In case you missed it, we hit the road in the middle of March and headed to Florida in our van. You can read about it here: A Week Or So On The Road.
On our last day in Naples, Florida, we visited Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, one of my favorite spots in that city. I’ve been there in March before and found it full of wildlife. But this time there were fewer large birds, no visible alligators, and most of the smaller birds were well-hidden. I did manage to see a white-eyed vireo for the first time, though, so I can add that to my lifer list. 🙂
That night we met up with our North Carolina friends, Cathy and Don, who were in Florida visiting their sons.
We snagged a campsite near theirs at Magnolia Park Campground, about twenty miles northwest of Orlando. To our delight, we were greeted by their resident peafowl (peacocks and peahens).
In the morning, while Mark went for a run, I tagged along with Cathy and Don on a wildlife drive near Lake Apopka. It did NOT disappoint!
I’m guessing that’s enough about birds for one blog post! I’ll leave you to scroll through again if you haven’t gotten your fill or to finish here and patiently wait for more news of our adventures! Until next time… peace. 🙂
We left home on a mid-March Monday morning, the van packed with warm-weather clothes and all the essentials. But the first few nights were still chilly. The heat in the van, set at fifty-nine degrees, blessedly kicked on during those nights.
Monday night we spent at a KOA (Kampground of America) in New Jersey. The next morning I took a walk along the road in front of the KOA, while my husband, Mark, ran.
Tuesday night we stayed in Emporia, Virginia, and headed for the Santee Lakes region of South Carolina on Wednesday. We were pleasantly surprised to find a Buc-ee’s along the way! We first came across the Buc-ee’s chain in Texas, but didn’t know they were so far east.
The Santee National Wildlife Refuge was the perfect spot for a walk/run Wednesday afternoon— even though the thought of alligators crossing my path kept me on high alert. 🙂 It was also the site of Fort Watson, a key stronghold taken from the British during the Revolutionary War.
After trekking through the Wildlife Refuge for the afternoon, we checked in at the Santee Lakes KOA in plenty of time for a beautiful sunset.
We returned to the Wildlife Refuge early the next morning before heading off to St. Augustine.
On Friday morning, we walked the grounds around the St. Augustine Lighthouse, then climbed to the top—all two hundred nineteen steps of its metal spiral staircase. I could feel my stomach flipping out and my legs getting shaky, but all was good as long as Mark stayed behind me on the way up and in front of me on the way back down. 🙂
At the top of the lighthouse—surprise! surprise!—Mark found a fellow lover of Treehouse beer. They talked for several minutes while I took in the view.
I spied a tree down below full of birds and asked the guide what I was looking at. He told us there was a rookery nearby at The Alligator Farm. So, we headed back down the spiral staircase in search of birds.
We drove around the block and found the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. But it didn’t seem worth the $35 apiece to enter. So, we walked down the sidewalk to find that the trees we’d seen from atop the lighthouse. They were just on the other side of a fence. We had a much less expensive, but very satisfactory view from the sidewalk. We saw plenty of wood storks, roseate spoonbills, and egrets coming and going.
Mark still needed to get a run in that day, so after the rookery we drove to the St. Augustine State Trail at the Vermont Heights Trailhead. He ran in one direction while I walked in another. A peaceful spot for exercise with the added bonus of restrooms on site.
Friday night, we stayed at a KOA near Kennedy Space Center. Little did we know, a Spacex rocket was scheduled to launch that night. We joined a small crowd gathered at the right spot (according to those in the know) and, sure enough, a fireball shot into the sky just after 8:20 p.m. Too far away for decent pictures, but we all took them anyway.
In the morning we stopped at Brevard Zoo Linear Park in Melbourne, Florida. Mark went for a run while I attended my monthly Poetry Circle via Zoom. After my Zoom meeting, I squeezed in a short walk before we hit the road again.
We spent the weekend with friends in Boca Raton, arriving late Saturday afternoon in time for dinner. Cliff and Susan were gracious hosts and we enjoyed walking/running in their neighborhood, relaxing by their pool, and eating out in Delray Beach on St. Patrick’s Day.
We said goodbye on Monday morning and travelled Alligator Alley (I-75) through The Everglades to Naples where we spent a few days with my dad.
My dad’s condo is right on the water, so I took my morning walks along a 1.25-mile paved path at the edge of the sand. Mark used the path, but ran along Gulf Shore Boulevard, as well. We also walked down the street to the Village Shops on Venetian Bay, went out for dinner at Mr. Big Fish one night, saw Cabrini at a brand-new fancy cinema nearby, and watched the sunset on our last night in Naples. Mark was able to visit with a couple of old friends who were staying in Naples, too.
All in all, we enjoyed the people and places we visited and the wildlife we encountered. We left Naples on a Thursday morning and headed back north, stopping at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary on the way. But that’s a story for another day… 🙂
In case anyone’s been wondering, we did make it to Albuquerque. If you need to catch up on the first leg of our trip, you can find it in Part I. We left off with our stay at Labaddie Brewing in Labadie, Missouri, after a visit to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
The next day was mostly a driving day, although we stopped at Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri, for a morning walk/run.
That night we stayed at the Joplin, Missouri, KOA (Kampgrounds of America). In the morning, Mark ran and I walked loops around the campground before we got on the road. We also had to deal with a cooler leak before we left. This one wasn’t as bad as the leak that happened on our previous trip because we learned to store everything in plastic bins this time. Still, we had some mopping up to do.
As you can see from this photo, the campground was mostly gray dusty gravel that was roused into clouds of gray dust in the morning by a small tractor-pulled rake. It took days to get the dust out of our shoes!
Another long day of driving followed. We entered Oklahoma and landed at our Harvest Hosts destination just after 4 pm: The Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford. We had enough time, or so we thought, to tour the museum before the 5 pm closing time. We were wrong. The museum is named in honor of Weatherford’s hometown hero, Lt. General Thomas P. Stafford, who flew on both Gemini and Apollo missiions with NASA. The museum documents the history of flight with loads of fascinating exhibits and artifacts. We didn’t even get through half of it before closing time.
Out in the parking lot, we were one of two camping vehicles staying the night. We pulled out the Weber grill and Mark grilled some chicken for dinner. The temperature was still fairly warm, so we took a walk through the cute little neighborhood behind the parking lot after dinner. Small neat houses lined wide streets with Hallmark-movie street names like Hayride, Harvest, Cloud Nine, Pumpkin, and Falling Leaves.
The next morning we made a pit stop at the local Walmart and headed west to Arizona by way of Amarillo, Texas. We’d found a Nature Reserve in Amarillo online that looked like a nice place to walk and run. Their website warned of a road closure and gave directions on how to reach their entrance. But road work popped up in every direction we tried to turn in Amarillo. So frustrating! We drove in circles and couldn’t get near the Reserve. We gave up. Our destination for the evening was Tucumcari, New Mexico, so we set our sights on that and left Amarillo behind.
The scenery (and stopping to grab lunch) helped to soothe the frustration. Lots of open land, cows, and wind turbines along the way. Central Time zone gave way to Mountain Time, so we arrived at the Tucumcari/ Route 66 KOA campground in early afternoon.
It was early enough that we thought we’d roll out the awning to shade the sliding door side of the van. The sun was intense. But so was the wind. We took the awning down after ten minutes of strong wind gusts. Mark went out for a run, instead, doing 6.6 miles on route 66 in Tucumcari.
The temperature dropped overnight and at 5 am, with the temp inside the van at 57 degrees, we decided to put the heat on. Our first (chilly) New Mexico sunrise:
We left the campground mid-morning and headed toward Santa Fe. Our friends in Albuquerque were out on a day trip to Sevilleta and wouldn’t be home until late afternoon, so they recommended Santa Fe and the Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary for us. We enjoyed another scenic drive along the way — so different from New England landscapes. Freight trains with what looked like a hundred cars became a common sighting, as well.
The Audubon Center turned out to be a gem! Beautiful views, trails, hummingbirds, artists at work, and more. I walked around, birdwatching and taking photos, while Mark ran on one of the trails.
Our Albuquerque friends texted us when they were on their way back home, but we almost didn’t want to leave the Audubon Center—it was so beautiful. Reluctantly, we did. And we arrived in Albuquerque just in time for green chile stew for dinner!
There’s so much more to say, but it’s taken so long to get this post done due to poor cell phone and wi-fi reception that I’ll stop here and fill you in on our Albuquerque adventures in my next post. Meanwhile, we continue to meet all sorts of people and see some amazing natural and human-made wonders.
It seemed odd to be driving away from New England at the end of September when the trees were hinting of changes to come. But that’s what we did. We’re heading to Albuquerque and planning to arrive in time for the annual Balloon Fiesta.
We aimed to leave home early on that first day and drive five hours or more toward Rochester, New York. But, of course, we needed to gas up. And stop for ice. And, oh, yeah, stop at the Weather Tech dealer for a cup phone holder or two. We actually found Topgo ones we like better. Anyway, it was closer to noon when we finally hit the open road.
Our first night away from home, we stayed at Twin Brook Camillus Farm in Camillus, New York. Owned by a lovely retired couple, Craig and Elaine, the farm is home to sheep, chickens, turkeys, dogs, and a pair of Talouse geese.
It was a quiet, cool night, and we barely heard the rooster crowing through the closed windows the next morning.
We bought farm fresh (still warm) eggs and frozen chicken from their self-serve barn-stand and, on our first official morning on the road, we, of course, stopped at Walmart for a few things. Then, on to Erie Canal Park in Camillus, where we took our morning walk/run.
We arrived at Niagara Falls State Park on Goat Island about mid-afternoon. Thirty-nine years ago, we stopped at the Falls on the Canadian side as we drove home from our honeymoon. This time, we got the American view and waved to Canada across the way.
After Niagara, we drove another hour and a half to Westfield, New York, where we stayed at a KOA campground overnight. The end of our first full day on the road.
In the morning, we popped over to Luensman Overview Park in Portland, New York, for a walk/run, then back to the KOA for showers. Passed an interesting sign, enjoyed some fall leaves along the way, and were disappointed at the ‘overview’ where a haze veiled the supposed view of Lake Erie and Canada, beyond.
We then set our sights on Hoof Hearted (yep, say that fast, out loud) Brewery and Kitchen in Columbus, Ohio. But first, we stopped beside Lake Erie for a few pics. It’s hard to look at such a ‘great’ lake and not think it’s an ocean.
After dinner at Hoof Hearted, where Mark drank one of his favorite beers, Permanent Marker Face Disguises, we drove a short distance to a small, but neat, Alton RV Park in Galloway, Ohio, for the night.
In the morning, we found Mudsock Trail, next to a large, beautiful, and very active dog park, in Columbus, Ohio. Saw a couple of egrets, a huge bees nest, and a great blue heron just hanging out in a tree.
We got back on the road, crossed the Indiana state line, and pulled into my cousin’s driveway in Muncie just after 3 p.m. It was good to see them again, as we’d stopped at their house over a year ago when we first drove our new Sprinter back from Boulder, Colorado. The kids were taller. And they’d just just bought a new house around the corner from their current house, so lots of catching up to do.
We shared some of the apples we’d brought from our trees back home, did some laundry, and waited for my cousin’s husband to get home from work. We used that time to pull out our new electric Weber grill and cook the chicken we’d bought in New York, and also bake some home-grown potatoes in our electric air fryer/oven. Then we went out to dinner in downtown Muncie. We followed dinner with a visit to The Guardian Brewing Company to meet some of their friends who were celebrating one friend’s birthday. The company was enjoyable, the beer, not as much.
In the morning, we said our good-byes, visited the local Walmart, and then stopped at Town Run Trail Park in Indianapolis for a morning hike/run. We didn’t realize initially that this was primarily a bike trail. It was Saturday, so many cyclists were pulling in, strapping on their helmets, and hitting the trail. We found a few visitors who were planning to run the trail and we all decided that it would be okay as long as we gave the bikes the right-of-way. Especially on the narrow sections of the very windy trail. As I hiked, I made sure to keep my ears open for birds in the trees around me and bikes speeding up behind me.
Visible from the Trail Park driveway was this impressive sculpture honoring the classic Studebaker automobile of Indiana.
We left Indianapolis and headed for St. Louis and its famous Gateway Arch. Mark had been up to the top of the arch before and I was hoping to make the ascent this time. The section of St. Louis near the Arch was confusing to navigate. On top of that, we passed crowds heading to a Cardinals game at every intersection. As we finally pulled up along the street beside the National Park, we realized that the parking area was closed and that a brick area, slanting away from the road toward the Mississippi River, was being used instead. We drove to an unoccupied section, away from the tight rows of cars, to make our own parking spot.
The Arch was visible from the highway as we approached the city and was huge up close! But, unfortunately, tickets for the ascent were sold out and we had to be content with the indoor museum and outdoor picture-taking in the ninety-degree heat.
At the end of the day, we drove to Point Labaddie Brewery in Labadie, Missouri, to spend the night in their parking lot, courtesy of the Harvest Hosts network. The owner was welcoming and the beer was good. We met a fellow traveler named Christian who was also staying the night in his rig on his way to Albuquerque.
All real living is meeting, said Martin Buber in I and Thou. I love this quote. When I heard it recently, I immediately attached it as an epigraph to a poem I was writing, as if to say: This. This is what I mean! And I’ve found myself meditating on it a lot during this trip. We’ve met people from New England and they’ve felt like home. We’ve met people from the towns we pass through and they’ve sometimes felt a bit foreign. And we learned of the death of a dear friend back home a few days ago. In this life, we meet so many different people (and animals, birds, insects, flowers, trees, mountains, prairies, rivers, and lakes). Each one expands our universe a little. I’ve come to understand on this trip, that we also meet ourselves along the way.
There’s a lot more I could say about that, but I won’t right now. I’ll leave you to meditate on it yourself. 🙂
Stay tuned for Part II of our adventures, yet to come…
We received a wedding invitation for a Thursday night in June in Newport, RI. So, of course, we thought, what a great excuse for a van trip!
We spent the first two days in Tiverton, RI, parking in the driveway of my husband’s boyhood friend. Len grew up two doors down from Mark in Wilmington, MA. They ran track together at Wilmington High School in the mid-seventies. He now lives on a steep hill of a street in Tiverton with a great view of Mount Hope Bay.
Len lives about halfway down the steep street. On our first day there, we walked down the hill and through the brush to the water.
Later that afternoon we checked out Tiverton Four Corners, a quaint area with shops, historical buildings, and an outdoor sculpture garden.
On the morning of our second day, we drove to Colt State Park in Bristol, RI. Mark and Len went off in one direction for a run.
I set out to walk along a path near the woods. But I kept stopping, distracted by the birds and the flowers. I got a few photos, but the woodpecker and the hummingbird escaped before I could catch them.
I changed course and chose a straighter path along the water instead.
Mark and Len finished their run (see the re-enactment photo below :)) And we headed back to Tiverton, where Len convinced Mark to try out his electric bike on the crazy hill in front of his house. Yikes!
We finished the day with a tour of Len’s basement workshop where he repairs glass lamps. He also showed us some of his stained glass pieces from his long career as a stained glass artist. He was full of stories about some of the church work he did. And he named all the different styles, colors, and textures of the glass he used.
Then we scooted over the state line to Fall River, MA, to eat supper at The Tipsy Toboggan. All in all, a nice visit. On to Newport tomorrow.
We left the Holiday Inn in South Hill, VA, on Thursday morning, looking to take a walk/run before getting back on the road. We found a pleasant trail called Tobacco Heritage Trail in La Crosse, VA. The first sound to hit my ears there seemed like an unfamiliar birdsong, but after checking with a group of locals on the trail, I learned that frogs were making all that noise. More throaty than the ‘peepers’ we have up north, but not as low-pitched as bullfrogs. They were loud, but seemingly invisible, so no pics of them. We saw a few birds and a very small snake along the rest of the trail.
After walking/running the trail, we got back on the road and continued south, arriving at our friends’ place in Charlotte, NC, around four in the afternoon. Cathy & Don live in a separate in-law apartment on the property of their daughter and her husband. Their RV was parked alongside their garage, so we spent the night parked on the street next to it.
It rained overnight and was still spitting on Friday morning. We spent a quiet day doing laundry, blogging, and visiting with Cathy & Don & their new grandbaby, Evelyn. Around 3 p.m., we followed Cathy & Don in their Tiffin RV down to Andrew Jackson State Park near Lancaster, South Carolina, to camp for a couple of nights.
Cathy & Don were gracious hosts, even while camping. We ate supper in their RV and played cards until late. We taught them how to play Pitch. Team Mark & Cathy beat Team Chris & Don in spectacular fashion. On Saturday, we hiked around the park, found the site of Jackson’s boyhood home and a museum that was open for exactly one hour everyday. We hit it about eight minutes before closing.
Saturday afternoon, the four of us piled into our van and ventured over to Benford Brewing in Lancaster, SC.
From there, we checked out The Dream Chaser’s Brewery in Waxhaw, NC. What a cute little town! Perfect for browsing all the Main St. shops. The only drawback was that the whole town closed its doors at 5 p.m. Oh, well.
We left Andrew Jackson State Park on Sunday morning. On the way back to Charlotte, we stopped at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mills, South Carolina for some easy hiking.
After all that fresh air and exercise, we headed back to Charlotte, ending the day with 5 p.m. Sunday mass at St. Peter in downtown Charlotte.
We spent one more day in Charlotte, but that will have to wait for my next post. 🙂
Columbus, OH, was our target destination — the home of Hoof Hearted (say that out loud a few times) Brewery & Kitchen. Mark had been there before. This time, he sampled Permanent Marker Pen Disguises and Steel Toed Aqua Socks. Yes, those are actual beer names. And he bought a four pack of the Steel Toed Aqua Socks for his sister.
That night, we stayed at the Logan/ Hocking Hills KOA in Logan, OH. The owners were super nice and even upgraded our site to one with a patio. 🙂 Beautiful view of the hills. And we had a surprise visitor: a cedar waxwing in the tree above our patio.
Jamie and Andy recommended that we visit Hocking Hills State Park. A few of our fellow KOA campers also mentioned Old Man’s Cave to us, so we checked it out (in the rain).
We couldn’t find an available campground or Harvest Hosts site that night, so we stayed in a cheap (somewhat sketchy) hotel in Altoona, PA. The next day we were off to Equilibrium Brewery and Tap Room in Middletown, NY.
Our Harvest Hosts site, The Castle Fun Center in Chester, NY, that evening proved to be less fun by night with the constant highway traffic, poor wi-fi, and gently sloping parking lot. However, I did find a family of geese for entertainment.
The next morning felt less like a cross-country road trip and more like just driving home. We headed up the Taconic Highway in NY, then hooked up with Interstate 90 East. Before we knew it, we were back in Massachusetts!
Back in MA, we pulled off the Pike and travelled north to Holyoke for a hike at Mount Tom State Park. Not too many birds to see, but a beautiful butterfly greeted us. And the view wasn’t bad either. We could actually hear cows mooing down below as we took in the view.
We took a detour to Tree House Brewing Company in Deerfield that night where Mark enjoyed some of his favorite brews, while I enjoyed the decor.
We treated ourselves to a nice hotel room in Northampton, MA, and in the morning, dropped by our youngest daughter’s place around the corner to say hi!
Back on the Mass Pike (90 East), we stopped at Tree House Brewing Company’s Charlton location to pick up a beer order for Mark’s siblings who own Knotty Pine Design & Consignment in Hudson, MA. We delivered the beer to Hudson and headed for home.
In case anyone thinks this road trip sounded ideal, please know that I neglected to mention the struggle to regulate the temperature in the van overnight, the frequent Walmart visits for all the things we realized we needed along the way, the oatmeal that boiled over on the induction cooktop right down the front of the fridge to the floor, the prescription driving glasses resting comfortably at the bottom of a marsh somewhere, and the overhead van cabinet that’s coming loose from the wall, among other things. Just thought it appropriate to interject a dose of reality.
All in all, we had quite the adventure. And can’t wait to do it again!
P.S. The line from one of my favorite John Denver songs played in my head. (Ok, I sang it out loud.) Hey, it’s good to be back home again…
You know that little thrill of licking brownie batter off the spatula just after you put the pan in the oven? (Oh, is that just me??) Anyway, we all like to sample a bit of whatever we’re whipping up in the kitchen, don’t we, — especially if we’re cooking when we’re hungry? It’s so hard to wait. And that’s how this past week felt to me with the tease of a couple of warm March days. I could taste spring!
My first taste involved one of my daughters and the mitre saw she inherited from my Dad. (Stay with me here.) We’re going to be building new garden beds for my backyard this spring. Several weeks ago, we took a road trip to the only two Home Depots in the area that carried the cedar two-by-sixes we needed. Long story, short, we spent an hour or so cutting some into four-foot lengths and trimming the rest to eight feet. We’ve got some work ahead of us still, but seeing them all cut excited me. I can’t wait for gardening season!
The second taste involved another of my daughters. She lives almost two hours away and works as a baker. For both of those reasons, we had’t seen her in person for months. I’d been waiting for decent weather on one of her days off, so we could spend some time outdoors together. Last Friday, the promise of temperatures in the high fifties, or even maybe sixty degrees, was just what we needed. And it did indeed turn out to be a beautiful day!
We hiked a trail at a local state reservation. We watched for birds and talked a bit about photography as she tried out the new camera she got for Christmas. It was midday, so bird activity was minimal. After walking for a while, we actually thought we might not see any. But then a few nuthatches and chickadees flew right across in front of us and sat chirping in the trees for several minutes. We walked on and saw a large black-ish bird fly by at a distance. When we got to the spot, we discovered a pileated woodpecker. A second one flew by a few minutes later. Even though they moved too fast and stayed partially out of view, I took one poorly focused picture — enough for proof, if not for hanging on a wall. All in all it was fun and left me pining for more warm spring days.
Last year, my husband and I travelled to the Burlington, Vermont area for a week. You can read all about it in Biking, Birding, and Brews. This year, we went back to the same area again. I considered calling this entry “Second Annual Biking, Birding, and Brews”, but even though we did mount the bikes atop the Subaru again, we didn’t ride this time. And our birding adventures were carefully planned around beer delivery times. So, really, let’s call this four-night trip a thinly disguised beer run. I’m not complaining, mind you. (If I feel the need to say that, does it mean I actually am complaining? Hmm.) Anyway…I did get a chair out of the deal! Stay with me here…
We arrived in Burlington just before dinner on a Saturday and serendipitously (gotta love that word!) met our nephew and his girlfriend in our hotel parking lot. Their brewery tour van was delivering guests to our hotel before bringing them to their hotel. We made dinner plans for the Farm House Tap & Grill. Once there, I enjoyed a delicious piece of salmon while my husband savored Hill Farmstead’s “Edward” on tap. 🙂 Our nephew described all the spots they’d visited on their brewery tour and recommended Zero Gravity Brewery. Of course, we dutifully checked it out the very next day…
Church Street in downtown Burlington is lined with small shops that range from chain stores to novelty, one-of-a-kind places. After our late dinner, most of them were closed. I remembered being disappointed by that fact last year, too. So, we peered into a few windows on Saturday night and vowed to come earlier on Sunday so that we could actually browse in the shops. Which we did.
In Ten Thousand Villages, I found a chair. I was first attracted by its colorful woven fabric which turned out to be recycled saris. But when I sat in it, I fell in love! I stand a whole five feet tall, so a chair small enough to allow my feet (not just my toes) to reach the floor is special. And the front edge of the seat curved downward rather than cutting into the back of my knees. A rare quality! The price seemed a bit high, but my husband suggested it would look great in my “meditation room”. The room he was referring to is my spare bedroom/ sewing room/ craft room that I also use for meditating. I’d painted the room “spring leaf” green several years ago — a bright green that makes me smile every time I see it. And my husband was right: the chair would be perfect in that room!
There was only one problem: the Subaru was full of beer coolers and bike tires and we needed room for our backpacks and suitcase, as well. There was no room for a chair. Could we make room? We weren’t so sure. Ten Thousand Villages has stores in other locations a lot closer to home, but even if one of those had a similar chair in stock, chances were the colors would be different. I really wanted this one. I think the clerks were as sad as I was when we left the store. But we had a few days to figure something out.
The cool, wet weather of Saturday and Sunday gave way to warmer sunshine for the beginning of the week. We scored several cases of Heady Topper
We visited the Ethan Allen Homestead two days in a row for some early morning, pre-beer-delivery birdwatching. We heard more birds than we saw, but the trail was pleasant.
We did see the usual sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, woodpeckers, goldfinches, robins, nuthatches, and even a lone mallard floating in the swamp. We also spied the back end of a deer snacking on swamp grass and found a colorful frog attempting to hide near the path. It was hard (for me) to leave all the wildlife behind to go stand in line for beer, but that was the deal. Meanwhile, I found myself brooding over the chair.
We spent a few hours one day hiking a 4.5 mile trail around Shelburne Farms. The trail started behind the farm’s street-front country store, and led us back over a hill to the farmhouses hidden from view, through the woods behind the farmhouses, and along a mowed path through the fields, stretching to the edge of Lake Champlain.
The views were breathtaking!
We met a few people along the way, but not many. We spied a few birds, sheep, donkeys, chickens, and goats, too. But mostly just the two of us walked through the expansive fields under the huge sky together. It almost took my mind completely off the chair. 🙂
On Tuesday, we knew we’d be checking out of our hotel the next morning. It was our last chance to figure out if we could fit the chair in the car. Maybe we could squeeze the large suitcase on top of the bigger cooler, which was already full of beer. I was willing to move my passenger seat forward and upright. Heck, I’d carry stuff on my lap, too, if it meant we could maneuver a chair in behind me.
We drove into downtown Burlington one last time. I carry a small tape measure in my purse which comes in handy every once in a while. So, we measured the space we’d made in the car, parked a block away, fed the meter, and headed to the store. When I saw the chair again, I almost laughed. It looked so small! It had grown bigger in our minds as we tried to imagine stuffing it into our cooler-laden vehicle! A different clerk greeted us and asked if we were the ones that the whole staff had been talking about and were hoping would come back for the chair! We were. She invited us to drive up to the back door and actually try to fit it into the car. If it fit, then we could buy it! And guess what??? It fit!
On Wednesday morning, we packed up the car, carefully storing smaller bags under and around the chair. I was so thrilled to have my chair that I hardly minded spending most of the day in the car. First, we drove northeast to Hill Farmstead in Greensboro for the limited release of Damon (an imperial stout named after a dog). Then we drove several hours south to Treehouse Brewery in Monson, MA for some Alter Ego and Green. Finally, another couple of hours brought us home. And at the end of the day, my chair was home, too. 🙂
My Dad winters in Florida. For several of the past years, my husband and I have trekked down from Boston, usually in March, to visit and enjoy the warmer weather. We planned no such trip for this year. Then, my neighbors, who recently bought a condo near my Dad’s, called. Were we planing a visit? We should get together in Naples, Florida. Well, you’d think we see enough of each other already, being neighbors here in New England. You’d be wrong. So, I booked a ticket for the end of February.
The day before I left, National Grid came to change the gas meter on our house. Evidently, this must be done every seven years. Why I said “yes” to scheduling anything the day before a trip is beyond me. To make a long story short, after it was done, the pilot on the furnace wouldn’t relight. I could’ve predicted it, since the thermocouple quits on us every few years, like clockwork. Anyway, that meant I had to get a heating guy here, in a hurry, to fix my furnace. All this while I’m trying to pack and leave instructions for what needed to be done in my absence. When I left for the airport the next morning, we had heat.
My Dad has been under the weather lately, to put it mildly, and has been pretty darned tired. Unlike the last time I visited, he wouldn’t be chauffeuring me around. Instead, he handed me his keys. I was on my own.
My favorite destination in Naples, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, was my first solo outing (after a visit with my neighbors, of course). The swamp is an amazing place to birdwatch. I spied several kinds of woodpeckers and warblers, many waders, a few hawks, plus raccoons, alligators, and snakes. Most of my photos are useful for bird identification, but not necessarily for publishing. Here are some of the better shots (click on any one of the photos to view them enlarged as a slideshow):
Some of these creatures were familiar to me, like the ibis, egret, anhinga, cardinal, raccoon and alligator. I’ve even seen pileated woodpeckers before, from a distance. But it was a thrill to catch them relatively close by and watch when one suddenly trounced on top of the other! (I should mention, that while I watched the woodpecker fight, a raccoon waddled through the swamp, climbed up next to me and proceeded down the boardwalk. A bit too close for my comfort!) Black and white warblers and yellow-rumps were new to me. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen the paler version of a red-shouldered hawk before. Beautiful! I’ve definitely never seen a painted bunting before! I actually visited the swamp two days in a row, arriving at 7:30am on the second day, to catch more bird activity. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself!
Check out my trips to the Naples Zoo and Naples Botanical Garden (and the ongoing furnace saga) in Part II…
Chapter 3 