Chop Chop Billy Goat

We spent a week in Vermont, right on Lake Champlain. It was awesome! Every time we went down to the lake, I practiced skipping rocks, and by the time we left my record skip was six or seven. But one day I got tired of skipping rocks, and I decided to go swimming in the fifty-three degree water. I actually did a complete dunk, and I swam a few feet. Then I ran back to shore, freezing, but after a few minutes I was back in the water. When I came out of the water, Little Kid was getting frisbee throwing lessons from some college boys.

When I was playing outside one day, I saw a bird go into a stump near the RV.  Later, I looked in the hole and saw a two or three tiny baby birds that didn’t even have feathers yet!  It was so cool!

While we were in Vermont, we went to see a granite quarry to learn about how they mine the granite. First, they choose a large section they want to pull out and drill holes on the bottom and sides. They separate the sides with wedges, and then they fill the bottom holes with dynamite. It literally lifts the whole section of rock! We didn’t get to see any dynamite being exploded, but we did get to see some granite being lifted out. We went to the outdoor granite bowling alley, where they have to have rubber bowling balls because the granite is so hard that bowling balls just crack. I won! We also toured the factory, where they make tombstones. On our way back to the campground, we drove by the capital building in Montpelier which is made from the quarry’s granite.

One day, we went into Burlington. We spent the morning walking around the pedestrian mall, which was really fun. I got a flint so I could try to make a fire without matches. Also, we went to Bernie Sanders’ office, which Ma and Pa were really excited about.

One thing we did in Vermont was see the castles. Castles in Vermont? Well, they were two feet tall, and made of pebbles… but they still were cool! Ma had found a fun geocaching thing, so we went to every castle counting planters and red roofs. Then, I did some math to find the rest of the gps coordinates, and we headed down a trail towards the cache. When it looked like we were near the cache, Ma and I ran off into the woods, digging and lifting logs. We must have walked over the cache almost ten times before Pa, who was going a little slower, said, “um, it is right here.” Little Kid got a weird cow thing, and I got a pretty little bag from the cache. On the way back, we stopped to see a house surrounded by a forest with 400 brightly colored birdhouses. The person who lived there built the birdhouses for swallows, who eat mosquitos, and he kept adding more until he could sit outside without being bit by mosquitoes.

Today Andy and I are celebrating our fourteen-year wedding anniversary, and the whole gang is celebrating our one-year anniversary of living on the road.  Since leaving Tucson June 1, 2014, we have travelled 17,503 miles, visited 26 U.S. states, and 4 Canadian Provinces.

Adventure on ….

We spent a few days in the Berkshire Mountains. We had fun walking around the nearby towns of Lee and Lenox.

One day, we hiked down the Appalachian Trail to meet Pa’s college friend, Joel, who was leading a student backpacking trip. We hiked with the rest of Joel’s family. I had fun playing tag and other games with Joel’s kids. One of the students started the fire with flint and steel, and Ma decided that starting a fire without matches would be my new challenge.

One day, we drove up to Amherst to see Pa’s grandparents’ farm, that he visited often as a child. We took the long way there, stopping in Shelburn Falls and Montague. In Shelburn, we saw the glacial potholes, which were really cool. We also saw the bridge of flowers, a huge walking bridge covered with plants. Of course Little Kid, our little Ferdinand, loved the bridge. Then we went to the Montague Book Mill, whose motto is “books you don’t need in a place you can’t find.” We spent a long time reading in the bookstore, which was awesome. I bought a cool book. Afterwards, we drove on to Amherst. I liked the farm.

The night before we left Lee, it was so hot that we left every single window open, but when we got to Vermont, we were getting out all our fleece.

We spent a week or so with Grandma in Stamford, Connecticut. For the first few days, Little Kid and I had colds, but after we got better, we had a lot of fun. We weren’t allowed to park the RV in Granny’s driveway, so she arranged for it to be parked at a temple nearby, and we stayed in Granny’s house. It was great to be with Granny! Every day, we went out to one of the delicious restaurants in the area. Also, we went to some cool parks, once when Aunt Martha and Peter came up to visit.

One of the things we did was go to the Nature Center, where there were all kinds of animals. We saw goats, llamas with strange haircuts, cows, and baby sheep. We even saw the beehives being checked!

While we were in Stamford, we went to Manhattan to see Pa’s sister, Martha, and my cousin Peter. We had fun in Riverside Park and went to a huge exercise area with rings hanging on long chains, very far apart. There was also a slightly smaller one for kids. I made it all the way across the kids’ one!

One day, Granny and I took the train into New York City to see Matilda at a Broadway theater. It was great! One of my favorite parts was when the evil principal started spinning a girl around by her pigtails, the lights went out, and a moment later she fell down from the roof, and a bunch of other girls caught her.

We will see where Granny will meet us next!

We spent a few days with Ma’s friend from college. I spent most of my time hanging out with the kids, Brooke and Zack. Two nights, I had a sleepover with Brooke. It was fun! We spent a lot of the night playing truth or dare. I also played with Zack, and we had lots of fun fencing with sticks. Ma had a lot of fun hanging out with Lisa. Lisa and Dave made delicious vegetarian meals every night, which was awesome. Basically, we had a great time.

Planting with the girl scouts