Week 4 & 5: New York and Vermont

September 21

Day 22:

We spent the day settling into our home for the week. Checking the internet, it is not good, but at least we are getting some kind of signal, albeit weak. 

I took the girls down to the lake to explore. We started out skipping rocks. That was fun. Aela created a mound of sand. But the waves were washing it away. So she started adding rocks to the pile to see if it would help them from washing away. It helped a little but she wanted more. Eva and I helped by getting more rocks for her. The pile got bigger. 

Eva found a log to put in front of it. That helped a little more, but eventually, the waves got to it, too. So, the idea was to get bigger rocks to help stabilize the log. The pile got bigger. Soon, we had lots of big rocks surrounding the bigger sand pile. That is when we had a learning moment, and it explained the word "Rip Rap." It is large rocks used to protect a shoreline from erosion. Looking down the shoreline there were lots of examples. 

We put a face on the sand pile and called him "Rocky Rip Rap Anderson." Aela even made a song to sing about this benevolent creature. 

That evening we went to Woodcock Brothers Brewery for dinner and stopped at the local grocery store for a few items. Wow, the prices at the local grocery store are really expensive. 

Heading back to the campgrounds, Aela really wanted to check on Rocky to see if he held up against the waves. We walked down there, and to our surprise, he was fine. We will have to check on him tomorrow. Good night, Rocky Rip Rap Anderson. 

After dark, the temperature outside was perfect, and there was no wind. So we laid a blanket out in front of our rig and looked up at the stars. Eva even wrote a story about it. 

September 22

Day 23:

We went to Niagara Falls today. What a wonderful day. We tried to fit in everything that we wanted to do on the American side of the falls. We did the Maids of the Mist boat ride to the base of the falls. It was amazing how powerful the wind is at the base. In the middle of it, the wind was blowing, we were all getting wet, Eva turned to us and said, “I’m never gonna forget this!!!!” She was so excited. 

Then we did the Cave of the Winds, which took us under the waterfalls. Wow, was it powerful. We got even more wet going that way. Afterwards, we had to take our shoes off to get all the water out of them. 

We ate at Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and then went back to the park to see it lit up after dark. I thought they had lights behind the falls. I had so many questions…how do they get the lights behind the falls? Well, duh, they just projected the lights onto the falls from the Canadian side. 

September 23

Day 24:

I worked all day and didn’t leave the rig. 

September 24

Day 25:

Worked all day today. I had time after work to look at the bike rack, take the old one off and put on the new one. Well  I got the old one off, opened the box that was shipped to us, and found out they sent us the wrong piece!  So much for that. I will have to let them know and have them send the right piece to our next location.  

September 25

Day 26:

I spent the day working, but the girls went to the Underground Railroad Museum. When they got back we had some very hard discussions about the Underground Railroad and its importance in history. 

As the sun was setting, we went down to the beach to see how Rocky Rip Rap Anderson was doing. Not so well…the waves were big yesterday, and he was pummeled into oblivion. Nothing was left of Rocky. He had a good life.

While we were down at the beach water’s edge, I noticed that we could see Toronto. So, I got out my zoom lens and snapped the picture in this journal entry. The entire time we were here, I thought that the lake was too big to see across…until now.

We leave on Friday for Vermont. There is a Harvest Host along the way because the drive is way too long to do in one day. 

September 26

Day 27:

Last day of work for the week. After work, we did as much of the packing we could do the night before so we don’t have as much to pack on our moving day. Generally, I get my work space cleaned up, all equipment is put away so we can pull in the slide for that room. 

September 27

Day 28:

We have been on this adventure for four weeks today. Some things are getting easier while other things we are still trying to figure out. 

Today was a moving day, and we are getting better at packing and unpacking. But we are still trying to get the bike rack part replaced. So, packing our e-bike still takes more time. I had been talking to a person at the company we bought the bike rack from. I haven’t been able to get in touch with that person since Tuesday. He is out of the office all week. So, I just called the general customer service number and spoke with someone else. She helped me. Through phone calls and emails back and forth during the day, she was able to get the right part sent to our next location. Hopefully, it will be there during our stay in Vermont. 

The trip from Wilson, NY, to Vermont is about seven hours, so we had to stop halfway at a Harvest Host called Tilden Hill Farms. The place is in Vernon, New York. It’s a cool farmstead that has been developed to accommodate several RVs and tents. They even have 50 amp electric and water. They have even developed a huge network of bike trails on their property. 

September 28

Day 29:

Today, we drove from Verona, NY, to Burlington, VT, and our route took us through the Adirondack mountains. That was four hours of intense driving, and I’m a little worn out after that experience. We were going an average of 40 mph and either turning, braking, or accelerating. I looked at a map later and found out that for fifteen minutes longer, we could have been on an interstate for most of the trip. Oh, well. It was an experience. 

We got to our site in Burlington and we were able to get our rig safely parked in our slot. We went to Folino’s Pizza for dinner and beer. Day 29 is done. Time for sleep. 

September 29

Day 30:

Now that we are in an area that is close to a city, we decided to stock up on a few things at the local Costco. Later we will go to Target for other items. I hope they have a Super Target. (Afterthought...they didn't)

We were able to do that shopping before our adventure at the Ben & Jerry’s factory, about 35 minutes away from our RV park. We were on a tour first. They took us through the production of their ice cream, and we got a sample of the flavor of the day, Dirt Cake. Then we went to their playground so the girls could get some exercise (and the line for ice cream was really long, and we were hoping it would go down). 

After some time at the playground, we were hoping the line was shorter…it was not. So, we just decided to settle in and wait. Aela got Half Baked, Eva got Chocolate, Mom got Chocolate Therapy, I got Impretzely Fudge, and we all ordered a flavor that isn’t distributed anywhere and is a local specialty, Maple Walnut. 

On our way back to the car, we visited an area on their campus called the Flavor Graveyard. That is where they memorialize all the flavors that have been put to rest. 

September 30

Day 31:

First day of work for this week. This WiFi here is the worst we have seen since our trip began. We can't even use our TravelFi this week. The funny things is that just a few blocks down the road we get full bars on our phone. I tried to have my meeting in the RV and they work a little bit. I tried to share my screen during a meeting and it was having difficulty going through. But, we got through the meeting. 

After work, we were going to go on a bike ride. Before we went, the girls were saying that they were having trouble opening the drawer above the fireplace. Hmmm…well, let’s look at it when we get back. Well, when we got back and looked at it, we discovered that there was a way too many items in the drawer, and when we pulled on it, the drawer started to come apart, and all the stuff in the drawer fell behind the built-in fireplace. So I spent the rest of the evening running to Lowe’s, getting items to fix the drawer and putting it back together. Not what I had planned for the evening, but it is what it is. 

October 1

Day 32

Second day of work here in Burlington, VT. Since yesterday didn’t go very well, I decided to venture out and do my meetings for the day at Dunken Donuts. It was .3 miles away and only took a few minutes to ride my bike there. The WiFi was great and I was able to do all my meetings without and connection issues. I think I will go back there again tomorrow for my afternoon meeting. 

I checked the FedEx tracking status for our bike rack and it says it should be here on Thursday around noon. Hopefully it is the right piece and it is here on time. 

October 2

Day 33:

Just another day of work. I had to go to the coffee shop again today. But the good thing is that after work, we planned to go see Lake Champlain. We found a nice park in the downtown area called Waterfront Park. The girls ran around, we played frisbee, and walked over to a brewery called  Foam Brewers to have a drink before finding a place to have dinner. 

October 3

Day 34:

Today was a work day and a packing day. The bike rack component finally arrived and it was the piece we needed to replace our damaged part. I was able to get the new part on and the bike strapped down for our travels tomorrow. With all the packing that needed to be done, the girls wanted to ride their bikes up to the Dunkin’ Donuts to get some donuts. For them, it was more than getting donuts, it was about feeling the freedom of riding bikes.  

October 4

Day 35:

Moving day. We went from Burlington, Vermont, to Warren, New Hampshire. The drive was better than the last. It was only two hours and only half of that was mountain driving. Nowhere near as bad as the last drive. When we arrived at the Moose Hillock Camping Resort, wow, what a difference it was from our last place. Every site is spread out. There aren’t too many people here, so it’s quiet and our campsite is huge. We get WiFi here, and the girls have room to run around in the woods. How nice. 

October 5

Day 36:

Today was our first full day in New Hampshire. The girls just wanted a quiet day, so we spent time around camp and walking the RV park. As a special night, we grilled out and had a “Movie in the Yard” night. The girls wanted to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. After that, the grown-ups watched What About Bob because we are planning to go to Lake Winnipesaukee to see what it is all about (even though they filmed the movie in Virginia).