Springs & Mountains

Monday, 9/20

A short drive to Middletown Springs, another 1800s village famed for its spas, we visited Bill & Moe at their new home.  Built on 12 acres with views that would make post card companies envious, Bill had also installed full hookups for an RV like ours.

Middletown Springs Memorial.  Vermont lost the most soldiers per capita than any other state.

Well, not quite like ours.  A few tree branches needed be be removed to allow us to squeeze in between the garage and the encroaching forest.  But, for us it was all worth it and Bill said the "test drive" gave him an opportunity to perfect the parking space for future use.  A marvellous afternoon and evening enjoying getting to know better a fellow classmate and a sweet lady in their special home. 

The View from their home ... and ours.

Bill & Moe hosting us in their mountain side retreat.

Friends, Relatives and a Fair

Wednesday, 9/15 - Sunday, 9/19

Time flies when one is having fun. Maintaining this blog has become more difficult than maintaining my sanity.  Story telling with sister Lynn and brother-in-law Jack; dining at a favorite downtown restaurant, aptly named “Back Home Again Cafe”; visiting friends and old neighbors dating back to the mid-last century(!!!) … what a treat.  And to experience all this in one of Mother Nature’s best times of the year: Autumn in New England. The world renowned changing of the foliage colors has begun in pockets of the surrounding forest, an indication that our next 4 weeks in these six northeastern states should be extra special.

Back home in Vermont, next door to my sister's.

Hay bale decorating.  Somewhere, there are hungry cows, but here we have a symbol of a Vermont moose (the one with the horns).

A parade of prize hogs and little kids makes for a fun fair.

At 1 1/2 tons, this ox is actually larger than I am, but not as friendly.  Doris didn't know that when she found his hide to be very silky to the touch.

Another “special” is the Tunbridge World Fair. Saturday found Lynn, Jack, Doris and me enjoying a drive through the mountains, viewing the unusual creations of decorated hay bales, a recent development expressing the joy of playing in the cool, clear autumn days. What a kick! But, our destination was the tiny town of Tunbridge, VT and its questionably renowned “World Fair”. When I was a kid, this fair celebrated the nearing end of the summer farm labors. The story still is that if you were to attend, you had to have a whiskey bottle in your pocket and another man’s wife on your arm. Whooeee! No wonder I never got to go until I reached my present age of greater maturity… Times have changed and the old requirement is no longer valid. I’m happy about that because the only other “wife” in our group of four was my sister. EEWWWW!!

We had a great time, enjoying the displays of farming equipment and demonstrations of their use; the piggies, cows, goats, sheep; 1 ½ ton oxen; pig races; parades; prize vegetables; carnival junk food; and the zillions of people who found their way down narrow highways to enjoy the fair on a perfectly clear and sunny day. With the so-close-you-could-almost-touch-mountains as a backdrop, there’s no more authentic fair in the country. I wish you could have been there too.

Sunday was a day spent with special friends Steve & Sharon, then home to paperwork and more time with family. Tomorrow, we move.

Childhood friend Steve with his surprise birthday present, a '50 Plymouth, from his wife.  What a woman!

Home Again

Tuesday, 9/14

A 10 minute drive to Gansevoort (there must have been a Dutchman somewhere in the woods who insisted this tiny town be saddled with his name) and “Walt’s” home where we parked in his driveway while the AquaHot system was serviced. Bingo! Home heating and hot water once again … for a price, of course.
In less than an hour, we roll across the border and into my old hometown, Rutland, Vermont. First thing was to drive up to my sister’s door (literally) and fill our 100 gallon water tank with the best water in the nation. Then, backing up the country street, we parked under the leafy maples, almost invisible to the residents of this upscale community. “Setting up house” in the Green Mountain State, it seemed like we’d never left since our last RV journey here 4 years ago.  It was good to be back in one of the prettiest states in the Union.


Some Vermont welcomes were not especially friendly.  These geese must have known that Doris was viewing them as tonight's dinner entree.