Keep in mind as you read about this vacation that we never hit the floor running. We tried to come to life slowly. Feet propped up. A good cup of coffee. Nice, easy discussion about what we wanted to do each day.
On the fifth we spent most of our day traveling to Vermont. I had been in touch with my uncle and learned that his cabin had been torn down and a ski house had gone up. It was disappointing to know that I wouldn't be able to find the cabin but had hopes of perhaps memory serving me well enough to find the spot where it once stood.
Lake Dunmore isn't a huge lake so I figured that if we drove around it I'd easily be able to locate the dirt road that led to the cabin.
Anyhow, we had made these plans with the idea in mind that we wished to be somewhat secluded and private. In other words we didn't want crowds. People - here and there - would be fine. In fact they would be welcome because I didn't want to feel isolated with bears or anything. I wanted to feel safe and there is - after all - safety in number.
So we followed our GPS which lead us to the campground where we were going to experience our first time ever tenting experience. We camped in a trailer years ago with our kids however sleeping in a tent had never been on my radar until now.
As the GPS made it's "arriving at address blah blah blah" announcement we found ourselves in front of a house with no campground sign around. The lady on the phone had told Adam "if I'm not at the campground when you arrive I will be in my house across the street."
There was a young woman standing near a mailbox on the other side of the road. We pulled up to be greeted by a 60's style flower child. My guess is this young woman was in her very early twenties and introduced herself in a flower child kind of voice with a flower child kind of name: Meadow.
Who names their child Meadow? Really? Do ya think that might not have been her real name?
So anyhow, Meadow invited us to pull in the drive across the road to get registered.
Um... "Meadow, would you mind if we took a look at the campground before we do that?"
She gave us directions on how to avoid the ruts as we pulled around....
Ruts? At that moment I was pretty sure I wasn't about to see what I hoped to see.
Here's what we saw... kind of....
Okay so this isn't the exact spot but boy does it ever remind me of it. See, we were looking for a fire ring, a picnic table, and a little bit of population so that we could sleep not worried about being the ONLY ones the wild animals would be attacking. We're pretty certain that we had stumbled upon a place where the owners were trying to pass it off as a legit, fun campground when in reality they were just looking for income to help pay their taxes. Or something.
I looked at Adam and said "Please don't make me stay here" to which he said "Can't you see that I already have it in reverse."
We politely told Meadow this area was a little more primitive than what we were looking for. She continued making her daisy chain and told us that was fine... that she understood. I'm pretty sure I saw John Lennon's spirit hovering over her as we drove away.
We got back on the road and headed toward the other campground Adam had found that was RIGHT on Lake Dunmore. Turned out to be exactly what we were looking for. There was enough seclusion to feel alone but enough people to feel connected to society. The fact that they had wifi didn't hurt. :)
So by late afternoon Thursday we had stopped at a grocery store and found some suitable grub to throw on the grill later. We had set up our much loved tent and organized what was to be our home for the next few days.
I was concerned needlessly about being able to sleep well in a tent. I thought I'd be nervous to have nothing between myself and the world other than zipped up nylon. But really.... it was awesome. I slept better than I typically do at home.
So here's some highlights of Vermont.
1 - The campground was small, quiet for the most part and we had our own fire ring!! We only had a fire that one night but it was nice and toasty because while the rest of the country boiled, New England was quite chilly at night.
2 - When we first set up our little campsite we wondered if it was going to be a nightmare. Just 50 or so feet from us was a young couple with a young child. The child was screaming. Non stop. Now listen, I know kids make noise but this child was not just making typical kid noise, the screaming was ridiculous. Plus it appeared as though this family was temporarily living at the campground. This was a nice place with a lovely lodge type restaurant. Mostly we saw people who were clean, decent, and respectful of one another. Not this couple. That first night as we drifted off to sleep they decided it was a fine time to get into a screaming match which then woke the baby who screamed. Wasn't long till management showed up. The next day they packed up and left. So what made us think they were living there? For one thing, no car. For another it was a tiny little tent they had with a tarp strung over it. They had at least 5 pots and pans tied to the tree AND - get this - they had a futon like couch in front of their tent. I should have taken a picture. I swear to God, I would have posted it because I'd have to prove I'm not exaggerating.
3 - We spent some time in this little town just walking around and shooting a few pictures. It was a peaceful time. We had lunch at a deli type restaurant. The sandwich was interesting. As memory serves it was called the Vermonter and included maple ham, Vermont white cheddar, apple slices and honey mustard. So do you recognize this town? I'll bet someone does.
4 - And to prove I am not really a scrooge against kids.... This big blue ball is called Saturn. I loved hanging at the beach and watching the kids play on it. They'd get anywhere from 4 to 8 kids on. There's nylon rope like ladders and handles on it. The kids would all climb on and then start rocking it. What a hoot. Sooner or later one would go flying off into the water while the others struggled to hang on. Eventually it would be too much and the entire thing would FLIP over sending bodies sailing into the water.
And no, I didn't get on. I'm not too keen on lakes. I prefer clear clean swimming pools. I did wade in to cool off though.
5 - On Saturday we went to Rutland, Vt. We weren't going to go there. We had decided not to go that far from the campground however the town we chose to stop in for lunch as we went for a drive presented a problem. I had used Yelp and located a restaurant. We were both getting hungry. It was well past lunch time. The problem? Oh, when we followed the GPS directions to this restaurant we found ourselves on a route lined with tons and tons of people lining the street waiting for their parade to begin. Town was crowded. There was no where to park. We kept driving and waving to all the parade goers and ended up in Rutland where we ate at a neat little place called Kelvan's. I think I spelled that right. Great service. Great food. Best sweet potato fries EVER!! After lunch we went to a farmer's market. Awesome stuff!!! Adam bought some Rhubarb wine and I bought some awesome double garlic teriyaki sauce. I use it to mostly to make teriyaki grilled flat iron beef. Well here, see for yourself:
After Rutland we went out on a paddle boat for over an hour. I was exhausted when that was over so we ordered a chicken mango pizza from the camp ground restaurant.
And on that note, I think I will wrap up Vermont now. It was beautiful. I didn't find the cabin. We had a blast. Tent camping was awesome for our first experience. The weather was near perfect. Oh wait, I do have one more story to tell.....
We spent three nights in Vt. The first night there was a zero chance of rain so we left the rain thingy off our tent. This leaves half the tent roof wide open so you can lay down and see the stars. Awesome!! However on night 2 there was a slight chance of rain so we figured we better not risk it and put the rain thingy up. It didn't rain that night but did some the next morning. Later that day I checked the weather and there was a zero percent chance of rain for that night.
Now as you know PK teaches math and she could tell you that means it will not rain. Not gonna rain. So why was I surprised when I woke at 3 a.m. to the sound of raindrops hitting the trees leaves around us? I woke and said "OH NO!!!!" Adam grabbed our big golf umbrella and held it over our bed. I will tell you just how relaxed we were on this trip. As we are being rained on after being told there was NO EFFIN' chance of rain we were LAUGHING. No panic. No anger. It was FUNNY!!! We managed to stay dry. The rain blew over after 15 minutes or so and we went back to sleep.
Okay. I'm done.
Next post: Vacation Stage 3 - Boothbay, Maine.
Happy Easter! Most of the family and a very very very awesome friend will be here for dinner. On top of the traditional ham, etc I made homemade noodles. That's the one thing I just can't wait for!! The rest of the meal... yeah, whatever but those noodles.. OMG!!!! 
