Oct 15--Gainesville, FL--Home for Two Months

We arrived yesterday at the home of David West in Gainesville, Florida where we will call home for a couple of months with the exception of a week at Disney World.

We traveled just under 4000 miles in 17 days. We had planned on being on the road for about 30 days, but we cut out a large segment of Canada and a couple of other stops in North Carolina. If we had gone the full route we probably would have traveled 6,000 miles. We are glad we made the change, but we definitely will go back to Canada as we want to see Quebec and Nova Scotia. Probably do a tour.

In addition to see Canada and New England in the fall, we also wanted to look at some areas that we might consider for a winter home spot. We found none.

David's home is great and Bon is looking forward to having a kitchen for awhile and I found a nice spot to do some business.

Our Son Rich and his Gik met David West when they put up some posters to do clean-up work after a hurricane a few years ago. They had just arrived in Gainesville and Gik had started work on her Doctorate at U of F and Rich was attending Santa Fe College.

Since then they have become great friends and Rich has done a lot of carpetry work for David.

David is a retired (very young Retiree I might mention) Attorney who had worked for U of F, Had his Own Law Firm and various other ventures. He is a very interesting person. He has a wonderlust for travel and as I write this he is spending three months in Paris and other places. In fact, I just got an e-mail from him that he just returned from Morocco and I know in a couple of weeks he is off to Italy.

We are now officially Defending National Champion Florida Gator Fans and presently ranked #2 University of South Florida Bulls (Rich's University) Fans! Of course, we are still pulling for University of Minnesota and University of Arizona! I understand from my friend Dr. Bob in Tucson, that Arizona has had a couple of VERY CLOSE LOSSES!

Oct 14--Callaway Gardens, Georgia

Beautiful!

Oct 13--Atlanta, Georgia

Oct 11-12--Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

On the way to Gatlinburg we passed through Pigeon Forge which is like mini-Branson with a lot more traffic. So we did the tourist thing and hit a couple of shows; Country Tonight and Dixie Stampede.

Oct 10, Roanoke, VA

On our way to Roanoke we made a short stop at Antietam National Battlefield. This is the site of the Bloodiest Day (September 17, 1862) of the Civil War as a total of 23110 were either killed or wounded.

The battle was basically a draw, Union General George McCellan hailed it as a victory. Shortly after the battle President Lincoln visited McCellan at the battlefield where he learned that McCellan had gotten a little carried away with his victory talk. Lincoln wanted McCellan to press the attach to General Lee, but that was not McCellan's approach. In November Lincoln removed McCellan.

In a way it was a victory for the Union in that the Confederates had a smaller army and could ill afford equal loses.

Oct 9--Chambersburg, PA

Chambersburg, PA is where Lee camped his Troops after marching from the Richmond, VA area and before he debarked on Gettysburg.

Oct 8--Binghamton, NY

We somewhat reluctantly departed New England today after nearly a week of some of the most wonderful sites we have ever seen. Fall in New England is everything it is billed to be and the stop at Boothbay, Maine was like a mini visit to Nova Scotia. The fall color pictures we took don't begin to do justice to the spectacular colors. And in fact, in some of the areas that were a sea of red and orange we did not take any pictures. What's the point? One simply must come and see. We are already planning a return trip.

We have already traveled 2300 since September 29 and probably have another 1500 to go. Next area to visit is Shenandoah Valley.

Oct 7--Rutland, Maine

Oct 5--6--Boothbay Harbour, Maine

Beautiful Atlantic Ocean Harbour Town. Will spend a couple of nights here. Bon is doing Laundry as I do this blog update. Had fresh lobster last night.

From here we will head inland and south.

GO GATORS

Oct 5--Plainview, Vermont--Where Rich Once Lived

Oct 4--Montpelier--Capital of Vermont

Beautiful Little Capital City. Drove up to Seyon State Park. Fall colors in Vermont are everything that they "are billed".

Bon got stung by a bee and at 1:30am ended up in Emergency at Hospital which was conviently across the street from our hotel. Everything was OK, just a quite substantial reaction.

Oct 3--Burlington, Vermont--Lake Champlain

Great Bike Trail right along Lake Champlain--I (Marv) did 8 mile right on the morning of Oct 4--Great!

Oct 2--Ottawa, Ontario

Parliment Building at Ottawa, Capital of Canada

Rideau Canal

Cathederal of Notre Dame which we think is in O'Canada Film at Epcot Center

Oct 1--North Bay, Ontario--Lake Nipissing

Sept 29-30 Hayward, WI--Newberry, MI