Greetings from the Eye of Frances

Hello, friends and family. It has been an interesting start to our adventure. We spent our first night in Nebraska, with a car FULL of mosquitos...ouch. Then we drove through the midwest and spent a night near the beach on Lake Michigan. It was BEAUTIFUL. I took an early morning dip in the water and it was wonderful. We will post a photo of the GIGANTIC praying mantiss we saw near the water. Then we made it to Lion's Head, ONT. This was one of the most beautiful places I have been, and reminded me very much of the Mediterranean. The Bruce Peninsula, a 10 mile wide piece of land situated between Lake Huron and the Georgian bay, is full of quaint little old communities and farms. The water was so pretty, especially on the Bay side, where 200 foot tall cliffs over look the shore and the water was a turqoise blue-green color. We hiked a part of the Bruce trail, where you go through a thick forest of lush deciduous trees, then you come out into a clearing , 200ft above the bay, overlooking the water. We ate alot of fresh fish...ymmmmm. Then it was on to Rochester to see la famiglia. Very nice to see my family and spend time relaxing.

From NY, we drove through the Adirondacks, to which I had never been before. Pretty sad, since I grew up in the state! The leaves were beginning to turn already, and though not at their peaks, you could see the beginnings of brilliant oranges, reds, and purples. We saw the Olympic training Center at Lake Placid, and started in disbelief at the super tall, super steep ski jumps. We then spent an afternoon climbing at McKenzie Ponds, a pretty little forest with some very hidden boulders. We didn't stay too long, though, because we had to catch the Lake Champlain ferry to get us into New England. This was a very nice cruise at sunset which took us from Essex, New York, to Burlington, VT. We busted out the rest of the drive, and headed to New Hampshire where we currently are, soaking wet, having spent the last night stuck at the WalMart in Plymouth, NH. Our ingenious little flip-pac camper is pretty nice most places, but since we are getting pounded with pouring rain, and put our rain fly on inside out, we are pretty much soaked to the core. The dogs are dripping, as is 90% or our clothing, and the inside of our truck, including our bed. So far, so good...HA! Our patience have really been put to the test, as the rain hasn't let up in over 24 hours....so, maybe we will get to enjoy NH one of these days, but it is hard to tell. We also cannot find a campground anywhere in the state that costs less than $20 a night. No joke! We take for granted out West all of the BLM and Forest Service land that is cheap or free to us, but it is definitely NOT the case out here. Oh well. For now we are visiting our old friends from Ft. Collins, Marc and Rachel, who live in nearby Manchester. We will post more later when we can. Hope all is well with everyone!