Getting Ready

Just getting the blog ready for our trip. We plan to leave California on July 10 and be back sometime in October. It's a long trip and we don't want to rush or miss anything. Some of the places we plan to visit are Minneapolis (Mall of America), Chicago (mostly cemeteries), Toronto, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Providence RI, Plymouth MA, Cape Cod, Boston.  Haven't plotted the route yet and since we are RVing that's an important step. Hoping to stay to the '300 miles or 3 PM' mantra to keep ourselves from getting worn out.

Our recent trip to Pismo Beach, CA

The main reason for this trip is to do some in-person genealogy research in these far away locations where members of both our families used to live. Bruce's Heseltine family is from Dexter, ME but also lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and more recently, Chicago. My mother's father's Bryant family lived in Maine and Minnesota before trekking to California and mom's mother's family started their American life in Connecticut and New York. So there's a lot of ground to cover and a lot of clues to find. We are also hoping to see some brilliant Fall color in New England.

One thing we did decide to do was to stay as far north going both directions as possible to avoid the dangerous summer storms that plague the mid-west and middle of the country. Of course you can never be sure you won't run into big storms, but they aren't as likely or severe. There will probably be other things like black flies and mosquitoes to plague us in other parts of the country.

As usual we are taking Roxie and Freddie along. They are pretty good travelers and are getting used to the change from 5th wheel to motor home...they liked having their own seat to share in the truck and are a little nervous with so much room to wander in the motor home. They stay real close as we drive and we had to get a baby gate to keep them from getting under our feet by the driver's seat.

Stay tuned and tune in often starting in July for more updates.

Happy Trails!