The Coast

Saturday 6/30 Day 71


****I added a trip map at the bottom with all of my stops and roads I used. It also has trip millages for the days **** 7/3/12 Grand total of 4221 miles, give or take a few.
****Blogs are updated up until the last day, working on a final display of my pictures and this blog post!**** 7/12/12

*** Finally Got photos up! http://jeffreyericson.zenfolio.com/f607548870  Enjoy! 9/9/2012 ***

After 71 days and close to 4500 miles, I made it to the coast of Maine today :) and spent a couple hours on the beach! Thanks for all the support, more to come when I update.

To Maine

Friday 6/29 Day 70
Today was a difficult day to start off. My brain was not wanting to continue, it thought it was all done with the trip. But i only had about 95 miles till the coast and about 130 miles till I was done. Thankfully I had really mellow riding. I was able to take several breaks and enjoy a few lakes on the way to Maine. I also stopped for a Large Blizzard ice cream before I got to where I was staying tonight. I am going to miss eating so much food, sadly I wont be able to eat this much in a couple of days.
I was able to stay with one last warm showers on my last day, Karren and her husband. We had a lovely dinner outside. I was also informed that I was only six miles from the coast that night. But I was going to hold out till I could make it to my finishing spot tomorrow. After dinner Karren and I plotted out my final day's route and were able to get a map also.
It was a bitter sweet feeling on the eve of my last day. Proud emotions for what I have accomplished, yet sad that it was coming to an end. All I could think about was that walk across the beach to finally touch the Pacific and what that was going to mean for me.

Meredith

Thursday 6/28 Day 69
Today I took the day off. I had been going for almost two weeks straight without a break with a few hundred mile days in there. I was able to meet some of Garrette's family, enjoy some home made food, and went swimming in the lakes around her house. Little known secret that I learned while being in New Hampshire is that Garrette can cook! She spent her time in Bend telling me that she was not  that good at cooking, well she is very good at it. She is the grill master.
We made a strawberry pie and other goodies on my day off. It was good to get a break and at the same time my mind acted as if I was done with the trip I think it was because this was where I would finally end up and my mind made the connection that I had finished. But have no fear, I will finish :).

I'll Find you

Wednesday 6/27 Day 68
I woke up this morning with one goal in mind, that was to ride till I get to Meredith so I could see Garrette. It was within striking distance, and the cool thing was that she would be getting there the same day as I would be. She also did not know about the idea that I would be seeing her today.

No more Rain!

I got up at about six thirty this morning so I could leave the fire house. Thankfully there was no fire last night so I did not have to hear the alarm. There was a huge river in my tent this morning but I did not have to worry about it because I was going to be sleeping inside tonight one way or the other. I road out into town where I got a healthy McDonalds breakfast for the day, which included coffee and sausage burritos.
In the first section of my day I started crossing the Appalachian mountains and did one of my final climbs of the trip. it was about a 2200 foot climb, which was really not that bad at all. It was easy compared to some of the climbs I did in the west. But once I got to the top it felt as if I was going downhill the rest of the day. In fact the rest of Vermont was completely downhill, and it was very pretty.
Once I hit New Hampshire I was doing a lot of zone riding. With big shoulders and a mellow roads I was able to get in a groove for most of the day. In fact by the end of the day I was getting about 18 mph. I did hop onto a rails to trails section later in the day. It was neat, went by a couple of lakes but after about 15 miles of it I went back on the road.

Rope swing

The final stretch of the day I was on the best road that I had been on the entire trip. When I turned onto the road I saw the sign for it which was Rough Mountain Road. When I saw that I was not that excited, but a half mile out of the city I ran into this newly paved road with a three foot shoulder. It was basically this way until I made it to Garrette's house. I love the feel of freshly paved roads, so smooth.
My final stretch getting to Garrette's house were the hills in her neighborhood. Oh man, these were the worst hills of my entire trip. Some of them I think went straight up.

Rails to Trails

After about 13 hours of riding I made it to Garrette's house where I was able to finally see her. Great reunion. I met her mom and had some dinner! I was about to collapse from the ridding I did today, I slept very well tonight.

The Revolution

Tuesday 6/26 Day 67
Today was one of my favorite rides of my trip. For the first half of it I had the road to myself going through the Adirondack Forest. winding hills up and down for hours. Breath taking. I had a pretty decent climb for about 10 to 15 miles which turned into a great down hill to the edge of the forest. I really appreciated the cool clouds during these climbs.
After I left the forest I made my way to the dividing waters between Vermont and New York. I picked up some subway for dinner and headed to a ferry that I would be taking across the water. I made it just in time for the last one across. As I went across I looked back to the mountains where I was riding earlier and they were being pounded by the rain.
The feel of Vermont was amazing, I got the impression that I was in the revolutionary war as I went through the little towns. Each town had their own wooden church that looked authentic to the times. They kind of looked like the towns in the Patriot, and I imagined that there could be hundreds of red coats around every corner. Along with the historic look I ran into a couple of Revolutionary war markers on my way into town. It was great to see this type of history.
After about 10 miles into Vermont the rain started to come, I was soaked within 10 minutes. I tried stopping at houses and asking if I could pitch my tent but was not in luck. I figured since this route was on the Adventure Cycling route people around here were more used to bikers and could be more annoyed. I eventually went to a fire house and asked if I could pitch the tent in their yard. They agreed as long as I picked up after myself. easy enough :).

Trying to dry my cloths, I have
underwear on also...

Once into my tent I peeled off my layers and at my subway. I didn't have to worry about bears so I just ate in the tent. I had a really hard time falling asleep tonight because it was down pouring. I was worrying about flooding in my tent.

The Adirondack

Monday 6/25 Day 66
I had breakfast with Larry and Jenn this morning where we watched quite a few birds at their bird feeder. There was one wood pecker that was hanging upside down under the feeder trying to get out of the rain. I was laughing because I wanted to do the same thing, but I had hope that it would clear up this morning. Sure enough it did. After riding about 15 miles the clouds started to break and it was a beautiful sunny day.
Today I was surrounded by thick forests, I was waiting to see my first bear of the trip, but never got the opportunity. I could have done my ninja camping about 10 feet from the road in these forests because they were so dense. It was hard to see through them. Along with the forests I went through a couple of towns along the lakes. Although they were very touristy they were amazing. It reminded me a lot of Northern Minnesota. On one of the rivers I stopped by I aw a bunch of kids come down on it with tubes. It looked fun, and it reminded me of my times on the Deschutes river in Bend.
By the early afternoon the clouds were rolling in again. I had worries of the same rain hitting me, for the most part I would only ride in a bit of mist today. The great part of riding where I'm at is that there are quite a few campgrounds. And since it was the middle of the week there is nobody occupying them. I stopped ridding around four because the clouds were getting thicker and I went to one of these campgrounds. I had beach front property!
I tucked my bike and tent away in the back of a camp ground so no one could see me if they drove by. It worked really well, some guy and his family drove in just to see the view and he didn't even see me until I came out of the woods. We talked a little about camping.
After he left I made dinner and hopped into bed. During dinner I was thinking about the trip. It is starting to hit me how quick this trip is coming to an end. At this point I only have a few days left. It seemed difficult to think about days where I would not ride my bike. It was nice doing this trip because everyday I would be riding, the only question was how far.
I stayed dry tonight through the rain.

The Mountain Cottage

Sunday 6/24 Day 65
Today was a bit cooler, riding with the clouds settling in. Although it was cooler it would be the beginning of the rain for the next couple of days. Which thinking about it I have to be pretty thankful because I have had such great weather this entire trip.

Went to Mexico today

On my way out of Oswego I met Andrew who had been touring up the east coast and was now working his way over to the west coast. He had been on the road almost the same amount of time that I had. It was fun hearing the storys and sharing possible routes that we could take. While we were stopped there we had a couple people ask if we needed help, even a cop. That was the only time during my trip a cop stopped to see if I was ok. Just little reminders of how great people can be :). After talking about a half hour we headed off.
Most of my ride today was in hilly country with trees and lakes. I was making my way over to the Adirondack Forest. Although the lakes were crowded, the roads were not that crowded. Riding in New York has been great, I'm either on empty roads or the shoulders that I'm on are big enough to fit my bike and me :). I did stop by a lake today and ate my packed lunch that Leanne made me. Nothing beats peanut butter and jelly on the road :). After lunch the rain clouds started massing. They were huge and dark but there was no lightning or thunder. At first I was doing a great job outrunning them and then the rain came from out of no where. I felt a few sprinkles and then looked behind me. I could see the road changing colors as the wall of rain was coming my way. I tried to outrun it, but it caught up with me and I got pretty wet. So I waited under a tree for a few minutes as it passed.

Larry & Jenn's Place

This tactic happend on and off for the next few hours. My last stop was infront of a house where I was tired of riding and being wet. I went up to ask the people that lived there if I could pitch my tent in their yard. Larry answered the door, and he said that I could park in the barn and stay there. Then a few minutes later I was invited to stay in their spare bedroom upstairs and got dinner and a warm shower. I spent the evening talking with them and enjoying some TV. They were very nice, both in their late 80's, they had done quite a bit of traveling in the US.
Right after I had gone inside the rain started and did not let up till after I left in the morning.

Oswego

Saturday 6/23 Day 64
With an early start today I was able to avert the heat a bit. I spent the first part of my day riding on the Erie Canal and then I headed north. Once getting off the canal I was able to see a New York that I had only heard of. Tiny two lane roads that went through the country side and through many farms. The land was so green. Another thing that I started to run into today were the hills. These were not just little bumps, but real hills! I dont think I have had real hills since South Dakota. The other bonus of riding on these back roads was the lack of traffic.
Today I stopped to enjoy Lake Ontario a couple of times, this was the forth Great Lake that I was able to see, only missing Lake Superior. Again in the afternoon I stopped for the Euro Cup Quarter finals game between France and Spain. It was a pretty bad game but the food was great at the bar. The hamburger that I ate was huge. After the game I only had about 20 miles left so it went pretty quickly.

Revolutionary war Soldier

I arrived at my house to find out that I told my hosts I would be there on Sunday and not Saturday. I think when I made the arrangement I thought it was a different day. But it worked out.
Leanne, my host, said it was ok and that I could still stay tonight. So after I took a shower we took a tour of the city of Oswego. We went down to Fort Ontario, the cemetery by it, and the lake. Leanne gave me a great history lesson of the area. I also was able to see my first Revolutionary War grave. I was all giddy because I have not been around US History that came from this era. After the Fort we went down to the harbor to see some older boats.
One that we saw was a tugboat from WW2 that was used to transport ships across the english channel, specifically during the D-day campaign. It was also the only tugboat to shoot down an enemy aircraft during the war. Along with the tugboat we were able to see Christopher Columbus wooden ships. They were remakes of the ships, actually the were floating museums which went around to cities and shared the history with the kids. The crew is volunteers which give at least one month of time. (www.thenina.com). the ships were exactly the same as in the past except for the motor that was required to be on the boat.
After our history tour we went back to the house and made some food and chatted until I went to bed. we cooked with freshly picked garlic which gave a nice smell to my hands for the next couple of days :).

Eire Canal

Friday 6/22 Day 63
This morning I was able to spend some time with Pete and catch up on or ride back north. Pete and his family were headed up to Canada for vacation, and they were going to drop me off close to where I was picked up. Pete and I hope to meet up in July one last time before I head off to Japan.

Original Locks on the right
New ones on the left

Today I spent most of my day on the Eire Canal. It started off going through some of the older locks, so I was able to see that chunk of history. The path was crushed up stones which was not that bad to ride on. Actually this was one of the better paths that I have ridden on, the view was great, the history was great, and it got me out of the big towns.
About halfway through the day I was able to stop and watch the Germans play their quarter finals game, very good game. I was at the bar and became aquatinted with the locals pretty quick. I had a couple of beers on me and some others bought me a few and we all enjoyed the game. I have liked these soccer games during the day, it gives me a good reason to stop and watch TV inside for a couple of hours. It also was also a good chance to cool down and let the heat pass.

Pete & I, we had a hair growing contest
He won the head I won the beard.

My final two hours of riding today were through the city of Rochester NY and like I said earlier I was able to avert riding through the city and this was due to the bike path. It made the travel so much easier than navigating through the city roads. Just outside the city was my host for the night, Gretchen. We made some chicken, salad, bread, and potatoes for dinner. It was really good. we talked for a decent amount of time and then the riding caught up with me. Just about fell asleep while talking. I moved on to bed soon after.

Niagara Falls

Thursday 6/21 Day 62
Tim Hortons. Have you heard of it? Well that is where I went for breakfast this morning. A Canadian fast food chain created by a hockey player and it was pretty good. I went once before with my parents and we got the doughnuts but this time I got a muffin and a breakfast sandwich, Dale and Suzi took me out. It is the place to be in the mornings, a lot of people go there for their breakfast and their morning needs. Once we were full we headed home and started the day.
Today Dale road with me to Niagara falls and showed me a path to the falls that had very little traffic. We stopped along the canal and watched the big cargo ships pass by, man they were huge! I also learned that they were about ready to make the 5th version of the canal a couple years back but then the economy set in and Canada changed their minds. I couldn't immagine any bigger ships going through the area! I enjoyed riding with Dale out to the falls, it was a good change of pace from me riding by myself.
Once we hit the Niagara river we headed north to the falls and the boarder crossing.  As we were going north there were a few battle fields from the War of 1812, and other historical markers along the way that I had to stop at. This year is the 200th year since the war and it has also been 200 years since we have had war with Canada. Once getting to the falls we encountered many people but squeezed through the crowds with our bikes and managed to get a few photos.

Niagara City

This was the second time I have seen the falls, although the first time I was about four or five and I do not remember the experience. It was really impressive to see the amount of water going over the edge, seeing the power of nature. We overlooked the maiden of the mist going up to the falls, and the different walk ways from the US sid and the Canadian side of the falls. At the top of the falls we also saw an old barge that crashed in the 1920's, we saw where the water gets sucked in for the hydro electric plants, and the Niagara rapids. Dale explained how at night time the water that goes over the falls is drastically reduced because they use so much for the power plant, but during the day they are not allowed to divert as much water. They still divert enough so it does alter the way the falls would look if it were natural. He was also telling me how there used to be a fair on the frozen part of the falls in the winter until it collapsed one year. haha I loved all the history lessons.
Dale then took me to the bridge to get back into the USA, and we said adios. Customs was not to bad, the boarder agent responded to me by saying, "Get Out of Here", when he found out what I was doing. But I got through without a problem and explored the east side of the falls. While I was over there I had a few tourists get pictures with me, it was kind of funny.

Dale & I

I was soon picked up by my buddy Pete's dad. This is the Pete that I started off the trip with. I had the opportunity to meet his family and see him, but I had a small window of this night. We went into Buffalo where for dinner we had wings and pizza! We pulled out a map and I showed them where I had gone on my trip, it was a surreal feeling to see how far I have gone and how much I had left. Just hard to believe.
Petes flight was late so we would have to save our reunion for the morning.

Pictures

Pictures are updated since Lambeau field! I will be reaching the coast on Saturday, weather looks good.  I have about 130 miles left!

Need Clear Gold

Wednesday 6/20 Day 61
I woke up pretty early today and topped off four liters of water before rolling out. The goal was to get a big portion of the ride done early before the heat set in. It was suppose to get almost as hot as yesterday. The ride today was very similar, right along the coast on a two lane road. Barely any traffic, lots of windmills, and great views of the lake. One thing that I also saw with the giant windmills where protest signs saying no more windmills, research health concerns. Got me a bit curious about it but the few people that I asked didn't know what that ment. I still need to do some research on it.
Something that I have been missing through these hot times has been ice. Or I like to call it the clear gold of biking. There is something about the substance that makes water so much more enjoyable to drink, it flows right down to my stomach and cools the body from the inside out. Well I missed it.
One thing I did find today were sprinklers for grass, which I ran through and got soaked! helped me stay cool for a little bit, but I dried up in about 20 minuets. The cars were giving me some weird looks when I was running through them, as if I was a homeless person taking a shower or something.
When I was getting close to the end of my day I met my warm shower host Dale on the road and he led the way to his house. It was great because as we went in through the town I got a mini history lesson about the Welland Canal and the different states of it. I didn't even know that this canal existed, but there is still bits and pieces of the older models of it. It is really great to be discovering this part of the country, and this part of Canada :).

The Bridge

Once we arrived at Dale's home we cracked a few beers, well I had two before my shower. They were so refreshing and cold! Just to be in a house with cooler temperature than the outdoors was a relief, it was so dang hot out. The evening was great, Dale made steak and potatoes for dinner. Suzi, his wife, came home and joined us with celebrating the end of the biking day. When it was all said and done I finished four beers for the night, so worth it. We had a great time talking through the evening sharing experiences and life in general. After two hard days of riding I crashed in the bed, knowing it would be a nice mellow day tomorrow.

Oh Canada

Tuesday 6/19 Day 60
From the moment I woke up this morning I had Oh Canada by Five Iron Frenzy going through my head. If you have not heard it, I recommend it, very good song! So after 20 miles along the boarder I made it to Marine City where I would take a ferry for 1$ to Canada!  By the time I made it over...It was hot, and only getting hotter. When entering into Canada I got this hot shot boarder patrol guy who asked me 20 questions in the matter of 1 minute, he didn't even crack a smile.  Someone must have hinted that a terrorist was crossing the boarder today and he thought it was me, on a bike... haha At least I didn't have to do a strip search.
Once in Canada I headed south to the coast. It was a bit out of the way, but I thought I would follow the map that Adventure Cycling put out. This would be the first time that I followed their route this trip but I figured their route would have less cars on it. The first thing that I noticed in Canada was that there were zero shoulders! Through most of my travels through the country I found very few shoulders but the drivers were VERY respectful and I had no troubles. Another struggle I had was when I got off the main highway to the back roads I found it difficult to find food or water. Thankfully I had food that I brought with me. For water I had to stop at a few houses and ask to fill up.

Sunset

One of the places that I stopped was at Toni's house. He was able to help me with water, and he also gave me a steak to cook up for dinner and a phone number just in case I ran into any trouble. Very nice family. haha he tried giving me more food for dinner but I couldn't carry more. That wasn't the only act of helpfulness that I ran into today, about 30 minutes later a kid passed me in the car and did a U-turn and gave me a couple bottles of gatorade. I think somethings just happen in life when you need them the most. I may not have noticed it but I think my body was missing was lacking something, something that wasn't being replenished. I had my gatorade powder that I had been drinking all day because of the heat but there was something about this drink that after having it I felt reenergized. I was very thankful for both of their help.

Camp

As the day wore on it eventually got cooler. I went through a couple of coastal towns that were just breath taking. The Eire lake had some beach property that rivaled Lake Michigan. I road till about nine PM where I pulled over and stopped at a house to see if I could camp in their yard. The man said yes, I never got his name but he came out and chatted with me when I was cooking dinner. Sadly the steak didn't make it through the heat and had already spoiled by the time I made it to camp. I was also able to enjoy an amazing sunset by their lake for the evening. Oh if it wasn't for the heat today would have been perfect.

Off to the Boarder

Matt, Joy, & the kids

Monday 6/18 Day 59
So as a few of you may have noticed I went a different path than the map at the bottom of the page.  I decided to go through Canada since there would be less traffic to deal with. My desired path would basically follow the southern coast of Ontario. Today though, I will be headed to the boarder and stay with Bob, another warm shower host.
This morning I had breakfast with Matt and the family, and then started the day. I followed Matt up north to where he worked. We took the back roads to avert the traffic. The final stretch of roads in Michigan were not to bad, there were enough back roads and enough shoulders to stay safe.  Just like yesterday the rain came and hit pretty hard but this time I stopped and had some lunch. I stayed much dryer :).



Sadly I stopped about two hours before the European Cup was playing so I missed the game today. Even though I was inside waiting for the rain to pass for two hours I headed out right as the game started, poor timing. All the people that worked at the bar were very nice and were great to talk with. It makes me laugh some of the reactions of people when I tell them what I'm doing. The cook was amazed, and told me to "get out". haha, so I did I headed to the boarder.
Funny thing happened when I got to Bob's house. It turned out that I had the wrong address. For some reason Warm showers gave me his old house address haha, so I had about five miles to ride north before the night was over.  It went quick and before I knew it I was in a shower washing off for the day. Oh right before I got to his place I have been perfecting my riding while looking at the GPS, it didn't work out to well. Long story short, at the end everything still works :).
For dinner Bob took me out to dinner where we talked biking, of course. It turns out that he has biked over 109,000 miles around the USA. Trips including, Ride the Rockies and other state rides. He also has amazing maps of all the trips that he has done. Speaking of maps he was able to donate the Erie connector map to me, the next part of my trip across Canada. This gave me the Adventure Cycling route across Canada, I was going to wing it but this will help. Now I just have to deal with the boarder patrol tomorrow morning.

Swimming to Detroit

Sunday 6/17 Day 58
So I sad goodbye to Luke and Megan last night because they were leaving at five in the morning to get back home. It was so nice that they drove so far to see me for such a short time. After a great breakfast my vacation came to an end. I said goodbye to Kenny and Vicky and the girls. I had a great stay. It is so hard leaving sometimes when it is good but at the same times it make the trip easier because I know there are more good hearted people just waiting to be discovered.

Me and the girls

The highlight of today was riding in the rain for a good three hours. This was a steady flow of rain, I had water running off me. I enjoyed it since the water was warm but after a while, when I was about twenty miles out I stopped and took some shelter. When I was there I had rivers of water running off my bike and out of my shoes and off my cloths!
After a call home to wish dad a happy fathers day and waiting for the rain to stop I went on my way. Now I ended up going through he northern part of Detroit. The hope was to bike to the north of it, but I ended up ridding through the northern part of it almost 35 miles north of he city. I found my way easily and for the most part I had bike paths.
When I got to Waterford, the northern part o Detroit, I met my warm shower host Matt. It turned out he was from Fort Collins and moved out a couple years ago. He works at a bike shop so he was very knowledgable. His wife Joy came home a bit later and we all had dinner. In the evening we took a walk around the neighborhood and stopped for some s'mores at one of their friends houses. The area that we were in actually was the vacation homes for Detroit in he 30s and 40s.
I was able to meet Joy's kids later in the evening. Then we stayed up and chatted for a while. I crashed when I crawled into bed it was a great day getting the body back on the bike.

Final day of vacation.

Saturday 6/16 Day 57
So today we woke up and had some breakfast prepared by Kenny. Fabulous raspberry pancakes. The berries were hand picked that morning too. After breakfast we went out back to he ponds on the property. It was weird, when I was younger it seemed like it took forever to get back there in a little vehicle. But today we walked back there in very little time.
Now my plan for the day was to go into Jackson and give them the standard tour with Coney dogs and the dairy. But then I remembered at last minute that they were vegetarians and Megan is lactose intolerant. Ehhh so the plan changed. No dogs but we did go to be dairy. Haha the dairy was great, luke ordered the fudge browny but it was way to much ice cream for him. We also managed to go to toys r us and go see the avengers! Great day!! When we arrived back home Kenny gave me a detailed report on today's soccer games and then we had some dinner followed by cheese cake and early bed.

Oh Kenny also drilled out some screws on my bike that had their heads break off. So now I have a functioning front rack.

The hunters

Friday 6/15 Day 56

One of my hopes while I was up here was to have Kenny show me how to shoot a bow. So this morning we got the target and the bows out. Now Kenny gave me a demonstration of the bow, how to load it and shoot it. He still had pretty good accuracy even though he has not been out for a while. Then it was my turn, it was not to bad to hold. I tried to load an arrow but was unsuccessful. I definitely have no upper body strength. So I could not shoot at all since I could not even cock it back. Haha oh well I will have to practice, or just get a cross bow. My hope someday is to be able to hunt with a bow and be able to skin the animal that I hunt.
We moved on from bows to guns and were shooting the pellet gun and bb gun at a door. It was good times. I was getting pretty good with the pellet gun when it was all done. The bb gun we were shooting was not accurate at all so we spent some time trying to zero in the scope. It didn't help. Kenny's last shot with the bow sent the arrow through the door taking off its fetching. Showed the power of the weapon. We eventually retired to the euro cup and a nap. It was a tough day so far.
In the evening we went down to the airport in mason to see If anything was happening. We talked with a few people then went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We went with Dave and Debbie and their daughter. It was here where I found out Kenny's nick name gammpy or grampy because he is getting so old. I was also told of some good practical jokes played on him. We said our farewells after dinner and headed home for some ice cream.
This evening my good friends Luke and Megan came up to visit me from Indiana. I was so excited to see them! We talked till about 230 in the morning then decided to call it a night. I miss having them around, you can tell true friends when I seems like you can pick up he relationship where you last left it off.

Jackson

Thursday 6/14 Day 55

Kenny & Vicky

Today was Jackson Michigan day, that is where I go to Jackson and do all the things that I did on all my vacations over here in the past. On the list is the Virginia Coney island hot dogs, the dairy, and grandmas house.
We went out for lunch at the Coney island, where they have the best hot dogs ever! They are served with a chile on top them. When we usually come out here we try and go here a couple of times. It was hard getting Kenny to go, he was not a big fan but he was a good sport about it. Afterwords we got some ice cream from the dairy that my dad used to work at, very good. By the time we were done we were stuffed.
We finished off Jackson by driving around the city and seeing the sights. This year it was grandmas old house, it was hard to see all the changes done to it but at the same time it was good to see. We also drove by Kenny's old place and he told me some stories about dad.

The Dairy

In the afternoon Kenny took me over to Dave's to say hi and see the t-6 he was working on. After the shop we went to mason airport and took a ride in the Cessna. Kenny let me fly it for a good twenty minutes, it was my first time flying a plane. It was a good time, I'm ready to take lessons when the price comes down.
Afterwords we put a wing on the wing holder with Dave so he could work on it. He then let me drive his 1942 ww2 jeep that he refurbished. So cool, I was pretty excited to drive it. I drove it down to watch a plane take off and land.



After those two events we called it a night. Fun day.