Summer's over

Our summer excursion, up into New England and eastern Canada, has come to an end. Not only has Fall weather arrived but the calendar says so too. We saw quite a few leaves changing colors and starting to fall. The temperature in NY was 10 degrees cooler than in PA. and we got the comforter out for the nights. It was beautiful up there for the Summer and I bet Fall is too.

We left southern Vermont and headed to Southern NY, just outside of Binghamton. The entire area is covered with trees, rolling hills and big farms. Our campground was a former farm and we played some golf on a former farm. But the farms are also set on the sides of the valleys. It is not flat out here. Next stop is just outside of Harrisburg, PA. This is Amish farm country and there are some really big farms, miles of corn and soybeans, hills and Amish. There is no need to go into Lancaster to be in the middle of the Amish culture. It's actually very pretty and peaceful.  Some of the small towns have some very pleasing stone and wood buildings and barns, or quaint main streets. A lot of buildings are originals and kept up very well. Our camp is up in the hills, again weak cell and computer service, twisting and winding roads, and a family camp. That means everyone leaves the cities for a weekend of camping in the "mountains". Lots of golf carts being driven around the camp, up and down the hills. It's a busy place.

When booking our site at the Harrisburg camp, we intended to be there last Friday. But all area camp grounds were full due to the RV show in Hershey, the largest RV show in the country, so they say. So we decided to go, Thur., and it really was pretty big. Miles and miles of RV's to go through. We didn't need to check out everyone or all the types, and the weather didn't cooperate well either, but it was fun. We actually met 4 sales men, with 2 different companies, from Idaho. 2 from Pocatello, and the other 2 from Boise. One actually worked at the RV dealer we bought the ALFA from. Small world. The give away was Bill was wearing his BSU shirt. And others always comment when they see his shirt. Usually something like "did you see that game?" BSU has many fans outside of Idaho. GO BSU!

So now we move to Harrisburg, on Sun, eat up the fridge food, pack, get the trailer readied and stored for a 3 week rest while we go check out things in Scotland. Checking the Scotland weather, I guess we better pack the rain coats.

This blog is rather short and pictureless (is that a word?) but that's all I've got. We hope to be able to post a little in Scotland and pix too. Keep your fingers crossed and we'll write when we get back.

Moving on

Well, we've left Vermont and New England after spending a week up in the north, Burlington and another week in the south, around Bennington. We took several drives, did a little hiking, and admired the scenery. Some of the heat moved in and temps reached into the 90s, a last dying gasp of summer before cooler weather settled in.

 While in Bennington, we decided to try a little kayaking. So we packed up the "wet" clothes into the dry bag, got all the little paraphanalia together and headed to a lake recommended by the visitor bureau lady. By the time we got there, it had clouded over, the wind came up and the temperature went down. Not exactly kayaking weather. So we found another back road to explore, came upon a lake not too far off the road and almost had a nice picnic. All except for the rain shower! Guess we waited too long. But the weather changed daily. One day we had the a/c on and then the comforter on the next day at night. The leaves have started to change and some are falling. Over all, our summer weather was very pleasant.

We were able to see the Boise State broncos play and beat Virginia Tech on ESPN. The last campground had cable and that was imperative for Labor Day or have the Dish back up working. Dish wasn't up but we did have cable. What a great game.

Now we are in NY and just waiting till the 19th when we move into Harrisburg. Two more weeks and we leave for a 3 week trip to Scotland. We will get last minute things taken care of before we store the trailer while we are gone. Really looking forward to the trip.

Can you pronounce the name in blue?

I leave you with some signs for getting around Maine. The road signs are so helpful.

Images of Vermont

We drove another back road loop and visited a snowflake museum.  W.  "Snowflake" Bentley, of Jericho, Vt. photographed over 5000 snowflakes, discovered no two were alike and developed the equipment to micro photograph them. Who knew? Other stops included a sugar maple syrup tour, Ben & Jerry's tour, with free samples, a couple of antique stores and more covered bridges. Next to big, old barns, covered bridges are my favorite. The valleys and farmlands were great scenes and the weather was beautiful.

Round church

Bench in round church. Check out the middle legs

RR covered bridge

Driving the backroads, we find a lot of the covered bridges. And they are located on the state map for "easy" finding. Most just cross a stream. Practically all have been repaired, restored or improved. Most are also in the historical society now.

We have truly enjoyed our week in the Burlington area but look forward to seeing southern Vermont.  We're starting to see some color changes on the trees in the mountains.  Locals say it's because there hasn't been enough rain this summer.  It should be a pretty fall.  We're next moving about 150 miles south near the town of Bennington, Vt.   We'll be there for a week around the Labor Day Weekend.  Gail has made sure that we have access to ESPN for the Boise State game on Monday.

Great swimming hole
with rocks and ledge to jump from.

Jericho Vermont Flour Mill

Flavor graveyard of Ben & Jerry's