23 Aug - My Mom's Birthday, At Tree Farm Campground near Springfield VT

23 Aug
Wilma's birthday today.  She would have been 91 years old.  RIP mom.  That also means it is my birthday tomorrow!

Today we packed it up at Ernie and Rhonda Southers and headed down I-95 and then west through New Hampshire to Vermont and Tree Farm Campground, our 21st campground on this adventure. The route shown on the map above is incorrect.  We took I-95 south into New Hampshire, then west on 101 to Manchester, I-89 to Lebenon and finally  I-91 south to Springfield.  Pulling this big rig I like to stay on wide, four lane roads whenever possible, even when it means a few extra miles.

Goodbye Maine!!

Hello New Hampshire!

Hello Vermont!

Beautiful scenery from New Hampshire and through Vermont.

A rest stop in Vermont.  Green Mountains in the background.

We arrived at Tree Farm Campground after a snafu with the GPS (##%$@@#?!!).  You do not want to make mistakes dragging a "Condominium on Wheels" behind you.  Somehow we ended up in a residential area with narrow streets and a small radius cul de sac.  Through my skillful driving (LOL) we maneuvered out of there and got back on course.  A few minutes later we found the campground.  Tree Farm campground reminds me of many of the State Parks, however this is privately owned.  The pathways are narrow and surrounded by beautiful trees.  Nice for the eyes, but terrible to try to insert a 42 ft long fifth wheel RV into!!  Well, we got the job done without any damage to the trees or the fifth wheel!  It is a really nice place, calming and peaceful with tons of shade.

A little snug between the slides and the trees.

Plenty of room, yeah....

My dad would have said, "Ah, I could have driven a semi into that spot!"  Well, we are nearly as long and wide!!

Very nice!

Truck parked along the back of the RV

 

Very tall trees here.

 CMSgt (ret) Kenui Balutski was with us in Iraq and he retired not too far from here.  We hope to hook up with him while we are here.  Otherwise, we don't have a ton of plans.  We need a little relaxation time before we move on.  Our travels have been pretty hectic with not a lot of down time.  OBTW, we have WiFi at the camp spot, so here I am at the picnic table knocking it out!!  Yeah!

22 Aug - Goodbye Aroostook County, Overnight in Ernie Souther's Front Yard

22 Aug

Today at about 0830 hrs we departed Arndst Campground and Aroostook County and headed south to Ernie Souther's house near Livermore Falls Maine.  We disconnected the water, sewer, satellite and electric connections in a downpour and loaded up to depart, so we got soaked.  We arrived at Ernies about 2 pm, having driven 265 miles.

He offered to let us park the RV in his front yard and camp there overnight while we are enroute to Vermont, and we took him up on it.  Ernie and Rhonda Souther have a beautiful place in the country, surrounded on both sides (from a distance) by relatives.  There is such a Souther history that the road he lives on is named Souther Road!

Geese in the field across the road.  The sun is setting quickly.

A view from his deck of his boiler shack (left).

Nice view off the back deck (fire pit behind the four-wheeler)

Nice!  His land goes all the way back and part way up the hills.

His boiler stack and a hill in the background

A view down Souther Road towards Livermore Falls.

A view the other way down Souther Road

The RV is parked in the old driveway they used before he built his garage to the left

Got a lot of looks from his relatives as they drove by!!

Ernie and his relatives are tree farmers.  He owns the land to the back of his property including the trees on the hills.

Unique hand rail on the stairs to his rear deck, made from a sapling

Sun setting on the forest he owns behind his property.  Gorgeous!

The wood-fired boiler he uses to heat his house and heat his water.  Endless supply of fire wood here!  

A small part of Rhonda's fabric she uses to sew and quilt!!

Wow, there is no end to it!!  Much more in boxes and closets.

 Rhonda fixed us a nice supper and then we migrated to the fire pit and relaxed around a camp fire.

Ernie and Rhonda have treated us like royalty and we can never begin to repay them for their thoughtfulness and hospitality.  Ernie has stopped when passing through Des Moines on two different occasions in the past few years.   Ernie and Rhonda both traveled all the way from Maine to Camp Dodge to attend my retirement ceremony last year.  Ernie and his son's friend traveled down to Boston, toured Fenway Park and attended a Boston Red Sox game with us. They came down to the campgrounds and took part in the festivities when Brad & Beth Herren and Armand & Lorie Lambert camped there with us a couple weeks ago.  They brought fire wood down for our camp fire and then escorted us over to the coast to visit some lighthouses.  They also fed us when we all visited their house before leaving for Bar Harbor.  We have had such a great time with them and reminiscing about our years at Loring from 1974-1977.  I am so glad we have been able to maintain contact with them over the years and that we had the opportunity to travel to New England and see them this summer.  Thanks, Ernie and Rhonda!  You guys are the best! Hopefully we will see the Red Sox and Cubs in the World Series and next year we can arrange a get-together at Wrigley Field!

 

Tomorrow morning we will pack it up and head for Vermont!

21 Aug - Last Day at Loring Open House, Trolley Ride to Munitions Storage, Packing it Up

21 Aug
Today was the last day of the Loring Open House/Reunion.  We showed up at 08:30 to board the trolley and it departed at 09:00, so we had a few minutes to tour.

An old train car that pushed snow, which got VERY deep up here!

Well, our trolley showed up and we boarded and headed towards the old MSA (Munitions Storage Area) which is located on the Southwest side of Loring Air Force Base.  The MSA was completely off-limits and very tightly guarded when we were here because they stored conventional and nuclear weapons there.  Now that Loring is closed down, they are transforming it into a wildlife preserve.  It is normally located up but the gates were open today for visitors to see.  The old munitions storage bunkers are still there, but of course empty.

Our tour guide used to be stationed here and worked in the "bomb dump", so he was very knowledgeable of the area.

A munitions bunker where the conventional and nuclear weapons were stored.

Inside one of the munitions bunker building.

 

Where the Tritium fuses were stored, separate from the bombs.  Made to look like a regular building from overhead surveillance.  They even installed glass to make them look like windows.

Another bunker.

A defensive fighting position

 After our tour of the MSA concluded we drove around a bit more.

The commissary building

The Base Exchange (BX)

 So we said our farewells to Loring and headed back to the RV to start our tear down and pack process.  On the way we stopped to photograph this beautiful farm.  This is typical of what they looked like when we were here.  All of the buildings were interconnected so you did not have to go outside in the winter.

This is as close as Doreen got to a moose!

Loring, it was fun, but southbound we go tomorrow.  Overnight at Ernie Southers then to Vermont and westward towards Iowa.

20 Aug - Loring Open House Day 1, Revisit to Transmitter and Receiver Sites, Banquet

20 Aug
Today we headed out for a big day at Loring, the first day of the open house/reunion.  We are also trying to wrap up our picture taking as time will start drawing short in the next couple days.

Our first stop was back out to the transmitter site where I worked for three years, from 4 Jan 1974 to 3 Mar 1977.  Satellites changed a whole lot is both military and civilian communications, and I suspect it was satellite communications that doomed the Global HF Command and Control Network
that Loring Airways used to play such a key part.

A little history:  This site was formerly the  Loring Nike Integrated Fire Control (IFC) Site L-58C.

L-58C was active from September 1957 to June 1966 when it was transferred from the Army to the Air Force. It was then converted to Loring Airways, Scope Control Transmitter Site as part of Strategic Air Command's GCCS (Global Command & Control System) and operated as such until the mid-1990's. Loring AFB closed in 1995 and it then was transformed into an FAA ARSR-4 long-range radar site, designated "J-63" to restore radar coverage lost when Caswell AFS (Z-80) closed 1 July 1980. It is also used by the Air Force and NORAD as part of the Joint Surveillance System for NORAD.    So that is a whole lot more than you probably wanted to know about the "site".

This is what the site looked like in 2005, after it had closed, but before the FAA put their radar in there.  The building on the right was a generator.  The building on the left was out building, that housed the transmitters and the control equipment.  To the far left you can see the fence that surrounded our basketball/tennis court, which was here from the days it was a Nike Missile site.

The transmitter building

The transmitter building in 2005

The same angle today.  You can see some of the trees remain

This is what is there today

 

The rest of the site has been designated a National Wildlife Refuge and is off-limits.

Then we drove over to the Receiver Site, which remains pretty much intact except the equipment is gone.

The road is a little rough, but usable.

The Receiver Site building, pretty much like it was when I was here except run-down.

The equipment room

One of the patch panels we used to use.

The coaxial cables still enter the building.  The antennas are long gone.

We then headed on-base and toured around there a bit.  

The main gate.  Abandoned.

The sign at the entrance to Loring now.  

The road to the ski slope.  You can see straight ahead at the far end.

Defense Accounting and Finance Service (DFAS) occupies the old hospital building.  This is where our daughter Michelle was born, but there have been a couple of hospital buildings at this site since she was born.

Maine Forestry Service helicopter here for the open house.

Inside the Heritage Center.  Many items on display.

 The Loring AFB Fire Department was officially decommissioned today.  A ceremony was held and their flag was furled and turned over to the Heritage Center.

 We had lunch and then headed down to the flightline to watch for the B-52 and KC-135 fly-over.  They could not land but they did coordinate a fly-over.  While we were waiting we entered the old Crash-Fire-Rescue building to look at some of the remaining apparatus.  None of it is in service of course.

Doreen standing next to a P-15 tire.

P-15 Pumper.  Largest in the inventory.  2400 gallon per minute pump.  Carries 6100 galloms of water and 515 gallons of firefighting foam.  This is a beast!

The Air Traffic Control Tower.  Abandoned.

The KC-135 refueler, same as we use at Sioux City, was from the 101st Air Refueling Wing at Bangor ME.

The B-52H bomber from Minot ND.

The old station, dilapidated as is the apparatus.  What a waste.

The old alarm room.

The iconic Loring Arch hangar.

Me, spoting my 2192d Communications Squadron hat given to me by Ernie Souther at my military reunion a year ago

 

Doreen and I with the arch hangar in the background.

Back to the campground to change clothes for the banquet.  The banquet was held at the Caribou Convention center.  There were about 125 or so in attendance.  The colors were posted, the Air Force Song sung, loud and proud I might add, a nice meal was served and some guest speakers spoke.  It was a nice ceremony with a DJ to follow but we did not stay around for the dance.

Doreen's quilt was displayed for all to see.  Most everyone huddled around and took pictures.  many had never seen a Command Chief stripe before.

Guest speakers.

Me and the only other Comm Squadron guys there.  He was there 1971-1973, just before I arrived.