Fun in Manhattan

Liberty Landing Marina is right next to the Jersey City ferry which is $7 to get to Manhattan.  We landed right near two monuments which really choke me up.  The first was a monument to the Starving Irish immigrants.  Both of us had Irish immigrant ancestors and it is a sobering thought to realize all they went through.  Then we crossed the street and we were at the 9/11 memorial.  Two big holes in the ground (now made into fountains, with names engraved around them).

Next was a typical fast and furious NY cab ride to Times Square where we had booked two nights (for convenience sake).  We enjoyed 3 plays: Kinky Boots, Bullets over Broadway, and Disney's Newsies.  All were excellent and we wished we could see more shows, but even at the discount ticket booth prices, everyone has a limit.  I'm still hoping to convince Rob to squeeze in Matilda, the musical, before we leave...  there is nothing like a Broadway play...except maybe a London play... maybe we can sail Freedom to London?

Kinky Boots, music by Cindi Lauper... officially voted our "second favorite" musical (Miss Saigon still wins)

Rob loved Bullets over Broadway... I thought Zack Braff (from Scrubs). was great and the singing and dancing talent was marvelous.  Unfortunately, the songs were just OK.... old time songs like "Yes we have no bananas?!"

Newsies (a Disney production) was excellent.  The leads were new to Broadway but had fantastic voices and stage presence.  And the athletic, masculine dancing was amazing!

The hotel was fine, but a bit too close to the action!  I begged my high school BFF Shawn to please take us somewhere pretty for dinner.  We were enchanted with Chelsea and really enjoyed our walk on the Highline (an old raised subway platform converted to a pedestrian park up the West side of Manhattan).  Google the Highline in NYC... its an amazing project.

Walking the Highline

Happy to be back at the boat with our FABULOUS view

Lady Liberty

The drive from West Chester PA to Jersey City NJ was, for the most part, uneventful.  A little nervewracking perhaps... but we arrived at Liberty Landing State Park launch ramp around noon.  Imagine our thrill as we ventured out into NY Harbor.

It was extremely "bumpy" out there thanks to the multiple ferries crossing from NYC to/from all the other islands and burroughs.  I tried to get some great shots of the Statue of Liberty, but most ended up blurry or, at best, crooked!  It was so exciting to be there on our own boat!

Never fear, Miss Liberty... Freedom the Cape(d) Cruiser is here!

At the dock at Liberty Landing Marina

After docking the boat we had to figure out how to get back to the state park launch ramp to retrieve the car and trailer... its about 3 miles away.  Our fun e-bikes were a blast to ride, along a lovely paved boardwalk overlooking the NYC skyline.  Fantastic!

The view at night from our boat!  The tall building is the new World Finance Center

That evening a high school friend of mine who settled in NJ met us for a fun dinner of Cuban food.  It was great catching up with her, meeting her grown daughter.  We still can complete each other's sentences even after 40 years separation.

Philadelphia and West Chester PA

We completed our drive up the DelMarVa peninsula so I could officially cross off Delaware from my list of states I haven't been.  Delaware is a mystery to me... why is it a separate state?  No major cities, a lot of farms.  I will need to do some research on this.  Many of the first McClains (McLean, McClean, MacLane, McLane, MacLaine, McLaine..sigh) first landed in Wilmington, New Castle and Baltimore...before they moved west to conquer the wilderness.  One man and his brother did actually end up in Jessamine Kentucky... where we first find Rob's ancestor Isaac McClain.  So, I've been curious about this area for awhile.

We wanted to see Philadelphia and thought about boating from the upper Chesapeake, across the Chesapeake/Delaware canal and up the Delaware River to Penns' Landing... but we didn't think we wanted to spend our time doing that.  Ultimately we want to launch in Jersey City (across from Manhattan) on a weekday.  So we decided to trailer up to Philly.  Parking in our first capitol city is a nightmare, in fact, I couldn't find RV parking anywhere near the historic center... so staying downtown was impossible.  I did find 2... ONLY 2... campgrounds in the area.  I chose the KOA in West Chester because they also did a Philly tour from there.  It is about 40 minutes to Philly.  Also because West Chester had a clue about an Isaac McClain that I wanted to research.

Rob describes the drive to this KOA as a nightmare but I loved it.  Once off the freeway we entered the Brandwine River Valley (Brandywine was one of the first battles of the Rev. War... and one of the biggest).  We went over hill and dale and through quaint village mainstreets.  We passed some old mills (now homes).   Crossed narrow bridges (I was hoping to see a covered bridge... but didn't until the next day).  At any rate, we arrived at this truely lovely campground with lots of facilities: pool, mini-golf, rental bikes and canoes, etc.   We got our usual comments about our unconventional camper.  The internet and phone reception was nearly non existant, so today I am at Starbucks in West Chester to catch up the blog.

The first night rained like crazy but the weather since has been absolutely gorgeous... almost fall-like.  Perfect for our tour of Philly.   We were really surprised at how many French Canadians we found, both at the campground, and being tourists in Philadelphia.  I'm not sure what that says about Americans... I guess we go to Quebec and Montreal when we are on vacation and they come here?

We went to all the main tourist spots in historic Philadelphia.    Here are pictures of a few of them

Independence Hall (Originally the state house of the colony of PA)... where the Declaration of Independence was signed.  The Liberty Bell was hung in this bell tower.

Room where the Declaration of Independence was signed

Stopped for lunch... cheesesteak, of course

Christ Church (originally Church of England, changed to Episcopal after the revolution).  Saw the pews reserved subscribed to by Washington, Ben Franklin, and other early revolutionaries and lawmakers)

 Then the tour van took us to Valley Forge... on the Schuykill River.  I know, this was an awful place for Washington's troops to spend the winter, morale and sickness as well as cold weather.... but boy is it a beautiful park now.

Typical huts for up to 12 soldiers (and their families if they joined them)

Washington's headquarters... the house was actually not very big. Martha joined him here.

Washington's headquarters... rank has privileges

Washington's dining/living room

 We drove home through the town of West Chester which was great as we were planning to visit there the next day (so we got a preview/lay of the land).  This is an absolutely charming town except that a huge amount of traffic is routed through the main street (where all the little restaurants have sidewalk tables).  We visited the West Chester Historical Society to look through family history documents.  I successfully ruled out (is that a success) the clue for Isaac McClain but we did find some McClain families in the area... seems like most moved away by 1777.

A yummy lunch at a sidewalk cafe in West Chester.

Tonight is laundry night back at the campground... and then on to NYC!

DelMarVa

Our captain recommended we leave Rivers Rest at 5:30 AM to get us back to Portsmouth at a reasonable time.  UGH!  Actually, I slept through most of the preparation and the beginning part of the cruise.  Then we hit rough water (waves, current, wind) and it stopped being much fun.  But, that's part of cruising.

We sadly said goodbye to the group and hope we'll see them again.  At least they know to look us up in Las Vegas (everyone goes to Las Vegas sometime don't they?)

And then we began our solo trek: destination Philadelphia.  We are driving up the DelMarVa peninsula... an interesting place.  For some reason, our forefathers decided to divide this narrow peninsula and parcel it out to three different states: Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  It really makes no sense...

It's a lovely rural, farm area, with pretty beaches and coast lines.  Seems like a great vacation spot.  I can't understand why it is not more populated considering how close it is to DC, Baltimore, Anapolis etc.  Just this little thing called the Chesapeake Bay to cross to get to DelMarVa!

We are in Pocomoke MD, about 3 hours south of Philadelphia...enjoying central air, TV and internet.

The Chickahominy

 We sadly didn't take any interesting pictures along the Chickahominy but perhaps someone else will send us ones that they took.  The river takes lots of twists and turns and most of it is a nature preserve, so no homes along the way.  We did, however, spot at least two bald eagles.

The Chiclahominy River is named for a tribe of Indians from this area.  The name means ground corn from which, I'm guessing, we get the term hominy grits.  John Smith sailed up the Chicahominy in search of corn for the settlers at Jamestown.  He stopped several times to trade with the Indians but it is said that he didn't always make a trade as he didn't want to appear needy.  If you are familiar with the Jamestown Settlement story, they were indeed very very needy.  I'm not sure his logic fooled the Indians who I'm sure could very easily know that the Jamestown Settlement was in dire straits.

C-Brats preparing to raft up

C-Brats rafted and eating once again:

We had a bit of a bet going today.  Yesterday several of us had spotted a derelect sailboat sunken in a swampy part of the river (its anyone's guess how it even got there).  We swore we could see the mast and the spreaders.  David, though, swore he had checked it out and that it definitely was a telephone pole.  Today he was on a mission to prove to us  wrong and bet us each a nickel.  At dinner, David paid up his 20 cents. Here's a picture of our nickel, appropriately with Thomas Jefferson's picture on it.

Jamestown and River's Rest Marina

Our Fearless Leader, Steve on Osprey (C-Dory 22) led us out of Smithfield station and then we passed the Jamestown Settlement. 

Then, off in the distance we saw a tall ship.  From our visit to Jamestown awhile back, we think this is one of the replicas of John Smith's three ships.  Here we see Osprey approaching the tall ship.

This tall ship looks huge, (especially compared to a C-Dory!) but Rob can attest to how very small and tight the quarters were as he took of tour of this boat.  Unbelieveable to think that people crossed the Atlantic and spent so many days aboard these ships.

Then we stopped for lunch where we rafted up and shared a few treats.

6 C-Dorys rafted for lunch

And then there were 4 (we took this after we had left the rafting formation)

We arrived a River's Rest Marina and resort in Charles City, Virginia on the Chickahominy River.  River's Rest has an old style motel, a very nice pool and a restaurant.  We spent two nights there and really enjoyed ourselves.

 Immediately after docking we took to the pool to cool off!  No, I take that back.  Immediately upon docking, we all installed our air conditioners!  Then a few of us went to the pool.

Each evening before dinner, we would have an informal cocktail hour.  At Rivers Rest Marina the shadiest spot, with the greenest lawn and beautiful flowers happened to be next to the pump out... Huh..

 We spoiled our dinner with all the goodies from the cocktail hour!

That night we were treated to a full moon that was bright orange (our camera didn't quite catch the orange).  And of course there was after dinner cocktail time at the end of the dock.

First Stop: Smithville Station

Altogether we had 6 boats on our cruise, although a couple of boats joined us on day 2.  The town of Smithville is situated on Pagan River, just off the James River.  Smithville is, of course, named after John Smith  (explorer and founder of Jamestown).  In fact, Smithville is very near the land that was given as Pocahontas' dowry when she married John Rolfe in 1613.  Smithville is most famous for producing the Smithville ham, derived from peanut fed hogs.  Smithville is so very proud of its ham that they have the world's oldest ham on exhibit in their little museum... of course its petrified by now.  Once a year the town celebrates the "birthday" of their Guiness Book of World Records worthy ham.  We missed the  birthday by one day and I was sorely disappointed! (not really, not even a little).  I had no desire to see a 112 year old ham.

The group stayed a the Smithville Station Marina complex which had an inn, several cottages, a great restaurant and a pool.   When we weren't eating at the restaurant, we were lounging or having cocktail hour at the pool. The weather was a bit overcast but that actually was a good thing as it was hot enough without the beating sun.  Almost all of our boats had some sort of airconditioning which is not common for C-Dories on the West Coast... but out here it is a necessity.  Our airconditioner had been purchased two years ago (after reading the suggestion on the C-Brats site), but we had never used it.  We've been dragging it with us since February and, finally, it was moved from the truck to the boat for its inaugural voyage.  It looks ridiculous but worked very well.

Several of the C-Dory's employed this same size window airconditioner... we call it the "red neck" version.

There were three kinds of airconditioners in use:  Most of us had the little window airconditioners which could only be used when docked (or, if anchored with a generator).  One of us had a marine water cooled air conditioner (where water is pumped into the boat hull and through the air conditioner).  This could be used while underway.  The third airconditioning solution is a cabin top model (Coleman makes one for RV's and a more rust resistent marine model).  This solution can be used underway if you are running a generator.  The advantage is, you aren't hauling around a window airconditioner in your limited cockpit space or having to install it each time.  We don't have room for this because of our solar panels.... Why is there always a compromise?

On the road again: C-Brats James River Cruise Out

We are back on the road again but before we write about our next leg, I need to tell you about a new "don't".... or I guess it is a "do".  Before you leave your home state on a cross country adventure, make sure have your car "smogged" if you don't plan to be back when the registration comes due.  Even if you aren't sure a smog is going to be needed.  We had just done a smog with the prior year's registration, so it didn't occur to us that re-registering would mean more than just writing a check.  However, when we got home we found that the registration materials in the mail required the smog.  Rob tried to explain that the car was out of state but they insisted that it must be smogged.  Luckily, we had left keys with our son, so he took the vehicle out of storage, had it smogged and sent us the paperwork.  We aren't sure what we would have done otherwise... even if we had gotten it smogged when we arrived back in VA, how would we have gotten the Nevada stickers sent to us while enroute?

This time, we're going to be gone for around 2 months so we also hired a company to that will accept our mail, send us email about all first class items received, scan if we feel we might need to see it, and forward it to any location as often as we'd like.    So this is a service you might want to consider if you are cruising long term.

We had originally planned to move north from the DC area to Philadelphia and NYC and beyond...BUT our Virginia based C-Brats friends organized another cruise out so we decided to head south first.  We picked up the boat at the Occoquan Marina  where we had the bottom painted and had it buffed and waxed.  It looked great !

We enjoyed watching them launch it with the crane, at which point we retrieved it at the ramp with the trailer.

We drove down to Portsmouth VA where our cruise began at the home of our hosts.  They hosted a party the night before for any local C-Brats (and included a few boaters with other brands).  We had met a few of these folks before, but other faces were new.  Not everyone was coming on the cruise but no one can pass on a party "catered" by Joan or the chance to chat about boating adventures.

I have been challenged to find a way to incorporate this funny story which became the "theme" of our cruise. It didn't happen to me, but I did see a picture... On the morning of the party, Joan and her sister were at the mall.  They stopped for a Starbucks and saw a woman with a little girl and also, separately pushing a stroller.  As she moved closer they saw that there was a large rooster in the stroller!  The rooster had a tutu and its "nails" were painted blue.  They couldn't resist asking the woman about this.  Turns out the rooster was a "service chicken" to help calm her daughter, who possibly had autism.  The joke of the service chicken morphed into jokes about any other ridiculous service animal that could be imagined... Much hilarity was enjoyed on this subject. If anyone was monitoring the marine radio station 68, they would have thought we were crazy.

The cruise went out the Elizabeth River, past Norfolk, past Hampton, passed where the Monitor and Merrimac battled... then up the James River and up the Pagan River.  The next day we went out the Pagan up the James, past Jamestown then up the Chickahominy River.  We spent three nights at marinas along the way... more specifics to follow.