, so the pictures of the moose are not great.There's a lot of pictures with this post so enjoy!

The family picnic at Saddleback Campground...Our campground hosts, owners Les & Nancy were fantastic, very accommodating. Highly recommend Saddleback Campground to anyone visiting NH!

 



 

Les trying the Segway.

 

Nephew Jonny's first time on a Segway 

 

Alan's oldest brother, Steve and daughter Sara. 

Great niece Madison catching frogs, although this "frog" in the net is actually snake! She's quite the Tom-boy! LOL!

Nephew Akira, Steve's son, with his frog catching net

Nephews Davin & Jon Segwaying...

 Carie holding great nephew Gavin (Nephew Michael's son) with Steve & Sara in the background.

 

Our campsite setup...

 

 

Took Carie by my old house in Nottingham, NH, just a few miles from Saddleback Campground. The ol' place looked great!

 

 



 

Our Portsmouth harbor cruise... 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 Some British politicians house before the American revolution.

 

 

A famous colonial fort the name of which I can't remember...LOL...

 

I also forgot the name of these boats but this is a replica. They were used to transport the gun powder from Portsmouth to Boston stolen from the British in the first major act of aggression from the colonists towards the British...

The infamous naval prison (forgot the name of it, too  :-|  ) which closed many years ago.

 

The USS Albacore submarine/museum, a cold war era submarine. This sub was built and used for testing and had no armament. 

 

Carie at the controls...

UH OH!

 

 

Capt' Alan

First mate Carie

 

 

 

Segway Portsmouth and across the memorial bridge to Kittery, ME where we had lunch at Warren's Lobster House restaurant... :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prescott Park & Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth. Normally Prescott Park is vibrant with flowers and plants but a dry Spring coupled with us being there in early June...well, things weren't so vibrant.  :-|

 

 

 

 

One of the famous black bears at the Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, NH at the West end of the Kancamagus Hwy.

 

 

 

 

Carie posing at one of the many scenic pull-offs along the Kancamagus ... 

 

Random pics along the Kancamagus...

 

 

 

Alan with an in-your-face selfie with Carie way off in the background.

 

Zoomed in on Carie

 

True love in the White Mountains!  :-)

This was awesome! This is the Swift River and was a very short walk from one of the camp sites at Jigger Johnson campground along the Kancamagus Hwy. Also signs of moose in the campsite (See photo below) We will definitely be staying here at some point in the future. Probably not until we get our next RV that is fully self contained since all the campgrounds along the Kancamagus are pretty primitive.

Facing North along the river...

 

...and facing South

 

At first Carie thought they had 1200 pound rabbits in NH till I informed her this was moose poop, not rabbit. HA! LOL! Note the quarter for size comparison...Gross!

 

Hancock Campground -

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next few pictures are all taken along the same area...

 

 

 

These next 6 pics were all taken at the Lower Falls scenic area, as the sign says...

Joe Cool at the lower falls...LOL!

 

 

Not sure how she got up there!

Awesome swimming area and even had a family/kid friendly natural beach spot seen to the left in the photo below...

 

 

11 pics of the Glen Ellis Falls area -

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So we went up Rt. 16 on the East side of the Kancamagus and White Mountains in our quest for a moose. We then went across Rt. 26 to Rt. 3 North and up to the U.S./Canada border. I have never had to go that far to see a moose (!) and have always seen them along either Rt. 26 or the lower Rt. 3 area before Pittsburg, NH. We didn't see any on the way up but within 10 miles of the border on the way back we saw two, then a third about an hour and a half or so South. The third guy was standing right in the middle of the road and good thing I was paying close attention because it could have been a disaster! These photos aren't great but it was around midnight that we saw the third moose. We didn't get back to our campsite at Saddleback Campground till 2am!

 

 

 

 

The U.S./Canada border crossing in Pittsburg, NH -

 

 

 

The Hampton Beach, NH sand sculpture competition...I forgot my pail & shovel so I couldn't participate.  :-| 

 

 

A selfie of Carie & Alan at Hampton Beach, NH.

 

Some random goober at the beach

 

Some of the mansions along the seacoast in Rye, NH just North of Hampton Beach, NH -

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carie - Thumbs up to Rye, NH...

Westfield, NY/Lake Erie, a short Segway ride from the Westfield KOA Kampground we stayed at on the way home.

 

 

 

 

 Alan with niece Sara at the Common Man restaurant in Merrimack, NH

  

2015-05-23 "Camp Bremer" 2015!

Well, Camp Bremer up in Speedway, IN went great again this year! Just a few blocks from the Indy 500 speedway, front yard camping with hosts Pat & Jennifer Bremer and friends for the Memorial Day/Indy 500 weekend. Pat told the story of the Indy driver Rick Mears who when Pat was 11 tried to get Mears' autograph and the man blew him off so here we are some 35 years later and Pat posted that incident in more detail on FaceBook   (By the way, be sure and check out Pat's blog The Small Trailer Enthusiast at:  http://smalltrailerenthusiast.com/  )    Well the famous ESPN Indy 500 reporter John Oreovicz read Pat's blog and said to himself "I can fix this!" and sure enough, he did! He talked to Mears who sent his autographed book with Oreovicz who hand delivered it to Pat at Camp Bremer on Saturday! It was great and John & Pat can be seen in the first picture below.

John Oreovicz & Pat Bremer

 

Camp Bremer 2015

 

 

Carie & Dane relaxing

 

Kell-Bell & Shamus the wonder cat. Shamus is Dane & Elaine Andree's camping cat...

 

This is future Indy car driver Jameson, Pat & Jennifer's grandson.

 

Pat & Jennifer's new camping trailer, a 28' bunk house Shasta Oasis. They sold their beloved Serro Scotty Highlander for this more roomy camper so they could camp easier with their two grand kids.

Dane and disgruntled Carie...not enjoying having her picture taken at this moment!  HA! LOL!  Oh well...



2015-04-04 Winton Woods Campground

Just a quick update for the first camping outing of the 2015 season. (Yay!) We managed to get out last weekend and kept it local and went to Winton Woods, a county park in Hamilton County, Ohio. Great campground, very clean and updated but always crowded and hard to get a site. Need reservation well in advance in most cases, if you want a good site anyway. Sites 8 - 12 & site 50 are pretty good although 50 is a little uneven but nobody on your campsite side and it's opposite the fishing dock. Also full hook up site 13F is a good one, right on the lake. In these pictures we were in site 8, right on the lake. First three pictures are kind of a semi circular walk around the campsite and T@B.

 

 



2014-September - KOA Dayton And Morgan's Canoe

Here's a catch-up blog post...we went to KOA Dayton with friends Pat & Jennifer Bremer and also headed out to Morgan's Canoe just Carie & I and I'm posting a few pictures from both of those trips...

Carie at KOA

 

Pat & Jennifer's Scotty Hilander and their new-to-them tow vehicle - A 2003 Toyota Sequoia 

 

 

Morgan's

 



2014-06-14 - Indian Springs Campground

Just a quick blog post, we went camping at a campground we hadn't been to before and to a car show a co-worker was in with his newly rebuilt '68 Triumph. The show was in Aurora, IN right near the campground which is why we chose this campground, plus since we hadn't been to this CG before, thought it would be different. The campground was nice but no amenities and extremely close to interstate I-275 in North Bend, OH right on the Ohio/Indiana border, literally RIGHT on the border. The CG is great for an overnight stay for snowbirders heading North/South but as a destination campground it's pretty lame.

 

Co-worker Dave talking with Carie about his pride & joy Triumph there in the foreground. It took him 14 years to rebuild this and he did most of it himself, including painting it:



 

 

 

Al Capone's car? 

 

 

Carie checking out this original classic teardrop camper & car setup!

 

 

Our camping setup and Carie & I posing with the Spyder...