8/30/08 -Akwesasne, NY-Akwesasne Mohawk Casino

Captain’s Blog
8/30/08
We were up bright and early at 6 AM putting the last minute items into the RV. Jewel was confused because we are not usually up that early (except Friday’s). When we were ready to leave we had to coax her out of the house. She readily hopped into the RV and off we went.

We decided to head to Ontario via Vermont. The traffic was light going through Boston and the ride through the mountains was spectacular. There were dark clouds and a mist that hung in the air giving the sky an ethereal appearance. The trees are just beginning to have a hint of color in the higher elevations and looked like a colorful canvas ready to bloom.

We stopped at a rest area in Vermont that was recently built and is very impressive. In the building there is an arboretum with some HUGE plants that are being grown from recycled septic system water. The flowers and plants seem to like it!!! There is also a really beautiful Vietnam Memorial at the rest area. It was the first memorial dedicated to the Vietnam Veterans in the US. The Eternal Flame on the outside wall of the Memorial is very touching.

We took the road less traveled through Vermont into New York and the ride was great. We drove along the shores of Lake Champlain. The lake is huge as were some of the homes on the shore of the lake. We stopped at a rest area on Lake Champlain and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the views.

Jewel has been a little nervous today. I guess she is out of her element traveling in an RV. She has been very good and easy to travel with. We do get our exercise walking her every time we stop for a break.

Around 3 PM I noticed that the food in the fridge was not cold and the food in the freezer was defrosting. The lights were on indicating that the refrigerator was functioning
but the temp inside was a cool 57 degrees!!!!! Not so good. We cleaned out the mechanism and checked to see if the gas was on – all OK. We’re not sure what the problem is. Of course its’ a holiday weekend so nothing is open. Ron thinks the problem is a faulty thermostat since everything else checks out. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Dometic refrigerators have a rep for faulty components.

We were on the road for 9 hours and stopped at Akwesasne Mohawk Casino around 6:30 PM. RV’ers are allowed to park overnight - so we did. We also did the perfunctory visit to the casino but as usual we did not drop a dime. Back to the RV and set up for a nights sleep. We were able to put both our slides out which made for a comfortable night.