During the night we had some unexpected and rather severe thunderstorms. The dogs held reveille for Jim at 6am, and they were able to dodge the raindrops and check out the pet area for Sway. He was still in his little shed, and they seemed dejected after searching all over the usual pet areas for him.
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed north on US 5 along the Connecticut River. It's a very picturesque drive, with several charming little towns just like one would expect to find in New England. We remarked repeatedly how gorgeous it will be in another month or so when the foliage turns, as the entire state seems populated with hard wood trees instead of the evergreens more common in our area of Maine. Typical of these towns is Bellows Falls. When you come over a rise at the south end, you are greeted with a building with the painted façade shown at the right.
We have been receiving catalogs from the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham for years, and decided this would be a good chance to actually visit it. Think Cracker Barrel Restaurant times 10 with a clothing section replacing the restaurant! It is quite a fascinating place, with many items from our childhood that we haven't seen in decades being sold. They also have one characteristic that is not good when one is trying to watch their waistline-free samples of just about everything! They have wonderful candies, cheeses, and any kind of locally made product you can think of. The photo to the right of their Fudge section will give you the flavor of what's offered.
Our next waypoint was Plymouth Notch, the home and final resting spot for President Calvin Coolidge. The entire town, which was then and is today very small, is both a living history museum and a working village. Coolidge doesn't have a Presidential library, so this historic site serves as the Memorial to him. For those who don't remember, he became famous while Governor of Massachusetts by calling in the National Guard to replace striking policemen (and broke the strike), earning him the Vice Presidential nomination on Warren Harding's ticket. He became President when Harding died in office, and subsequently went on to win a 4-year term on his own. Famously, he elected not to run for a second term, paving the way for Herbert Hoover to become the 31st President. The middle photo below was his father's store, selling general merchandise and Gulf brand gasoline. The monument in the front is a World War I memorial.
The right photo shows Becky standing next to the U.S. mail and passenger stagecoach that used to run from Woodstock to Reading. For those Reading Massachusetts folks (Becky's home town), this vehicle went to Reading, Vermont. The Woodstock terminus, incidentally, is not the New York one of music fame but Woodstock, Vermont--a charming town that we drove through on our way back to Brattleboro.
Our last stop was the Killington Ski Resort. The last time we visited here was in December 1966 on our honeymoon, and the snow was pretty deep! From what we could recall, this was the area that we skied in, but we wouldn't bet on it!
We had put in a fairly long day, so we headed back to Brattleboro primarily on I91, and got back around 5pm. There was quite the party going on behind our RV--several RV's from one family group were staying together for the weekend, at least 35 people total, and they were clearly enjoying themselves. We were grateful for having air conditioning, as the humidity was terrible, rain kept coming intermittently, and the unit successfully drowned out the outside noise!
Jim made another trip to the Walker farm, and we had a relaxing evening in the RV.
Oh yes, the dogs! They made 3 more trips to the dog park, and were most upset that Sway had moved into his small shed and enclosure nearby. He vocally made it know (Dudley has a very loud, deep bark) that he was not happy, and only settled down when I took them over to Sway's enclosure!
We had very comfortable first night's sleep, with the caveat that Becky's poison ivy is driving her crazy. After the long journey yesterday, we used our first full day to get ourselves and the dogs back into "camping mode". We had encountered two problems with the RV the night before, so first priority was to get them fixed. The biggest one concerned propane-even though we had a good half tank, we couldn't get any of the gas appliances to work. The smaller problem had to do with the automatic steps; they are supposed to stay extended when the RV is in a fixed position after a selector switch is turned on. They wouldn't. After calling the Winnebago service hotline and being authorized to drive to a dealer to fix them, we called a local RV shop, Vermont RV Sales and Services. Fortunately, they had a mobile service which arrived in 30 minutes! It took them all of 20 minutes to fix both problems (corroded connector for the propane, insulation blocking the stair connector) and only charged $80! We were floored, and eternally grateful!
This is a great little campground, and was quite quiet with very little road noise or other distractions. It also is conveniently located next door to the Walker farm, which has a terrific market store featuring many organic and locally grown items. We enjoyed the best corn and peaches we've had this year!
The most fun for the day arose from the dogs discovering a new friend. This KOA has the customary enclosed dog run, but adjoining it is a second run that they keep their pet pony in. The pony is named "Sway"-(perhaps anticipating when it will eventually become old and a "Swayback??"). Dudley and Rosie couldn't believe their eyes! Actually, Sway couldn't either, as you can see from the picture that Dudley is almost as tall as he is! They had a great time sniffing each other through the fence, and we never had a problem after that getting the dogs to go to the dog run!
The rest of the day was basically spent relaxing, reading, and enjoying our first full day of camping.
Up at 5am, as we had a lot to do before departure at 7. With everything loaded, we drove to Maine Eye Center for an appointment and to pick up new glasses for both of us, and we were set to explore by 10am. With Brattleboro VT our destination for the first three nights, we took our time getting there on this cool and overcast day. Driving cross country from Portland into New Hampshire, we headed south 
to Laconia and Lake Winnipesaukee. Passing through Wolfeboro, we spotted this unique Civil War monument, and Becky took the photo as we turned to the north.
It was fun following the meandering local highways, and the beautiful lakes that seem to be ubiquitous throughout the area. Though we experienced light rain on and off during the drive, it did not detract from the beauty of the scenery.
Jim enjoyed reminiscing about his only previous trip to Lake Winnipesaukee, when he was six or seven years old and they visited with Hoboken friends whose relatives had a cottage and dock there. One of the great benefits of RV travel is the ability to stop anywhere for lunch or walking the dogs, and we took full advantage. Lunch was enjoyed at an overlook on the western side of the Lake, and the vista looks unchanged from 60 years ago!
Our next adventure took place to the west. Lake Winnipesaukee connects to Lake Wynnisquam, and Becky's great-grandparents used to vacation at a cottage called "Ouimet" near Laconia. She had visited it once in 1998 or so with her mother, so we went exploring every shore route we could locate trying to find it again. After about an hour and a half we ran out of paved roads, so gave it up for this trip and headed off to our night in Brattleboro.
We arrived at the KOA North Brattleboro about 5pm, and were glad to find a relative small campground (47 total spots), friendly people, and quiet! Large spaces with lots of trees, and no major road nearby. The dogs were thrilled to be done driving for the day, as we had traveled some 280 miles and had left 10 hours earlier.
Becky's poison ivy was driving her nuts, and we were both exhausted. We vegged out for the rest of the evening!
It's been three years since our Blog, "Moose Droppings". For those reading the first time, we are Becky and Jim Singer from Southport, ME. That Blog documented our 11,500 mile trip around the U.S. with our three companions-Dudley Doo-Right, our Newfoundland; Rosie, our Golden Retriever; and Katahdin, our 4" dangling Moose mascot. We have taken several other RV trips since then, and traded our 2008 Itasca Navion IQ in for a 2013 model this past January. Why? Because the old model only had a rear slide, and Dudley took up nearly 1/3 of the floor space. The new model has a side slide, and we're all a lot more comfortable!
Alas, Katahdin will not be with us this trip. He bounced around so much on a Spring trip that he lost an antler, and we felt it was better to leave him home and let it heal.
As we prepared to go, we had some issues to take care of. Becky came down with a severe case of poison ivy, which with treatment will take 3-4 weeks to run it's course. We also needed to put our "colors" on the RV, proud members of Red Sox Nation that we are! Our son Greg was nimble enough to put the logo on, prominently displayed! Hope we make it through NYC safely!
After finishing up our last minute chores, got the dogs shots up to date, and completed all our "administrative duties", we were ready to go by Wednesday night, August 28th.
Lots of folks wished us well on the journey. Among them, Betsy Pitcher and her daughters Sierra and Kiki. Kiki is the one in the door, posing. She thought she should go too!
So tomorrow we'll be off!
We have been receiving catalogs from the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham for years, and decided this would be a good chance to actually visit it. Think Cracker Barrel Restaurant times 10 with a clothing section replacing the restaurant! It is quite a fascinating place, with many items from our childhood that we haven't seen in decades being sold. They also have one characteristic that is not good when one is trying to watch their waistline-free samples of just about everything! They have wonderful candies, cheeses, and any kind of locally made product you can think of. The photo to the right of their Fudge section will give you the flavor of what's offered.
