Barre, VT

Well no blog yesterday because the site had no internet...technical problems. Today, having saved the day, at least for us, we have free WiFi. We are near Barre, Vermont, a little southeast of Montpelier. The route on the drive up from Black River took us along the St Lawrence Seaway, (Rts 11 and 37), over the top of NY crossing into Vermont near Rouses Point and then down thru the isles (N and S Hero, and Grande Island) of Lake Champlain.

Today we went to Ben and Jerry's Factory and the Cabot's Cheese Outlet in Waterbury, and the Trapp Family Lodge near Stowe. This is a beautiful place and if everyday were like today, we'd look to live here. Julia even had a job picked out: ice cream taster at Ben and Jerry's. Did you know the quality control guy eats about a pint a day?! Plus he gets two free cholesterol tests per year and membership at a local gym. If you ever get out here, the B&J's factory tour is well worth the three dollars. Plus they have a nice playground, all kinds of activities during the summer, and a retired flavors graveyard.

The kiddos also swam in the lake and rode bikes. Time to take a rest and soak up some sun. Did I mention, the temp is about 68 degrees? Anyway, Julia took a few pics as we drove I'll put on the Kodak site at this link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=3x70wrv.4nh9wc8n&Uy=-tj062d&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=35817500433_878248200503

Tomorrow we're off to East Hampton, Connecticut.

Blair Witch Video

Dog Days Come Early

It was a sweltering day in Black River yesterday. NY used near record amounts of electricity to cool homes and we in the RV were no exception. We've been connected to Dad's house using a single 15 amp 110v line. Unfortunately, that circuit is shared by his AC and when other big power users in the house kick on (frig or freezer), we managed to trip the circuit a few times. We've also managed to fill up our grey water and will carry it to Vermont or until we can find a dump station on the way. Here's some pics from Wednesday:

An American girl and her American Girl doll.

A Tiger Lily from the backyard.

Our friend the wren.

Bridget's new friend Jonathon.

A Visit From The Cousins

My sister Mary and her kids visited today (Left are Colin, Courtney, and Brenna (Meghan not shown)). Plus see my other siblings Chris and Ken. Doug was very excited to get his long awaited Pokemon Battle Revolution (Nintendo Wii game), Max got Sonic Rivals for PSP, and Julia worked on sewing a top for Bridget on Mom's sewing machine. Bridget hung out with her new friend Jonathon and me and Pippin checked out the neighborhood. Also see pics below:

All the Black River pics can be seen at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=3x70wrv.5qvh9aaz&Uy=mdp5ak&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

A Visit to Great Grandma's

Off we were to Syracuse today to visit the David's grandmother and Aunt. Doug told Grammie all about his Nintendo DS and Pokemon Pearl Game. He is very excited about a new game coming out this week and bent Grammie's ear for quite a while.

We caught up on Grammie and Jane's activities and shared pizza and the kids high jinx. Then it was back to Black River where Mom had a sumptuous ham dinner with chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, Bridget made friends with the son of our neighbors eldest daughter. They rode bikes up and down the sidewalk and had lots to talk about.

Tomorrow we may have a visit from the cousins and David may hook up for lunch with an old grade school and high school buddy for lunch...

Of Strawberries and Sackets Harbor

Today we were surprised to learn Ken and Dad had raced off to pick strawberries before we got up this morning. They hauled in 38 lbs of fruit, of which all but about 3 lbs were frozen to make future jam and strawberry shortcake or rhubarb pies.

After lunch we headed out to checkout Sackets Harbor and the Battlefield there from the 1812 war. We thought we had stumbled into a mini Ren Faire when we saw some ladies in period garb around a campfire. Doug was full of questions for them. Turns out they were laundresses (sp?) and were full of historic info about the battelfield. Here are today's pics in short order:

P.S. Some have asked where Black River is....here is a link to Google Maps to show you!

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=124+West+St,+Black+River,+NY+13612&sll=38.625633,-77.354523&sspn=0.007292,0.019956&ie=UTF8&ll=44.009839,-75.797381&spn=6.873329,20.43457&z=6&om=1

Ah, The Cool North

Woke up to 46 degrees outside this morning. I was warm and toasty in the RV, but I was less excited about bundling up and going into Mom and Dad's house this morning. To be ready for the cold, we made a trip to the Ft Drum PX last night to buy sweatshirts. We hadn't planned on needing cold weather clothes until we got settled--but the weatherman said otherwise and also said it was to be this cold for much of the remainder of our visit. Strange summer so far swinging back and forth temperature-wise as it has. The thunderstorms we experienced in Ithaca have also followed us north and a late afternoon boomer has been a threat nearly everyday since arriving in NY.

We've pretty much settled on the next stop on our trip, Waterbury VT, the home of Ben and Jerry's. Sorry, our freezer is a little too small to bring samples along with us the whole trip, but we'll do our best to test as many flavors as we can for you. Let me say, we think this first part of our trip is more sightseeing than house hunting. We both are fairly sure we'd like to live in a place where you can get to winter fairly easily, but don't have to live in its gray, ultra cold clutches to find nearby skiing a few times per winter.

Enough talk about cold. Let me get you up to speed on what's happen the last couple days. As you may have guessed, internet here has been spotty...Mom and Dad are too low tech to have their own connection. That means we either have to travel to a hotspot or use a unsecured neighbors' net to get to you. So far the latter has been barely sufficient...but that's the easiest to do.

Yesterday, David made two trips to post without the horde. Before leaving VA, he picked up a tick bite and had to have the head removed by a Doc at the Pentagon. While here, having not heard back from his Dr on the identification of the tick, the sore started to look like Lyme Disease's tell tale bullseye, so it was off to test the Army's clinic. He first called the Tricare (HMO for you non-military readers) appointment line and was told, he was not in the local system, so he had to go into the clinic to get the appointment. Fortunately, Mom and Dad live about 7 miles from the clinic, so this was a minor inconvenience. And the appointment turned out to be almost a non-event, as we finally heard back from the Pentagon clinic that the tick was a Amblyomma Americanum or a Lone Star tick -- not a vector for Lyme. In the end, the Dr determined the bandaid was probably the culprit for the rash near the bite and gave him some cortisone cream--a relief for all.

Minor drama aside, we took lots of little walks with Pippin around the town and have been catching up on reading and family. Here are a few pictures of things you don't see too often:

A wasp nest shaped like a balloon...

And a wren poking her head out after feeding her chicks:

And an empty nest thrown from the apple tree by a nest-raiding squirrel:

On to Black River, NY

The big adventure of the morning was getting gas. That doesn’t sound like much of an adventure, but when you’re driving a 35 foot RV with a small SUV behind, it gets tricky. Getting gas requires planning, split-second decision making and luck. Mostly luck. We’re old hands now (after a whole week of RV livin’) and were smart enough to NOT hook up the car when we left the campground. David drove the RV while I followed in the CR-V. We’d scoped out gas stations during our forays into town, and knew enough to skip the closer, lower-priced station in favor of the one with a larger turning radius. It cost us about a dollar more for the tank, but was worth it in lower stress levels.

After connecting up the CR-V in the gas station parking lot, we headed out, and with only one road-side stop to turn on the LP gas (so our fridge stayed cold,) we were off to Black River, NY, home of the Huni Homestead. Now we’re parked “in the ditch” (for us non-natives, that means “between the road and the sidewalk where there used to be a ditch”) in front of David’s parent’s house. We’ll be here about a week, and hopefully we won’t forget how to do all this RV stuff before we’re on the road again.

Ithaca, Cornell University (sort of) and Penn Yan

What a day. We got going after the Banana bread breakfast and headed out to Ithaca to drive around the city.

But first, we ran out to Taughannock Falls State Park to see what 12,000 years of nature's work can do to rock. We had several photo ops including one of the whole family taken in front of the falls by a biker dude (though he was not the world's best photog as we were blocking part of the view).

Doug was so impressed, he asked to use the camera to prepare for his 6th Grade Science project on weather effects.

This is impressive since we have not seen what he will have for homework for 6th grade and that he is actually interested in something like earth sciences and geology.
We finally headed in and took a lackadaisical tour of the town and part of the Cornell campus. As usual, lots of construction going on blocked roads I was familiar with and not too much interesting to shoot pics of.

After the kiddos hit the pool back at the campsite, we were off to visit Prejean's Winery (http://www.prejeanwinery.com/) in Penn Yan, NY where my friend and former squadron commander Sheila works.

I am inspired by the life she and her husband Diz lead...a beautiful home, cool job and life in a small community where folks know each other.

After sipping some wine, we headed out to their home and then off into town for dinner at the Red Rooster. The kids can highly recommend the bread and the chicken fingers with fries. The adults enjoyed their well appointed burgers and the conversation inspite of the kids best attempts to interject.Funny how we arrived here in time for the first rain the area has seen in a while...a good driving rain on the way out and back from Penn Yan and now again as I get ready for bed. The thunder is clapping so I'll sign off...Thanks Disbrow's for the visit and hope to see you again in the years to come.

D

An Early Rising

Got up early today to fill a request from Max for Banana bread. He's still on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for the most part and this bread is made with Almond nut flour eggs, bananas and honey...really a good little recipe. Pippin (our Westie) was happy to see me for some quality time while it baked and the kiddos slept.

Anyway, today we're off into Ithaca to explore the town and then some putzing around the campsite (http://www.sprucerow.com). We arrived here about 5 last night. The campground is called Spruce Row and it fills all the kids needs: pool, miniature golf and a place to safely ride their bikes. It's not a bad site, but they are really restrictive with rules about pets...can only walk dog in the dog walk area and at the pool...kids must be attended by at least two adults over 18???

Well, certainly don't want to type the whole day away, so will post some pics later.

D

On the Way

Leaving the Prince William Forrest Park Travel Trailer Village, Dumfries, VA
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Ok, maybe not the worst of times. But with Bridget and Douglas arguing about everything, the dog whining, and the sinking feeling that the old-timers in the RV park were secretly laughing at us newbies as we prepped our rig for departure, it was at least the “not so best of times”.

On the upside, we did make our planned 0900 departure. David made one last quick trip out to the house to take the trash cans in (of course the trash guys hadn’t come yet.) I finished up the dishes and started stowing all the miscellaneous stuff that gets put on the counter while you’re “in port.” We got the CR-V hooked up to the back of Fezzik (we named the RV after the gentle giant from “the Princess Bride”) and headed out. The kids are watching a video back in the dinette and we’re ignoring the electronic war going on between “Nagging Norma” the GPS and the route we planned out on our lap top. Fortunately, the laptop can’t talk right now, so it’s a mostly one sided war, with Norma heaving electronic sighs as she pouts “recalculating.”
We’ve left military life behind and are out on the road. The house is empty and the keys have been left for the landlord. Everything we own is either in storage or here with us. I’d love to say I feel free or something, but so far it just feels like we’re on a vacation. We’ll see how we feel in two or three weeks!

Hi guys and gals, our BLOG is up!!!

HuniRV.blogspot.com

Hope you enjoy our timely reminders of why any day out on the road is better than the best day in the office.

D & J