Green Bay, Wisconsin

After seeing the NFL Hall of Fame Jim wanted to visit Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers and maybe Soldiers Field, home of the Chicago Bears. 

We packed up camp and left Uniontown, Ohio on Friday, August 3^rd and made it to New Carlisle, Indiana for the night. After a bit of discussion I convinced Jim that driving to Soldiers Field towing a long 5^th wheel might not be a good idea. Thankfully he agreed. So we crossed that off the “places to visit list”. It was a good thing because the drive through Chicago was crowded and slow. 

On Saturday August 4^th, as we drove through Chicago and headed north, we passed through the town I grew up in, Skokie, Illinois.  I remembered street names but I didn’t recognize anything. I guess it’s just been too many years and a lot of water under the bridge.

After a long day of driving we arrived at a nice campground in DePere, Wisconsin which is about 15-20 miles south of Green Bay. We parked and set things up just in time for the sky to open up with a huge downpour. Our soon to be next door neighbors weren’t so fortunate.

View from our campsite

We spent three days in and around Green Bay. We toured Lambeau Field and went to a Green Bay Packer practice game at the Ray Nitschke Field.  Green Bay has some diehard Packer fans and their stadium and gift shop are spectacular. Even the practice game was filled to capacity with crowds lining the fence outside! On one of our trips to town Jim spotted a Victory Motorcycle dealer so we had to stop and check out their stock of Victorys and he ended up buying a jacket and tee shirt. Once again he was wishing he had the bike with us on the trip.

First floor of Packer Pro shop

View of field from private box.

Pro Shop in brick building

Packers arriving for practice.

Crowd outside Ray Nitschke Field.

Good night Lambeau Field

NFL Football Hall of Fame - July 30th - Aug. 1st

It took us from July 30^th to August 1 to reach the Canton, Ohio area, home of the NFL Football Hall of Fame with overnight stops in Bainbridge, New York and Falconer, New York.

The RV park closest to Canton was about ten miles north in Uniontown, Ohio. It’s a combination RV/Water park and we got one of the last available sites but they were having problems with the power to our site and we couldn’t run our air conditioner. Ugh!

Once we had the 5^th wheel set up we set off for Jim’s appointment with the dentist to see if something could be done about the broken crown.

Unfortunately the dentist said he needed a root canal and reconstruction of the existing tooth before a new crown could be attached.  All of this would take several weeks which we didn’t have. He said there would be no problem if we waited to see our dentist at home.

The following day we drove back down to Canton and to the NFL Football Hall of Fame.  If you’re a football fan like Jim is you would be fascinated by this museum of football memorabilia. We spent most of the afternoon there while Jim took photographs of almost everything in sight. These photos are just a few of the many!

On the way back to camp we passed a huge crowd of people in a shopping center and turned back to see what the commotion was all about.  There were cars and people everywhere trying to get into line at the Chick-Fil-A.  It was a demonstration in support of the owner of Chick-Fil-A. By the size of the crowd he has a lot of support in Canton, Ohio!

New Hampshire - July 27th - 29th

Now we slowly start the journey back home. But first a stop at a famous retail and mail order quilt shop, Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.

We arrived at the Ames Brook Campground in nearby Ashland, NH on July 27^th and decided to stay for three days so we would have enough time to visit the quilt shop plus the beautiful local towns and lakes.

The front building at Keepsake Quilting.

It was such a treat to visit Keepsake Quilting after many years of receiving their mail order catalog. The shop has a large porch with chairs for husbands and several of the chairs were filled with bored looking men or ones that decided to take a nap.  Jim took a quick look around inside the shop and then left to join the men on the porch.  That gave me a chance to do some shopping! A while later I came out with several quilt kits and a Keepsake Quilt t-shirt.

Part of the porch used by patient husbands.

New Hampshire is beautiful and the movie On Golden Pond was filmed at Squam Lake in nearby Holderness, NH. It’s a quaint New England town stretched alongside the lake. While we were having lunch in a local restaurant a crown broke off Jim’s tooth. Fortunately there was no pain associated with the break. Since it was the weekend a call to our dentist would have to wait until they were in the office.

Squam Lake alias "Golden Pond"

Covered bridge on Squam Lake

Back in the U.S.A. - July 26th

On July 26^th we packed up and headed back towards the U.S.A. and made it all the way to Maine by taking a shorter route through New Brunswick.  

It was a long day’s drive back to the Palmyra, Maine Golf & RV resort for an overnight stay. It’s great to be back in the States where I can get on the internet with my cell phone and don’t have to rely on an iffy campground wifi signal.

Halifax, Nova Scotia – July 23rd-25th

 We camped at the Wide Open Wilderness campground in Urbania, NS about 45 minutes north of Halifax.  The camp is beautiful and our site is surrounded by trees. There’s also a tidal-bore overlook from the campground.

During high tide the water comes rushing in from the Bay of Fundy (Atlantic ocean) into an almost empty red-banked river. From above it looks like a small wave but soon the entire river is filled with red churning water.  The wave seems to move slowly but we were told that you couldn’t outrun it. Lots of tourist-filled red rubber boats go out to meet the incoming tide.

While waiting on the cliff, high above the river, for the bore-tide we were surprised by the appearance of a beautiful, huge hawk and then another one and then a bald eagle and another!!!  RATS!!  The cameras were back in the RV. We didn’t even get a picture of the bore-tide!

Halifax harbor

On Tuesday, the 24^th we went to Halifax to see the Tall Ships at the harbor. There had been a Tall Ship celebration during the weekend but only a few were still there.  We wandered in and out of the shops until the forecasted rain arrived.  Everyone here and in PEI had been hoping for rain because they also are in the middle of a drought.  It still looked green to us but they say even the grass has stopped growing.

The rain had stopped by the next day, July 25^th so we packed our usual lunch and headed towards the mouth of the river where the Bay of Fundy starts its bore-tide journey.

We came across an old church with its cemetery. The church had been converted into a museum. The inside was packed with displays of antique tools, household “appliances” and furnishings, clothing and even the embalming table that was custom made for Col. John Jacob Astor IV.

Church converted into museum

Embalming table made for John Jacob Astor IV

He was the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic to perish and his wife insisted that his embalming be done on an unused table. The table above was hastily made and is probably the first portable embalming table.

That was only one of the many interesting stories told to us by the college student docent who was working at the museum for the summer.

Our next stop along the river was at the Walton Lighthouse. It was used to guide ships into the nearby port but the port is now closed. 

Look through the sign. The tide is still out.

Walton lighthouse

The tide is out!

The tide was still out and the river bed was mostly dry so we took what we thought was a short cut to get to the river’s mouth and the Bay of Fundy. Wrong!  We ended up taking a wrong turn.  Road signs are vague to non-existent! Because of the wrong turn we had to turn around to get back to the Bore-Tide Interpretive Center up-river so we could photograph the incoming bore-tide and all the boats “running the rapids” created by the tide. 

Tide starting to enter the river.

Here it comes!

The first arrival to shoot the tide.

More boats and the tide is stronger.

Whoopee!!

Looks like everyone is having fun.