When we left our previous story, we had just got to a very wet campground and George had a repair he needed to do. We found an RV Parts store in the AM and were looking for a single piece to fix the sewer outlet. Thankfully, they had a complete set of piping that would make the repair much easier. The actual fix took about 30 minutes. We then headed to Boston with our tour guides, George and Marcia.

We drove into Boston, looking around, figuring out what to do. We had lunch at a location close to one of George’s old living places. We detoured across the river through Harvard and ended up at MIT. My father went to MIT on a full scholarship out of high school. He was interrupted by WWII but did finish when he came back. Alas, I am adopted so I did not get those genes. However, I wanted to go by there in deference to him. George and I, in front of the MIT dome, below. MIT has a history of pranks that students have done in the past, including many including the dome, read about them here.

After we fought the one-way streets we ended up going by Bunker Hill.

We had arranged a dinner with George’s roommate (when he lived there) and a friend they know from home that is currently in Boston. The restaurant happened to be close to the Boston Celtics stadium with a pre-season game that evening. We endeavored to find a place to park our truck (22′ worth) somewhere and we were able to find a parking lot that could take us. We had a nice dinner and took some pictures afterward.

Our last day in Boston started with taking public transportation into the city.

We decided to do a touristy thing and booked a walking tour led by someone in an early-period costume. We started at the Boston Common and ended up down near the harbor. Some of the sights we saw:

George’s roommate came through for us in a big way. He picked us up at the harbor and drove us to Old Ironsides.

He then proceeded to drive us to where he lives now and we had dinner with him and his wife. After dinner, we went by his house to visit a bit and he proceeded to drive us back to the train station as another HUGE favor.

The next day, was a travel day, down to the Cape. We got a shot of George and Marcia leaving Wompatuck.

We start our next leg from Penn Wood Airstream Park in Pennsylvania. We are now traveling together for a long stretch. When Roxie and I were here in 2017, she asked how close Niagara Falls was. I told her around 200 miles. We both agreed that since we were so close, we should take a visit. The same conversation basically happened with us and the Chens. They had been there before also but it was a while back. We looked for some campsites and headed off north through PA and into NY. Just before we entered NY, we passed through Bradford PA. We had no idea but it was the headquarters of:

I was leading the drive so when I saw the sign, I immediately turned off the highway. I knew we would all enjoy it. They have a very nice store/museum. I liked seeing the array of damaged lighters that they have repaired, or replaced, free of charge. We bought a few items but George and Marcia outspent us. It was a good distraction and we pushed on to our campsite on Lake Ontario.

We took our day trip over to Canada and headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake. A snootyish town on Lake Ontario. We visited Fort George and got to hear the Canadian side of some of the conflicts with the USA.

We then ended up spending a good bit of time at the falls, watching the colors and feeling the power.

In that last picture, it shows my mom there in the late ’50s. Falls still look basically the same but compare the railing in the last two photos! Some things never change. Before we left the campsite we walked to Lake Ontario and could see Toronto in the distance.

Heading east, we made our way across New York on our way to New Hampshire where George’s parents live. Our next stop was at a marina along the Mohawk River, which is part of the Erie Canal. This marina is a stopping point for some that want to navigate the Erie Canal.

When I was in the office, registering for the site, I looked at their wall of business cards and saw a familiar one.

It was a card for Brad and Karen. We spent New Year’s with them as part of an Airstream group that was in Pasadena for the parade! You can check out their blog here.

The next day we made it to our destination for a few nights, Newport NH. Unfortunately, Roxie got sick with something that put her down for a few days. We don’t think it was Covid but we didn’t want to expose George’s parents to anything that could affect them. George and Marcia stayed in his brother’s driveway but we were unsure if there was enough space for us so we got a great campsite, complete with fall colors on its own!

We had reached a milepost on our trip, making it to George’s family. We have seen a lot of fall colors on the way, which was ‘supposedly’ our goal but we made small sub-goals on the way. Another sub-goal was to visit the Boston area, this was George’s old stomping grounds. Roxie had never been here, I was here in 1977 with my parents.

We stayed south of Boston at Wompatuck State Park. When we got there it was pouring rain, and hard to find the main entrance. Roxie and I ended up in a small hiking trail parking lot when I took a wrong turn and I seriously surprised myself by being able to turn around. George and Marcia ended up going down a road to the park that was blocked by a gate and they had to back down a road quite a little distance.

We eventually got to the campground and backed into our respective spots and proceeded to become completely drenched. George had a little more of an issue as his trailer, he backed through a ditch and broke his holding tank dump pipes. We just all gave up and went to bed. It was a long day. We will take care of things in the AM and I will continue the blog in the next entry.