While we'd love to have visited national parks, like Yellowstone, and used our interagency park pass to get into all sorts of federal lands, we're respecting the closed signs on roads and websites due to the government shutdown. We're visiting the friends and family we planned on seeing, and limiting our overnight stays to state parks, rest ares, and truck stops. Some are fantastic, some are noisy, but such is adventuring in a motorhome. We're having a good time.
Tuesday the 8th through Thursday afternoon of the 10th, we got to stay in Chicago with our friends Kyle & Kate. We had a great visit with them, got to go on some nice bike rides, see the Field Museum of Natural History, eat at Lou Malnati's, see "the Bean", and several fountains. I liked that Chicago didn't feel as crowded as I assume all large cities will be. There was room between buildings, and the people were all friendly, whether walking or driving.
 |
| Getting on towards sunset |
 |
| The Cloud Gate, aka 'The Bean' is so fun to interact with! |
 |
| One of Chicago's neat fountains, in pretty lighting. |
 |
| A really cool building off the Chicago Riverwalk. |
The evening of the 10th, we stopped and had dinner with Rob's cousin in South Bend, Indiana, where he is attending grad school.
 |
| Pretty clouds and setting sun in South Bend |
We parked for the night at Pokagon State Park in Indiana. It seemed like a really neat place as we left the next morning. We were sad that we didn't have more time to check it out. Maybe someday... :)
Rob wanted to camp near one of the great lakes as we headed east, so that evening we headed for Four Mile Creek State Park, just off Lake Ontario. It turned out to be full of campers, being as it was a Friday night. The location was pretty, and it was nice to walk along the little beach in the moonlight and hear the water splashing nearby. Once we realized how close we were to Niagara Falls, we decided to check it out. It was very pretty, and we ended up spending a couple hours tooling around that area on our bicycles.
 |
| Devils Hole en route to Niagara Falls |
 |
| Niagara Falls |
For the rest of Saturday the 12th we headed eastward, stopping for the night at a Pilot truck stop a little outside Schenectady, New York. Yesterday, we continued our drive east, heading for Saxtons River, VT, to see some more of the Lawrence clan. Since it was a pretty short drive, we took it slow, soaked in the scenery, and stopped at Mt. Snow for some mountain biking.
 |
| Pretty old house in Bennington, VT |
 |
| Fall colors, pretty view, in Bennington, VT. |
 |
| Pretty cemetery in Bennington, VT. |
 |
| Pretty church in Bennington, VT. |
 |
| Pretty old building and trees along Highway 9 in southern VT. |
 |
| Trails named out of Robin Hood stories where we biked off Mt. Snow. |
 |
| Rob riding through pretty fall scenery. |
 |
| Two roads diverged in a wood... |
 |
| Pretty views in Wilmington, VT. |
 |
| Pretty fall colors on our drive. |
 |
| More pretty fall colors. |
 |
| And more pretty fall colors. |
As you can tell, we've hit the part of New England renowned for fall colors. We're soaking it in. Today has been low key hanging out on the couch, catching up on photo sorting, and, of course, blog posting. I think it's time to get outside and check this area out some more.
