Vermont State Car???

Yup, if there is ever going to be a state car for Vermont it has to be a......Subaru. That's right, that is all you see around here, and there seems to be one in everyones yard. Must have had a sale on them!

There is an old farm house across the street from our campground. Joyce and I were sitting outside and could hear a thumping noise coming from that area. We looked and there was a middle age woman bare foot and wearing a sweater and skirt, and she was throwing an AXE at an old tree stump. I mean she grabbed the end of this three foot handled axe, swung it over her head with both hands, and threw it at the stump that was about 25 feet away. She had maybe four axes by her feet and she would throw them one at a time and they were all sticking into that tree stump. Wow, am I impressed!!!!

Tomorrow we will be crossing into Canada and I'm not sure if I will be able to post, we'll see!

Vermont Sights

It's getting difficult to post because I like to include pictures in our blog but I am having problems doing so. I have been trying to upload one picture for the last hour.
I am able to get online but the connection is slow which creates problems when uploading pic's.
We have moved and are now in a small campground in Duxbury, Vt. (N4416.904' W7246.930'). Everyone in the campground seems to be living here but the grounds are very clean and well kept. It is mainly a nice big grass field with water & electric hookups for $25 a day. I would say that there are about twelve sites here and three vacant ones for us day trippers.
Ben & Jerry's is about 4 miles away in the town of Waterbury. The Green Mountain Coffee Co. is also located in town. Yes we did go for ice cream and purchased some Green Mountain Coffee.

Rodeo In Vermont????

Below is a shot of our campsite at Gifford Woods State Park in Vermont, N43 40.589 W72 48.652.
We have no hook-ups because I wanted to try out the couch systems using the solar panels. Well, as you can see, we have a bit of tree coverage so recharging of the batteries is very slow due to the trees and cloud coverage.
We were up till after midnight listening to some music and this morning we did coffee and ran the toaster and microwave without running the generator. We are both on our laptops now and the battery voltage never went below 12.4 volts.

Last night we went to the Rodeo!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, there is a Rodeo in Vermont and we must admit that it was more enjoyable than any of the Rodeos that we went to out west. You've got hand it to those Vermont cowboys at Pond Hill Ranch, they put on a great show.

Some calf roping

And what's a Rodeo without one of those great Dough Boys!

Heading North

Tonight we are doing the grandparent thing and sitting one of our grand-daughters.
Tomorrow morning we head out for a two week run up north. Our first stop will be a State Park in Vermont where we will boondock for a few days so we can see how the solar panels hold up to the new coach. I just hope we get some sun so I can get a true feel for battery recharge.
We will start the first night with some TV and minimum lighting to see what we draw, then we will increase on the following nights.
From Vermont, we will be crossing into Canada to visit some old friends.

I'm not sure of our route and what interesting things we will see along the way. I will be posting daily if possible so keep an eye on us.

Been Dragging My Feet

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted! Guess I've been in the twilight zone.
Joyce's cousin Ronald flew out from California to visit for a couple of days, it was nice to get caught up on things. We plan on stopping in to visit him as we pass through California on our next trip.

We have been visited by our Bird friends that come and nest every year. First there are two families that nest over the outside light by our back door. They each had five chicks and I finally got to clean out the nest from the light.
The next family of Birds builds their nest in our front door decoration. Joyce had a straw wreath with plastic flowers in it and before we knew it, a big pocket nest was built in the middle of it.
I more the nest to a nearby bush and Joyce changed the front door decoration to a straw hat with flower decorations.

Well guess who's back, click on the picture and you should be able to see our friend. This bird is determined so we will let her do her thing. This has been going on every year for about the past ten years.
I guess it's not nice to fool with mother nature!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Late Posting

We are back home in the rain and I'm a couple of days late with this post. The day before we left Vermont, Ken & Donna took us for a ride to see the area sights.
Now this guy has the right idea, rain for 40 days and 40 nights!!

The Hip Rose were in bloom, and the fragrance was so nice.
We came across this bridge which is right along the route we were on. The only thing is the road was closed.

The Floating Bridge

In June of 1943 a B-17 Flying Fortress crashed near Randolph, Vermont. This plaque was erected for the three men that lost their life in the crash.
I did a search but was only able to find THIS

In Memory Of MacKenzie 8-1-94 to 7-1-09

Mac, our best friend and traveling companion lost his battle with Kidney failure after being diagnosed seven months ago and outlived the Vets prediction buy three months. He's gone now, but will always be with us as we continue our travels. In his memory, I wanted to post some of the pictures I took of him while we were on the road.

I always liked this picture of Mac and the field of wild flowers along the Natchez Trace .
Mac always had a great love of food, and would watch closely during meal preparation with the hopes of a piece of food falling to the floor.

Mac also enjoyed riding in the Jeep, he never cared where we went as long as he got to tag along.

He also really liked the beach because he would get to chase the waves and the birds.

Of course there was always that walk in the woods with dad!

Or the time he was upset about something and decided that he was going to run away.......but came home! We all need our space occasionally.

Here, Mac is with his new friend Bruno who was doing a sleep-over. This picture was taken two days before Mac went to Doggy Heaven!

They say that time heals all wounds; loosing a pet is tougher than I thought it was going to be but it helps knowing that Mac had a great life and we enjoyed him while he was with us.

Our First Maiden Voyage With Friends

We are at Lake Champagne in Vermont for the 4th of July weekend. That's us on the right and the other two coaches belong to our friends. This was our first real trip since we got the coach. It took us about four hours to get here but it was a beautiful ride in the sun.

Whereas we were the last ones to get here, we had to compare notes of the ride.
Don, Lucy, and Bruno just got their coach this week. Joyce and I took care of Bruno while Don & Lucy flew to Florida to pick up their baby.

Ken and Donna are friends that live about 1/4 mile down the street from us. Ken broke all the speed limits just to get here before us. You see we left two hours before them and they beat us here by about five minutes

Oh yeah, have to have a picture of us while the sun is out because it rained big time shortly after.

Donna (waving) made a big pot of American Chop Suey which was enjoyed by all. Donna also brought a double, double chocolate cake. Great dinner, great friends!!

The men took a short ride to see the area attractions. The veterans cemetery has a beautiful chapel that overlooks the cemetery.

For a small out of the way town, the cemetery was really beautiful.

Bordering the cemetery, there is a large stand of Maple trees. The trees are set up with plastic tubing taps that are connected to a big blue main plastic line that runs downhill to a small sugar shack.

In this picture, you can plainly see the taps.

Another view as we left the cemetary.

Every town has it's famous person. This town was the home of Justin Morgan for which the horse was named.

And the state Normal School! So you have to be normal to be a teacher??