2009-10-12 Monday
Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

Marting Van Buren bought this house in 1839. He lost the election
in the following year and retired to this house. It had some indoor
plumbing and an indoor loo.

Martin Van Buren [5145]

Marting Van Buren's Library [5166]

Sink [5159]

Bathtub [5169]

Loo [5170]

Front of the House [5175]

2009-10-11 SundayAlbany, NY.
Here is a picture of the State Capitol building in Albany, NY taken from our hotel window at night. The New York state capitol building is very impressive.

2009-10-13
Scranton,PA
Steamtown, USA - a national historic site
run by the United States Park Service

Steamtown is on the old yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
railroad, one of the Antricite railroads of Pennsylvania. The site
exists to preserve the history of steam locomotives. There are quite
a few locomotives in the "boneyard" [outside and unmaintained]. Most
have been painted to prevent further deterioration. My favorite
locomotive is there also -- the Union Pacific Big Boy, the large
locomotive ever built in America. Below is a picture of the Big Boy.

[5300]

We went on a 1 hour walking tour of the railroad shops and found the
employees (US Government Employees) at work restoring a locomotive.
They were in the process of rebuiling a boiler. To do that they needed
to install 1260 bolts across the surface of the boiler. Once installed
they all have to be squashed smooth. The bolt is about 1 inch in
diameter and sticks out 3/8 of an inch. One of the men takes an air jack
hammer and beat to the bold until it is almost flush with the surface
and smooth. It takes about 8 minutes per bolt. With 1260 bolts and two
sides of each bolt, we're talking 2520 installations of 8 minutes of
work each. That means 350 or so continuous hours of work just to
reconstruct the boiler.

You can see a picture of one man using the jack hammer to smash the

bolts down to almost flush below. [5237]

The Lackawanna yards had a round house and Steamtown is now housed in

the restored round house shown here: [5272]

Here is a picture of the Boneyards. Some of this equiptment needs to be

painted soon. [5315].

New England Long Houses.

2009-10-05 (Monday)

See also Merb's blog of the same trip at:

http://fallodyssey.blogspot.com/

First is a long house taken on Tuesday. It can be seen in a single picture.

The second is taken in 4 pictures.

We're not sure why houses in New England are longer
than in other parts of the country, but this is an example of one that
is very long. I couldn't get back far enough to take it on shot.  


This one is on Harbor Road near the Old Course Saco River.

Reflections #1 Old Course Saco River

2009-10-05 (Monday)

Avoiding the Fryeburg Fair in Maine, we went up West Side Road
along the Old Course Saco River. We found a site

[Latitude/Longitude: N44° 4.3544', W70° 58.3455']

where the stream was still and the sun was out.

We took a number of pictures of the color reflecting
in the quiet river.

Reflections #2

2009-10-06

Mt. Washington Auto road entrance had a small pond nearby.

The water was still and the trees surrounding the north eastern
side of the pond were well aligned for these pictures of the trees
and the reflections in the pond.

4 masted schooner in port at Bar Harbor

Lobster night 3

2.5 lbs on right and 3.0 lbs on left.
$3.99/lb

Bar Harbor Lobster Prices

2-nd night in a row we suffer with two lobsters each.
Life is tough on the riad.

Bar Harbor

Dinner in Bar Harbor, ME lobster roll for both of us.

Sep 27, 2009
Saint John, NB

Drove from Bangor to Saint John to see the Bay of Fundy Tides. Saint John has bridge across the Saint John River that provides a perfect view of the reversing falls. They are at the fall line of the Saint John river and are at sea level. When the tide is out, the river flows out through the falls. When the tide is in, the sea level is above the level of the falls and the river flows "in" or the falls are running in the reverse direction.

Here is a picture of the falls running up river from the "Falls Restaurant", St. John, NB.

Sat, Sep 26, 2009

Alna, Maine

Saturday, Sep 26 we visited the only Maine two footer still running, that I know of. It is the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington RR. We ran on a diesel fluid clutch engine; the steam engine was in the barn as shown. It will run on Oct 10 and 11.

The first picture is of the yard that the volunteers tell me will eventually have a round table.

The second and third are of the only working steam engine; it was in the barn at the time. It is cute. The fourth picture is of the diesel engine pulling the two car consist of an open car and a passenger car.

The train runs about two miles towards Waterville and then turns around by sending the engine around the cars on a siding. Ride was rough but the conductor was talkative, friendly and very enthusiastic about the road. His stories were very entertaining.

Lobster in Wiscasset, ME

Maine 2 footer

Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington RR - a working Maine two foot RR

Wilmington,VT

Sept 25, 2009

Our drive across southern Vermont took us through Wilmington, VT

where we stopped and ate lunch. Mary snapped me eating Maine steamers

in a restaurant. We drove back to an Antiquarian Book store which was not

interesting, but as we walked in we saw a hummingbird busy sipping from

the flowers at the front of the store. I grapped my camera and shot a bunch

of pictures most of which did not show the hummingbird well. These two

are crops from the best I got.

Sept 25, 2009 Friday
Portsmouth, NH
We shared a lobster roll sandwich and two Corona's on
a waterfront restaurant. The locals thought it was cold outside
but we liked the 62 degree weather.





Here is a tree planted by William Whipple
immediately after he signed the Declaration
of Independence. It was almost dark so the picture
isn't wonderful. There is also a 6 foot fence in front of the tree
making the picture more difficult.

A "Horse Chestnet" tree is a Buckeye. Therefore, if
you are an Ohio State football fan, you should yell:

GO HORSE CHESTNUTS!!!


A picture of only one of several busy downtown
areas at 6:00 PM on Friday night. If you look closely,
you can see a Duesenburg automobile on the right side
of the picture.

Packing

Mom packing car, Fri AM in Bennington, VT. Grandma Moses museum is in Bennington and that's next destination.

September 23, 2009
Brig (two masted square rigger) docked in Erie, PA built in
1830. For $70/person you can go out on this thing for 5 hours. Next time
we're in Eire, PA, we'll do it.