Burlington

Settled-in at Gene’s son Alan’s place in Burlington, where we will be for a few days. 

Parked at Alan's house

 

 

Saturday Alan went off to work on a project in the morning while we relaxed on the deck and enjoyed the ever-changing view of the lake and the many boats on it. 

Not much wind, not many boats. But the view is still great

In the afternoon Alan took us down to the pedestrian mall at Church St. (downtown Burlington) where there were tents set up the whole way. It was a sidewalk sale for the merchants. Lots of action. We had lunch in a sidewalk café and watched the passing parade.

We were back at the house in time to greet Valerie who was just returning from a business trip. Alan and Valerie fixed a delicious dinner (they are both good cooks) which we ate on the deck and watched the sunset.

The next day (Sunday) Alan and Valerie took off to work on installing a shower (which took most of the day). Jean walked back down to Church St. and spent most of the afternoon shopping. Meanwhile, I did some sewing in the motorhome --- I refastened two curtain slides and sewed two pieces of Velcro onto the screen for the sliding door. Then I finished setting it up. Weather is spring-like (by Virginia standards) and we leave the rear double doors open, as well as the sliding door until it warms up enough to turn on the air conditioner

The first day we did not turn on the water heater. This was to test an idea I had read on the Cyberrally that changes in pressure in the water heater were the cause of the occasional “burp” from the water pump. In fact, we got no “burps” in the time the water heater was off, but they returned after we turned it on.

A new problem that has shown up is that when we are hooked in to shore power, the Battery Separator clicks about every 7-9 seconds (except occasionally when it doesn’t). I have no idea of if it affects anything else. I will try to find some information about that.

Another great dinner by Alan and Valerie. It was a little cooler; we need the blanket. A big difference from the month of heat we had back in Virginia.

Monday, Alan and Valerie were off on projects again. We relaxed in the morning, then walked down to the waterfront in the afternoon.

The old train station has some interesting sculptures

 We had lunch about 2:00, then walked down to see the canal schooner Lois McClure. Gene checks this boat out every time we come to Burlington. Jean was a little under the weather, so she rested in the shade for a while. The boat looked good this time. Last year it was closed off and looking pretty ragged. They apparently got some money for maintenance since then. It is open to the public Thursday through Sunday; we should have come down yesterday. But there was a woman on deck and we chatted briefly.

Went back and picked up Jean, and we had Creemees (a Vermont version of soft-serve). Jean was too tired to climb the hill back to Alan’s, so I called him and he picked us up. Then Jean and Valerie went off to the garden store and I kicked back. In the evening we all went out for Mexican food. Their favorite restaurant was closed on Mondays, so we went to another place on Church St.

Tuesday. Another beautiful day. We had breakfast on the deck. Everyone else went off to a fabric store. After they got back, Alan borrowed a convertible and we went for a drive on the islands. We went through the small towns of South Hero, Grand Isle, and North Hero.

The view from South Hero

 We bought some lunch in North Hero, then took it to a picnic area on another island. Across the road from the picnic spot is an outdoor church called St. Ann Shrine. The pews are outside, under shelter, and the altar area is in an open extension of what looks like a small church.

 

St. Ann Shrine

On the way back we got Creemees. Then we stopped at Costco briefly; and finally finished up at a liquor store to get some rum since we had used the last before we got to Burlington.

Out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Back at the ranch, we watched television --- bouncing back and forth between the Rio Olympics and the results as they came in of the Democratic primary that was held that day. It is a very political house.

Wednesday, departure day. After another pleasant breakfast on the deck, we got the Roadtrek ready for the road. Underway about 11:00, our first stop was back at North Beach Campground to dump the tanks. But first we had to wait for a city pickup truck to take on a tank of water.

Finally getting under way, our next stop was a large mall, where Jean needed to exchange a purchase. While she was doing that, I trudged all through the mall in search of a connecting cord so that I could upload the pictures from the camera. I always have to forget something, and this time it was the camera cord. Nothing in the mall, but I found out where there is a nearby camera shop.

Next stop was a Hannaford’s grocery next to the mall. We picked up enough food for a couple of days. Then we went and found the camera shop. They didn’t have an appropriate cord, so I bought a card reader (same price) and thus we have pictures.

Finally on our way to Montpelier, Jean’s favorite downtown. On arriving we immediately found a parking place! That never happened before. We walked four or five blocks to the Skinny Pancake for lunch. This restaurant serves many different kinds of crepes. One of our old bookstores was gone, as was the bumper-sticker store where we liked to browse. We went into another old bookstore and found a couple of books to read together. After a call from Jean’s brother we walked back to the motorhome which still had about 10 minutes on the meter.

By now it was getting on to rush hour, but thanks to a polite driver, we were able to break through the traffic and head for our evening’s destination. That being Bragg Farm, a maple sugar farm that is a member of Harvest Hosts, an organization of farmers and vineyards that allow RVs to park overnight for free. We have stayed there before, and even when we didn’t we stopped to pick up our year’s supply of maple syrup.

The day was still quite warm; and since we were dry camping (no hookups) we couldn’t run the air conditioner. So we opened everything that had bug screens (which includes the double back doors), turned on the exhaust fan, and went down to the farm store. We bought Creemees and sat in the rockers on the veranda. It doesn’t get much better than that. When things cooled down a little we went back up the hill to where the Roadtrek was parked, lowered the bed, and had a nap.

There was a beautiful sunset as Jean made sandwiches out of the tomatoes she had bought at the farm store. Then a quiet night and to bed. Tomorrow we head for New  York.