October 7-8 - 2017 South Wardsboro, Vermont

 

Let me tell a little about the state of Vermont. It is very rural (ude på landet). It is also very hilly (as you maybe can guess from yesterday’s blog). It is also VERY beautiful at this time of year, because of all the trees that are turning color. Life is slow and simple. And very nice!

We came to South Wardsboro to visit Hannah and Al, who I know through my “Danish” family. I have heard so much about this town from the Offenhäusers, that I really wanted to see it. And we wanted to see the autumn colors (efterårsfarver) in New England. Hannah and Al were going to be here this weekend. So that was our goal, when planning our trip. It has been our only "deadline". We made it, and we have had a great time with them, their friends and their neighbors. (Thanks Hannah and Al!)

Here are some of the things we did:

We saw a couple of cemeteries (kirkegårde). One of several differences is that in the US graves are not cancelled (slettet). They are there forever. That means a lot of old graves. We saw several graves of people who had fought in the revolutionary war (USA’s uafhængighedskrig 1775-1783). Many if these were just ordinary soldiers. That was a pretty strange feeling.
New England is the area where the revolution started, and it was different for us to see that part of history so present herein the monuments, historic buildings and sites, graveyards etc. etc.
 

Revolutionary War Veteran



General John Stark

 

 

 

 

The architecture and style of building in New England, is different than we have seen other places so far. Here are a few examples of the stereotype.



A sugar shack (hvor de laver ahornsirup)

Covered bridge




Old First Church,
Bennington, Vermont





Typical homes

Typical homes

The thing we really came to see (besides Hannah and Al), were the fall colors. We were worried that we were going to be there too early, because the weather has been so warm. Luckily, we got to see lots of color (even though we were maybe a week early for "peek").

I asked Hannah where we should go to see the best colors. She said that her and the neighbor usually agree, that they drive all around to find the best colors, and then they come home and find out, that the best color is in their own back yard. Have a look, and judge for yourself.

Written by Mary and JJ

P.S. The neighbors' backyard is the first picture.






 

October 6-7 - 2017 South Wardsboro, Vermont

So many times, during this trip have we said to each other that we would not have been able to drive the places we have without our navigator. Downtown Chicago, Detroit, New York etc. etc.
TODAY she failed – BIG TIME (it’s a she).

We were on our way to South Wardsboro, Vermont (more about that later).
At some point she (the navigator) send us on a gravel road (grusvej) through the woods.
It was OK, but got more and more hilly and narrower and narrower as we drove on.
The hills were so steep that smoke started coming from the brakes!!
Then we went on to a road where there was an official sign.
It said: “Your GPS is wrong no outlet (blind vej)!!”.

It is not easy to turn around on a narrow road in the middle of the woods with a trailer behind you.
We went into somebody’s driveway, but there was not enough room.
Next to the driveway was a field/lawn, so we used that - and got stuck (sad fast)!!
I had to look in the manual to activate the low 4 wheel drive (firehjulstræk),
The first thing it said about 4LO was :”You may never need this setting” Well, today we did!!
The 4 wheel drive got us out of there and eventually we got back to a paved road (asfalteret) and
made it to our destination 2 hours later than planned.

In South Wardsboro we met up with Hannah and Al and two of their friends.
Hanna and Al are from Wisconsin and have a cabin (sommerhus) in Vermont.
For those of you who do not know them: Hannah is the 3^rd American Offenhäuser daughter (Mary is the 1^st) (Their Danish family, when they stayed in Denmark for a year with Saint Cloud State University - and Mary’s ever since).



Al, Hannah, Mary, Kelly, Frank

More about our days in Vermont in the next post (internet connection is pretty poor here in the woods).

Written by JJ

October 4-5 - 2017 Clinton, Connecticut

America is a country of extremes – from weather, to wealth – there are huge differences.

A few weeks ago, we were in downtown Detroit, Michigan, where many houses were derelict (misligholdte) and abandoned (forladte). Many of the inhabitants (beboere) were poor.  Wednesday we were in Newport, Rhode Island. This town is for the extremely rich (mega rige). One house was bigger and grander than the next. Take a look for yourself….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these were actually summerhouses for people like the Vanderbilts and the likes of them.
John F. Kennedy was among the celebrities that stayed in Newport at times.

We walked along the Cliff Walk, which brought us on the sea side of the mansions. After the walk we stopped at the downtown marina. Judging from the size of some of the boats, we guess they were owned by the same people who owned the mansions.

 

Today, Thursday, we stayed at the campground in Connecticut and did more
maintenance, repair, cleaning, clothes washing etc. etc.

Written by Mary

October 3 - 2017 Clinton, Connecticut

Today was a day of learning and challenges. We spent the day in transit, from New Jersey to Clinton, Connecticut. We were going to do Boston for a couple of days, but decided that we needed a day to rest up and get some reparations, cleaning, and laundry done. So, we decided on Connecticut and a quiet camp ground in the New England countryside (Riverdale Farm Campsite).

On our way, we drove over a bridge, that had a cashless toll collection. That means that they mail the bill to the registered owner of the car. In our case, that is difficult, because our car registration is still temporary (we don’t want the old owner of the car to have to pay our $5 toll bill), and if the bill does get sent to the address we put on the car registration (my brother Phil’s address), then we have to figure out how we can get it paid from there.

We went on line, and found out that we could pay the toll with our credit card. Great! But, as we often have trouble with, the website wanted our zip code (postnummer). American zip codes are 5 numbers long, and they won’t except a zip code that is only 4 numbers, like our Danish one. Finally, JJ got ahold of someone, who could help us pay without our zip code. We just have to wait 2 days, until the toll charge is registered!

 

The next challenge/learning experience came, when we got on the Merrit Parkway. We were following the directions that the navigator gave us, and we got on this wonderful, scenic drive, with very little traffic and no trucks. There were many height restrictions on the low bridges, but we were under the heights they showed, so we thought all was good. There were a few cars honking at us, but we thought it was because we were not far enough over in our lane.  

We decided to look up on line, if we were doing something wrong. We were driving on a restricted road, that didn’t allow vehicles over 8’ (ca. 2,5 m)(we are 11’2” - ca. 3,4m ), vehicles over 8 tons (we are about 11 tons), vehicles with more than 2 axels (we have 4), and no trailers (we had the camper). WHOOPS!!!! We decided that we had better get off FAST!!!!! Luckily the next exit was to the highway we should have been on – not as pretty, but at least legal for us to drive on!

The rest of our trip went smoothly, the camp grounds looked real nice, and we got a good site to set up on. It was a little slanted (the camp ground is very hilly). For those of you, who do not know about setting up a camper (like we didn’t 4 weeks ago), they have to be level.

To achieve this, we drove the camper’s wheels up onto a couple of cement blocks we had. It seemed to solve the problem, and we decided to unhook the car. When we did that, the trailer rolled slightly backwards, off the blocks, and 2 of the jacks dug into the ground. WE DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW!!!!! Luckily our neighbors, who were also setting up, came over to help us out. They had tried similar situations, so they had some good advice. We got the trailer raised up again, and there doesn’t appear to be more damage than a slightly bent back jack.

By the way, the neighbors were from Texas. Her grandfather was from Denmark, so she was interested in hearing about the country. I had a long talk with them later on. We also shared camping/travel experiences. Nice to “connect” with some of the people on the camp ground. I also met a couple from California. I had just gone to throw the garbage out, so JJ couldn’t understand why I hadn’t come back after an hour - especially since it had gotten dark in the meantime!

The next challenge/learning experience had to do with our toilet. It wasn’t flushing properly, so JJ was going to try to fix it. Luckily, I am blessed with a husband that can fix almost anything, so I wasn’t too worried. After studying some advice on YouTube (what would we do without YouTube?), JJ found some possible causes to the problem. He did locate the bad part. Now the toilet is working again…actually better than it did before😊

One last problem – because the toilet wasn’t working, JJ went to use the camp ground restroom. He got lost on the way back😊😊😊 I think we DO need a day of rest and relaxation😊

As my sister Michelle said a few weeks ago… “You didn’t think it would all go smoothly, did you?”

Written by Mary

 

October 2 - 2017 Flanders , New Jersey

 

Monday it was back to New York again.
Now we were worried about traffic, because it was a workday, so we left early again.
It took maybe 30 minutes longer to get in, but getting out was a piece of cake.
Not worse than driving in Aalborg or Copenhagen 😊.

We went to see the 9/11 memorial at ground zero before it got too crowded.
We were there at 08.00 and there was not more than 10 people there.
That made a big difference as far as catching the mood was concerned.
It is an amazing place. It is hard to imagine any other way they could have done it better.
The two pools are on the exact site of the two towers.
The water symbolizing tears, running into a void that will never be filled. All the names of the victims
around the edge of the two pools. It is just incredible.
Nothing will ever be built on those two sites again.

 

 

 

Later on, we took a guided tour around ground zero. A very good tour guide.
She started with her own recollection of 9/11 (she was 9 at the time). Went on to tell us about the time from 9/11 until today. The situation around 9/11 and the days, weeks and month to follow up till now, 16 years later where they are still developing the area. World Trade Center 2, and other buildings are still to go up.

World Trade Center One

World Trade Center Two

 


















In 2000 we went to see the two towers of the World Trade Center.
Next to the towers was a transportation hub and we remember the thousands of people coming up the escalators from the trains.
They have build a new hub - The Oculus. A very impressive building and
still a good example of the rat race.

In the afternoon we went over to Brooklyn to get at least a little bit of more normal life in New York. Saw some of the old brownstone buildings.
(Easy to recollect the many movie scenes where you can see the hero sitting on the steps waiting for the heroine to show up).

From the Brooklyn side you also get a good view of the Manhattan skyline.

And that ended 3 very good days in New York.

Written by JJ

October 1 - 2017 Flanders , New Jersey

Sunday we got up REAL early. Our goal was to be in New York City by 7 a.m., so we could get to a Sunday Gospel service in Harlem. We were lucky with traffic. The trip took the 1¼ hour that our navigator estimated.  So, we had plenty of time to get from our parking garage on 60^th street to 116^th street (This time we parked on Manhattan).

 
That was good, because most of the music was actually before the service. Super music. There were two services. One at 08.00 and one at 10.00. There was a majority of regulars at the service we went to, so we got to experience the real thing (Lots of hallelujahs, hugs, handshakes and lots of comments from the crowd when the pastor held his sermon (prædiken) etc. etc.) The pastor held a 45 minutes sermon.
It was very inspiring and also funny at times.
When we got out we saw the long line for the 10 o’clock service. Almost all tourists, so we are pretty
sure we got the better deal and got to experience the real atmosphere.

No we weren't supposed to take pictures, but the sermon was all about forgiveness 😊
(We weren't supposed to take pictures when we saw Cats either !! 😊)
 
 
After church we were hungry and had a traditional breakfast at a traditional New York Diner.

 

In the early afternoon we went for a walk on and old railway that has been turned into a walkway and at the same time a park (The High Line). It is 30 feet (ca 9-10 meter) over street level, and is running north/south on Manhattan.
Almost 2 miles ( ca 3 km).Very nice, and you get to see a different part of the city.
Weather was nice again, even though the temperature has dropped.

We decided to leave early, so we didn't get caught up in traffic again.
The trip home took about 30 minutes longer than in the morning, but without the stress we had the day before. As we left we got this picture of a few different modes of transportation - all in the same picture.

Written by Mary and JJ

September 30 - 2017 Flanders , New Jersey

Thursday and Friday (28-29th) we were in transit.
Thursday we drove from Canada, 330 miles ( ca. 520 km)to Harpursville, New York.
Friday we continued eastward, 150 miles (ca. 240 km) to Flanders, New Jersey.
Flanders is 45 miles (ca. 70 km) west of New York City.

Saturday we went to New York City.
We decided to drive all the way. Crossed Manhattan and parked in Brooklyn.
Going in was not a problem at all (a little over an hour), but getting out late afternoon was a nightmare. It took us at least 2 hours just to get through the Holland tunnel and get clear of Jersey City.

We walked across the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan.
A nice walk, in fair weather, with a really good view of some of the New York City skyline.















We checked Trump Tower to see if he was home, but all we saw was a lot of police and some protesters.

In the afternoon we saw a play on Broadway: CATS.
Very impressive choreography and dancing.
And the song "Memory" in several versions and very powerful.


















By the way: You know you are getting older when...
You sit in an overcrowded New York Subway train.
You see an older man enter the train and get ready to get up and give him your seat.
You then realize that you are older than he is - and stay put !! ☺☺

Written by JJ