Beaver Pond in Mendon

Yesterday we volunteered at Angel Food and did our weekly shopping. McDonalds was having free drinks so we took advantage of that and ate there, too.

Today Teen Challenge was at Roadside Chapel. They sang and spoke about their experiences with life and how they found the Lord. It was a good service.

On our way home we stopped to take a few pictures. The day is dreary. It had not started raining at the time we took these. There are clouds in the mountains and the trees are shouting with their new colors. It is late at night as I write this to the tune of a steady rain on the roof top.

From Beaver Pond in Mendon, Vt

From Beaver Pond in Mendon, Vt

From Beaver Pond in Mendon, Vt

Apple Picking

Thursday we drove to Frank and Pat's house for a wonderful lasagna lunch and then they took us to Shoreham, Vt to pick apples. We had such a delightful time. This picture is Pat starting the picking.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

This picture shows only a few trees in their fields. There were rows and rows of different kind of apple trees.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

We picked a variety. You should have seen Allan's eyes looking for the next apple to pick. I am sure he was thinking about all the ways we can use these apples .... in pies, in pies, in pies.

This picture shows Frank and Allan acting their age. On the left you may be able to see a few of the raspberry vines that we picked from also.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

After leaving the apple orchards Frank and Pat wanted to take us to Lake Bomoseen where they come frequently in the summer for picnics, swimming and fishing. They also come here in the winter when the lake is frozen over for ice fishing. It freezes about 2 feet thick. Cars can be driven on it when it is frozen that much. This picture shows an island which is owned by Jeff Gordon. He apparently comes here at times in the summer for a retreat.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

The lake was very clear. This picture shows a happy boater.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

Many leaves here in the park are falling off due to rain and wind. In this picture Katie is fascinated with the leaves falling. I had never seen her stretch out to the window like this.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

Here is another view showing the colors changing in the mountains. It is taken from Hwy. 4 not far from our campground.

From Apple picking and Lake Bomoseen

Job Changes

We drove to Pittsfield to get LP today. The drive was beautiful. Color changes are more noticeable in the mountains looking from a distance. The tops of the mountains were nestled in the clouds. Even though it was cloudy, we did not get rain until tonight. Temps were in low 70's but are to be much cooler the rest of the week.

One of the workers found coyote tracks in the park. Last night Katie perked up. She heard something outside, but we did not investigate. Maybe it was a coyote??? She got to sit outside with us for a while this afternoon. We finally were able to plant the azaleas. The dirt pile is leveled out thanks to some of the staff here.

Looks like rain is predicted for next week. Allan and I had hoped to be able to finish up the lean-tos. We have made our inspection of our painting project. We will be doing some touch up painting on several. It will take longer to go from site to site than it will to do the touch up. We also learned today that another one of the workers here may be leaving. All the work will be left up to the 2 remaining staff, so we will be pitching in to help them.

Mr. Puss, Rest In Peace

Today was a sad day for our daughter, Yancy, as she had to put her cat to sleep. He was affectionately?? known in his younger days as the "cat from hell" but he mellowed in his old age. His health has declined rapidly recently. He will be missed. I will dedicate these flowers to him.

From Leaves are changing

This Monday it looked like we were going to be the only campers in the park until a school bus arrived bringing 40 Freshman from Green College. Allan and I were painting and I noticed two of the girls getting water in a cooking pot from the non-potable water at the RV dump site. I went to their campsite to inform them it was not safe drinking water. But they were not going to drink it: they were going to cook with it. Duh! Here are the signs in front of the water. Duh! Maybe if the signs said potable and non-potable water they would have made the right choice as they had a cooking pot. Duh! We later learned they were environmental students from a local college. Duh!

From Leaves are changing

From Leaves are changing

Took some more pictures to show color changes.

From Leaves are changing

From Leaves are changing

FROST WARNING

We have a frost warning out for this weekend. You may be able to see some of the color changes in the pictures we have included in this post. If it frosts, more pictures will be forth coming showing even more changes. It is predicted to be 31 tonight.

We haven't done a whole lot these last two days off. I have done my weekly cleaning and Allan went for a mountain hike. He got a few good views from the top of the mountain.

After he returned from his hike, we went for a ride in the truck for picture taking. Killington is having a hay festival and many of the businesses have used round and square bales of hay to make figures. Hope you enjoy.

Brandon, Vt

Today was a very busy day for us. We had hair appointments in Brandon, Vt. this morning. I have found a good hair stylist which is good since we have been here for a long time. She has horses. I learned today that she will be leaving about the time we will head for home. Her dad past away last week. She will be moving near Jamestown, New York and then to Kalispell, Mt.
We had a nice lunch at the Vermont Sandwich Shop afterwards.

We took pictures of some of the houses in Brandon. The first picture is of the main street through Brandon. This is the back side of a statue and church in the background.

From Brandon, Vt

This house appears to be an older house that has been remodeled and updated.

From Brandon, Vt

This house has an unusual porch with the next one showing behind the house. Most of the houses have detached garages and many with apartments over them.

From Brandon, Vt

From Brandon, Vt

The two following pictures are my favorite house because it is much smaller. It had a screened in porch and a large yard with picket fence.

From Brandon, Vt

From Brandon, Vt

I like the front porch with the red rocking chairs. The front door is nice. But look at the unusual art on the chair on the left. I just had to get a close up of this one for you.

From Brandon, Vt

From Brandon, Vt

From Brandon, Vt

From there we traveled south on Hwy. 7 to the Maple Syrup Museum. It was interesting to see how the sap is harvested and boiled down to syrup. That is very hard work. No wonder it costs so much. It is harvested late winter, early spring while the snow is still on the ground. Of course, we tried out some samples and left with some trinkets. This was another place we got in free because of working with the Vermont State Parks.

I had to pick up my New Balance shoes that I had ordered and Rx at Walgreens. We made a McDonalds stop for a sundae. Then it was on to Hannaford for groceries. The commissioner of state parks was to visit our park today. We didn't get home until 6:30 so I guess he didn't wait on us. lol

Just before pulling into the entrance of the park, I noticed the visual indicator on the side of the truck at the front bumper ( a three foot pole with light on top) was slowly falling down and then dragging along the side of the truck. What is the proper name for that thing??? Allan stopped and reattached it with bungee cords until he could get home and repair it properly. What would we do without bungee cords and duct tape?

New York Escapee's Rally

We have something in common with our friends, Darrell and Judy, a 5 o'clock Charlie cat. Katie apparently sleeps all day and decides to get up early (way too early for us) to play. She wants at least one of us to get up with her and enjoy a time of togetherness. We don't have the same wishes but Allan is usually the one who gets up with her at least for a while. She makes biscuits on us, walks across us, and scratches her paws down the mirrored closet door making a sound like scratching on a blackboard. Allan has tried using a spray bottle when she does this. It has helped some. Katie is becoming a more sociable kitty. When we have friends over she comes out and sits in the middle of the company. She is, so far, not a lap cat though. She also likes our computer case. We found her with half her body in the side pocket. Not sure how she did that.

Our RV has been sitting here for 3 months so Allan thought it would be a good idea to do a trial run before leaving for home. We signed up for an Escapee's rally in New York and attended it this past weekend. We left Friday morning using our check off list. It took 3 hours to arrive with no problems on the road. We got in about 2 o'clock with it just starting to rain. We were dry camping for this weekend which is no problem for 3 days. We did not use the generator. Breakfast was provided for Saturday and Sunday morning and we had a huge chicken dinner grilled outside on Saturday night. They had a chapter meeting on Saturday morning which we attended. They scheduled two social hours and ample time for getting to know people and free time to sight see. They had a 50/50 raffle and an auction with the proceeds going to CARE. (total $250) The auction was a lot of fun. We had to bring a pound of something in a paper bag. We brought grits and it sold for the highest bid of the night. On Friday night we had a campfire

From New York Escapees rally

inside since it was raining and sang old songs. Another activity we participated in was 20 mystery bags you had to guess what was in them being as specific as possible.

From New York Escapees rally

We got 2nd place and received a $10 gift certificate at the cider mill store which Allan got a strawberry rhubarb pie.

We made several new friends whom we hope to see again down the road. John and Christine were interested in seeing our truck and RV as they are planning to go full time this year. John drove the truck to see how a medium duty handled. We also got to see their vintage 1975 Airstream trailer. We met so many nice people who allowed us to join them at their rally

From New York Escapees rally

Saturday we drove to Saratoga Springs to see the horse race tracks. We were able to get some pictures even though it was closed for the season. Many of the houses in the area had unusual architecture.

Sunday before heading back for Killington, we drove down the road to a working horse farm. They had a horse you could feed peppermint candy to. There were goats the kids could pet and get their picture with and make a frame for the picture. Pony rides were a hot item. A group of young girls were learning vaulting on a Haflinger (breed of horse). I got some pictures of that with Allan's camera so we probably won't have those developed until Christmas.

The drive home was uneventful other than Katie complaining. She doesn't like being in the carrier and would rather be at Allan's shoulder doing her back seat driving routine.

We have completed three more lean-tos this week. We hope to have them all completed within the next two weeks. As long as the weather holds out and the remaining ones are not rented we should be able to do that. Wednesday and Thursday temps are to be only 60 with lows in high 30s. I may have to get my winter clothes back out.

Vermont State Fair

Allan has been polishing on the RV every chance he gets and I have been doing some deep cleaning.

Frank and Pat Falco, friends from Roadside Chapel AOG, came on Friday for lunch. We showed them the park and things we had been working on. They have lived in Vermont for many years and had not been to Gifford Woods State Park. The weather was very nice with relatively no bugs so we ate outside on our picnic table. We enjoyed our visit with them.

From Frank and Pat's visit and Vermont State Fair

Saturday, Allan helped cut more firewood for a member of the church. I worked on finances and took Katie outside to sit on the picnic table. She enjoys this. The park has been fairly empty but this past weekend it filled up quickly. We had the "no vacancy" sign posted. We chose to work on Labor Day as we had planned to go to the fair in Rutland on Tuesday and we will be attending a rally in New York this weekend. We were able to complete 3 lean-tos on Monday. It always feels good to check off a task completed.

Katie has had two falls this week. She was on the back of my recliner and I got up rather suddenly. It bucked her off the back. Oh well, 8 lives to go. On her other escapade she was jumping from the bed to the dresser where she suns herself in the window but found I had the drawer open and decided to cancel the jump too late. This one was a more padded fall.

We went to the Vermont State Fair today in Rutland. We went to the harness racing first where they had trotter and pacers. Allan was bored with it so I did not make him stay until it was over.

From Frank and Pat's visit and Vermont State Fair

We toured several barns and exhibits. I did not know there were so many breeds of bunny rabbits. We saw goats, chickens, llamas, pheasant, and dairy cows to name a few. They had a huge pumpkin weighing in at 515 pounds and a very long gourd.

From Frank and Pat's visit and Vermont State Fair

From Frank and Pat's visit and Vermont State Fair

We are too old for the rides so we left to get our grocery shopping done for our trip on Friday.

Walk in the Park

In about two months we should be back in Alabama. We had only a few campers in the park last night so we got up this morning without breakfast and took a walk through the park with Allan asking every few minutes "when are we going to eat"? You know men only think about two things and food is one of them. We are posting this mainly for our benefit for memories when we look back in years to come. But ... since you are here take a walk with us.
We will start with the entrance to our campsite. Here is our personal sign and then the our flag and the big rock.

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

We have found several blackberry bushes in the park. The berries are very small. We get only a few on our walks so the big question is whether we will have enough for a cobbler before we leave. Allan hopes so. There is that issue of food again.

From Walk in the park

Coyote cabin is one of four cabin in our campground. They include two bunk beds and a futon, a table and two chairs. There is one electrical outlet, a light, and a camp fire ring and picnic table outside.

From Walk in the park

There are 20 lean-tos and these are what we have been painting. The older ones are made of logs and take much longer to paint. Cherry is the lean-to that Allan ran into with his head. Cherry is the most rented in the park mainly because of its large campsite, location near a creek and the most private.

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

Our park is very heavily forested with many old growth trees. The trees are so tall that we see very little sky except in a few areas. It really gets dark here at night. It is so nice and peaceful and a very good place to take walks and get your cardio exercise. We are full this coming week-end which is Labor Day and everyone is working to get the park in tip top shape for the campers. It takes much effort to keep the place clean and looking nice, but that is what we are here for.

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

The Appalachian Trail comes through our park on this road. We get many hikers that use us as a stop off for rest and showers.

From Walk in the park

I am amazed at the number of rocks with huge trees growing on top of them. There are many ferns and moss growing on these rock, too. I took a picture of Allan in front of one of the rocks to give you some perspective of how large they are. This large one has an overhang that looks like a cave entrance.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Uf_63yPTPUPklOtr0s4PDg?authkey=Gv1sRgCJzZ0cPy-Y-6XA&feat=directlink

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

We have two bath houses one in each loop. I was able to catch Casey and Felicia hard at work cleaning the bathrooms. Such dedication. Way to go girls. The upper bath house still has some flowers blooming.

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

From Walk in the park

It was so nice to have you along with our walk through the park. Come again. Oh by the way, Allan did have brunch.