virginia

No net access tonite, but the phone works. We have more teeth than anyone else in the campground.

Rain

Be careful what you wish for...

It rained today. Last night, too. This afternoon some more. Lots of rain, lots of steep mountain passes, lots of good truck drivers. 3 idiot truck drivers, too. Watched the nearest-miss I've ever seen on a freeway.

We're in Pennsylvania. Gave up on the rain, got to the campground to find they got deluged yesterday. Camping in a mud puddle.

In other words, it was wet today.

P.S. This buffalo is not in Pennsylvania. There might be (okay) a bison in PA, but you couldn't see them because of the rain. Enjoy the picture of the south end of a bison going north. It certainly woke up the people in the tent!

more touristy

We then toured the Saratoga battlefield, labeled by most as the turning point of the revolution. Here American troops first defeated British (cream of the crop) troops on their own terms, and made the world take notice.

As a Morgan's Rifle's reenactor, I was especially interested in this battlefield, and the story of Timothy Murphy. The picture above through the trees shows the area of Freeman's Farm.

The bottom picture proves that Daddy's cannon is still bigger than Miles'.

French and Indian War for Dummies

Visited Fort William Henry today. After Fort Ticonderoga, it pales in comparison. To be fair, it is stuck in the middle of Tourist Heaven.

Above you see the tour guide and his assistant. The tour guide is portraying a member of a Scottish regiment, who has an advanced case of syphilis. Shaded spectacles were worn in colonial times, but only by those suffering from advanced VD.

And his assistant is portraying a grenadier, one of the elite of the Army. Competition was fierce to get into the grenadiers, including a minimum height requirement of 6 feet, and a maximum age requirement. Oh well, it's summer help...

Touristy area

Here is the authentic, historical sternwheeler paddleboat heading out for another excursion on historic (read touristy) Lake George. Pay no attention to the bow thrusters on this "historic" craft.

Oh crap,

Had a great post and deleted it. Just like last year. Dammit

Fort Ticonderoga

Nice rain last night, trees stayed dripping into the morning. That made for a late start. Also made for incredibly high humidity in the morning. Had to break out the owner's manual to figure out the defroster again. Dang German engineering, takes two knob turns and a button push to turn it on.

The clouds cleared later, and it was a beautiful (hot, muggy, buggy) day at Fort Ticonderoga. Tom was here before in 1984 with his Dad and brother Jim. Great place, good museum, only found a few items mis-labeled. This whole area is jam-packed with history, pick a war before 1820 and it was probably fought around here. Tomorrow we'll hit Fort William Henry (Last of the Mohicans) and cruise where the Battle of Saratoga was fought.

ON the road again, finally...

Did you miss us? We are back on the road, only 1 day later than I promised. It ended up requiring the National Guard and 16 crowbars to pry the Campaney family apart.

The first to arrive, we were the first to leave. The occasion of the trip was Sara's parents 50th wedding anniversary / family reunion party. As the family trickles back out, peace and quiet will return to Watertown. But not before new legends have been written, new sagas will be sung. The image of my 74-year old father-in-law chugging half a bottle of red wine will forever remain with me.

We happened to meet our old friends Randy and Steph on the trip. They were a Colorado stopover for us last year. This year they happened to be visiting home the same time we were, just long enough for a whistle-stop visit.

And no mention of the visit can be complete without mention of Saint Fiona, brother Andrew's wife. She arranged all the events with Sara via long-distance phone calls, while watching a household of kids that ranged from a lower limit of 5 to an upper limit approaching the population of North Dakota. We left Miles with her one night, hoping she wouldn't notice. I'm not sure she even did.

Now we are on the road, just a short 200 miles from start. We're going to visit some old forts and battlefields while we are still here. Drove through the Adirondacks today, a beautiful drive. I can only imagine how much better it is in the fall. That was the one nice thing I can say about being in the Army at Fort Drum, the fall maneuvers were very pretty.

We found a little campground nestled next to Schroon river (Dad, Jim, and I camped at Schroon Lake back in '84) buried in the pine trees. A storm is supposed to be coming, should be interesting tonight. We left her parents 4 hours ago, Sara has finally stopped sniffling. Boy, did I marry an emotional family!

The Campaney Family

Mom's sister Kath traveled all the way from England for the party. Although she tried to hide from the camera, we got her once or twice.

Saint Fiona instigated a water fight among the kids, she lost.

Miles has a new girlfriend