Tony?

Jill's Journal: Noted on the playground: there is a disproportionate amount of little boys named Tony here in New Jersey! I’ve never seen “The Sopranos,” but isn’t there a stereotype that practically every little Italian boy in New Jersey is named Tony? There just might be something to that…

New Jersey Culture Shock

Jill's Journal: Our last glimpse of Delaware faded over the massive Delaware Memorial Bridge. I don’t know the exact spot George Washington forded the Delaware River during that Christmas in 1776 during the Revolutionary War, but I couldn’t help but think of that famous painting reproduced in every American history book. And in actually seeing the Delaware River, one appreciates what an undertaking it was…that river is VAST. Ridiculously wide. It takes a few minutes to drive over it, so I can’t imagine how courageous Washington and his men had to be to cross it in horrible weather, dodging chunks of ice in the snow, sleet, and rain. The men who founded this great country of ours had uncommon bravery.

And then…New Jersey. Rob has telecommuted for a Thoroughbred racing firm in Red Bank (the most darling little postcard-worthy town you can imagine) for several years, so we’ve been to the Jersey Shore area, including Atlantic City and Monmouth Park, many times. This is the posh, very exclusive Jersey Shore, not the Jersey Shore portrayed on t.v. in crazy reality shows. It’s beautiful and glamorous, ritzy and glitzy. Red Bank is actually a few miles inland on the Navesink River. On a clear day, you used to be able to see the Twin Towers in Manhattan from the river’s shore.

Red Bank’s favorite son is probably Kevin Smith and he’s filmed scenes for some of his best-known movies here: Chasing Amy, Dogma, and one of the Jay and Silent Bob movies. Jon Bon Jovi’s estate is on a road going out of the town and Bruce Springsteen used to be right there also, but he’s supposedly moved. (I don’t stalk these people – I only know this from proud locals! Well, truth be told, I did take a picture of Bon Jovi’s house one time...)

Every time we come here, we experience culture shock for a day or two. The few people we know in New Jersey are warm and wonderful as can be, but the prevalent New Jersey attitude is a far cry from what we’re used to in Kentucky. (Wow, that makes me sound like a hick!) Everyone here is always in a rush and people are very aggressive in every way, which is apparent the moment one crosses the state line and hops on the New Jersey Turnpike. Many people back home still refer to people from this area as Yankees...and I don’t think it’s a compliment. It’s all about the attitude. :)

People Watching

Jill's Journal: These little girls crack me up! One of their favorites pastimes has become people watching. And, in a campground, there’s a lot of people to watch! Sometimes our neighbors change every day and sometimes they stay as long as we do.

When we’re inside, our girls absolutely love to watch the neighbors out of the windows and speculate about what’s going on with them. Yesterday, we saw our first caravan. A group of about 30 people, clearly traveling together, arrived in their mostly Class A motorhomes. They inundated the empty spots around us and have taken over a large area now with their chairs. They spent hours upon hours yesterday parked in those chairs, talking the day away. And early this morning, they were back at it! In the same chairs, now most of them wearing bright blue shirts, all sitting there talking again.

The girls are so intrigued. “Why do they just sit there and talk?”

Of course, we could ask them as they’re only 100 feet or so away. But it’s so much more fun to speculate! Is it a family reunion? Is it a club? A church group? Or maybe just a group of friends who travel together and like to wear the same color clothing?

Clearly, the entertainment factor in Delaware is low and we don’t have television!! Today we head to New Jersey…there’s always interesting people in New Jersey. :)

Colonial on The Green

Jill's Journal: Dover is just like every other town we’ve found in Delaware: non-descript and bland at first glance, but containing a special hidden treasure if you’re willing to look hard enough.

Rob had an errand in the “big city” yesterday and the girls and I decided to tag along for the ride. Dover sounds like it should be a big city since it’s the capital of Delaware and has a massive Air Force base, plus a monstrously huge Nascar track. But it’s far from it. With a population hovering around 35,000, it’s actually the smallest U.S. capital in the 50 states.

There is, however, one thing to really like about the heart of Dover. It was founded in 1683 by William Penn, who laid out a gorgeous town square (technically three of them) called “The Green.” All the major legislative buildings remain right around one, with historic homes and museums around the others. I’m no architectural expert, but even I can tell a lot of thought went into the area and it all blends together seamlessly. It’s really beautiful. A number of Revolutionary War rallies and other patriotic events happened right there.

We leave Delaware today. Unlike in Virginia where there’s so much more we want to see, in Delaware we can honestly say we’re ready to go. We’ve seen what we wanted to see and are content with our time here. That’s a nice thing!

A Little Churchin’, Some Sin, and the Enchanted Woods

Jill's Journal: It turns out there’s a lot to see in Delaware. One just has to look a little harder to find it.

Yesterday, the girls and I made the trek to the north end of the state for a very, very full day in Wilmington. We got lost twice –street names are not always well marked in old cities and I’m now convinced I could use a GPS! – and got quite the driving tour of this big city. Let me just say that while there are some beautiful areas and stunning homes and buildings, there are also some extremely dicey ones. How does one explain to three little girls why very scantily clad women are walking from one car to another at a stoplight? Or why people are sleeping on sidewalks? Or why we haven’t seen another “blonde” person in 15 minutes? On narrow streets, entire groups of people were swarming cars and I was fully prepared to run someone over if I needed to escape. I’ve never felt that way in my life. However, I would rather explain to the police later than get these little girls hurt. Needless to say, it was not a place I felt remotely comfortable.

The girls watched out the windows with fascination and Erika especially clued in pretty quickly that it was not a good neighborhood. When I turned off the children’s music we were singing along to, she told the other girls, “I think Mommy needs to concentrate. Let’s be quiet.” What a good girl!

All that trouble finally led us to our destination: the Old Swedes Church, also known as Holy Trinity Church. Completed in 1698, it is the oldest church in America still in regular use! It’s a beautiful little church with amazing construction. Our fantastic tour guide, a University of Kentucky graduate, no less, had a speech impediment and was so sweet and wonderful with the girls. He brought them up into the pulpit (the oldest known pulpit in America), showed them the original key, and got his boss to let them ring the church bell! They loved every minute.

The gorgeous little cemetery surrounding the church on all four sides actually pre-dates the church by 60 years. The original church standing on the site was built out of logs and was in use for more than 50 years before construction on the current church was started in 1698. We also saw the 1690 Hendrickson House, which is part of the property and shows how the original people in the area lived.

We left the church and headed for the Enchanted Woods. Yes, the Enchanted Woods! I’d heard about a du Pont estate called Winterthur which contained a fairy tale garden just for children and the girls could hardly contain their excitement. The estate was indeed that – an estate in every sense of the word. We didn’t take the tour of the nine floor, 175-room mansion, but it was certainly impressive from the outside, as were the grounds.

The girls loved the fairy garden, which had everything from a troll bridge to a giant bird’s nest, plus a fairy cottage, a tulip tree house, an acorn tearoom, and much more. It was truly a magical place designed for imagination and the girls would have loved to stay all day.

We closed the day with what I thought would be a quick visit to Delaware Park, the First State’s only Thoroughbred racetrack. Some people dream of seeing every baseball park in the country. I feel that way about racetracks and have never before had a bad experience. I love the track and so do our kids. My plan was to stop in at Delaware Park for just a race or two and to see the facility.

But I’ve never been so bitterly disappointed at a track in my life. One of the biggest debates in racing right now, especially in Kentucky, is the issue of slots. Delaware has them. The casino in Delaware might be what helps fund the racing in Delaware, but the racing has become secondary and the track is practically hidden.

I parked in what I thought was the entrance parking lot and made the trek to the door, only to be told by security that the racetrack was on the complete opposite end of the massive facility and children are not allowed on the casino floor. The guard told me the only way to get to the racetrack with children was to walk around the entire gargantuan facility on the outside in the sweltering heat...only to find when we did that the casino floor extends there too!

There seems to be absolutely no way to enter the grandstand without going through the slots…and children can’t be inside, can’t even walk through the slots, so how does a family get to the grandstand? We enjoyed the beautiful walking ring and a kids’ play structure for a minute, and we got a peek at the track, but we were there for racing and had no apparent way to get there. I eventually saw an official and stopped him. It was like he’d never even considered the question. It took him a minute of pondering before he said that we could ask security to summon a special guard to escort us to the grandstand.

By this time I was completely frustrated. I asked him how racing was supposed to cultivate young fans (another of the biggest debates in the sport) at Delaware Park if they couldn’t even go to the races. He told me slots are such a double-edged sword: the racing in Delaware wouldn’t exist without slots, but the racetrack can barely be found because of the slots.

At this point, what I had thought would be a half-hour stop had turned into over two hours and the last race of the day was already over. So, we made the very long, very hot trek back to our car. It began raining halfway back. The rain was refreshing, but it didn’t take away the bitter taste in my mouth from our experience at Delaware Park. Luckily, our girls are troopers and think everything is an adventure, but I think this might spur my first ever "letter to the editor" to my old friends at racing publications.

Quotes....

Ran across a good one tonight, and while I don't always seem to subscribe to it, I think it's important to teach the girls...

Time and Money should be managed and spent the same way: always deliberately and always on things of value.

I got this from Tynan, a nomad, for lack of a better term, that is off travelling, and who I occasionally enjoy checking up on. I'd have liked having his free spirit at his age, but then I'd never have had my wonderful life - so.. I'll take what I have, thank you. Regardless, he comes up with some interesting stuff, and you can take a look at "Life Outside the Box, Tynan.net".

Bottom line is that what my Algebra II teacher tried to instill in us the first day of class is still true. You have 86,400 seconds today and if you don't spend them, you lose them... How are you spending your 'bank' account today?

Lovely, Lovely Lewes

Jill's Journal: After today, I’m thoroughly convinced Delaware gets an unnecessarily bad rap. Yes, it’s very agricultural, which still surprises me, but every time we blink we see another beautiful pond or lake or river. And the people truly couldn’t be nicer (with the grand exception of the faux Whoopi Goldberg character, who is much scarier than the real thing).

Today I took the girls to the Atlantic town of Lewes (pronounced Lewis). I can’t imagine a more delightful seaside town. We passed one quaint building after another and the girls noted even more quickly than I did that the town was absolutely bathed in flowers. This is clearly a place that takes pride in both its appearance and its heritage. It possesses a fairy tale-like charm, the kind where you can imagine stepping back a century or two in time and it being exactly the same. The girls were too busy swooning at a striking number of pink houses to fully appreciate the historic aspect, but I did!

The population of Lewes hovers right around 3,000, but it swells during the summer beach season (right next door is Rehoboth Beach, known as “The Nation’s Summer Capital” due to all the Washington, D.C. visitors). Lewes’ beach technically sits at the mouth of Delaware Bay but it’s still considered an ocean resort.

Lewes bills itself at the “First Town in the First State” and was first “discovered” in 1609 by Henry Hudson when he sailed up the Delaware River. It was the first European settlement in Delaware and was originally named Zwaanendael (Valley of the Swans) when it was founded by the Dutch in 1631. Being Dutch myself, I eagerly took the girls to the Zwaanendael Museum. It was built in 1931 and modeled after the 1613 town hall in Hoorn, Holland to commemorate the then-300th anniversary of Lewes. The girls enjoyed seeing some of the Dutch history of the town, including old Dutch clothing and head pieces.

We also stopped by the De Vries Monument, which marks the exact spot where the Dutch first settled. “Here was the cradling of a state,” said the marker. Unfortunately the first brave souls – less than three dozen of them – suffered a cultural misunderstanding with the Natives and were killed within a year. The Dutch are nothing if not persistent, however, and soon sent reinforcements. A colony eventually stuck.

But the neatest thing about Lewes is a grand collection of historic houses and buildings, many moved by the Lewes Historical Society to an area of land deeded to a prominent resident in 1675. All had amazing character and stories. The girls got a big kick out of the 1870 railroad station privy. I loved the 1765 Cannonball House, which was hit by the British during the War of 1812 when they sailed up the Lewes canal. A cannonball still in the brick foundation shows the damage. There’s an 1850 doctor’s office, a 1790 blacksmith shop, a simple 1700 house made out of planks, several impressive 1700-era homes, an 1800 country store, and an 1898 one-room schoolhouse.

We also passed by the oldest house in Delaware, which was built in 1665. So many of the really old houses have the distinctive shingles or “shakes” on their exterior walls. I love seeing them and wonder if they’re common anywhere else other than the Atlantic shores. I do know they are weather resistant and never need to be painted, a big plus for East Coast ocean dwellings subject to nor’easters.

Found it!

So, on Assateague we had yet another power problem, and that was just not the place to fix it. Chincoteague got busy and I vowed that I would trace it down no matter what it took when we were in Delaware. There's a lot of technical stuff in here that I assume people know, yet I KNOW people don't, so skip to the end and just think - whew, that's fixed... if you're so inclined. :)

/begin technical mumbojumbo

I tried a lot of things - starting with the generator, then thinking that it must be the charger - but the charger showed the proper voltages at the proper times where the wire connected (it has different modes depending on what its supposed to be doing, and each was exactly in line when tested with a meter). And the battery meter I put in was showing a positive flow of amps to the bank, just much smaller than I was accustomed to. So, I ruled the charger out.

I tested the batteries individually, and they were weak as can be, but none worse off than another. I check all the fuses that I can find, all test OK. At this point, I checked the wire running from the charger to the batteries - it showed to be connected - so I was stumped.

I spent that first afternoon running around to marine shops since we were in Ocean City, MD figuring that they would be pretty similar systems. Boats and RVs have a lot in common as to self-contained living spaces, but much to my surprise they either weren't willing, or weren't able to help. It was like the question I was asking was foreign - enough to have one of the guys at the boat ship tell me he just sells them, and had no idea how they actually worked. (*note: I must assume that he knew the V-shaped closed part of the boat went in the water and the open, softly-padded sitty-surfaced part went up, so maybe he just didn't understand all the systems). ;) I finally went to a boat repair shop, described to the mechanic on duty what I was seeing and we were in agreement - it had to be a bad battery bringing down the system (I have 3 total). Possibly even bad enough to the point that the plates got warped, therefore totally trashing the batteries.

Another day of running through tests and working through what it might be, with no results finally runs the batteries down to a point where the coach won't respond. So, still not knowing quite what the deal is, I go to Walmart and pickup a battery that I know is good, and wire it accordingly, and wait for (now Chincoteague) to continue troubleshooting.

In Chincoteague I tested, and ran, and retested, and figured out that I could charge the coach battery with the car & jumper cables, running a couple of hours at a time. SO temporary fix in place, we continue to enjoy our time on the island, and I run the car every night for a couple of hours. No big deal - I'll fix it when I can tear the belly out, since I've now got it down to a short in the wire that runs from the charger to the battery. See, now that wire isn't testing through with the ohm-meter, but in order to get to it I have to take out the walls they put in hiding all that stuff.

Anyway - after pulling everything apart I find out that the culprit in this whole mess is a fuse. A 50 AMP maxi-fuse that not only had I tested, but had traced as the likely problem early in this endeavor. See, it failed because of a surge, like it was supposed to do, when I was running the generator on Assateague. However, it didn't completely fail. It left enough of itself connected so that it tested ok when I used the meter, but wasn't thick enough to carry the electricity from the charger to the battery banks, therefore showing a small reading of power into the batteries, but not allowing them to really charge at all. See, I should have just replaced the fuse, but RVs aren't built like cars. The fuse in block A-1 on this unit isn't always your left taillight. Being built by hand you have to run everything down individually - they don't make diagrams.

/end technical stuff

Anyhow - mystery solved and not at too much expense, except for some sanity. Jill and I have figured out a few things and probably my most important from this problem is this: RVing is all about experience. I can't go to school to figure out all the little peccadillos I'm going to run into with this rig, and even if I went to school, what happens on my rig is different than what happens on yours. I can read until my eyes are blurry about every possible problem, except the next one I'm going to encounter, because that one is different than what anyone else will encounter. Now, sure - some things are always similar, just like with car problems, but there's something about throwing the whole house factor together with it that makes it ultra-unique.

Now that we've got that down we will just keep moving forward and experiencing whatever is thrown at us. As Jill said, we're starting to feel settled and like this is where we want to be. Yes, we both had moments in the last couple of weeks where we wanted to quit, walk away and not feel bad about it. Heat, humidity (multiplied by 5) on top of broken things and frayed nerves will do that. But we also vowed to stick through it, and now we are on the other side and happy about sticking around. Well, maybe until the next thing breaks... (just kidding).

Erika’s Sweet Journal

Jill's Journal: We’ve been encouraging Erika to keep a journal of her experiences on the road. She’s been doing it sporadically and with lots of very fancy artwork interspersed between sentences, but it’s adorable. I have to share.

July 11, 2010 We moved a lot yesterday. Me and my sisters took turns in the fifth wheel’s truck (Daddy’s truck). Mommy said that we could bring one toy. I cried because I couldn’t pick between Jessie and Bullseye. Which one would you pick? Now we have been in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland….Well, now the date is July 29, 2010. See the ponies swimming? We saw the pony swim! And then, we got in the car and drove out of Tom’s Cove and parked the car. Then we got out of the car and then we saw the saltwater cowboys guide the wild ponies to the fairgrounds.

I know there’s a slight chance I’m biased, but I think it’s pretty darn good for a 6-year-old!!

Cupcakes and Expedition Academy

Jill's Journal: You haven’t lived until you’ve made cupcakes from scratch with three very eager little helpers in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp! However, the smiles as they were about to sample the mini cookies ‘n’ cream creations made it all worth it.

On a completely different note, it’s time to start thinking about school as Lexington starts back next week. Although our wonderful school knows we’re traveling and even called last week as they were assigning teachers to verify we wouldn’t be back this year, I need to make it official and send in a certified letter to the director of pupil personnel. It would have been done weeks ago if we weren’t required by Kentucky law to come up with a name for our homeschool. Yes, a name. A homeschool in Kentucky is considered a private school, so it needs a name to be legal. This is harder than it looks.

We've tried on several different names over the past few weeks and nothing ever felt right, so today we brainstormed and arrived on “Expedition Academy.” Even though we’ll have a regular curriculum, some of our learning will be hands-on exploration as we go. We wanted something that reflected that without sounding too granola/hippie-ish. Hopefully the name does just that. We like it. (The girls really, really wanted to call it “Traveling Horsey School” or "Toy Story School," but were happy to go with our choice once we distracted them with a mini cupcake! Oh, the power of dessert.)

Some Love for Delaware

Jill's Journal: Delaware may be the second-smallest state in the union at just 96 miles “tall” and between nine and 35 miles wide, but we’re finding a lot to like without hardly even trying yet. First, there’s super nice people here. The supermarket clerk even went out of his way today to find me a $12 off coupon. I told him he had my new favorite grocery store. :)

And Delaware is one of a half dozen states with no sales tax. What’s not to like?

Umm…Delaware?

Jill's Journal: Remember the campy 1992 movie “Wayne’s World”? There’s a scene where Wayne and his sidekick Garth pretend they’re in different states and show a brief highlight of each state. When they get to Delaware, they just stand around and say, “Hi. I’m in…Delaware.” I took it to mean there’s nothing to do in Delaware, nothing that stands out about the “First State.” But that couldn’t be right, could it?

I can’t be sure yet, and no offense to Delaware, but so far it has left me just like Wayne and Garth -- quite uninspired! Maybe we’ve gotten spoiled by the other wonderful places we’ve already been, but it appears Delaware has not much more than a lot of flat land and generic, undistinguishable buildings. I remember driving through Delaware on other road trips and thinking that there had to be more than what one saw from the road. But maybe not!

A town called Houston, just outside of Dover, is our address this week. The good things: a quiet, hidden campground with gorgeous old trees. A stray cat (minus a tail) who has tried to come into our trailer more than once and has thoroughly entertained the girls. And a camp host/manager who is a dead ringer in both attitude and appearance for Whoopi Goldberg and has thoroughly entertained us adults. (I didn’t dare take a picture of Whoopi, so the cat will have to suffice).

We’ve been so busy that we need a quiet week to regroup and reconnect and catch up on all kinds of little (and big) projects around the “house.” I think Delaware is just the right spot. It’s going to be a good week.