Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Queechee Water at Night

Dave shot this photo in Queechee, Vermont at the Simon Pierce foundry and showroom. Simon Pierce is an immigrant who came to the US and began the craft of glassblowing, sometimes blowing for eight to ten hours a day to try and get two water goblets alike. After he perfected his craft, he began bringing in apprentices and now has quite the thriving business and following. His glass pieces are all hand blown but amazingly uniform with only subtle nuances revealing they are not mass manufactured. An apprentice trains for 2 to 5 years before he masters the craft. Peters has expanded into pewter, flatware, housewares, wine, and a restaraunt. He is an extremely gifted and creative individual, designing, training, and implementing impressive green technology. His entire operation, right down to the hand driers in the restrooms are powered from his own water wheel on the river. (Evidently he saw the value of water rights many years ago!) This photo is a portion of the water fall from the Simon Pierce water wheel. (Taken at night with slow shutter speed.)


This photo, taken at dusk, is just across the river from the Simon Pierce Foundry. The river is dotted with similar homes - quaint little white structures that pop up out of the landscape and glow yellow through their windows. I'm just certain there is lovely music playing inside, a warm fire, a pot of soup on the stove, and a loaf of fresh bread baking in the oven. Makes me want to knit a sweater and crawl in it!

Woodstock, Vermont Photos


Biking along the Queechee River. We took several photos along the way, and as stunning and different as they all seem in person, somehow the nuances don't translate well photographically. I will try to post only photos that actually look different from one another!







See the red in the foreground? Different, huh?
We were technically past "peak" in our visit to Vermont. The only sign of being past it was the reduction in vibrant reds. To us, it was just lovely.







This is the quintessential farmhouse in Vermont. They range from every shape and size of white farm house to red barn to big farm house estate. Sort of like shades of brown stucco in new Mexico, the white farm house is the norm. They dot the landscape offering perspective in the layers of rolling hills. Something about it made me want to make cookies and spend 16 hours decorating them (ala Martha Stewart) while the kitchen fire crackles in the corner and I sip a never ending cup of espresso.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Where We are Going


After leaf peeping in Vermont, we headed to the Boston area. RV parks are not right in any major metropolitan area - the land is too valuable so any RV parks that might have been closer in once upon a time, have been sold for other uses. We stay outside of the major metro areas and drive, take a train or subway to town.

In Boston, we took train / subway each day. Fabulous people watching opportunities. Most Bostonian subway riders ride with ear buds firmly in place, looking straight ahead at nothing, showing no emotion. (New York train riders ride with books and look down the whole time.) Tourists, like me get motion sick if we read, so I look at the other commuters, and out the window, and back at them, and out the window, and back at them...you get the picture. :) I gather data as I casually glance around and out the window. More on the gathered data later. Tourists like Dave bring their computer and write.

I coined the term, "ear bud over spray" while on the Boston subway. Ear bud over spray is the noise you hear escaping from someone else's ear buds. It sprays out from the gaps between ear and bud. Ear bud over spray pings and hums, and thumps and rattles. It pounds and booms and screams and rings. Sometimes a faint melody escapes. We were sprayed with quite a variety of over spray in and around the Boston area, but I could never really "name that tune"...try as I might!

Biking in Vermont


I pictured biking down lovely paved paths gently strewn with leaves, a canopy of brilliant color overhead, a slight breeze blowing in my hair, a faint smell of apple cider in the distance and a leisurely stop along the road to sip cider. In my vision, I arrive perfectly coiffed, hair fluffy, a healthy glow, clothing neat and tidy, and just feeling ever so east-coast-put-together. It was a lovely fantasy while it lasted.

Instead, every biking photo you see of me from here on out will look like this. Can you see the ear muffs? Woodstock, Vermont was a little colder than we anticipated. A little steeper, with fewer designated bike paths. You see, the folks in the east are tough. They don't require things like separate paths for bikes and cars. Can you see the white line in the photo? That would be the line designating the bike trail (yes, an official trail) from the driving lane. You see, a bike trail is different from a bike path. A trail can cover any and all surfaces, and in Woodsstock, runs along highways and biways. This is a rest in the middle of a 20 mile, up-hill both ways (I'm sure of it), bike trip on a day so cold no one but a determined tourist would be nuts enough to be out leaf peeping on bicycle!

At the end, we arrived, mud splattered, sweaty and cold with frozen nose, toes, and fingers, exhausted, with helmet head. BUT WE DID IT! We biked our 20 miles, we peeped at red leaves, yellow leaves, reddish yellow leaves, orange leaves, reddish orange leaves, and yellow leaves. We peeped at green leaves, greenish yellow leaves, yellowish green leaves and brown leaves on the ground. We spotted farm after farm with rolling green meadows and fuzzy farm animals. Dave was aghast when I hollered, "Look at the sheep!" pointing to a heard in the distance and started "bahhhhhhing" gleefully. "They're cows!" he replied, and has not let me drive the RV since.

Where We Have Been


We blazed our trail across the US stopping in Lincoln, Nebraska to have dinner with Holly's sister, Heather. (Had to skip Ft. Collins due to a freak snow storm and an outbreak of swine flu in the area!) On to Springfield Illinois for all things Abe Lincoln. Then to Chicago for biking along Lake Michigan, dinner at Feast and a night in a lovely hotel. (The commute into Chicago took so long it was best to just stay and tour the next day as well.)

Then it was on to Westerfield, NY for the wind storm of the year, Niagara Falls, and finally Vermont!!!!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Standing Above the Rainbow


Niagara Falls - standing at the overlook and looking DOWN at a rainbow! If you look to the left of the main rainbow, there is actually a second one!

Lake Erie Sunset

Sunset view from our RV spot in Westerfield, NY. The beautiful evening preceded a monster storm with 60 mph gusts of wind and pelting rain. We prayed for protection off and on all through - very little sleeping going on.

In the morning, Dave went out to check on the RV. The park was littered with downed limbs, branches and a huge willow tree uprooted by the wind and lying a few feet from another RV. Above us - a large willow limb (12 - 15 ft long) hanging by bark and some wood fibers and supported by electrical lines. Dave disconnected us immediately and we moved out from under the precarious branch! In the end, we changed RV parks after finding a park with few trees.

On the way out of this beautiful park in Westerfield, I drove the car in front of the RV so I could clear branches out of the road if needed. At one point, I finished moving a branch and was returning to the car when a gust of wind - probably only 30 mph - caught the car door and me. I dug in with both feet and held the interior car door handle with both hands and was able to back myself into the drivers seat and close the door. Whew!

Due to the weather - we postponed our trip up to Niagara falls, sat tight, and waited for the wind to stop.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Our Home


Here is our home. Forty feet long, twelve and half feet high, inches narrower than a traffic lane and 35,000 pounds! We tow an orange Honda Element (dwarfed by "the rig"). We keep our bikes inside the Honda so we can go riding on a whim.

So far that whim has been: Omaha, NE; Springfield, IL; Chicago - along lake Michigan; Westerfield, NY - through wine country; Niagara Falls - along the river; Brattleboro, VT - true mountain biking...rocks, shale, rattling teeth and all; Quechee, VT - 20 miles over hill and dale...and hill....and hill....and hill....and Burlington, VT - beautiful paved trails....ahhhhhhhh.

Photos of Abe Lincoln's Home



Dave and the Lincoln Family

This is Dave posing with the Lincoln family!

I tried to upload a google map of all the places we have been, but my creativity exceeds my tech ability. If anyone reading has any tips - by all means send them along. It's really quite fun to look at it on the map!

We spent a week at the Colorado Christian Writer's conference in Denver where Dave got a fresh infusion of enthusiasm for his book! We planned to go to Ft. Collins on our way North and East, but on the day we were supposed to depart, we awoke to snow! Moments later my sister, Val called to inform us that the news was reporting a swine flu outbreak in Ft. Collins. Plan B.

Plan B took us straight to Lincoln, Nebraska to spend the night and have dinner with my other sister, Heather. She gave us a tour of the Haymarket area and we all agreed that it is like a miniature version of Denver. Lots of old red brick buildings, great little bistros, galleries featuring up and coming artists and a farmer's market on Saturday during the warm months. The down side? The FREEEEEEEZING winters!

After Lincoln, a short journey to Council Bluffs, Iowa to have some repairs done on the RV - the super wiz-bang leveling system seems to have some glitches that result in a noticeable un-leveling in the middle of the night...not so bad when the feet go lower, but a bit of a rush when you spend the night with your head lower than your feet -weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We dropped the RV off in Council Bluffs and drove over to Omaha, NE to bike around the old town. We rolled ten feet before my brake pads fell off my bike! We were directed to a (the only) bike repair shop in the area. I rode up the hills and walked down them until we arrived (13 blocks later) at the repair shop. The owner/manager was so very nice to us, taught us a few things we needed to know about repairing bike on the fly. He had a rack and some other equipment that we had been unable to locate prior to finding his tiny shop. All is well that ends well!

From Council Bluffs we headed to Springfield, Indiana - Abraham Lincoln's hometown. Dave is an avid history buff and has read four books, and countless other documents about Lincoln. We biked around the lake the first evening and did all things Lincoln the next day.

The photo above was taken inside the new Abraham Lincoln museum. The museum has an amazing holographic presentation on the history of Lincoln. The presentation itself was very good, but the hologram delivery left us discussing where the line really was between the tangible and the hologram.

If you ever find yourself in Springfield, Indiana stop by the museum - it's well worth the visit!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Auspicious Begining

For those of you who read the previous Blog "On the Road with Holly Davidson", you know that our baptism in the world of RV ownership started with some comical glitches.

We made it back to Albuquerque with the RV, and a few remaining nerve endings. We sold Dave's Lexus and purchased a Honda Element to tow behind "the rig".

At last, departure date came...and went. We departed only one day late and made it to our pre-set destination of Raton. We spent the night in an RV park at the top of the pass. Awoke to gorgeous views and had a nice morning devotional overlooking the rolling hills in the valley.

We embarked on our journey with new-found confidence and verve. In the vicinity of Colorado Springs, a trucker came up beside us and gave us "pull over" hand signals while trying to show us what the problem was. We couldn't understand the trucker's code of hand motions that followed, but got the clear message to pull over - immediately.

Amidst the hail and rain, Dave dutifully inspected the exterior, the RV tires, the Honda, the Honda tires, and couldn't find the problem. With some trepidation, we proceeded. Ten minutes later, a pick-up truck pulled up beside us. The passenger was able to tell Dave that the Honda tires were crooked. We made an emergency stop on the shoulder of I-25 in the middle of Colorado Springs rush hour and discovered not only crooked, but quite damaged. There was no option except to proceed to our campsite in Castle Pines and call a tow truck in the morning.

We test drove the Honda into Castle Pines to determine if we thought we could make it all the way to Denver and forgo the towing. Not.

While enjoying a spinach salad with honey mustard dressing, we began the dueling cell phone drill of calling around for a tow truck, rental car, taxi, etc. We secured a tow truck pick up time, failed to find a rental car in all of Denver, or a taxi that serviced Castle Pines. Meanwhile a pack of bees decided that my salad was nirvana, as was the scent of honey left behind on my lips! Those of you who know me, know that I have never been stung by a bee. I credit this amazing accomplishment to my healthy respect and fear of them. This would explain the admirable focus with which I removed myself form the patio, maintained my pleading phone conversation with yet another car rental agency, informed the waitress we had a bee issue, needed a new table, that I would be inside, would she please bring the remnants of my salad and tea, all while moving gracefully forward and away from the bees. (For those of you who don't know, my healthy fear of bees stems from a distinct dislike of pain and a bizarre episode in Santa Fe involving a biting spider, my ankles, colors human flesh should never turn, and crutches for a week.)

Safely inside, I finished my salad and tea and we paid the bill. We relocated to the front patio of the restaurant (after a careful bee inspection) and waited for the tow truck. As Dave informed me yet again that bees won't bother me if I don't bother them, a spider dropped out of the tree, bit him on his hand and went flying into never land when Dave brushed him away. As Dave's hand swelled, I refrained from asking the obvious question, "What did you do do bother the spider?" (Evidently I still have much room for personal growth.)

The tow driver agreed to drive Dave back to the RV at his regular dollar per mile rate prior to driving me and the Honda to Denver. Dave made it to the RV in time to meet the mobile repair man who was scheduled to fix the heating and hot water system that somehow failed in the three weeks the RV was in storage.

I alternated between praying for a rental car and chatting with the tow driver for the 45 minute drive to the Honda dealership. Upon arriving, I checked the car in and noticed a set of rental car keys on the attendants keyboard. "Is that my rental car?!?" I blurted out. (So excited at the prospect of having transportation, I ignored the fact that the object in front of me was a set of keys, not a car.) The nice young man was so taken aback and flustered by my enthusiasm and evident desperation, that he helplessly replied, "Uhhhhh, I guess so."

"Oh thank you! You have no idea! We just got towed in, the RV in down South of Castle Pines, my husband has a writers conference starting tomorrow in Denver and there are no rental cars available in the whole city! I put my name on the waiting list, please, please don't let anyone take that car!" I rattled out. "If you do, I will tackle them by their ankles and create such a scene it would really be terrible. You really have no idea...."

"Uhhhh, okay. Let me just check."

I sat on a stool, perched high so I could watch the keys and never let them leave my sight. I answered all the intake questions without once looking at the nice young man asking them and dutifully typing in my answer. I was a hawk hunting it's prey, a vulture watching a carcass, a desperate woman in need of a car. Focus was survival.

"This is Jenny, she has your car."

"Nooooooooo!" I wailed, "you can't, you don't understand, if you take that car from me I will tackle you about the ankles and you seem like such a nice person, I would hate to do that!"

"No, she's here to rent it to you, to fill out the forms." he explained.

"Oh! That's excellent!" I beamed.

I filled out the rental forms with the enthusiasm of a lottery winner and was on my way. Happy to be driving in the Denver traffic. Happy just to be driving. Happy, very happy.