Day 15  (Sept 22) New Paltz, NY and Day 16 (Sept. 23) --  Home!     

We had such a nice visit with my sister, Katy in New Paltz, NY.  We got to enjoy some little creatures around her house that are almost like her pets: a bunny, and a chipmunk we got to see a couple of times. A doe with 2 fawns down behind her cottage were a little shy so we didn't get to see them.

Katy's cooking for us was wonderful as usual.  Vernon got to help her with a couple of projects around the house.  

We were disappointed that we didn't get to go on our last planned stop before home due to the heavy rain and winds predicted.  We were going to visit my son, Joe and his wife, Kelsey in Piscataway, NJ.  Looking forward to rescheduling that!

                                                                             

Katy's kitchen/dining table with no top.  Vernon was sanding the tabletop in the garage.

                                                                                        

Vernon's handiwork after sanding and then applying the pretty stain that Katy picked out.

                                                                                  

Sitting at the table with no top.

                                                                            
Vernon screwing the tabletop back on.  This is after the first coat of water based polyurethane (hardly stinky at all!)  Too bad this picture doesn't show how beautiful it turned out!  Wish I had thought to take a "before" picture.          

I brought Katy some sourdough starter and taught her how to make sourdough bread.  Her first loaf (I helped some) turned out great!  

This was our 3rd lengthy trip in the camper since 2017.  Very enjoyable -- even considering it was more expensive and more time was spent planning our stays and activites in the New England states than in our 2 trips out west.

Mileage total:  2100 miles 

Length of time on the road:  2 weeks and 2 days

Amount of fun and fellowship:  Lots!

 

                                                                                    

            

 Day 14   Had a trailer tire blowout on the way from Burlington, VT to New Paltz, NY.   God was watching out for us.  We were alerted to it by a nice couple almost immediately who drove up on our right and let us know.  Then a gas station was only about 100 feet away where we had a perfect spot to tackle it and even put air in the spare.

Vernon struggled for quite a while with taking off the wheel's lug nuts because they had been put on by an impact wrench.  It was a good thing that the mechanic who had originally put the tires on was not close by! 

But he finally got them off and I was able to cancel the AAA call before they started out.

Then we were able to find a discount tire business just a few minutes away and in 15 minutes had a new tire on and the spare tucked away again.

It was a nice drive -- especially the time we spent heading south in Vermont, and arrived in New Paltz where my sister Katy fed us a wonderful supper! 

 

The pictures below are some more of the pictures from the Shelburne Museum which we visited a couple of days ago.  Some paintings I don't want to forget:

                                                                            

Ogden Pleissner was a sportsman/hunter as well as a landscape artist.  

                                                        

More Pleissner paintings  (It's not the same looking at a photo of a painting.)

 The following paintings are some of my favorites from Louisine and Henry Havermeyer collection:                                                                                  

                                                                                    

                                             

                                                                                    

I loved this Winslow Homer painting.

                                                                            

They had one Winslow Homer and one Andrew Wyeth (above)                                                                                                                                                                              

Some information about Andrew Wyeth's "Soaring"

                                                                                    

                                                                                        

This visit the weather will be a wash out!  Rain predicted for the next 2 days!  But we will have a nice visit indoors.  Vernon will help Katy with a couple of little indoor repairs.

 

                                                                                    

                                                                                        

                                                                                            

 Day 13  We saw both the SUNRISE over the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain (with our friend Susan who stayed in a cabin at our campground) and the MOONRISE (with my cousin Ellen and her family)!   Vernon, Susan and I drove to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (at Basin Harbor) and learned how much Revolutionary War history is on Lake Champlain. Then had a wonderful evening with cousin Ellen and her family! 

                                                                            

Sunrise at 'the bluff ' just a short hike from our campsite and Susan's cabin. Susan traveled 2 hours from Derby, VT to our campground to tour the Shelburne Museum (yesterday) and the maritime museum (today) We have had such an enjoyable visit with Susan who lost her husband 7 years ago (today).

Beautiful spot to view sunrise on the big lake!

At the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.  Below are a few of the inspiring stories of early women leaders around the lake.  We were lucky enouto join a few people for a historical tour/lecture on the Revolutionary gunboat fleet led by Benedict Arnold.  A picture of the replica of "the Philadelphia" is below.                                                                         

                                                                                

It was a beautiful day for a picnic on the grounds of the museum.  See the Revolutionary War gunboat replica "Philadelphia 2" in the background. 

                                                                                

Philadelphia 2

                                                                                

This is half of the gunboat where men stood to row.  44 men stayed on this boat -- sleeping almost on top of each other -- and many of the crew were taken from jails to serve on it instead of finishing their prison term.  Others were German mercenaries the museum director said.   They avoided stopping and docking anywhere because the men would run away.

                                                                                    

An artist's rendering of a sunken gunboat illuminated by an underwater light.  Lake Champlain has 300 sunken ships! Most, I take it from the Revolutionary War.  ??

                                                                                    

We didn't stay long enough for me to get a handle on the importance of a couple of battles on the lake that were a turning point in the Revolutionary War.  But this exhibit picture sheds some light on it.

                                                                                

A canal schooner at Basin Harbor at the Maritime Museum

                                                                                

Dinner at the campsite -- Apple Island Resort -- on Lake Champlain.  With cousin Ellen and her family.

                                                                                

Moonrise party!  The girls after dinner at 'the bluff'.  

                                                                                

The second night in a row that we got to see the moonrise!  It was a full moon tonight, it rose about 15 minutes later and a little more north, and more orange than last night.

Tomorrow to my sister Katy's house in New Paltz, NY.  This starts our journey back home.                                                                                

Day 12  Shelburne Museum -- south of Burlington, VT

  The Shelburne Museum is acres and acres of period homes, and exhibits of American (Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth) and other artists (some Degas, and Monet paintings).  Plus quirky exhibits like this circus exhibit in a long narrow building and a side wheel steamboat, the Ticonderoga right up on the museum's grounds!                                                                 

The miniatures of circus life in Shelburne Museum. 

   Large panorama of miniature circus and audience:                                                                                  

                                                                                    

School bus sleigh!  Malinda -- would you like to drive this?

And from our part of the country -- a Conestoga Wagon!

At "The Bluff" on Lake Champlain:  An incredible sight:  the moon rise!

                                                                                    

The full moon over Lake Champlain!!  What a great surprise -- we didn't anticipate being able to watch this when we walked to the Bluff at our campground after supper!

Tommorrow morning we'll go back there and watch the sunRISE!  And I'll post more pictures of our visit to the Shelburne Museum.  And Cousin Ellen and her family (who live in Burlington) will come for a visit tomorrow evening!

                                                                                        

 Day 11   An Amish Community Market, an 'English' community market, and more beautiful Vermont countryside.  Susan is a great tour guide (and cook!)

                                                                                Susan bought this yesterday at the trading post.  I had to post it!

        

This is a barn with some Amish selling produce and baked goods and things that they made like aprons, and pillows.  It also is the home of an animal rescue place.

                                                                                    

Some rescued mules.  Look at the size of those ears!!  

                                                                                

                                                                                   

They LOVED being petted.

They weren't even feeding them anything at this point.  They were just loving the attention.  The girls here said that they were being trained as volunteers at the rescue organization.

                                                                                
 

Some of the goods that the Amish ladies were selling.  The lady (an English woman not pictured) who runs the market and the animal rescue organization is also spearheading a fundraiser to help an Amish family who need to pay an estimated million dollars for the care of a young boy in the family.  Susan is participating in this community event.

                                                                                  

At the other market we visited,  Susan and I bought some tea from a homesteading family in the area.  They raise pork and lamb and chickens and beef and sell it.  He says that his kids were mad because the bacon that he made sold out and they didn't get much of it! Their practices in raising this meat sounded very healthy -- as close to grass fed and free range as they could get.  The pigs were allowed to stay outside most of the time and were fed slop (the family's leftover food) as well as grain, and the lambs were kept outside as much as possible too except when they got into the neighbor's garden then they had to be put in the barn for a while. The wife makes wreaths at Christmas time, and the husband (pictured here) is a history teacher as well as his duties homesteading.

                                                                        

        

                                                                                
 Went for a walk down the road just before dinner:             

The trickling brook was about the only sound I could hear besides a couple of bird and soft chirping of crickets.

I love these pointy topped (that's the scientific name) evergreens in Vermont.

Looking down on the forest floor from the road.  Lots of ferns.

This was a nice grouping of ferns, a moss covered stump an a young spruce tree.

I imagine deer bedding down for the night in this little clearing.

Some things I picked up on my walk -- I thought very artfully arranged until Susan had another idea:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Ok,  This does look prettier. But it's not a fair contest.  Susan is an artist.  See her watercolor below:

                                                                                    

Beautiful!  She painted this with watercolors from a photo she took.

Tomorrow -- to Shelburne Museum just south of Burlington, VT.