Aurora tour takes Kells to the ‘4th Dimension’

Aurorans Tom and Patti Kell not only visited 15 other towns named Aurora and saw many beautiful and historic sights in their looping trip to Maine and back at about this time last fall, they also met many interesting people, several of whom had some connection to Nebraska. 
“People across the country are friendly, helpful, and interesting,” Patti wrote in her travelogue. “While camping in Maine, I ran into a lady who had been to Doniphan while her son was trap-shooting. And a campground host in West Virginia was heading to North Platte in a few weeks to visit his son, who had recently transferred there with the railroad.”
Having visited East Aurora and Aurora, N.Y., during the third week of their travels, they headed across New York toward their next Aurora stop in Maine, which was the far eastern end of their journey. 
Setting out on Thursday, Oct. 9, they drove through the cities of Syracuse and Albany, N.Y. and then on to Springfield and Worcester, Mass., to camp at Wells State Park near Sturbridge. 
Noting that this was the only campground they encountered during our trip with no utility hookups, Patti said it was a cold camping spot in the early October chill. 
“The campfire felt good,” she observed. “And we used our camper furnace. While in the area we visited Old Sturbridge Village, a great living history re-creation of an 1830s New England town.”
Leaving there on the 11th, they skirted Boston during Columbus Day three-day-weekend traffic and thankfully encountered no problems. Then they traveled through New Hampshire and across Maine to Timberland Acres RV Park near the town of Trenton. 
“The campground was full with many people who had been there all season, it appeared,” Patti wrote. “On the way there, a waitress warned us that a nor’easter (A cyclone storm named for the strong northeasterly winds that blow from the northeast onto the coast as the storm tracks northeastward) was headed our way, but it ended up just skirting our area.”
When they reached the village of Aurora located about 35 miles from the Atlantic Coast, they found the town seemed to be spread out for miles along the highway. With a population of just 93, they learned that, like other Auroras, it was also named after the Roman goddess of dawn.  
“We ate at a roadside café and talked to the owner and his wife,” Patti wrote. “He was from North Dakota and had worked at a Scooters coffee shop. He remembered driving to Omaha for supplies.”
Along the way they encountered beautiful red fields that they discovered were blueberry bushes after harvest and pruning. 
“They rivaled any other fall colors of the trip!” Patti recounted. “We visited Acadia National Park and drove up to the peak of Cadillac Mountain. It was cold, cloudy and foggy because of the nor’easter, but still offered impressive views.”
Unfortunately, a planned catamaran boat ride had to be canceled because of the storm.
After the stop in Aurora, Maine, and with cold weather coming on, it was time to head back west and south toward the next Aurora in West Virginia. Starting out on Tuesday, Oct. 14 the Kells headed for Nickerson Park Family Campground near Chaplin, Conn. They, of course, had to go by way of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts and managed to successfully skirt the city of Boston for a second time. 
“A pretty campground, with a beautiful little river running along the edge of it,” Patti wrote of the Connecticut camping spot.  
Leaving there on Oct. 15, they drove through Connecticut passing north of New York City, en route to Pioneer Campground near Laporte, Penn.
“This campground LOVES Halloween!” Patti wrote. “It is a big campground with decorations galore!” 
They then drove south along the Susquehanna River. They thought the river was beautiful, noting that it is commercially non-navigable due to large rocks (part of what make it scenic) and rapids. 
Obviously traveling so far on a zigzagging route over the course of a several weeks can be a little disorienting, and Patti wrote at this point in their travels, “After leaving Pennsylvania, I am not sure where we were. We drove through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and back to West Virginia on our way to Lost River Campground near Lost River, W. Va. This is a part of the country that is in the fourth dimension, as far as I am concerned!”
“We drove 74 miles on steep, winding scenic roads to Aurora, W. Va.,” she recorded. “Aurora was developed as a resort area in the late 1800s. The name was suggested because of the town’s high altitude. We ate at a local café and talked to our waitress about Aurora, then visited Cathedral State Park, which has West Virginia’s largest old-growth forest.”
The day after visiting West Virginia’s Aurora (pop. 200), the Kells took a “short cut” from the campground to Romney, W. Va., where they again met up with their son, Brian, who had driven down from Pittsburgh, Pa. to meet them. 
“The ‘short cut’ got narrower and steeper as we went,” Patti wrote, noting there were several places where a house was on one side of the road at its barn was on the other side with the barn roof overhanging the road. “Around one bend with that sort of layout, the owners were sitting in lawn chairs IN THE ROAD, having a cup of coffee. We drove around them and waved.”
Upon arriving in Romney, they learned the town had changed hands roughly ten times during the Civil War.  
“We went on the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad and saw lots of bald eagles in the ‘river trough,’” Patti recalled. “We ate supper at Mack’s Bingo Kitchen in Wardensville, W. Va., which is an amazing high-class restaurant in the middle of nowhere!”