Oct. 7, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort, South Hero, Vermont.
Yesterday must have been a fuller day than I thought. Between being tired and the wind during most of the night we were in bed until a little after ten. Even with the rain I could hear the slide awnings flapping. It was cloudy with intermittent rain all day. About all our activity consisted of was computer time and reading. I did venture out for the mail and to take out the trash. Since we still plan to swing through New Hampshire and Maine with a stop at the Petersbough Basket Company, I did some route planning. Since I don’t load the routes from the DeLorme program on my computer to the Street Pilot, the actual route often varies. I have taken to referring to the GPS receiver as the Gremlin instead of the Garmin. It always gets us through but sometimes does strange things. Once it directed us off the Interstate and the back on via the entrance ramp across the road from the exit ramp. Another time we stopped for the night and the next morning when I turned it on the route was recalculated and we didn’t take the route as calculated the day before. No big whoop since we didn’t have plans along the old route.
Supper was delicious one pot chicken dish with noodles and vegetables that Gerri concocted. One of our best meals. As a reward, or because she sat down in her favorite chair, I washed the dishes and Glenna dries them. We watched the new ABC line up of sitcoms. Remember when TV was called the vast wasteland? Well, it’s baaack. Or maybe it was always this way and we didn’t notice because at home it’s so easy to walk away and there are many others things to do. About the most entertainment on is Fox news. There’s always CNN and the lamestreet stations, but they all worship at the altar of Obama. I have watched Jay Leno’s monolog a couple of times and noticed some BUSHesque comments about Obama starting to slip in. Maybe there is hope for this country yet, his armor seems to be cracking at least with some in the liberal entertainment set. Folks we are teetering on the brink of disaster and have to pull ourselves back before it’s too late.
By the time we went to bed the wind was gusting again. More awning music to sleep by.

Oct. 6, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort, South Hero, Vermont.

This was a full day. It actually started last night when Gerri found information on covered bridges in Vermont. A few years ago we did a covered bridge tour in western Indiana so we decide to do it again in Vermont. I mapped out two routes with 6-8 towns. One going south and working back to the north , the other going north and working south back to the RV park. We went for the northern route.

There was some blue sky when we started but we got that behind us quickly. We ended up driving about 170 miles, took about 8 hours we and saw 11 covered bridges. We also saw a lot of beautiful countryside, including some changing leaves. Our trip started north on I-89 to St. Albans and then off on Vermont State Routes. The first bridge we spotted was near the town of East Fairfield. Of all names it was the East Fairfield Bridge built in 1865. Our last bridge was the Grist Mill Bridge near Cambridge Junction, it was built in 1872, this was the longest bridge at 135’, one of the longest Burr Arch bridges in the USA. The oldest bridge in the guide was built in 1864, we didn’t find that one. This tour may sound pretty simple but the tourist guide said to use in conjunction with an “Official” Vermont roadmap. Guess what we didn’t have, so it was more difficult. I tried to write the towns, bridge name and date of construction. A couple of hours after we got home it occurred to me that I had two GPS receivers in the Jeep and could have marked the exact locations.

We saw two kinds of bridge structures, Lattice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_truss_bridge) and Burr Arch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_Truss) . Most of the bridges have been restored under a federal pork project pushed through by Vermont Politian. Consequently the exteriors of most of them don’t look that old. The structure of the bridges themselves is obviously original, the beams in some were fastened together with wooden pegs others had iron or steel bolts.

We did figure out how to tell if a covered bridge was down a side road. If the sign at the turn off read 16,000 pound load limit or under, there’s an old bridge.

All in all it was a good day. Not a lot of sunshine, but some stunning scenery. We saw other leaf peekers and bridge seekers. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday we will do the south loop.

I took over 100 photos, you can soon see some in my Facebook album. Some you might have to wait until you get a Christmas card.

Oct. 5, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort, South Hero, Vermont.
More clouds less rain today. I went out to cache for awhile in the afternoon but the nearest ones involve walks of over a mile.
I took my Mom to a salon to have her hair done. I tried for a nearby cache but didn’t find it. Bad day of caching.

Oct. 4, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort, South Hero, VT.
Wow, how many cloudy days can we have? No matter the weather or the circumstances I try to remember Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
I couldn’t find an appropriate church on Church Zip, so we tuned in the netcast from our church home on Oakey Blvd. in Las Vegas. http://www.lasvegaschurchofchrist.org/frmHome.aspx
The regular evangelist, Randy Mabe, is under doctors orders to rest due to a recent episode and upcoming tests. Today’s message of glad tidings was delivered by Scot Parchman. Scot did a great job with the subject being forgiveness. We also enjoyed the sing. I have to talk to Scot about a better webcam. With the one now in use, the only people I recognize are those I know well and those that tend to sit in the same area every meeting. I also tuned in for Lewis’ evening message.
Basically this was another lazy day in Vermont with lots of clouds and a little rain.

October 3, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort South Hero, Vermont.
Another cloudy day. No rain in the morning. We had seen a Farmer’s Market advertised and decided to go. We went north on US-2. But, not far enough. We never saw the Farmer’s Market. We did drive around the island and saw some interesting homes. Gerri located a brochure on Vermont cheese producers. One open to the public was in Milton, close to the RV Park. The Willow Hill Farm produces goat, sheep and water buffalo cheeses. The farm was located at the end of a four mile dead end road. The sign on the door said open but no one was around. We could see the processing area which was all cleaned and idle. Upon reading the signs posted we realized there was an honor system in place. The various cheeses were in a refrigerator and the prices marked. We selected a sampling of the varieties and hope we added correctly and left the right amount of money.
Back at the RV Park later it rained quite heavily for awhile. To the west it looked like there might be a great sunset. I gathered up my camera and headed out. I thought the turnout on the causeway south of us would be a great place for a picture looking west to New York. Just outside the motorhome I noticed a full arc rainbow with another partial arc just above it. I then drove to the causeway. Wrong on the direction, the sun was setting rather unspectacularly behind some clouds and New York wasn’t even in sight.

Oct. 2, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort, South Hero, VT.
This morning the sun came out. There were high dark clouds that had pretty much dispersed by noon. We went for a drive , saw some beautiful countryside and visited the Cabot Creamery. More exercise for the Master Card. By 3PM the sun had gone away. Before we got back to the house it was windy and raining again.
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24.

Oct.1, 2009

From the Apple Island Resort, South Hero, Vermont.

Another gray morning with a little rain. We had decided to go to Stowe no matter the weather. We stopped at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, in Waterbury Center. We didn’t buy everything. The Master Card got to hot from being run through the machine. We did have some hot apple cider and donuts. Really good cake donuts made with apple cider. This place was very busy, a couple of tour busses full.

I was right the higher elevation has changed more than where the house is parked.

We had lunch at the Trapp Family Lodge. Gerri and I had Sheppard's Pie and Glenna had cabbage and bacon soup. The restaurant overlooks the valley where Stowe is located. When the clouds cleared there was snow on the hills across the valley. We drove through the Gold Brook RV park where we stayed five years ago. Although the price was higher there is more to see and do closer to that park than at Apple Island. Plus there is more color to the leaves.