A Couple of Norths

Posted on October 3, 2013October 3, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Rounding out the states that start with N are North Carolina and North Dakota. I’m afraid that’s 2 more no’s but what is there to see and do in these two states?

North Carolina

Lots to see and do in this state. I can’t wait to get there! The top 7 things on my wish list are:

The Town of Cherokee. It includes the Cherokee Reservation and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Reviews of the town and the events are great. If you like Native American History, then this sounds like a place to check out. Many Cherokee from North Carolina were rounded up and made to march to Indian Territory on the “Trail of Tears”, not one of the white man’s finer moments.
Cape Hatteras and the National Seashore and Lighthouse. You’d think I’d be happy to skip this when I have the Cape Cod National Seashore in my own back yard but if it’s undeveloped and wild, count me in.
Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Same as above. I want to see the migrating birds and any other wildlife that might be lingering about.
And the #4 spot on my list goes to the Wild Horses of The Crystal Coast. The nice thing…we can go see them! Tourists are welcome to ferry over to Shackleford Banks to see the horses. “While it is not in the best interest of either horse or person to get too close, people should look, photograph, and enjoy the wild horses for the unique part of North Carolina that they are.” .Read more: http://www.budgettravel.com/blog/the-amazing-wild-horses-of-north-carolina,12054/#ixzz2gIsMhOmg
The Blue Ridge Mountains. I want to drive the Blue Ridge Mountain parkway for the scenic views and a taste of Appalachian Culture.
Nantahala National Forest holds Nantahala Gorge, a crevasse that’s 1800 feet at it’s deepest and 100 yards wide at it’s narrowest. The scenic drive is known as the Nantahala By way. There’s even a Nantahala Gorge Train ride.The 4 ½ hour round trip Nantahala River Gorge Excursion departs from the historic town of Bryson City and travels 44 miles to the scenic Nantahala River Gorge. This tour travels along a stretch of the Tuckaseegee River, goes through charming countryside, crosses Fontana Lake on a 100 foot high trestle bridge that spans almost 800 feet across the Lake, winds through the scenic Western North Carolina mountains and into the legendary Nantahala River Gorge. Oh my! A Must See if there ever was one!
Roanoke Island is home to the first settlement established by Sir Walter Raleigh more than 30 years before the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth, Ma.

There’s lots more besides these 7 places but I bet it would take the whole vacation to do 1/2 of it partly because I’d be all over the state! In fact I’ve gone on so long about North Carolina that I’ll have to save North Dakota for another post.

So adding North Carolina to the “Must See” side of the ledger brings my tally to 12 visited 21 to go!

Maryland and Massachusestts

Posted on September 20, 2013September 20, 2013 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Maryland is the 2nd “M” state and Massachusetts is the 3rd.

Let’s start with Maryland first.

No… Not really. Maryland is part of what I think of as the political area…It’s close to Washington DC and Annapolis is in Maryland and I can remember going to the Naval Academy with my family to visit my brother.

That’s what I remember the most, that and how impressive it was to see all of the young cadets marching past. I can’t even begin to put into words what I was feeling but I can remember it to this day and it was about 40 years ago, maybe 42. I really don’t remember much else about the visit except seeing my brother and being so proud of him. It was a very emotional visit. So I suppose I could cross it off but I think it needs another visit to be official. 🙂

M is for Massachusetts

Yes..I better say yes. I’ve been living here since 1974. Hard to believe it. I originally came out for company training for 6 months. Once the training ended the only openeing was right here in Malden, MA so I stayed.

Massachusetts has everything you could want; mountains, ocean, cities, rural area, summer sun and winter snow.

We’ve got National Parks and history. My word, we have history galore from Minuteman National Park with it’s Patriots Day Reenactments to Boston’s Freedom Trail. There’s Salem, MA of the historic witch trials, Old Ironsides, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall.

As if that wasn’t enough we have nature! We have Whale Watches and Deep Sea Fishing, we’ve got seals and zoos and aquariums.

And we’ve got Old Cape Cod with a scenic train and the National Sea Shore and the annual scallop festival. We can even boast great white sharks now!

And we have Lighthouses.

Maine does not have a monopoly there! I believe there are 63 in all.


Annisquam	Baker’s Island	Bass River (West Dennis)
Bird Island	Bishop and Clerks	Borden Flats
Boston Harbor	Brant Point	Brant Point (Old)
Butler Flats	Cape Ann (Thacher Island)	Cape Cod (Highland)
Cape Poge	Chatham	Clark’s Point
Cleveland Ledge	Cuttyhunk	Deer Island
Derby Wharf	Dog Bar Breakwater	Duxbury Pier
East Chop	Eastern Point	Edgartown Harbor
Fort Pickering (Winter Island)	Gay Head	Graves
Great Point	Hospital Point Range Front	Hospital Point Range Rear
Hyannis	Lightship Nantucket I WLV-612	Lightship Nantucket II WLV 613
Lightship Nantucket LV 112/WAL 534	Lightship New Bedford LV 114/WAL 536	Long Island Head
Long Point	Marblehead	Mayo’s Beach
Minot’s Ledge	Monomoy Point	Nantucket Cliff Range
Nauset	Ned’s Point	Newburyport Harbor (Plum Island)
Newburyport Harbor Range Front	Newburyport Harbor Range Rear	Nobska Point
Palmer Island	Plymouth (Gurnet)	Point Gammon
Race Point	Sandy Neck	Sankaty Head
Scituate	Stage Harbor	Straitsmouth Island
Tarpaulin Cove	Ten Pound Island	Three Sisters
West Chop	Wings Neck	Wood End

Head west on RT 90, from Boston and you’ll find Springfield, home to Dr. Seuss and The “Big E” (Eastern States exposition) and the Basket Ball Hall of Fame.

Speaking of sports, Massachusetts is a pro sports kind of place. We have the Boston Bruins, The Red Sox, Fenway Park and Red Sox Nation. Out in Foxboro we have the New England Patriots and we’ve got the Revolution..not the 1776 revolution but the pro soccer team.

We host golf tournaments like the Deutsche Bank PGA tournament.

Heading back to Western Massachusetts Rt 90 rises upward to the Berkshire Mountains. The Appalachia Trail winds it’s way through here and we have Tanglewood and Jacobs Pillow for culture.

There’s still more. Massachusetts loves politics. You can find a political discussion almost anywhere and everyone has an opinion. 🙂 And we have higher education, Colleges and Universities abound.

Harvard Yard

There are too many to list.

Don’t get me wrong, Massachusetts is not all peaches and cream. After all, we had the “Big Dig” too and are still dealing with the consequences.

Talk about a major screw up! Traffic is worse now than ever. And we’re starting to head back to the bad old days of “Taxachusetts”…just when we thought it was safe to take our hands out of our pockets good old Governor Deval Patrick put his hands right in!

But even with all that I still am pretty pleased with my adopted state. It’s a great place to visit and not too bad a place to live.

M is for…

Posted on September 19, 2013September 19, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Wow, Did you realize there are 8 states that start with the letter M? I am not going to do all 8 in one post, especially since a couple of them are going to be crossed off as visited. So before I start can you name all 8 states?

Alphabetically Maine is first. So while you’re thinking about the other 7 states I’ll tell you a little bit about my neighbor to the north. I fell in love with Maine last year when I had the chance to take 2 “mini” vacations.

Maine

YES.

First thing that come to mind when I think of Maine is the gorgeous, rugged coastline. And if you have a rugged coast you need lighthouses. More than 60 lighthouses dot the Maine coast from the well known Nubble Light in York to West Quoddy Head, the easternmost lighthouse in the United States. I’ve seen and photographed a bunch of them, Nubble, Spring Ledge, Portland Head, Pemaquid and more but I’m a long way from all 60!+

Maine is for “Lobsta” or lobster if you want to be accurate. Everyone’s either heard of or eaten Maine Lobster, those feisty crustaceans that are so good boiled, fried, rolled, baked, in salad, well just about any way you want to eat them. Did you know that lobster were once so plentiful that they were used as fertilizer! Native Americans used them as bait to catch more appealing fish. They were considered poverty food and fed to servants and prisoners. You’ve come a long way , baby!

Maine is for wildlife.

I saw a big bull moose there while walking a nature trail.

I braved the sea to get a glimpse of puffins, crazy little clowns. I never realized how tiny they are until I saw them riding those crashing waves.

Maine has the first National Park east of the Mississippi, Acadia National Park. The park includes Mount Desert Island and Cadillac Mountain.

I still want to try a train ride from Boston to Portland. It’s called the “Downeaster”. It can be done in 1 day but it might be nicer to stay over in Portland a night to see a bit more.

By the way, I wrote a lot of posts on Maine last year. Here’s a link to just one of the many :https://aroundustyroads.com/2012/08/29/day-is-done-gone-the-sun/

Lighthouse Lovers..This Post’s for You

Posted on September 6, 2013September 6, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Hello Lighthouse lovers. Did you know there was a lighthouse in Boston Harbor for sale? I didn’t either but it sure got everyone’s attention today when a record-breaking sale was announced.

Sold! Graves Island lighthouse breaks record

Graves lighthouse is the one I mentioned in a recent post as being in line with Boston Light. (Graves is the one in back in the photo above)

There are lots of lighthouses that you can rent for a night or two or maybe even a week for vacation but do you really want to live there?

Graves light is 5 stories high with 2 bedrooms. One drawback…no bathrooms but I guess if you can afford to buy a lighthouse you can afford to update the plumbing.

Whoever purchased Graves Light got it for the “paltry” sum of $933,888. Not bad for a working lighthouse especially when you realize it was CASH bid.

The US General Services Administration, which conducted the Graves Island Light Station auction, has not identified the new owner of the lighthouse located on a rocky, wave-battered ledge near the entrance to Boston Harbor. But we can tell you it was bought by a Boston businessman whose roots in New England date to the 1630s and who has a deep interest in maritime history. He said Wednesday he prefers to remain anonymous until the sale is finalized, which will most likely be Thursday or Friday. The GSA has said it received bids from 10 parties initially, but the number dwindled to two as the price rose higher and higher. The winning bid is a record amount paid for a US lighthouse. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1987, the Graves Island lighthouse is one of 163 lighthouses located along the New England coast. It went on the auction block in June.

Gloucester Harbor Lighthouse Cruise

Posted on August 24, 2013August 24, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Ok I can tell by my stats that the lighthouse theme is running on empty so I’ll wrap it up for awhile with this last post on the lighthouses I saw on my day in Gloucester.

It was such a beautiful day that I took the Lighthouse Harbor Cruise, not a Boston Harbor Cruise but a Gloucester Harbor Cruise.

The earliest lighthouses were nothing more than bonfires built on hillsides to guide ships .

Sometimes they were lit to draw ships onto the rocks so they would run aground and the pirates could loot the cargo. Obviously a better way was needed.

Lighthouses are old, very old. The first was in the old world. It guarded the harbor entrance to Alexandria in 285 BC!

The first American Lighthouse was built in Boston Harbor in 1716.

By 1771 there were 9 lighthouses in North America, all marking entrances to ports. 1771 was also the first time a lighthouse was built to mark a dangerous spot rather than a harbor entrance.

Fast forward to today. I’m going to share 5 lighthouse with you; the Lighthouses of Cape Ann.

#1. Ten Pound Island Lighthouse

This is a quaint little light located on (where else) Ten Pound Island which is within Gloucester Harbor. It was built in 1821 to aid in navigating Gloucester’s inner harbor. Tiny Ten Pound Island also boasts housing America’s first Coast Guard Air Station.

#2 Eastern Point Lighthouse

This light was built in 1832 on Gloucester’s Eastern Point to mark the harbor entrance. In addition to the light, there is a large lighthouse station which continues to serve as housing for the U.S. Coast Guard.

#3. Thatcher Island Twin Lighthouses

Also known as Cape Ann Light Station, these twin lights are the only surviving multiple lights on the coasts of the United States. The towers were constructed so that when a ship sights on both towers they point to true north, allowing sailors to check their compasses.

#4. Straitsmouth Island Lighthouse

Built in 1835, Straitsmouth Light marks the entrance to Rockport Harbor, a neighbor of Gloucester’s. Although the small lighthouse is maintained by the Coast Guard, the island itself is a bird and wildlife sanctuary owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

#5. Annisquam Harbor Lighthouse

Annisquam light was built in 1801. It marks the entrance to the Annisquam River at Wigwam Point, a popular Native American summer encampment. With the construction of the Blynman Canal the Annisquam River connected Ipswich Bay and Gloucester Harbor.

There is so much to say about these lighthouses, how tall, how bright, what color is the light, how many flashes and of what duration; but to answer all those questions I’d be writing a book, not a post. 🙂 So I’ll leave that to the experts.