A Year About

Yesterday (Tuesday) was fairly dismal. It rained ALL DAY. In the morning, Elise finished up her Junior Ranger packet and then we headed down to the camp office to turn it in. Since it is off season (after Labor Day), the office isn’t staffed in the morning, so there was no one there. So we took a walk around part of the lake in the rain. We discovered a cool snake skin, about 3 feet long, and part of the spine of a rather large fish, picked completely clean. The swans had been down at that part of the lake the previous evening, and between them and the other critters (skunk, squirrel, fox, coyote), there was nothing left of the poor creature. But back to the dismal…

After our walk, we went back to the trailer and got ready to hitch up. After a long wet while, we called it and decided to spend one more night in Kettletown. We realized that we really didn’t know how to hitch up our trailer properly, after all. We called the help line for our hitch manufacturer and a friend of ours who is on the road who has the same hitch. Our friend, Rich, told us that we were trying to hitch up in the most difficult situation (the trailer was lower than the truck) but that with some patience we would be able to hitch up and not have to become permanent residents of Connecticut!

Meanwhile, Elise got her junior ranger certificate (her first of many as she has told us she wants to complete one at every park that has one) and we spent another night. This morning, it took Bobby 20 minutes to hitch us up and he did it all by himself. He is truly my hero.

We are now at Hammonasett State Park and getting ready to head down to the beach. I’m going to search for some wi-fi nearby so I can send this out.

Elise has a post following this one, so be sure to read it!

Today I saw a frog, a grasshopper, and a beetle that was very big and looked like a spider. I had a fun day! I walked on a boardwalk that went to a little beach on Lake Zoar. I saw some ducks, swans, and geese. The swans were eating a lot of the time and honking and rubbing their feathers. I named them Petunia, Alfred, Fred and George, and Sally.
I miss you all!
Love, Elise.

Caren’s aunt and uncle’s home

It’s Monday morning and the wedding weekend has come to an end. The wedding was unbelievable. Incredibly classy and elegant. My brother, Chris, was a very handsome groom and his bride, Caren, was radiant. The wedding took place at Caren’s aunt and uncle’s home and I have to tell you, it was a dream wedding. The weather was gorgeous, the food delicious and the band kept us dancing ’til midnight.


Chris and Caren Miller


The flower girls, Elise and Maggie, get ready.


Bobby at his most handsome.


Danine and her brother, Shawn.

Last night the whole family was invited to stay at Chris and Caren’s house (they leave for Hawaii on Wednesday). It was great. It was one last chance for us to spend time with everyone in my family before we set out on this big adventure of ours.

So now it’s a drizzly Monday morning and we are heading back to Shackleton. We first have stop at a Trader Joe’s and a regular grocery store to stock the pantry and fridge. Then maybe a book store to get a couple of books to read.

Our next few weeks are looking like this: We leave Kettletown State Park tomorrow and plan to head to Hammonasset State Park up the coast. After that, we plan to head toward Newport, RI then up to Cape Cod and that area before heading to Bar Harbor.

We made it safely to Kettletown State Park in Southbury, CT around 11:45 this morning, after threading the Airstream through some construction near the Tappan Zee bridge and then up and down some winding country roads. Our campground site is a back-in, but not too tricky to get into–lots of room to maneuver. We set up the trailer and Danine fixed lunch while Elise and I went down to Lake Zoar about 100 yards downhill from our site. It’s a lovely setting. We went for a walk, but soon had to depart…

We’ll be leaving the trailer at the campground while we are in Greenwich for Danine’s brother Chris’ wedding. He and his fiance Caren have prepared a grand and fun weekend for family and friends. So instead of posting these entries from some rustic setting, we’re posting from our room at the Hyatt Regency! It’s great, but the trailer has a better view.

We did it! It is about 7:30 in the morning on Thursday and we have successfully spent our first night on the road. We all slept pretty well, despite the trucks coming and going around us all night. The trailer is well insulated, so the outside noise was kept to a dull roar. It cooled off during the night, so sleeping was comfortable.

Bobby has gone into the service area to get himself some coffee. Elise is still sleeping. We have a busy weekend with family ahead so I want her to get as much sleep as possible. The truck next to us is starting up, though, so we’ll see how long she sleeps!

(This is my mom and Elise coloring before departure.)

Less than 24 hours into our trip and we are already breaking the rules we had set for ourselves. There were only two that we had really talked about: not driving for more than four hours in a day and not driving at night.

Today was our big departure day. We got up this morning at my parents’ and packed up what we had there. I really haven’t been that emotional about leaving. My mom and I were talking yesterday and I think part of the reason is that I haven’t really had the time to think about it. But as I was taking a final walk through the house I grew up in, I couldn’t help but be a little teary. It’s going to be weird to not be there this year.

Next, it was off to the trailer. We made it there by 11:00. We transferred the last few things into it, secured the trailer for towing and at 2:44 we hit the road. The staff at St. Philip’s Church (where the trailer has been parked and I have worked for the past year) came out to see us off. My parents were there, too, and stayed until the very end when we drove off. It was kind of funny to be saying goodbye to them for the year, only to say, “See you tomorrow!” for the wedding.

We had been hoping to leave by 1:00, but got a little delayed with the last minute packing and the hitch. We are using the Hensley, which we absolutely love, but are still getting used to.

We need to be in Connecticut Thursday so we figured we would drive as far as New Jersey and find a place to spend the night. Bobby was thinking that Princeton would be a pretty place to visit. Our friends the Bohli’s just finished a 6-week RV vacation and they had a lot of luck staying overnight at Wal-Marts. So we found one in Princeton and thought we’d stay there. Long story short, we decided not to do that and instead thought we’d find a truck stop in Bordentown, right before the New Jersey Turnpike. We missed that exit so drove up Rt. 130 looking for somewhere to stop. It’s dark at this point and we have been driving for about 5 hours (including a stop at Cracker Barrel for dinner). We ended up getting on the NJ Turnpike and now we are stopped for the night at the Joyce Kilmer Service Area. We are surrounded by 18-wheelers, all with their engines running (with the blessed exception of the truck next to us). It’s too noisy to open up any windows, so we are inside the trailer, trying not to move around too much. The temperature is fine, just a little stuffy.

Elise has been great, for the most part. She told me a few times today that she didn’t want to leave and I can’t blame her. There is a lot of unknown involved in this year. We are working on one trip at a time with her, so she isn’t too overwhelmed. She rolls with the punches pretty well. We are blessed parents.

So it’s off to Connecticut tomorrow and Kettletown State Park in Southbury where we will leave the trailer while we party it up in Greenwich and Darien!

My sister called me a few weeks ago and wanted to arrange a family dinner to wish us “bon voyage”. We settled on this past Saturday, September 1. I thought this was a great idea, but a little unnecessary since our family is together constantly, and even more so these days since we are living at my parents’ house. The party was set to be at her house, originally, but then changed to SHRA, the pool we all go to (like I said, we’re always together). So Saturday night, Bobby and I showed up at SHRA (Elise was already there) and there was my family (expected) and some friends of ours (not expected) who had come to wish us well. It was a great evening.

With “Happy Trails” playing in the background, we feasted on sausages, hamburgers, hotdogs, roasted peppers and everything yummy that goes with a cookout. A big thanks to my family who arranged it and to all who came. We’re trying not to focus on being sad about leaving, but as Bobby mentioned to me tonight, it feels good to realize that we’re going to miss a lot of people. It helps confirm what we have here and makes us excited to come back.