Robert Frost & Wooded Paths

So, along 125 in Vermont, a road that passes over and through the mountains and was a 2 minute walk from our place, there is a Robert Frost Interpretive Trail. Apparently he lived & worked near there for about five minutes at one point. The parking area and trail head are just off the road, and the trail is definitely more of a walk in the woods than an actual "hike." I did this one alone, and aside from the family that passed me a few times here and there, it was quiet, solitary, and very peaceful. 

This was near the end of the trail, as I was heading back to the parking area. It struck me in a thinky-thought spiritual way.

My absolute fave of his poems (and one of my fave poems ever thanks to The Outsiders)

cool little squiggles of green & purple moss

what does this even mean?

I was gonna climb a bit of this tree...

Until I got close enough to see all the pine sap dripping from it.

Some of the area just looked out over fields of wildflowers and the mountains in the distance, while other parts of the trail wound through the woods (and diverged a few times - I always went to the left when presented with a fork. The other people there were going to the right both times. We passed each other in different areas of the trail.)

lovely bridge going over the river

and some of the pretty wildflowers up close

It was a lovely walk, and though I didn't remember some of the poems posted, it was kinda cool to read them, and to see some of the other info posted as well. One display described the process of empty fields and bare hills & mountains slowly turning into the forests we see today. The things we don't usually think of...

Lots of water falling between countries

So, yeah, we didn't post as much last month, and there was that one quick update last week. I thought a few new pics and details might be fun to record and share. :) I'll post in little bits, and schedule them daily so it doesn't overwhelm those 2 people who actually read this thing. :)

Heather mentioned that we went to Niagara Falls on our way to Ohio. I can't even begin to describe how excited I felt about this. Niagara Falls, man. It's one of those wonders that you hear about all your life. I got to go there! I got to see it in person and get sprayed by the mist!

That's the American Falls behind us

 We had a great time wandering through the park, bought a Niagara Falls holiday ornament (because one of our traditions is buying ornaments to remind us of our travels - after a bit more walkabout, they may have to be the only ornaments on the tree), road the trolley for a bit, and just listening to the different sounds of the falls. I mean of course you have the rushing thunderous sound of the falls themselves...

It's a little surprising just how loud this is

... and then you have the smaller bits where it's quieter, more soothing, less exhilarating.

Toward the end of the Niagara rapids, not too far before the big falls.

Heather suggested I take this picture - it's the monument to Nikola Tesla, whose inventions and ideas are still used today on both sides of the falls (not to mention pretty much everywhere else) and one of the things we thought was awesome about it is the little electric vehicle at the charging station behind him.

My pop culture brain always expects him to look like the vampire Tesla from Sanctuary

We didn't get to go to Canada since neither of us have valid passports and we didn't want to get stuck there. (eek - too much hockey) We did, however, wave at Canada across the river, and at the tippy top bit of the park we could see this view of horseshoe falls.  The bit of fence is because they are in the middle of construction on a new area with wheelchair accessability that will go out further and down a bit to offer a closer view of the Canadian falls from this side of the border.

There's a tiny dark spot in the rock across the river - that's one of the Canada view points.

We are definitely planning to go back there, talked about summer 2017, with passports, and taking a few days to really enjoy all they have to offer.

Out of Touch in Vermont

So the trip from Virginia to Vermont was more of an adventure than we expected. We arrived in Wayne, PA around 5:30 Monday afternoon, discovered it was an adorable little town with lots of stone houses, friendly neighbors, great gardens, and a really close-by greenway where we went for a walk before dinner.

Discovery of a couple tasty local places for our dinner that night and breakfast the following morning put Tuesday off to a great start. 

Fresh Peaches & Vanilla Cheesecake in a GF Buckwheat Crepe!

Non GF Crepe with Sauteed Mushrooms, Bacon, and Cheese!

We were on the road before 10am and heading North again. Then, we passed a sign telling us how far it was to NYC via various tunnels and bridges. They were all in the 35 minute range, and I said “hey, want to see if Na’ama is free for lunch?” We fully expected this would add about 3 hours to our trip. It ended up adding about 7, and we wouldn’t trade a moment of it. It’s not often people from Tennessee can turn up in Long Island for lunch because “we were in the neighborhood.” 

This is the kind of friend you can't pass up the chance to see.

Oh, and the lunch we got! There are no pics of the food because it didn’t last long enough, but I had roasted beet tacos with mango salsa – so good! Heather’s gnocchi with pesto smelled amazing, and Na’ama gave me a few bites of her roasted beet salad, too. Everything at The Witch’s Brew was delicious, including the crème brulee we all had for dessert.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful (another tasty dinner find on our way up, and we got to compliment the chef personally, so that was cool), but long. We arrived at The Gathering Inn around 2:10 AM, and stumbled in to explore our new short-term home.

Some of you may have seen brief mention of a phone call from the innkeeper yesterday – she has a house next door to the inn, and offered us that 2 bedroom, 2 bath space, just for us, for the whole month, instead of the room in the inn we had previously arranged for. Those of you who’ve known me for a while, know how I really like having my own space. With Airbnb, we’ve so far been in the house with other people, but had our own room. I’m okay with that – I can go retreat to my room when desired, and if Heather is in there too, well she’s my Heather; it’s okay. But if I’m offered a 2 story place with our own living space, kitchen, and an extra bedroom for guests (yes, she said we can have guests visit), and it’s not going to cost me a dime extra? Yes, I’ll take it!

There is one sorta downside to the house. The wi-fi signal doesn’t reach us. We’re welcome to use the signal in the inn, and she said it will even reach the picnic table out back, but it does mean our access to social media will be severely limited this month. Add that to the fact we have NO cell signal here, can’t send texts or make calls at all, and we’re gonna be a bit more out of touch than usual. It’s a good trade-off, especially since we’ve both said we wanted to do more non-internet stuff (read more books, study our interests, practice our crafts, play more games, go outside more, etc.). This is going to make those things much more likely when we don’t have the familiar internet habits to slip into as easily.

So far today we’ve walked to a nearby hotel/restaurant for breakfast, and I’ve walked the 4-5 minutes to the White River to see the little trickles there. We had a couple busy days of travel to get here, and I don’t expect there will be anything else today but relaxing and possibly picking up groceries (and at some point, carting the laptop to the inn so I can actually post this entry for you).

Knowing us, we’ll be checking in with our usual internet communication every couple days, but I imagine we’ll have more to share in between those times. J