The Penobscot Narrows Bridge

On Friday, September 26, we took a short road trip to Bucksport, ME, to see the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Fort Knox.  (Did you know there are two Fort Knoxes?)   Tom and I had crossed this bridge on our way to Bar Harbor and wanted to take the opportunity to see this marvelous bridge from its observation deck, 42 stories above the river.  The engineering is amazing.  It's one of three bridges with an observation tower--the only one in the U.S.  The other two are in Thailand and Slovakia.  It's a cable-stay bridge.  The entire bridge deck literally hangs from cables strung through two suspension towers.  

Fort Knox was built to defend a very strategic bay which provides inland access up the Penobscot River.  It was occupied by the British twice--once during the Revolutionary War and once during the War of 1812.  It's built of granite with two circular staircases carved from granite that are still in nearly perfect condition.

Some of the little things

With our new camera, Tom has taken some gorgeous close-ups of flora and fauna.  Here are three of the better ones.  The pink flowers grow wild in Maine.  We found them in Acadia Park on the coast.  The butterfly caught our attention.  Notice the damage to the butterfly's left wing?

The rose was growing in Bar Harbor in front of a bank.  It looked almost artificial because of its perfection.

Campground near Acadia Park

This campground was located just outside the Park.  The four of us toured, enjoyed the fall colors, AND picked enough wild blueberries off a hillside in the campground near Frenchman's Bay to make a blueberry pie!  The "natty" vests Tom and I are wearing provide a wonderful way to carry necessary equipment and supplies without fanny packs or purses.  

We also enjoyed the early changing from summer to fall foliage as is evidenced by the superb tree in full fall color in the second photo.  

Meeting Dale and Diane in Maine

We got to Maine on the September 23 and met the Hayden's near Bar Harbor at a campground just outside Acadia National Park.  We explored the Park for several days.  Much of the Park was donated to the U.S. by the Rockefellers who did not want motorized vehicles in the Park at all and therefore established a network of carriage roads and trails designed for nonmotorized modes of transportation.  We hiked on some of these trails.  

The cruise liner is one of several we saw in the bay at Bar Harbor.  They bring thousands of tourists a year to the area.

The four of us are pictured at Jasper Pond in Acadia Park.  The picture of the two of us is on the coast, also in the Park.

All in all this was a wonderful place to visit!  

Iowa to Maine

We left Iowa on the September 19 and headed for Maine with campsite stops in Pennsylvania and New York.  We had 1300 miles to cover.  We would drive until about 3 p.m., then decide our destination for that day and choose a campground.  We ended up in some really interesting places, including the campground shown here.  This campground apparently only occasionally had overnighters like us.  It was, in fact, a working man's resort with dozens of RVs parked on permanent sites with a group of people who apparently had spent a number of summers together and who were celebrated Halloween early because the campsite closed the end of September.  The decorations were incredible!

We had one delay--a fairly minor pickup repair needed that took an extra day.  

Along our travels to Maine, we encountered many toll roads--a new experience for North Dakotans.  While the toll charges added up a bit, the roads were generally excellent.  We got to Maine the 23rd.

Grandpa and Grandma Decker in Iowa

While visiting in Iowa, Jerry and Tom did some tree work in Jerry and Tanya's back yard.  My favorite diversion is running a chain saw.  The hard hats were a gift from Linda at our retirement party the end of August.  We will no doubt find other opportunities to make serious use of these hard hats!

Just before leaving Iowa, we tried to pose the little guys wearing the hard hats.  They wanted to play not pose so it wasn't an entirely successful attempt.  

While in Iowa we visited an apple orchard and picked lots of apples which we froze for pie.  We stayed at the beautiful Coralville Lake Campground.  The last night there we entertained Jerry's family with a barbecue at our campsite.  We had a great time during our week in Iowa.

Moving on to Minneapolis area

On Monday, September 8, we left Fargo and set up camp in St. Cloud.  While there we spent time touring the area, especially Rockville where we knew Tom's great grandparents had settled.  

Monday evening we dined at the St. Cloud Ground Round restaurant, visiting with owner Zach Krukenberg, Tom's nephew.  If you're ever near St. Cloud we recommend you stop at this Ground Round.

At the Ground Round, we watched the Vikings lose to the Packers...

The next evening we dined with Roger and Kay Worner in Maple Grove.  It's so much fun to see good friends and catch up on each other's lives!

The next morning we had breakfast with former NDSU faculty member Sharon Cobb and her delightful granddaughter!  Two-year-olds don't often stop for pictures, however!

We left the Twin Cities and headed south on I-35 to Lakeville to spend an evening with niece Leslie Johnson and her husband and sons.  It was delightful to see the energy of these three little boys!  The boys became RV novice mechanics, helping Tom set the camper down for the evening in the cul de sac.  Other neighborhood children joined the crew for the evening.

Niece Janet Hansel and her two daughters came from the Cities to visit for the evening.   We ate hearty and visited until travelers had to leave and we had to hit the sack for we had an early morning departure for Iowa planned.

 While in Fargo, we made contact with a number of family members and friends.  Shown on the left is Dr. Ann Clapper of NDSU.  Ann is a former coworker at the Department as well as a good friend.

We also had an enjoyable visit with former Bismarckers Rick and Jeanette Buresh.  The Bureshers are Macintosh users who encouraged us greatly in using our new computer.

From Fargo we headed east to St. Cloud and the Minneapolis area--the subject of our next posting.

Leaving Home

We left our home (picture at left) just past noon on September 5 and headed off for our grand adventure!

Our home for the next while will be our Sunnybrook fifth wheel pulled by our Dodge pickup.  

Exactly one week after retiring, we are ready to hit the road.  

Since we have spent so much time in North Dakota's state Capitol Building, we stopped to show our retirement home for the next while in front of the building where we spent so many hours working!