Vermont Scenic Byways

...............If you  have toured Vermont in the autumn, you understand the amazing beauty of it.  The hills of blazing color.  The round two-hundred year old barns.  rolling countryside, every turn more beautiful than the next.

If you haven't toured Vermont in autumn, please put it on your 'bucket list.'

I'm just sayin'...........

Mt. Mansfield

Smuggler's Notch area

 

Leslie's amazing photo under the chair lift at Smuggler's Notch

 

 The source of the best caramel apples ever.........

and the best breakfast, where the waitress did NOT call us' honey'

Written at Rhonda's, in Hamilton, Alabama

We promise to catch up!

           RJ

East, West, which is best.........

This next leg of our trip  took a last minute (and happy!) turn. 

 Instead of turning left, and heading west, we turned right from Connecticut, and drove out to Cape Cod, to meet Celeste and Mike for a great day together.  Sunshine, light breeze, great company!

 We walked around the shops of Provincetown, had a delicious dinner at the Lobster Pot, celebrated their 7th anniversary with them, and had the chance to see the end of the mythical Highway 6, there in Provincetown.  Too fun!  

Ok, I just had to put in one picture of an ocean bird.

Breakfast at the Pancake Man in the morning together, and then off again, now actually west, to Middletown, NY.  There we had lots of laughs and a great dinner with Guy and Liz Cook, Bryan’s dad and step-mom, and his Grandma Joyce at the Olive Garden.  

And set off in the rain for...........

.....................Douglassville, PA.................

............. to spend a couple of days with Leslie’s family, sisters, nieces, nephew.  Here’s the birthday  (Leslie, Emily, and Olivia)  dinner at P.F. Chang’s.  Yes, we have been eating very well!

A great time was had by all!  Thank you, Rick!

Written in Virginia Beach, VA               RJ

Powerlessness

One thought floats through my mind as I think of the places that resonated deeply with me on this trip. It is, weirdly, powerlessness. For me, the wild places and the least urban have caught me in their beauty. In these places we walk closer to the edge of life and death. In the cities, we think we can avoid danger: look both ways, stay out of the “bad” neighborhoods, cross the street when a lone dogs approaches. It is an illusion, but one that is reinforced every time we return home safely.

Then there are the really wild places: Mt Whitney, Yellowstone back country, Grassy Bay in Algonquin Park, Mt Kilauea on the Big Island. In these places, a quarter mile hike or canoe trip takes you into a space far fewer people go. Leave the roads and the wild nature of the earth becomes immediately evident. The boiling pots in Yellowstone, the smell of sulphur vents, walking the edge of scree, or seeing the clouds blow a lightning storm in over your head. I am truly powerless in those moments. I can take the next right step, I can hope my intuition leads me to the best action but the outcome is really completely outside of my control.

The in between spots can lull me with their beauty. Vermont is one such place. Perhaps few would call it wild. It is certainly agrarian. At this time of year, it is breath taking. 

But not too long ago it was a terrifying place. In late August Nine inches of rain fell from Irene’s clouds in less than 24 hours. And as someone said, 9” is a lot on flat land, but in the mountains, it flows down and becomes and immeasurable amount of water. As we drove over HWY 4 in early Oct., nearly  5 weeks after Irene, the stream that is usually about 2 feet wide and 6 inches deep took this house off it's foundation.

One of the folks we ran into said that they sat out the storm and were very grateful at the end, thinking they made it unscathed. Then turning left at the end of the driveway their neighbor's home. Gratitude tinged with the awareness that it could have been them, too.

Vermont has many covered bridges and when the GPS said turn right on our way to the next one, we nearly did. Good thing thing that the orange webbing said "not this time".
the dam that overran it's banks took out the back wall of a business and the road was closed as 300 propane tanks went over the dam, all leaking propane. It is impossible to describe the extent of the damage. Most roads are in decent shape, and the rebuilding is underway before the winter sets in. Powerlessness is on everyone's face. In some it is accompanied by generosity, in others bewilderment and loss. 


Being tourists, we had a fantastic time in Vermont and there is not enough space to share it all. we went into Quebec for lunch and had homemade sausage made by a Polish butcher in a French village. We had our hero Willie save us from our ignorance regarding tire pressure. We visited with a young woman gallery owner, due on Jan 1, who is getting her care from the midwives at the local hospital, we hiked Smugglers notch, only 1.1 miles but 700 ft gain in elevation. Yes I was powerless over my desire to get to the lake and my poor aching lungs. 

The Vermont trip ended with a lunch with my dear friend and colleague Barb. She lives in Hanover, NH and showed us the town- on the day of the Republican  Debate. We both wore pearls in honor of the occasion and in case we'd be interviewed by Fox!

Really? Another repair story?

  Yes, it’s true.

It all began as we arrived at the beautiful Inn At Middletown, (for Sarah and Jeff’s wedding), a downtown hotel with parking arrangements in various garages nearby.  We entered the chosen garage, carefully, slowly, creeping forward to the “Height 6’ 8” clearance sign.  Whew, we cleared it!  So....... we continued to drive into the garage to the hotel’s parking section.

  I bet you already know what’s coming........ 

that the sign we cleared was to warn us that the actual 6’8” height section was ahead.  

Loud crunch.  Sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Yes, I was behind the wheel.  Four letter words coming out of my mouth.  The trailer was clear but not the vent cover on the top, which sticks up ( now past tense) another two inches.  At this moment, more experienced people would have known to let air out of the tires of the trailer, to lower the profile and get back out from under the offending cement beam.  But, this is new to us.  So,..........we just backed up.  And ripped the vent cover off...........  Such a nasty sound of parts breaking.     Second only to the loud sound of rain outside the garage.

Hmmmm..........the only place to park was in a’ maintainence vehicle only’ spot, and after much negotiation, the garage worker let us stay.  Maybe it was the torrential downpour of rain that softened his heart.  

Leave it for now. 

Saturday, in a free hour before the wedding, with little to no hope of actually finding the exact vent cover, but just to make due for now, we visited Gustine’s RV Center, in East Hampton, CT.  Small. Cute. What can we adapt to make due to waterproof the trailer top?  No, these won’t work. No, not this.  Suddenly, Judy, (of course, Judy) the saleswoman, says, what’s this here?  And opens a box that has our exact Fan-Tastic Vent Cover in it.  Some other customer ordered it and never picked it up.  Angels in America.......... I’m just sayin’.

 Sunday afternoon, after all the wedding and parties were done, Josh and Leslie repaired the trailer.  The maintenance man Paul, a fine Polish fellow, brought us a ladder from the hotel, and Josh got that cover on, water-tight as can be, right there in the Davita Dialysis Center’s parking lot.  Celeste and Mike took photos, Martha and I took turns holding the ladder, and there you go, another chapter of the story.  Each problem we’ve encountered in these almost 8000 miles has been solved.  Ground wires in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Electrical receptacle in Buffalo, NY. Bald tires in Stowe, VT. And now Middletown,CT.  I know Leslie says she would have fixed it herself, but, honestly, watching Josh so nimbly and confidently negotiate the top of the trailer was pretty cool.  

And to close, here’s the sign outside Gustine’s RV Center, as you leave.

Words to live by, eh?

Written in First Landing State Park, Virginia     RJ

Wings, Waterfalls and Cousins

I'll start with the best, first. After nearly 11 years, I reconnected with 2 of my cousins. Janet and Susan are the daughters of Evelyn and Dick Bowling. Aunt Evie was like a mom to all 9 other cousins. Dick was the kindest and most soft spoken gentleman. One time I accidentally shut Janet's finger in the car door and the pain that flew across Uncle Dick's face was as if it had happened to him! So here we are many many years later. Renee says you can tell we are swimming around in the same gene pool? Ya think??

So we had a great time catching up and talked non-stop for hours. Frequently, I wonder if I have any family traits. Well there is the famous "Karnes girls'" sneeze that can be heard round the world. (Anyone who has been in the presence of my sisters and I know what I mean.)  Renee say with her mouth open listening to the 3 of us - metaphorically speaking- as we laughed and talked over one another. It will not be 11 more years before we connect again.

On to the wings or Wings. This is me high tailing it into Frank and Theresa's Anchor Bar. This used to be a dive with good Italian food in an edgy part of Buffalo. It is still all that but sometime after I stopped living in Buffalo they invented the now infamous "Buffalo Wings."  Every time I visit I have to stop in. They are not breaded, they are not boneless, they are not dripping in a gloppy sauce. They are simply deep fried in their own skin and then quickly dunked into a sauce of hot sauce mixed with butter. They are still crisp. The  side of blue cheese dressing  is to cool your tongue and the celery strips are so you can say you had something healthy for dinner. 
When I asked when he took over from Frank and Theresa, Tony pictured at left, said he'd been connected with them for years. I bet. In Buffalo if you are Italian, you are connected.






















The waterfalls are Niagara Falls. They don't change much. Once they built a levee across the Niagara River and stopped the flow of the "American Falls" (the other half is in Canada) so they could prevent it from tumbling down and becoming a great big rapids instead of a falls: they filled the cracks. I can just see this great big caulking gun on a crane. If you have a bit of curiosity about how Buffalo became the first electrified city in the USA, read City of Light. The cover is of the Falls so that gives you a hint. http://www.amazon.com/City-Light-Lauren-Belfer/dp/038533401X

Speaking of light: The quality of light the night we drove into Buffalo was astounding. As above.
I am hopelessly behind in my posts but vow to catch up. LC

A visit with old pals

After our visit in Buffalo, NY, we headed east to visit Marilyn Scott and her husband Jim. 

 We  go waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back, Marilyn and I. We were baby nurses at O'Connor together. In the early 70's.   Not taking care of babies,  actually babies ourselves (well, early 20-somethings). 

 Before having our own babies.  And now their 'baby' has a baby.  Whew.......

Marilyn and Jim moved back to New York state after the passing there of both her parents and her brother, and now live steeped in the personal history of her life (they live in the home her dad built himself!) and the early history of the USA.   Marilyn visits yearly to San Jose, and keeps in touch well.  This oddessey of ours gave us the opportunity to visit them.  We had a lovely drive across the Adirondacks to their area.  Living outside Saratoga Springs as they do, there are old places....

Beautiful gardens

Farms and ranches.........Coats on sheep?  Really?

We visited the graves of her folks

and this civil war veteran

and someone's little one, unnamed

Goat farms galore

who could not love those faces!

Marilyn is such a fabulous cook, and what a wonderful pot roast dinner we had.

Here's their homestead, their 15 (oh, I'm so jealous!) acres.

And who knew, we have the same car, in the same color!

We enjoyed lunch together at the Old Bryan Inn.

Everything is so old!  Especially compared to California standards.......

Saratoga Springs,  with its horse racing history, has statues of horses on nearly every corner, different paint, different themes, all works of art!

And the actual springs themselves...... Quite dramatically mineral-tasting water!

After our farewells, we headed off through the farms and sweeping lawns and properties of eastern New York state, into Vermont...........

Where Mikey and Munchin got to go through their first covered bridge

Until we settled in for the night at our campground in Vermont.  

Yes, those are Halloween lights you see around the window.  Perfect for our little home.

Good night for tonight, from Douglassville, PA                        RJ