Tag Archives: Food

DAY 6 – 09/20/2012 – Vermont or Bust, Vergennes/Verizon

…enough said!

We started with “Second Breakfast” at a diner:  The Hot Biscuit in Ticonderoga or Ti as they call it.

Here was a breakfast we’d share as we’d already eaten. Homemade biscuits with sausage gravy.

Finally receiving good news buoyed our drive out of New York.  We really don’t want to leave, but Fall moves fast up here.  (We want to move North to Maine and New Brunswick at a modest pace so we can turn South and travel as slow as our overall experience and  entertainment suggests.)

Jane has romantic childhood memories of Ticonderoga, (a game that we’re having trouble researching) or a place she’s never been. We saw this as a reason to explore and plunked down about 17 bucks each for the fort museum.  Despite my frenetic ways, independence, and ability to read display signs, I gently lobbied to wait for the tour.  Boy was I glad.  Dan the presenter in period dress, herded about twenty of us to a flat below the ramparts.  A very good speaker, he skillfully painted the times that these places flourished.  A new nation, French and British interests…very lively and informative.  Looked like a great job for a History Major or actor.   We really enjoyed it.  But as will be our way, our feet were soon aching to make some miles toward Vermont.

Dan had us feeling “Revolutionary sentiments”…

Oddly, the brief “service” our phones had given us, they also irritated us.  However much our phones said “looking for service” and we enjoyed being out of touch, what we lacked most was a way to blog.  This feels like an important part of our adventure.  Surely if we only fitfully jot a few things and posts, it won’t capture the immensity of the country or the privilege we’ve stolen to travel within it.

We saw the Big Red Check Mark:  Verizon Store in Vergennes, I pulled right in.  Picking phones and service plans can be pretty tedious stuff.  In Maryland the stores are so busy it can be over half an hour before anyone notices you are there.  Not so in Vermont.   Chase was gracious, informative and entertaining.  Nick too got involved and we couldn’t help telling them about our adventure to explain why we needed a “hotspot” or something to connect for blogging.  We are 4G!   Both of us picked “dumb phones”.  I see an image of people everywhere, standing, looking down at something in their hands.  I see many parents so engrossed in their swiping and texting, they miss excited toddlers crying up for attention.  I don’t want to miss the world around me.  We want to see and hear all we can.

My cousin, Huntley returned my call, sounding almost like she was jumping up and down.  Wow, you’re up this far already?  You’ve got to visit!  We can make Stowe before 930 PM…more nice back roads then about 20 “icky” miles on Interstate 89.  I think it was the 40mph “Minimum Speed” that confirmed our disdain.  My poor little V6  4Runner can’t decide which gear to kick down into and seems to struggle more trying for 60 on the highway than whatever we roll on those back roads.  (Wonder how long it will last?)

– David

I remember having, as a child, a game called “Fort Ticonderoga”. Or was it Fort Ticonderoga Lincoln Logs? It’s pretty hazy. Maybe Nancy or Bob can refresh my memory. Anyhoo, that’s why I wanted to go to the fort. We also took Iris, our little stuffed bunny who travels with us. We have pics of Iris from all over the world.

– Jane

DAY 4 – 09/18/2012 – It’s raining – let’s just get some driving done

Dry in the camper, we decided there wasn’t much else to do.  We can make it to the Adirondacks today.  On wet roads especially, I began to notice the front of the truck is a “little light”.  The weight of our tramper settles down onto the back, known as tongue weight and this raises the front end.  Dramatic cornering or braking will be avoided.

We drove 250 miles today.  We sat in a McDonalds, of all places, trying to use WiFi.  Frustration.  Next, we drove to Buttermilk Falls and made our lunch, walked around and felt ready to DRIVE.

Evening and hunger sent us off on a side road where we blocked our light from going out our windows. (Stealth Camping)  The nearest driveway had a sign warning trespassers of 24 hr video surveillance.  Weird.  Good thing we weren’t poaching.  Jane and I assembled a lovely pizza with fresh tomatoes and peppers from a roadside stand and feasted  once again.

Yum! another feast

DAY 3 – 09/17/2012, Trout Run-to-Colton State Park, PA

We awoke on a hideous gravel construction apron at the top of a mountain near the Trout Run exit from highway 15.  We hope to pay for parking/camping infrequently and will be “marking a stick” for every time we are asked to leave.  This was not such a morning.  We woke in sight of several houses, so we left even before making coffee!  First order of business:  stop at a gas station market and buy a coffee…oops, those breakfast sandwiches sure look good.  In fact they were.  My sausage,egg, and cheese muffin looked like one I might have made, but tasted even better!

Not much highway later, we joined the great, slow movie of the secondary roads.  Yeah, it feels like we’re watching a slow, but pleasant movie (with not much plot) as we imagine the dormant farms, current farms, sagging roofs, and ambling fields of the countryside.  I start to speculate that there is a greater number of Americans who live this way than we in the city…?

Oh yeah, where did we drive to?  We had been told to go to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania (one of our strategies each day is to ask someone “where should we go next?”)  and Colton State Park.  In the canyon, we biked on a delightful and near empty rail-trail.   We saw hawks, sparkly river, wildflowers and Jane smiling (despite still wondering about the Pathology report ).

At the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Looks like we Photoshopped him in to this one!

Evening brought the daily question;  “where are we gonna park?”  We asked a ranger who suggested Colton also.   Said there was no one there (literally, she checked the computer).  Sounded good, drove a forbidden backtracked 10 miles, but found a wonderfully empty park, drove through once (the requisite technique for camper-people) and picked site 3.  We needed a “legal” place to build a small fire for our celebratory cookout!  Jane, the AWESOME FIRE BUILDER, got things ready with our lightweight little grill.   Our warm, Baltimore friends Jean and Tom had given us each a thick, juicy steak for our trip.

Yum! Again.

WOW…grilled with a pepper from our garden we feasted like the omnivores we are.  The Steaks were tremendous tasting!  (sorry, Vegans, vegetarians, and equal opportunity eaters)  Ended up saving the Champagne for another eve…

My night was punctuated by an elusive (read, not very loud) owl whose calls I heard, but couldn’t anticipate enough to help Jane hear them.  Darkness cascaded and was darker than she had ever seen.  I have been in a cave, so it was a little lighter.

– David

It got dark as we were setting up at Colton State Park. The next morning, we were surrounded by green, green, green. It was lightly raining, intensifying the lush green. As we travel this Fall, we likely will see less and less green (well, until we get way down south). It was so nice to really revel in it with no other humans around.

Sometimes I feel like a rat who escaped the experiment where they cram them together and increase the population until the rats start to go mad. I do love people, but the press of so many people surrounding us back home was starting to really get to me. You can’t go anywhere it seems, without traffic and lines and crowds back home. The simple, quiet, beautiful woods was soothing and peaceful.

– Jane