Minnesota here we come!

Bryson playing with his airplanes!

One of the many wind farms we have seen along the way!

Karen actually sitting down and relaxing!

OK, the fifth wheel has new axles,springs,brakes and mounting hardware so its time  to head to Minnesota!  From Elkhart we headed west on Rt 80/90 around Chicago and then north west to Wisconsin for the night at a local Walmart.  The next morning we finished our trek to Minnesota.  We stayed south of the city at a campground called Lebanon Hills.  When we arrived at the campground we were surprised to find out our spot was 40 feet long and on a sharp turn!  This meant we would have room for the camper only and the truck would have to be parked a short walk away at a visitors parking spot.  We got backed in to the spot in on the 1st try with help from Karen and the camp host!  The length of the drive from Indiana was just under 600 miles and I was beat even though we only drove 200 or so miles the second day.  Karen was ready to go into town to see the Mall of America! Karen took the kids to the mall and I  took a nap and lounged around the camper while watching some golf!  The next morning we got and traveled in to the city for a show with Norman. After the show we dropped Norm off at the camper and headed to the mall to take the kids to the amusement park inside the mall!  That's right, I said inside the mall!  The Mall of America is the largest indoor mall in the USA.  We had fun riding all the rides and walking around the mall!  The kids found this to be especially fun do to the Sponge Bob theme of it all! The next day we got up and went into town to look around at a local RV place for a part for the air conditioner!  Ive come to the conclusion that the RV world is very similar to the boat world in the fact that there always seems to be something that needs repair!  After we left the RV place, without a part for the air conditioner, we stopped at a local eatery called "Chris &Robs".  We had hot dogs and Brats!  Karen and I both agreed that we would avoid chain restaurants as much as possible on the trip.  Well the some of the items we ordered were delicious such as my Bratwurst and Karena Chicago style hot dog but one of the other dogs we ordered didn't not taste right, almost rotten!  Such is life with small restaurants and we just let the trash can have that hot dog.  Heading back to the camper Karen decided she wanted to take the kids to the local zoo and I was in need of another nap!  I dropped Karen and the kids at the zoo and headed for the camper for some couch/Golf/nap time!  The kids had a great time at the zoo and I with my nap and golf! Unfortunately it is time again to move the camper so we can see the west before the weather begins to change!  South Dakota here we come!

Chicago!

 It was a long bumpy drive from Elkhart to Chicago!  Thank god we didn't have the trailer in tow.  We drove straight into the city in hopes of finding a hotel downtown because Karen and Norman had two shows in the city.  Unfortunately either the hotel was booked or they wanted to charge over $250 a night with a $100 nonrefundable pet fee.  We decided to look outside the city and drive back in.  We finally found a place that would take Norman and we didn't have to take out a loan to stay the night, so we headed to the hotel to get checked in. Once in the room the kids were so excited to see cable TV that they didn't even care the picture was all tinted green!

After getting unpacked for the night we headed back into the city to take in some sights.  Karen and I decided to go for a guided tour of the city, but before the tour we went to find some food, because everyone was hungry.  We decided to try some of Chicago's famous deep dish pizza at Giordano's.  Karen didn't really like it but that's no surprise as she grew up in New York, so her idea of good pizza and Chicago's are polar opposites.  The kids and I on the other hand really enjoyed it and almost finished off a whole pizza. From there we hit the city via our tour.  The tour was good with lots of stops along the way where you could get off the bus and see the area then get back on another bus that is available every 15 minutes. We had a good time at the Millennium Park where there was a giant sculpture of a stainless steel bean.  The bean is such an oddity that it draws you in and you find yourself staring at it from all angles.

From there we made or way to the Navy Pier. The Navy Pier is a mix between an outdoor mall and an amusement park.  Karen found an old fashioned mirror maze, which the kids had fun with and we picked up some of the locally made Garrett's popcorn!   Next we headed to the Sears tower to go to the top and see the SkyDeck!  This is a glass enclosure the extends four feet out from the 103rd floor in which you can step out, if you dare, and look straight down!  Karen and the kids had a great time with it, but I on the other hand felt a little overwhelmed with it.  Probably because I weigh more than the whole family combined!  The next morning we woke up a 5:15am in order to get downtown to Norman and Karen's TV shows.  They did great as usual and from there we headed back into the city for the rest of the day.  We drove in and parked just off of the "Magnificent Mile." We walked the streets with Norman and of course Karen and him were a hit with the people and some even recognized them from the morning news show.  

Around lunch time it was time for some Chicago hot dogs! We found a local favorite called "Downtown Dogs" and got a nice seat outside in the shade.  We had a great lunch and just lounged around on their patio for awhile.  Bryson managed to squeeze the ketchup bottle which resulted in a stream of ketchup from the front of his shirt, over his shoulder then down his back. I found it rather funny, but Karen wasn't as humored by it, probably because she does the laundry.  After a few more hours of walking around it was time to call it a day and head back to the camper in Indiana. Chicago was a nice city to visit... aside from the toll roads... which I still can't understand how they can charge money for driving on such terrible roads.

Elkhart Indiana! Houston we have another problem!

Bryson has been helping us setup the trailer!
Here he is putting down the rear stabilizers.

Bryson & Kaylee picking up Hail!

Yup!  We have another problem with our house on wheels!  Its bound to happen and I brought a hundred pound tool bag with me for that very reason.  Unfortunately the trailer had developed some tire wear issues and a slight lean to the left!  There is nothing in my tool bag to fix this one though! I notice the problem developing a month or so ago while in Canada but couldn't find someone to take a look at it. Fast forward and we are traveling through Indiana and its the RV capitol of the USA. I called the place we bought it from and they asked us to bring it in, so they could inspect it.  We showed up the next morning and the service technician got 30 yards from the trailer and said "you've lost camber in the axles." I asked how this could happen so soon and he didn't know,  so he called the axle manufacturer here in Elkhart and they set us up with an appointment for them to inspect it. Two days later we show up to Lippert Frame & Axle and they told us the same news of the axles being bent or they have lost there camber!  They said potholes or bad bumps can cause it!  Let me see..... Potholes?  Long Island,Maine,Nova Scotia and the list goes on and on with the amount of potholes we have hit!  Some so big I thought we were going to lose the trailer.  Lippert agreed to replace the axles, springs & bushings all under warranty, but warned us that with the weight we were carrying it most likely will happen again.  We decided to upgrade from 7000lb axles to 8000lb axles to give us a cushion in the weight department.  The axles and springs were ordered and we will be putting them on the trailer tomorrow morning.  Due to the repairs we are spending a little time in beautiful Elkhart, ndiana.  If you haven't heard of Elkhart don't worry, there is not much here to see!  So I decided to catch the last Harry Potter movie and just spend some quiet time around the campground. We even broke out the badminton game and the whole family had fun with it! Even Norman got into the act by chasing the birdie/shuttlecock as we hit it back and forth.  We had a massive thunderstorm this afternoon with marble size hail.  It really shook the trailer with the wind!  After the storm passed the kids decided to go out and pick up the hail and they even tried eating a piece or two.  I took some time to bake one hell of a chocolate cake with some peanut butter frosting!  It was one of my favorites from childhood, that my mom would make us! I'm kind of glad things worked out the way they did, because we are leaving the trailer here while we visit Chicago.  I was not looking forward to towing the trailer anywhere near the city with all those POTHOLES!

Upstate New York!

A natural spring, on the side of the road,  that the locals come to fill their water bottle up at!

Kaylee looks a little nervous!

Class six rapids leading to the falls!

This pole is actually Frozen solid with a thick sheet of ice on it.

The ashes of my Uncle Phillip.

Kaylee & Bryson chased these poor pigeons all over the place.

As much as we hated to say goodbye to Vermont, it was time to head south to upstate New York.  We found a free ferry that could take us across Lake Champlain and drop us in New York. The only thing was we didn't know if they would take the camper and to get to this ferry you had to commit to a certain route on the map.  So with no cell service, we took a shot and to our surprise the ferry was pulling up at the shore with a tractor trailer on board.  Karen and I breathed a sigh of relief and got in line.  We crossed quickly and headed to our campground a little place called "Country Haven".  Well after pulling in we found ........ well more like a 1970's trailer park with a lot of full time residents, old campers covered in pinestraw and more stuff outside the trailers than inside!  We decided what the heck, we are here and its afforably priced, so lets just stay.  Let's just say we would have missed some really nice people if we decided to turn around and head to another place.  Tony, the campground owner, was the nicest camp host we've met so far on this trip!  Tony guided us to our campsite all the while pulling peoples cars out of the road or moving low hanging branches for us and then helping us back the camper into its spot!  Our neighbor "Bullet", yes you heard me right, is a good ole cajun boy from Louisiana and commenced helping me hook up the water and even took one of his tv's out of his camper and brought it over to help fix our cable issue!  I have never felt so at home in a place, as fast as I did in this one!  The day we were leaving we were running late, so I went to ask Tony if I could stay a few minutes over the checkout time and said "stay the rest of the day, we don't have anyone coming."  We ended up staying 3 hours over swimming in the pool and playing mini golf, which was all free of charge!  Thanks moms and dads for teaching us to never judge a book by its cover! 

Ok back to our stay!  After setting up, we headed to a beach on Lake George called the "Million Dollar" beach.  Well, lets say the name was a little misleading as it looked more like the $100 beach with the preverbial 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bucket!  The people laying almost on top of each other, people smoking on the beach and throwing their cigarette butts in the sand.  The water was full of lake mud.  They obviously have never been to Destin/Panama City or Palm Beach thats where the nice beaches are.  Come to find out its called the Million Dollar beach, because thats how much it cost to build it not necessarily the experience! 

The next morning, we got up and went to Lake Placid and took a tour of the Olympic Center which is based around our US hockey team that won the gold medal, back in 1980!  You may have seen the movie "Miracle on Ice."  It was very informative and the gentleman giving the tour was actually on the Olympic committee during those Olympics!  Karen had a great time with the tour with all the facts and intersting tidbits, as was I, but not to the extent she was so I took care of the kids for the last half of the tour. After the tour, we walked down the main street and looked through the shops and eventually ending up driving to the ski jump area!  "Amazing" is all that comes to mind when you see how tall the tops of the ramps are! 

The next morning Karen was chomping at the bit to take the kids to the North Pole/Santa's Workshop, so we loaded back up and headed north to the park.  Karen informed that we are not leaving early from this place as it has a special place in her heart from when she was a kid going to it.  So I agreed that we can stay until it closes.  We paid our $84 to get the family in and as we walk through a few places Karen looked at me and I could see in her face this place was a lot smaller than she remembered!  We had fun with it though, the kids got to feed the reindeer and give the piglets milk out of a glass Coke bottle with a nipple on it.  Bryson rode all the rides, but Kaylee was too big for most of them.  The signs on the rides say rider must not exceed 75lbs and from the look of the rides, that sounds like a very good idea.  We don't think the place has changed much, if at all, from 62 years ago when it opened.

The last day we had to head to Schenectady in the morning for Norman to ride his scooter on a local news channel at 10:00am and then take care of a matter for my parents in BrattleboroBrattleboro, which was about 80 mile east.  We found the cemetery and sprinkled out the ashes after which I called my parents and told them it was a done deal.  From there we went to downtown Brattleboro and walked around the shops picking up some modeling clay for Kaylee at a local art store and just passing some time before we had to be in Albany for Norman to ride again at 8:00pm! Norman and Karen did a great job as usual and we headed for the trailer!  A little side bar to our trip, I noticed the trailer tires are wearing funny and the inside edges were getting bald, so we need to find a trailer shop!  Next morning we all slept until 9:30am hence the need for us to prolong our stay, which I mentioned earlier.  All in all we had a great time and would highly recommend Country Haven to anyone looking for a place to stay with some really nice people! 

We are off to see Niagara Falls! After leaving the Adirondack area we drove to Rochester and slept in good old Walmart! (Wally world as my mom calls it) The next morning we landed in a motel parking lot that they call a campground!  The spots we clean level and paved, so we set up and went to buy some groceries and Karen spent 3 hours at the laundromat, catching up on laundry, because we were all on our last pair of underwear.  The next morning we headed to the falls and bought the group pass which gives access to Cave of the Winds, Maid of the Mist, the Imax movie, the observation tower, and the trolley to get to each stop.  We started at the top of the falls and just stared at this magnificent waterfall!  From there, we headed to the Maid of the Mist boat tour.  It was hot, so we were looking for some fresh Niagara water to cool us down!  The boat took us right up into Horseshoe Falls area and basically hovers around by the waterfalls spray which was very neat!  You could feel the boat being tossed around in the turbulent waters churning out from the falls.  Kaylee asked me if any of the boats had ever sunk while on the tour and I calmed her nerves and told her no! Next stop, lunch, because Karen was starving and I could see that look in her eyes when she gets hungry!  After taking out a small loan to pay for lunch we went to the Imax movie and cooled off in the theatre.  We called it a day and decided to see the rest tomorrow.

The next morning we made our way back to the falls to see the aquarium and hit the Cave of the Winds! The kids had a great time at the aquarium, they saw the sea lion show and watched the feeding of the harbor seals. From the aquarium, we headed to the Cave of the Winds via the trolley.  Cave of the Winds is an opportunity to get down to the base of the falls and feel the spray coming off the rocks!  We loaded into an elevator equipped with our trash bag-like ponchos and they even gave us a pair of special sandals to wear, so we wouldn't fall ...Bryson.  We descended 180 or so feet to the base of the falls.  There was a boardwalk with a series of platforms to climb your way closer to the falls!  Word of caution! If you have expensive cameras and lenses, this is a good time to wrap them in a plastic bag or you could destroy them!  I know this 1st hand as I now have a $500 zoom lens paper weight!  The amount of water and the deafening noise is absolutely amazing.  The kids were a little nervous because of the noise, but once mom and dad made our way closer the kids followed suit. The water spray was so strong at times it literally pushed you forward while standing with your back to the falls. After a thorough drenching we made our way to the truck and headed to downtown Buffalo to eat some chicken wings at Anchor Bar.  This bar is the originator of one of my favorite foods - buffalo wings!  The wings were great and the family was tired, so we made our way home and crawled into bed around 11:00pm. 

Needless to say we all slept in the next day and spent most of the day just hanging around the campground/parking lot watching movies in the camper. That evening Karen wanted to get some pictures and video of Norman at the falls, so it was back to the falls for one more visit!  Norman was a hit with his scooter!  We had more people posing with him for pictures than you can count.  At one time, we had a crowd surrounding him snapping pictures and watching him ride his scooter.  The next morning we packed up to move to Elkhart to have the abnormal tire wear on the trailer checked!