September 28, 2008: A Visit to the State Fair of Texas
	September 5, 2008: Steve Friedman's Birthday Party
	Return to Index for 2008

For a long time, Fred and I have been considering the idea of making a trip to Acadia National Park in Maine. Our friend Guy grew up near there, and has visited the park numerous times. He counts it as one of the best experiences of his life. Also, our friend Barbara has been there, and she thought the place to be so beautiful as to be spiritual. All of these rave reviews made us want to go there even more. So now that both of us have the free time necessary, we have decided to make the trip. Acadia National Park will be our primary goal, but there will be some other places for us to visit along the way and in New England.

The route we would take and the places we would stop were somewhat in flux when we started out. Hurricane Ike was coming ashore down by Galveston when we left, and we knew that its route would take it up through the Northeastern U.S., and so we tried to keep our options open. Our main goal was to camp in Acadia National Park in Maine, and so we needed good weather for that. We also wanted to visit Canada while we were so close, so we were not sure whether we would do that or the Park first.

In any event, we left Dallas on September 9th, heading towards Atlanta. One of the many things we would do while on our trip was to take some of my Mom's possessions (and her ashes as well) to my niece and sister, and so the first stop we wanted to make was in Atlanta to meet Jeffie and let her select those things that she wanted. We followed a route I'd driven a number of times before- over to Shreveport, LA, and then across Mississippi and Alabama and then into Atlanta on I-20. From Atlanta, we would head up I-85 past Charlotte to stop at my sister's house in Elon, NC.

The next segment of our trip would be a drive up I-95, through Washington and Baltimore, past Philadelphia, through or around New York City, and then across Connecticut and Rhode Island to stop at my friend Tony Hirsch's house south of Boston. I'd arranged with him for a visit, although we were not exactly sure when we started out just when we would arrive there. Once there, we would be analyzing the weather to decide if we would do Acadia first or drive up to Canada first.

As it turned out, we put Canada first on the list and, leaving Tony's, we drove up through Boston and Vermont, crossing into Canada just south of Montreal. We visited Montreal first and then drove northeast to Quebec City to spend some time there. By this time, we hoped that the remnants of Ike would be past, and we could drive south to Bangor, ME, and then from there on into Acadia National Park. We were to spend three full days in Acadia, one of the most amazing places we've been. From Acadia, we drove down the Maine coast to Boston once again, and then headed west on I-90 through Massachusetts, into and across New York State and to our last stop- Niagara Falls.

The final segments of our 5500-mile trip would be south from Buffalo and along Lake Erie, and then south from there past Pittsburgh and on into West Virginia. We drove through Charleston, WV, and then further south to I-81 in Virginia, driving through the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley. Then it was into Tennessee, around Knoxville and over to Nashville, by this time on I-40. From Nashville, we followed the same route back to Dallas that we took when we went to the Dreamland Festival there earlier this year, taking I-40 through Memphis, TN and Little Rock, AR and finally back home.

This was quite a trip, and so I will be organizing it the same way I have organized other major vacation trips in this album- by giving you an index into the various segments of the trip.

Using the Master Index

We took hundreds of pictures and movies while on our trip to New England, so I have had to find a good way to organize them so that they are not simply overwhelming. I'll do what I've done before, and organize them by day and, within each day, by the stop or activity that day.

In the Master Index below, you will find a link that will take you to each day of our trip- in case there is some particular location or activity you want to see. If you want to see everything, of course, just start at the first day and follow the links on each day page to get to the next one. On each daily page there will also be a link to bring you back to this index page so you can continue through the photo album.