Adventures
The hidden cost of headstone hunting
I enjoy headstone hunting for several reasons: It is a bit of a treasure hunt – I always feel great when I find an old headstone marking an ancestor’s gravesite. It is esthetically pleasing – most of the old cemeteries are quite scenic. It is free. Well, almost free. As I discovered a couple of … Continue reading
Nationals Park
Stepson Devin sacrificed himself last Saturday when he arranged an outing to Nationals Park, to watch the Washington Nationals host the New York Mets. Devin is, to put it kindly, not a baseball fan. Three hours in the sun watching a baseball game was pretty much slow torture for him. But I appreciated the kind … Continue reading
Alligator Alley and Collier-Seminole State Park
Jett wanted to see “Alligator Alley” – the 80-mile stretch of I-75 that runs east/west between Naples and Miami. It is, in fact, the longest stretch of east/west interstate highway with a north/south (i.e., odd) route number in the country. A useless fact that perhaps you will find somewhat interesting… So it was Jett’s idea … Continue reading
Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park
On Sunday, Oct 13, the day before our final TTS hop, Jett and I visited the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park which was just a mile from our RV site. We almost didn’t go as it was competing with a large annual seafood festival in Homosassa Springs, which also sounded interesting. But I … Continue reading
Blue Ridge Parkway – Pisgah section
On our free day in Asheville, I was looking for some way to explore the area further and discovered that the very southernmost section of the Blue Ridge Parkway – the “Pigsah” section – ran very close to Asheville. And, in fact, very close to our campsite. That was all the encouragement I needed to … Continue reading
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal is in an entirely different country, yet it is less than 2 hours from our place on Lake Champlain. We could drive to Montreal in half the time it takes to drive to Boston. And, on a Thursday a couple of weeks ago, we did. We left at 8:30am and returned at 4:30pm. We … Continue reading
Plattsburgh NY
By most measures – including “as the crow flies” – we are closer to Plattsburgh, NY, than we are to Burlington, VT. When we Googled the nearest Walmart we found that it was in Plattsburgh. But we never went to Plattsburgh, despite its proximity. Until two weeks ago. Why? Because it is a ferry ride … Continue reading
Sierra surgery
Way back in June I was informed that my 2005 GMC Sierra pickup truck would need a new head gasket. For those of you who aren’t familiar with internal combustion engines, the head gasket is a large, complex gasket that fits between the engine block and the “head” – the piece that caps the cylinders. … Continue reading
Burlington, with friends
Thank God for family and friends. We might have never seen Burlington this summer had we not had guests. I have already reported on the visit by Jett’s sisters. More recently we spent a very pleasant afternoon with my college roommate, Roger, and his lovely wife Nancy. It was a day when Jett was feeling … Continue reading
Champlain Valley Fair
Jett and I like street fairs. We like county fairs. We like state fairs. So of course we went to the Champlain Valley Fair when it was in town in August. The “Champlain Valley” encompasses several counties in northern Vermont, but not the entire state, so it is somewhere between a county fair and a … Continue reading