Russia…The Trans Siberian Railway ~ Friends Update!

Two of our friends, who follow my blog, responded with pictures of their adventure on the Trans Siberian Railroad. Sean and Lee are world travelers. They have done all of the continents and have been to every major points of interest in the world. Helen and I met them on our trip to New Zealand and Australia.

Trans Siberian Train

They did not travel the entire length of the railroad, but enough to get a flavor of this railroad. Sean said that the railroad schedule and times are very accurate. In one of the pictures, a kilometer/stone marker reads 5613, which I believe is 3,498.08 miles to Moscow. His comments on the train follows…


Does anybody read Russian?

I just read your blog. I think we told you that we took a short 8-hour ride on trans-Siberian train from Ulan Ude to Irkutsk in the Lake Baikal area early September last year. Our portion of the trip on the train schedule is highlighted in one of the pictures. The fall colors were beautiful. Since we did not stay overnight on the train, we did not use the blankets provided in the cabin. The bunk beds (4) in our cabin were reasonably comfortable, but no one in our group (total of 11) wanted to nap or sleep. I think there are "business class" 

Railroad Crossing...Rusian Style!

or "first class" cabins, but not sure. We had coffee in the diner car. Almost no locals went there to eat or drink due to the steep prices. There are hot water dispensers on the train and most locals brought a lot of food and drinks with them. The are also food vendors on the platform at most stops.
The only person we know who covered the entire route was a good friend of our younger daughter. She was between jobs and she decided to do it about six years ago. Not sure how her father would have let her do it as a single woman. As far we are concerned, I don't know if we can survive the entire length in our current physical conditions. By the way, the train was on-time almost to the minute all the way while we were on it. There are small "kilometer markers" along the way and the "railroad crossings" are quite interesting. I think you will enjoy the ride. I wish we would be able to visit as much of the world as these two Texan friends have. They say that they are running out of stamina, but after all, they have seen a majority of this expansive planet! They should be slowing down a little. Thanks for the information on the Trans Siberian Railroad. Oh yes, we have another friend “George” who is also running out of stamina. I am trying to convince him to travel a little more and also see this great planet!   That is what we plan to do and see!

Russia… The Trans-Siberian Railway! May Be?

Well… I’ll bet the header might get a few people’s attention. Actually, the subject has come up a couple of times. Just tonight, as I was checking my stats and audience on the blog, I have noticed that I’m getting a small following from Russia.


Map Showing Military Installation with
RV Campgrounds

Russia, our cold war enemy. Now that the cold war is over, I often think of traveling from Vladivostok to Moscow by train. I met a fellow camper in Key West who did this trip. He gave me a lot of information about the train accommodations and what to expect. It is a far fetched idea, but it is doable. Once in the mid 80’s, on trip to Alaska, on a KC 135 Air Force Tanker, I had another long discussion with some people who were in the process of flying around the world. They would fly a good part of this trip on USAF “Space A “ flights. They had made connections to fly from Japan to Vladivostok , Siberia and board the Trans Siberian Railway all the way to Moscow. From Moscow, they intended to fly (commercial Russian Airline) to Germany and resume their “Space  A” flights back to the States. It is not a big money issue, but an issue of patience and time to catch the right flight. One needs a lot of time to accomplish this adventure. Time on the Trans Siberian Railway took this guy in (Key West) a month. He said to try  and get a top berth, apparently someone on the lower berths always seem to have a bottle of Vodka and no one leaves until its empty!  I know there is a “Space A” flight that goes to Europe four times a week and it is not full  most of the time.
Oh well, enough of that wild dream for now. I need to get back to America and explore around here. I am thinking of going back where we left off and continue the Civil War trail. One of the biggest things on the Civil War, this summer, is the 150th Anniversary. I’ve been told that there will be some major reenactments. Some truck campers are getting together for a jamboree centered on these reenactments. It might be very busy with tourist, but that only means that we would make new friends and hear more great adventure stories.
Today,

This "Live Oak" was about 150 years old
when the Civi War Started. It was 300 years old when cut down

I upgraded the camper. I now have a permanent TV cable connection on the outside. That means that I don’t have to snake the cable in anymore. It isn’t that we watch a lot of TV, but more and more campgrounds offer Cable TV with their full hookup sites. My next upgrade will be a new “front of the truck” generator mount. I want the mount to be closes to the truck grill. The two mountain bikes will be further outbound and the bike carrier will be removable without interfering with the generator mount. It sounds complicated, but I can tell you I’ve slept on the idea for a few nights and its coming together. The Honda EU2000i generator will make us more independent in the dry camp environment. The Solar panel will recharge the camper battery, but the computers are power hungry and unless I’m running the truck they won’t last more than a day. We are on them several hours a day. (Checking emails, blogging, searching sites to visit the following day and so on).
That is what we plan to do and see!
 

The Reality Sets In…Home Sweet Home…Where Do We Keep the Silverware?

It is always a mild shock to arrive home after a long stay away. I literally had to think for a second where we kept the silverware. We had been gone 61 days on this adventure… 77 days this past summer to Alaska. In a years’ time we traveled from 207 miles North of the Artic Circle (Inuvik, NWT) to Key West, Florida. 90 miles from Cuba (15,000 miles last summer and 5,105 on this winter trip) .God, there is so much left to see!
The temperature here in Berlin, NH is till cool, but in another week or so the leaves will start to bud. I will get back outside and tackle the yard. ( I love doing yard work) That is no joke! In the mean time, I have the truck camper to clean, the truck needs to be serviced and a special front mount on the truck for a future generator. Just maybe, in June, we’ll be able to sneak away for a couple of weeks up to Nova Scotia and into Labrador. Remember that new road from Happy Valley Goose Bay, Labrador posted in a  previous Alaska blog? I always have to have something in the planning stage. It keeps me young and crazy!


Home of the "Fried Green Tomatoes"

Back to the camper... I spent this morning emptying the rest of the clothes and everything else that we had packed. The rest of the day I cleaned all of the bugs off the nose of the camper. It is accessible now that it is off the truck. The sun was shining into the shop and with the radio broadcasting the man hunt in Boston, the afternoon seemed to go by very fast. When I called it quits for the day, I had waxed 3/4 quarters of the camper. The worst was done.
The weather this Saturday morning was again cool, but I did manage to rake a little in front of the house. The sand that is spread in the winter months, in the street that is, makes a mess on the lawns. That is all part of living in the North Country here in New England.
Now that we are home, I can reflect on our trip, re-read some of the blogs and realise that I didn't have time to include so many little details that made our voyage so interesting. For an example; in Savanna, GA. We had stopped at a "Whistle Stop Cafe" famous for their Fried Green Tomatoes. Some of you probably have seen the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" partially filmed in this cafe.

Fried Green Tomatoes!

That is what we did and saw!

 

The Bolt to the North!!

New York after the GW Bridge!

So far on this winter getaway, we have visited many friends and relatives. Visited countless attractions both natural and historic. I am glad that I took the time to write this nearly daily blog. I will in the coming months re-read the blogs, remember and possibly add more detail to the daily events. We have so many more experiences to recount with fondness. After all, with the type of  travel we do, meeting people and seeing places is our joy.
Now back to where we are today. The weather for this week so not looking too good. Rain and cooler temperatures. I didn’t want to spoil the first impressions that I get when we visit a new site. The cold and rain would not do it justice. Like a wild horse, I felt like bolting and hitting the road. That is what we did! I knew that I could easily drive from Virginia to somewhere in Connecticut in one day. We left Yorktown before dawn, around a quarter to six in the morning. The computer said we were around 850 miles from home. In a half hour, we were on I-95 North bound. I-95 is not my favorite route, but being close, I selected this path home. I did plan on diverting inland using I-81 and I-84 avoiding the New York area. The traffic wasn’t too bad going through the heart of Washington, DC and we shelved the alternate route and stayed on I-95. It proved to be a little costly in  road tolls, but the joy of seeing all that traffic, and especially the bumper to bumper traffic on the north side of the George Washington bridge was an adventure.

The George Washington Bridge... Upper deck!

After all, being in bumper to bumper traffic gives one time to get good photos of the New York skyline! Oh yes, then there’s the NY metro police that pulled me over on the Cross Bronx Parkway. He said to me "why didn’t you turn off when I pointed to you"? I actually though that he wanted to go to the right and I got out of his way. He said “you can’t be on this Parkway with your camper. The arched overhead bridges are to low”! I knew I *@#^ up. I asked, “How do I get out of here now”? He said, “Take the first exit, go down the ramp, take a left and the next left, get on the Cross Bronx Parkway ‘West’ get off on I-87 North, take the I-287 East and the I-84 East to Danbury, Connecticut. I think I lost him right after “Take”. I said to Helen, "give me the map"! He pointed you are here and repeated the above instructions. When I see it on a map I got it clearly in my head! No problems from here on. We stopped for dinner at the Blue Diner in Newton, CT. After talking to the owner, he said we could stay the night in his parking lot. It was a 24 hour diner and we didn’t get bothered with traffic the rest of the night. Newton, CT... remember was the town that was the site of that terrible school shooting!
That is what we did and saw!

Yorktown,VA…The War of Independence…The Battlefields

The first thing that we did this morning was to take the Colonial Parkway over to Colonial Williamsburg. Now you can make Colonial Williamsburg as simple or as complicated as you want to as far as visiting. Admission is free. If you want to just walk the town, you can see period dressed people who talk to you like you were back in their time frame of the Revolutionary War period.

Colonial Williamsburg

If you want to go into specific houses and get detail reenactments, then you need to pay the admission. We wanted to see the general layout of the town. This is no small area. One mile long by 3/4 mile wide. A 1/4 mile walk along working period farm and flowering forests will take you from the Visitor Center to the outskirts of Colonial Williamsburg. It was an interesting forenoon and about two and a half miles of walking and we had covered the entire town. It was interesting enough, but I’m glad we didn’t pay for the tour.


Matt our Park Ranger
standing next to a 24 pound cannon

Next, on our marathon day, was to get back on the Colonial Parkway heading in the opposite direction to Yorktown Colonial National Historical Park. The National Park Service never fails to do a good job in their presentations. The American Revolution’s last major decisive battle was fought here in Yorktown. I won’t go into details, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is “The American Revolutionary War” and not part of “Civil War”. Here is the twist… while visiting the battlefields in Yorktown our Park Ranger mentioned several times that the Confederate Army used a lot of Revolutionary War defensive positions. They simply reinforced and replaced whatever was needed. I was happy to have visited Yorktown and its history!
That is what we did and saw! 



Virginia Beach…Fort Story and the rest of the Story



Cape Henry Light House
 

The storm had passed last night with very strong wind rocking the camper. I reached over and got the remote and let the camper jacks anchor us to the ground. It helped immensely. All of this took place around 3am. It was funny that it didn’t rain at all.
The road was calling us to see what’s beyond the sand dunes. I wanted to head north and west towards Gettysburg and stop at what ever aroused our curiosity. The first thing on the map was Fort Story. It had the oldest building commissioned by the government of the United States. It happened to be a lighthouse. The history here doesn’t go back to the Civil War, but the War of Independence. A big Naval battle took place here involving the French Armada and the British Fleet.

 

The French won the naval battle isolating British troops in Yorktown. General Washington was able to move his army and defeated British General Cornwallis, which eventually lead to our Independence from Britain. Fort Story is an active military base with full security in place. We were able to access many historic spots that are not generally opened to the public. One of the placards read that we should visit Yorktown and Williamsburg up the road.

St Bede in Williamsburg, VA

 

Tonight we are on the outskirts of Williamsburg at another military RV campground. We are at Cheatham Annex/Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, Williamsburg, VA. After a visit to the Visitor Center we were overwhelmed with the amount of things and places to visit around here. There are 52 historic places close by. We, I think, have narrowed down to six that we will try and visit in the next day or so. Boy, it’s a good thing it is still snowing back home. We are not rushing back!
Tonight after selecting our camp site we made it over to St Bede Church for mass. What a church! It is modeled after a Greek Orthodox Church that we visited in Saco, ME. It has a large Atrium that leads you into the larger circular main part of the church.
Later this evening, we settled into our campsite. I setup the BBQ and we celebrated with a nice T-bone steak. Life is rough on the trail!

 
That is what we did and saw!

Virginia Beach… Sea Mist RV Park

Life is rough on a rainy day!
Sea Mist RV Campground... Dam Neck Annex

This morning the predicted storm held off just long enough for me to disconnect the sewer, water and electrical. It rained all the way to Virginia Beach, VA. We took back roads to get here and I had to do some fancy dead reckoning. I knew about where I was going, but not exactly to the RV campground. Oceania Naval Air Station is a big place with many major roads around it. Finally we made it, only to find the campground gate locked. A camper was coming out and gave us the code to enter. The registration office was unoccupied, but instructions were by the door for registration after hours. We selected a site, not too impressed so far. It was still raining. I was to fill the paperwork out and drop-it into a drop box. We had lunch and decided to leave and go to the State Park campground. A camp worker showed up and we asked if he knew about other campgrounds to stay at. He mentioned that he stays at Sea Mist at Dam Neck Fleet Training Center Atlantic. We left to check it out. Bingo! “nice as apple pie”. This RV park is practically new. It has a clubhouse with Direct TV, laundry, restrooms, wide concrete pads, full hookups. The registration attendant took time to give us a golf cart tour of the  park and part of the Navy base. Two items that stood out here…One is that they launch drones right off the beach. The other notable thing is that the north end part of the base is off limits. USN Amphibious Base is there along with no other than Navy Seal Team Six!
The rain subsided early afternoon, it was sunny for an hour and a half. The clouds returned and the forecast was for showers tonight before clearing. After an “in camper” dinner, we went next door to watch the nightly news. We were in there alone for a while until the Camp Host came in to register a late arrival. She mentioned that they had gone up to Alaska. Well that was enough to spark a wonderful long conversation about our past Alaskan adventures. It never fails when we are at a military campground to meet some wonderful people with wonderful stories. They all seem to have that sense of adventure, the sense to see what’s on the other side of the hill! It’s a great country with plenty of places to visit and learn about.
That is what we did and saw!