Road Trip USA, 2016

It's going to be a long road trip. We have always wanted to follow the fall foliage metamorphosis, from Nova Scotia south to where the leaves don't change. (We did this once before, but it was from Cracow to Istanbul; not so many maple trees along that route). Thus: drive from the Bay area to Nova Scotia (actually Prince Edward Island as it turned out), running a few errands en route, also seeing some loved ones, exploring Canada's Atlantic provinces, then turning back south, looking at leaves but also taking in some other sights of interest along the way; then turning back west, seeing more loved ones, family and friends, along a more southerly route, returning to Middle California sometime in December. 10,000-12,000 miles, give or take. It's a long way to Tipperary, and, candidly, what there is to see between California and New England we have seen before. We've even lived in some of those places...Montana, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts.... Besides, we are in a hurry. Time and tide, and leaf-peeping, wait for no man. So this will be the only post for the first 5,000 miles of our road trip.

The errands: we wanted to explore the possibility of installing automatic hydraulic levelers on Le Sport, and where better to do this than at the major manufacturers, HWH in Moscow, Iowa, and Bigfoot, in White Pigeon [sic], Michigan. LSS: both said it couldn't be done. :-( But we at least got to spend free nights at their factory camp sites. And White Pigeon took us through that Mecca of American RV manufacturing, Elkhart, Indiana, and...the irresistible RV/Motorhome Museum and Hall of Fame.

The loved ones were Joey and wife Jodi, and son Joseph. Joey was married to Vicki's deceased sister, Linda, and Joseph is Vicki's nephew. Jodi's work for the Sierra Club and other causes in Indiana is always interesting and admirable. We like to stay in touch.

It was Interstate 80 much of the way; here an overnight stop
at Little America, Wyoming, a landmark there; most of our
other overnight stops were savage-camping

A souvenir shot from White Pigeon, MI (in Michiana, a term
new to me)

In White Pigeon we ran into dear old friend US
Route 12, which we've driven many times in
and from Missoula; didn't know it was historic

The incredible RV/MH (motor-home) Hall of Fame will get
its own detailed post

After staying a couple nights with Joey and Jodi, we drove on
to old home Columbus, Ohio, where we lived 13 years (and 4
graduate degrees from Ohio State; 1 from Kent State); in the
third apartment to the right, above, Janet Circle Apartments,
we lived when Rebecca was born in 1974

In 1976, we bought our first house, at 2736 Bellwood Avenue,
in Bexley; but this isn't it; later owners bought the adjacent
lot next door, demolished the old house, and built a new large
house on the site; sic transit, Gloria

Bexley High, where Vicki taught English several years

Not much has changed

In 1978, we moved to Maplewood Drive, in Minerva Park, a
Columbus suburb; here we lived when Rachel was born in 1980;
subsequent owners apparently took down the crab apple trees,
the alders, and the World Ash Tree in the front yard

Maplewood Drive, Minerva Park

One of our favorite Columbus restaurants was
Schmidt's Sausage Haus in German Village; so
we had to go there for Bahama Mamas, just
one more time; we also drove High Street from
the downtown (I worked for a time in the State
Office Tower on Broad St.) to the Ohio State
campus

Our travels took us next to Unity, Pennsylvania, near
Pittsburgh, and Vicki's childhood home there; after another long
day, we would be in New England