RV Adventures

If you glanced at the last post, it might appear we have been in Wisconsin since then.  Not true!  After the last post, we spent a weekend camping with Jim’s brother and wife, then we wandered back home. During the two weeks home, I flew out to Idaho and did another 3.5 day trans-continent drive with Janelle (her summer job snorkeling the streams of Idaho had ended) so she could get ready to go back to Geneseo.  Jim spent the 2 weeks working on the RV.  Yes, it’s like a second home that needs maintenance.  Anyway, once Janelle was back at school, we hit the road again.

We had initially thought we would head up to Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces in Canada this trip.  But that would have been a go-go-go trip with little down time.  It just wasn’t appealing to us, so we’ll save that trip for when we have more time.  Everything up there closes down in the middle of October.  Six weeks wouldn’t have been enough time to justify that long of a drive.

So then the dilemma became “Where do we go?”  Basically, it came down to “Where is there a campground that can accept a Big Rig AND have availability over the Labor Day weekend?”  After an extensive internet search, led up to the Lake Champagne Campground in Randolph, Vermont.

We left early Monday morning and were treated to a nice sunrise over the City of Rochester.

Sunrise over Rochester.

That early escape quickly turned into us being stuck in traffic because of the Great Cabbage Spill.  The accident happened just before we got into downtown.  If you aren’t from Rochester, click on that link to see video of the cabbage all over the highway in both directions.  We got there right after it happened, so we were delayed only 15 minutes.  People behind us had it much worse!  Sorry my picture was so bad!

Cabbage all over the highway!

We arrived last Monday after a short (for us) 6 hour drive. This campground is phenomenal, being on the edge of the Green Mountains.  It is terraced, so everyone has a view of the lake and the hills in the distance.  No complaints here!

Yup, we can handle these kinds of crowds.

Our campsite in the morning as the fog burns off.

Our campsite, complete with high speed WiFi and cable. It’s Glamping, not Camping folks.

While in the area, we hit some of the touristy spots.

We saw there was a microbrewery just up the hill from town, so we popped in there on Tuesday afternoon.  It was small, so small that it only has 2 employees, and only one was there.  But he was gracious and gave us samples (while he hosed out his stainless steel vats).  We didn’t leave empty handed.

Welcome to Bent Hill Brewery.

This is the entire Microbrewery!

Inside the brewery, not much here. But the beer was good!

We visited the Rock of Ages Granite Quarry.  That was a first for both of us.  We saw the quarry and the facility where they make memorials.

Rock of Ages Granite Quarry Shed (that’s what they call the manufacturing facility).

Granite Quarry, the granite goes 10 miles down!

An employee working on extracting another cube of granite.

The cranes are used to lift the granite blocks out.

The sculpting area of the shed.

Outdoor granite bowling alley.

We also visited Cabot’s Creamery.  If you live in the Northeast, you have probably seen Cabot cheese in the grocery store.  The business is a co-op that 1200 farms belong to, all of them co-owners.  I couldn’t take pictures of the cheese making facility, but I could take pictures of the cheese we bought!

Say “Cheese!”

Of course, we had to visit Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.  It’s a cute little tour where you see the production floor and get a free ice cream sample at the end.

Welcome to Ben & Jerry’s!

No, we didn’t have this kind of ice cream.  That is their idea of a joke.  Our sample was called Milk and Cookies.  Yum.

Ugh. This sign had the little kids (and some adults) worried.

Milk and Cookies ice cream!

The weather has been quite nice.  I wanted to do some quilting, but didn’t want to be inside the coach.  I did the next best thing, I set up my sewing machine outside.  Ah-h-h-h, heaven.

Sewing with a view.

It’s now the Labor Day weekend and we are staying put.  There are enough crazies on the roads, we don’t need to be one of them.  It was cool and foggy enough this morning that we pulled out the space heater for some warmth.  I am sure by the end of the day, once the sun burns the fog off, the air conditioning will be back on again.

We have no firm idea what our next destination will be. But we know it’s out there somewhere.