Going Home…. Final Thoughts from the Road!

Leaves through the windshield on the way home in the Shenandoa Valley

As we began the 2 day trek to Charlotte on Tuesday morning, I was looking forward to home,  seeing the kids, granddaughters and neighbors, my own bed,.  As I was out walking early in the morning, I ran into Alan our English friend!  They had been in this park for 3 days!  We swapped stories, and realized we’ve been in the same RV parks but on slightly different days for the past week.  They too went up the cog train, but unfortunately a day or 2 before us when the weather was still bad.  They had fun comparing an American York to their English York and visiting Plymouth.  They hope to go into Boston today after turning in their rented RV and before their evening flight.  I told them about the Freedom Trail, Boston Commons, and Quincy Market and we part ways again.

As we settled into I-95, we began to look for a place in Pennsylvania to stop for the night.  After figuring out we’d be near Jonestown, PA, I found a Good Sam Park in Lickdale and called the Kuklentz.  They were actually near there and we agreed to meet up that night.  I was really looking forward to some good bridge, with good friends!  They planned on exploring Amish country until we arrive in camp.  Tuesday night Deb was not disappointed!  We played bridge including a small slam made by the guys to edge the gals out by 20 points and we grilled steak and enjoyed the Amish desserts the Kuklentz had found.  We opened the pinot we got at “Bet the Farm” winery and it was pretty wimpy, especially compared to the zin Dick shared with us!  Hope the others we bought prove to be better!!

Wednesday we caravanned with the Kuklentz to the Shenandoah Valley where we stayed at the Shenandoah Good Sam campground in Vernona, home of the friendly rabbits.  Really!  There were dozens of them scampering all about generally harassing every other 4 legged furry creature campers brought into the park.  It rained all day but we made good time and enjoyed playing bridge again Wednesday night.  Fortunately the rain let up enough for Dave to build his last fire and grill sausages we got in Canada.  We pooled together our food again and both commented that we eat better when traveling in tandem with friends.

On Thursday, as I write this, we are again in rain, but a call to Mollie assures us that the weather is due to improve in Charlotte as the day and weekend stretches before us.  For those of you envying our trip, some of the prettiest leaves we’ve seen have been in the Shenandoah Valley  closer to Charlotte.  Dave has talked to the office several times, and I talked to my sister who returned from a dream trip to Africa yesterday.  We are making the switch to being Charlotte based.

This will probably be my last post until we gear up to go again early next year… We are talking about somewhere warm in January or February, and definitely going out West next spring.    We’ve already gotten out the Atlas and began highlighting places we want to visit… like  Oklahoma City and Bartlesville in OK, the Grand Canyon’s new cantilever, Idaho, and Montana…. I think we will need to narrow the list a little, but that is the fun of it.  Any suggestions?

Here are a few lists we have generated in the last few days:

Observations about our trip I haven’t reported yet….

·         Yankees are surely frugal… they even recycle the names of their towns.  Almost each town would have multiple entries on the maps and  GPS… Conway, Cownay Township, North Conway, Upper Conway, Lower Conway, South Conway… OK.. I’m exaggerating but usually there would be at least 3!! LOL

·         I wonder if a Southern Drawl is as annoying to them as the nasal twang is to us… lol

·         Hurricanes not only cause terrible flooding and damage, but mess up the leaf color!

·         We either needed another week, or tried to do too much in too short of a time.  It would be nice to stay  in a place, not move and really explore an area in more detail.

·         Is RV’ing better than traveling and staying hotels?  Advantages are it is cheaper if you don’t count the original cost of the RV (Dave did the math), you don’t have to pack and unpack clothes, etc., you can fix your own meals and snacks, Dave gets to “tinker”, Jack gets to come with us, but he probably thinks that is a disadvantage, lol, lots of room to store stuff we buy (is this good?) can’t have a campfire or grill a steak over open coals in a hotel room (or shouldn’t!!), we get to take the segways,… talking to folks over a campfire is more fun than talking in the hall or restaurant…..disadvantages…. packing up and moving the RV can be time consuming  and a hassle, (tho it gets faster and faster!), the walk to the shower can be cold if you don’t use the one on board (this involves moving Jack’s box and only 5 minutes of hot water), we’d like to meet up with friends more easily and more often.

·         KOA and Good Sam Parks are like any franchise.  You know pretty much what you will be getting.  KOA is more like a McDonalds and Good Sam more like Applebees.  KOA tends to pack the sites closer together.  They both generally have nice facilities.  Private parks are a crap shoot.  They can be awesome, like the one we had in Montreal or primitive, like the one we had near Luray.  State parks in New England just weren’t an option.  Either they closed before we were there, or they didn’t have good hook ups.  Hopefully we will be able to stay in State or National Parks more when we head west.

·         Yankee roads are awful.  Is it the freeze/thaw? Or budget cuts?

·         The weather really affects the quality of your experience.  Rain and cloudy weather is not good for camping (muddy, yuck!) or one’s disposition.  We really were lucky in that the rain never really kept us from doing anything;  but it did keep us from having the optimal experience.

·         A mouse in the bathroom won’t keep me from going in… but it will discourage taking a shower!

·         When you first start off you explore all of the chotski  shops, but they soon get monotonous and you get more selective!  Though glass art and pottery continue lure me in.

Things we like/work well

·         The foot rest on the passenger seat!  LOL…It keeps Deb’s short legs from dangling and is really comfortable. ·         The Trailer Life Directory is an essential resource along with the computer! ·         All of Dave’s technology, even though it sometimes frustrates Deb sometimes. ·         Meeting interesting people, even those we conclude  we don’t like ·         The new rope lights we bought for the awning.  They attach really easily with the clothespins I packed and give us just the right amount of light to eat by or welcome us back to camp. ·         The walkie/talkies work great when we are backing up the RV or are “closely separated”.  But Dave is getting so good at maneuvering the RV we need them less and less! They also work great when riding in tandem with the Kuklentz. ·         Having the truck with us… gives us a lot more mobility. ·         The antennae works great and we are usually able to get as much TV as we need ·         Dave reports that NUVI or Myrtle would get an A, but only gets a B after his Boston fiasco! ·         Having 3 different ways to access the internet has kept us connected, though it was sometimes frustrating to figure out which one to use when.  RV park internet can be really flaky!! ·         The whole RV really worked well.  We have a list of things to do to enhance it, but they are really minor in the scheme of things.

Frustrations to work on…

·         Most of the light switches require a stool for Deb to reach them!  How can we work on this?  High heesl in the RV?  Dave says he “Ain’t lowering the switches.” ·         My “come play bridge sign” hasn’t worked… but then we haven’t stayed in camp long enough! ·         The lock sticks for me and not for Dave! ·         We need to figure out a way to latch the cabinet in the bathroom better, something routinely falls out when we take off. ·         We get enough TV channels because we don’t watch it much (which is a good thing) but it is a pain to program the tvs every time.

For the next trip… to do/ get list

·         New tires, align front end, service engine ·         Explore/price air shocks ·         Dedicate a 12 volt  system  in the cab for the computer, nuvi, phones, MiFi… etc. ; work on cord management ·         Get a better radio/cd player – we need a better one both in the bedroom and in the cab; maybe a portable one we can move ·         Fix the clock ·         Fix the lock ·         Perhaps put a piece of molding by the stairs to keep things from shifting ·         Work on cabinets and sticky drawers ·         More wine glasses, I broke 3!! ·         Replace stair treads ·         Explore cushioning the rollers on the slides to protect the floor ·         Redesign the console for neater, more convenient storage and cord management ·         Install a magazine rack to coral all of our reading material ·         Get a expandable folder for maps and attraction info we want to keep

The Other Side of the Big Dig

On Sunday, the Big Dig laid havoc with Myrtle, our GPS, on Monday we made peace with it by exploring its other side!

Having previously been to Boston and done many of the “tourist” and history things, we decided to explore the city on our Segways.  We had not used them yet, so it was fun to break them out and roll around  the city.  We drove in and parked near the Aquarium.  When they were putting the big tunnel in that became the Big Dig, they actually created a big ditch that when they filled it back in, became a linear park through the city.  After segwaying around the harbor, it was a pleasant place to explore.  We were able to take the roll over to Quincy Market for a great lunch among the dozens of food places in this mega food court. It is Columbus Day, and it is packed with tour groups and tourists.   We were looking forward to Faneuil Hall but it was closed for two days to accommodate the security and set up for a Bill O’Reilly show…. Damn locked out for Fox News, lol!!  We rolled past Occupy Boston and were struck by many of the creative placards, but were unable to figure out what they were FOR… Back down on the harbor we enjoyed some street performers dancing a la some of the teams on “America’s Got Talent”…. They were good, but need some more practice before they try out!  LOL

We then decided to extend our range and explore the city using the T or subway.  We went over to the Prudential Center and I showed Dave where our niece, Julia, used to live.  We had fun texting her and teasing that her flat was now a tourist stop.  We were thirsty by now, so we took the T over to Boston Commons and found a pub on its edge.  We walked around the Commons for a while and then spied a movie theatre.  Having had our fill in the last month of museums and historical sites, the lure of 2 hours of relaxation and entertainment appealed to us.  George Clooney’s Ides of March was timed just about right , so we settled in.  Actually George’s part is minor compared to the actors around him and while probably not  academy award winning, it was good but with an unsatisfying ending.   We exited refreshed and returned to the T for a few stops to find the restaurant where Allie Wassum made reservations for supper.  Our meal was stellar with oysters on the ½ shell and each of us gets different seafood entrees.  Several beers and a bottle of wine later, we have caught up with them and learned about Kate’s upcoming wedding (her older sister), twittering,  and more of Sam’s work with hedge funds.  We forgot to take pictures; otherwise it wass a perfect meeting!  It is so much fun to see the next generation coming into their own time!

This is the first post I've literally posted "from the road".  I wrote it in the passenger seat and am posting it from the table with the Mi Fi while Dave drives through New Jersey.  I'm 2 pictures short.  I had one of the dancers and another of the park, but I guess I closed down my drop box  connection before they loaded... We are heading home and will begin traveling with the Kuklentz tonight!  Stay tuned...

The Maine Thing

The main thing about Maine is that it’s beautiful and has great food!!!!!

 Saturday was Dave’s brewery day.  We went to both Shipyard and Allagash.  They were both REALLY good, and really different, but I don’t want to steal Dave’s thunder talking about them so check his blog in a day or two.  Suffice it to say, I don’t have to apologize for buying expensive shoes anymore, and I might get some art soon!  LOL

Later in the day we just took off driving.  We were hungry and were tempted by KFC, but Deb had spotted some lobster stands coming up, and with a little bit of patience, we found a great one!  Lobsters for $7.50 plus 75¢ for the butter! We had gotten several suggestions from folks and just took off to explore the Maine coast.  A couple who had followed us from brewery to brewery told us about a good winery about 2 hr up the coast so we headed there.  The little harbor towns are very quaint but as we were driving past Freeport, the home of LL Bean, we were slapped with commercialism.  They’ve turned the whole town into a strip mall.  While Deb was tempted, but parking was awful and we decided to motor on. 

Cellar Door Winery in Lincolnville (near Rockport) was BEAUTIFUL times TWO!  We first encountered the tasting room in town which is in a restored Victorian complete with wonderful stained glass and a curved staircase with compound curve carved out of one piece of wood.  The wines were good and “interesting”… we bought 3.  Then we found the winery down the road and wished we had gone there first, for it was closing.  It obviously also had a tasting room and maybe a restaurant, but it definitely had a VIEW.  The grounds were beautiful with a view of the mountains and vineyards, but it was getting dark and I’m not sure about the pictures.  The woman who started the winery quit the rat race in NYC after a bout with breast cancer.  Does this story sound familiar?  Good for her!!

Then on to Cappys in Camden for clam chowder….The chowder was amazing, though we liked the whole lobster better than the lobster roll and Maryland’s crab cakes are better.  Ouch! I sound like we are getting picky!! LOL….It was a long dark drive home, but it had been a good day.  We said as soon as the “wanderlust” gets out of our system, we need to go and stay in some of our favorite areas for a couple of weeks and really explore, rather than just hit the high spots.  We are finding many places to come back to!

On Sunday we did the Mail Boat Run on Casco Bay. (another suggestion from someone we met)  Even though the mail wasn’t being delivered on Sunday, the boat still made a tour of the islands and the cost was only $15.  The locals use it to transport freight and mail and themselves to the islands and it was fascinating to look in the carts and see what folks were moving…. Antiques complete with dust, craft supplies, old picture frames, rented chairs from a party Saturday night, and lots of folks on bicycles!  Two of the islands have 1 or 2 room school houses so the folks must stay in the cold and snow.  Many are obvious resort areas, and a few house lobster fishermen.  There are many old WWII bunkers and lookouts where the soldiers were housed while patrolling for German subs.  The day was gloriously sunny and warm and the boat ride was so relaxed!  It was a lot of fun….

My previous blog captures our ride between Maine and Boston… if you’re reading this; you’ve probably already gone there… (If not it should be just below)…We made our first campground in the dark.  At one point Deb was holding 2 flashlights for Dave to see to hook things up… she got a fit of giggles when she realized she was holding them like headlights in front of her…use your imagination!!  The couple next door was helpful, if redneck, but we enjoyed talking with them.   They had just bought a used toy hauler and were planning to take it to Harley meet-ups.  When we said we were from North and South Carolina they immediately adopted us, because they loved going to the Bike Week at Myrtle Beach!! 

We haven’t used the segways at all, so we have decided to take them into Boston.  Dave is now an expert at driving into the city and Ben told us about some “cool” greenways that were created during the Big Dig.  We’ve done the history thing before so this should be fun… Stay tuned…

How to watch a Panther Game from your RV… or Deb’s 2 Minute Drill!!

On Sunday the Panthers played the Saints.  We woke up to the Observer headline:  Panther’s Favorite Player Returns as a Saint.  Dave predicts that Kasey will kick a field goal in the last minute to beat us.  At least that was wrong!!  We save the paper to PDF and prepare to go on a boat cruise on Pasco Bay out of Portland, ME.

We were gazing at our 7^th or 8^th island community (see next post) and I get a text from Keith and Diane:  Can we park at your house for the game?... I text and call Mollie to make sure our spot is clear.  During these exchanges I tell both Mollie and Keith and Diane to keep us up on the game via text.   Of course the first text from both of them is about the interception on the first play from scrimmage… yuck.

By half time we have finished our cruise and we are eating lobster at a roadside stand in South Portland.  Everyone around us is trying to get home by 4 to watch New England play.

The Third Quarter finds us in the grocery store buying cat food and coffee…. The staples of life!  Now the game is getting exciting and of course I get TWO texts for every play.  The guy with the cart beside me is laughing his ass off!!

The Fourth Quarter though of course is the MOST exciting and includes DEB’S Two Minute Drill.  We have now re-connected with the RV and are heading toward Boston (between multiple texts)… As we settle in, Dave says, “I wonder if we could get WBT’s live feed?”... OK you have to picture this… There are MULTIPLE STEPS… and between each one, I’m stopping to get more and more texts from Mollie and Diane  or is it Keith, we don’t know for sure.

·         First I have to make my way to the bedroom and find the “MiFi” which is in a drawer that chronically “sticks.”  I’m bracing myself and trying to get it level, to lift up and out as the RV rocks on!… OK… now according to both Keith and Mollie, we just went ahead!

·         I climb into the front seat and turn on the computer and the MiFi.  We are heading into the sun and I keep losing my cursor. Mollie now tells me that the Saints had to punt.  Dave says, “Hurry, Hurry.”

·         I log into WBT and have to launch their program.  We get the cursory ad for CPCC and then it goes blank.  Dave could barely hear it so he hands me yet another piece of technology that runs the speakers of my laptop through the radio… for the uninitiated it looks like a cassette with wires...  I figure this out and WBT has crashed.  We try one more time and surmise that they don’t have the streaming rights for the game.

·         Now we must find another source.  Meanwhile Mollie informs us that we too have punted and the Saints are on their 11.  We try the NFL site… the sun is a real bitch and I can’t find their radio feed.  Mollie now tells us the Saints are 3^rd and 1 on  our 17….I try the NFL site.  There might be a radio feed but I can’t find it in the sun.  I'll let your imagination wander to what Dave is saying during all of this....

·         Keith is first to tell us the Saints score…. Now I’m trying the Carolina Panther site.  No live radio feed that I can find, but we do get the little field that shows us the time and who has the ball, where.

·         Mollie now informs us there is 30 seconds left and we have the ball midfield.  But my little field on the screen shows us going backwards.

·         Mollie is first to inform me of the loss, with Keith less than 1 minute behind.

·         We try the WBT live feed for the  post game show and sure enough it pops right up, and now works perfectly.  We listen to it until the battery dies on my computer. 

·         I AM EXHAUSTED!!  (and Mollie and Keith and Diane have thumbitis from texting so much!  Thanks guys!)

I recover while Dave pulls over at an empty weigh station to talk to Ben (yes, he is still workin!), and climb up to plug my computer into the transformer.  Meanwhile  poor Myrtle (our GPS) goes (to quote Dave) “ape-shit” in the “Big Dig” and has taken us into downtown Boston.  As I write this, we just passed the “Occupy Boston” tent village!!... Maybe we should join them, we have a hell of a big tent!...

Stay tuned….

A Train to the Top of the World….

…or at least the top of New Hampshire!  As we drove into New Hampshire on Thursday, we immediately saw more color in the trees.  In hindsight we wish we had planned 2 days here, but as we make the turn South our “extra days” are limited.  Several folks had told us how cool Woodstock was, so we drove there for supper.  The brew pub we chose was less than spectacular, but the drive there was.  As we reviewed the maps and “what to do propaganda” we discovered there was a cog train to the top of Mount Washington.  The tickets for the steam train were gone, but there was room on the 9:30 bio-diesel.  After talking to the folks on the phone, we found out they even had RV parking, so I followed Dave up the mountain in “Bessie” and he parked with no problem. 

The train ride and views were AWESOME!!  This is the oldest cog railway in America, (Do you know the difference between a railway and a railroad?… our guide told us!) and it has some of the steepest grades imaginable!  One of the trestles is called Jacob’s Ladder and is a 33% grade and is 30 feet high and has a hairpin turn incorporated in it!  The train goes by the Appalachian Trail several times and you could see the cairns marking the trail.  We thought about Richard and wondered if he attempted it or part of it when they visited.  We took our pictures at the top by the trail marker, but only climbed a small pile of rocks to get there.  But don’t laugh!... it was cold and windy and Deb’s knee made it, so let me be proud!  We laughed and said it would be a good picture/advertisement for Dr. Supprock, my orthopedic surgeon!!  We had glorious weather for this trip, on the mountain that boasts the “worst weather in the world.”  It was bright and sunny, if “brisk” (27 degrees) and windy (gusting at 60, steady at 45 MPH!!)  The views were amazing.  Our guide told us they are renaming one of the mountains in the presidential range (Washington, Madison, Monroe, Franklin, Adams, Eisenhower, Jefferson and Clay…).  Since Clay wasn’t a president (tho’ a NH Revolutionary hero), they are renaming his mountain in 2012 to become Mt. Reagan.  We can only speculate on the controversy that kindled and wonder how they will handle Franklin.  We looked it up and NH is renaming it but the Fed’s will still recognize it as Mt. Clay.  Glad nobody lives on it!! LOL Here are some pictures from our trip:



The engine pushes the car up and helps break it coming down but they are not attached!





Pretty view with Steam Train ascending the mountain in the distance





At the Top!



The drive to our campsite in Maine was a trial.  First Dave and “Myrtle” took a shortcut on Dawson’s Path which proved to be one of the prettiest drives we’ve taken so far.  But the path was only one lane wide and we were nervous about meeting another fool in a RV towing a truck!  LOL.. we met several cars, but luckily always where we could stop and they could get by.  When we got to the “real” roads, they were not better, and we rocked and rolled all the way to Maine.  Before leaving NH we stopped at Moat Mountain Brewery and Restaurant for some of the best food and beer on the trip!  It was suggested by the couple we met RockArt Brewery.  We are finding that is the best (and occasionally the worst, but usually not) way to find good food and beer!  Upon arriving at our campsite in Maine, Deb went off to wash clothes (we have been out that long!) and Dave wrestled with the awning and broken glass from things falling during our shaky trip!  The couples across the road had a good fire and were congenial.  We drank wine and shared stories of going out west.

By the way a railway is less than 14 miles, and a rail ROAD is 14 or more. 

Off to find good beer and lobster in Maine… Stay tuned...

I L♡VERMONT

 This logo has been on signs and T Shirts everywhere.  But my favorite T Shirt was in a liquor store of all places:   It said: “ I didn’t do it.  Nobody saw me do it.  I want to talk to Grandma” !  I texted this to Emily and asked her if I should buy it, and she replied “No but get the tattoo for her forehead”.  LOL …Our last few phone calls and IM’s with her have all been about potty training Abbie. Only a Grammy who is a child developmentalist can delight in “poop phone calls”!

 Vermont is definitely quirky.  Dave and I said it is similar West Virginia but more sophisticated.  They both have beautiful scenery everywhere with no large towns.  In fact they pride themselves on this!  Vermont is “yuppie” and WV is "red neck" which is a term of endearment in NASCAR country!  Vermont has B&B’s and Antique stores everywhere.  And we’ve noticed a new landscape feature.  The houses still have few foundation plantings but they really like their green grass and lawns!  Some of them are amazingly large to be obviously cut with lawnmowers.  One even had words cut into it!!

After exploring Waterbury and Stowe on Tuesday, we decided to do a “grand circle” of the Green Mountains.  The weather cleared as we went through the day and the sunshine definitely helped the color and our dispositions!!  We went to downtown Montpelier, the state capitol.  It is only a little bigger than Newberry, but with a huge legislative building with a gold dome!!  We did a “drive by shooting there”… ie. We drove by and rolled down the window and did a quick camera shot!  We did stop on the little Main Street and explore a craft shop and liquor store (see above!  LOL).  Dave bought maple liquor.

Next we went to Barre to The Rock of Ages.  This is one of the largest granite quarries in the world.  The sheer face that they are currently cutting is over 600 feet.  They took us out to it on a school bus and our narrator, said they could cut at the current rate and not run out of granite for 4500 years!!  What I found most amazing was that only about 30 people work in the quarry and about 50 or so on the production floor. Some of the sculpting and sandblasting was amazing!

By now the sun was really out (sunglasses required!) and we began to wander the lanes and backroads.  The find of the day was the Rainbow Café in Marshfield..  The owner/baker was this quirky guy from Brooklyn who made meat pies and pastries to rival those we had in Europe!  He was proud of them too.  Though we were the only ones in the 6 table café, he had us sit at a “best table of the house because it had the best view”… facing the pastry display.  He suggested (demanded! LOL) that we take a route through the Groton State Park and Peacham (he declared there is nothing there, but you have to go there, just like the rest of Vermont!).  We decided to follow his advice and the drive proved to be spectacular with waterfalls, a lake, covered bridges and terrific leaf spattered lanes.  It was now 6 hours into our “2 hour tour”  (to quote Gilligan!)… so we decided to skip Cabot Creamery and find a brewery in Morrisville.  The Rock Art Brewery was like the leaves so far… good, maybe great, but not spectacular yet. They had 7 brews and a barley wine that Deb liked but Dave claimed was just a beer.  We tasted with a fun couple from Maine who gave us several other breweries and eateries to visit in New Hampshire and Portland.    We headed back to Stowe, short of the White Mountain drive, but ready to grill a steak by a campfire. 

The next morning we awoke to very light scattered frost on the large grassy field and very poor internet which inspired us to get up and take the White Mountain loop before breaking camp.  (Without the Observer what else could we do?  LOL)  We saw the famous Stowe ski slopes and chalets around Mt. Mansfield along with  a Parkway-type drive through Smugglers’ Gulch.

On to New Hampshire… stay tuned.

Southerners in Yankee-land!

The rain hasn’t kept us from doing anything yet.  It seems to miraculously stop every time we set up or break up camp and it slows or stops while we are at events.  About the only activity we haven’t been able to do because of rain is burn the “deal” we got on firewood by the side of the road in NewYork and enjoy grilling outside. BUT some sunshine would definitely brighten both the leaves and our dispositions!!!  Please don’t comment about how sunny it is in Charlotte… I do hear its cold, though… but please comment… we wonder… is anyone reading these blogs?

As we were pulling into the campsite in Burlington Sunday, a couple in a rented RV waved and walked by.  They are visiting from England and seemed nice.  Later when we came in from supper, (in the pouring rain!) I told David to stop by their RV and I’d invite them over for wine.  We had a very nice evening talking to them and polishing off 2 bottles of Paso’s best.  I had been hungering to “talk to peoples” (to quote my granddaughter) and this was a pleasant evening.  It was fun to hear Alan’s frustration of driving a large vehicle on the “wrong” side of the road, and we shared campsite possibilities in Boston and New Hampshire.  They have a thirtysomething daughter still living with them, though she is engaged and saving for a house, so we share empty nest stories.

In between arriving and wine, we stomped around the Shelbourne Museum.  Wow it is BIG and well done!  After the Kellys description, we expected a couple of barely cleaned up “picker” barns, not the Vanderbilt- funded site we found.  Our tickets were good for 2 days and we needed an extra day to even scratch the surface.  This collection of 28 buildings is dedicated to all things Americana.  There is a circus building with thousands of miniatures, a carousel building,  a complete side driven steam paddle boat, 7 or 8 art museums, a special exhibit of clothing (but nothing like Jean Paul!!!) , a re-creation of their Park Avenue apartment, and that is just what we could get in from 3-5 pm on Sunday.  On Monday we went back and split up to “divide and conquer”… but every time we would meet we would have to take the other person to see what we had seen on our own!!  You might want to check out their website at http://shelburnemuseum.org/explore/collections/ .  I sent Bryan a post card and said it would be a great resource for an American History paper.  Dave has more pix on his blog.

Having had enough of history and museums we stopped and wandered through a contemporary furniture store.  Luckily for Dave we don’t “need” anything right now… but we tried out a few sofas, coffee tables, and a great lamp.  Deb wrote down the name of a few accessories she might search on the internet.

On Sunday night we searched out a brew-pub for supper.  The Farm House Tap and Grill had a beer selection that was like a book!  We had some very good beers and I had a lamb hamburger with grilled apples and goat cheese.  All of the food was locally sourced and very good.  Dave said the concept was similar to his ideal: really good beer and really good food.  On Monday we visited Magic Hat.  They’ve been bought out by Genesse and have gotten commercial… but their Circus Boy Hefferweisen  and IPA are still outstanding.  Deb especially liked the taster glasses.

Dave was able to build a fire and grill sausages Monday night, but as soon as we finished eating and settled down with feet propped on the fire ring, the drizzle started again!  Four young men from Germany have moved into the British couple’s site, so I might get to “talk to peoples” again, but with this rain, I doubt it... I'm not about to offer beer to a bunch of German twentysomethings!

A few comments on the local “cultures” we’ve experienced…

·         Many of the houses from NY through Montreal and even here in Vermont lack foundation plantings.  It distinguishes the architecture as much as anything.  Is it because of the cold?

·         Vermont is very “green conscious”.  Solar panels everywhere and a few windmills.

·         Understanding French in Montreal was definitely a barrier (and my French has eroded in the last 30 years !  I couldn’t remember many of the basic words or syntax), but unlike Paris, everyone we met was very nice and would switch to English as soon as they heard us speak.

·         Next time I’ll bring about ¼ of the clothes I’ve crammed into drawers and the closet.  I basically need 2 pairs of jeans and a variety of tops.  My best purchase has been a rain jacket with a hood.  My lined raincoat has been too heavy and this one is “just right”… and was on sale in 1000 Islands!

·         Today we observed a Vermont mail carrier:  socks, TEVA’s, shorts, postal shirt and a knitted toboggan!

·         There are no billboards in this area, but before every intersection are street type signs with several businesses named on them:  “Costco ½ m.>”…. We wonder what they pay to be included.  It does keep the environment clean and quaint.

·         I wondered about the derivation of the term “Yankee”.  According to Wikipedia (Bryan, this is NOT an approved source for your papers!) it probably comes from the Dutch “Jan Kees” meaning John Cheese… or slang for the Dutch who made cheese in the area.  Linguists generally dispute the theory that was Cherokee for “white man who takes our land and brings diseases”, though that is a popular theory.  I like this the best:

·         A humorous aphorism attributed to E. B. White summarizes these distinctions:

·         To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.

·         To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.

·         To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.

·         To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.

·         To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.

·         And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

Tomorrow we move to Stowe and will pass by a cheese factory and Ben and Jerry’s… stay tuned!....