56th Escapade

We moved on to Essex Junction, Vermont for the 56th Escapade.  We attended our first one in 2007 when we started our on the road adventure.  This is our fifth one but our first since 2011 in Gillette, WY. These rallies are always fun and informative with many seminars covering every aspect of RVing.  This time we were on staff and worked rather than attending the sessions.  

Part of the main stage display that Nanc helped set up.  Someone else made the trailer and she added her personal decorative touch. 

Lanny and Lois, whom we met at the 2008 Escapade.  All staff members worked to put together the welcome bags for the 1300+ attendees.

Bob and Molly are Class of  '07 mates who have been Escapade Directors for the last few years introducing Kay Peterson the founder of Escapees.  While Kay has cut back on her official duties, she is still going strong at 91.

Staff members came in early and where treated to a great dinner.  Here are '07 mates Mike, Sandy, Nora, Terry and Sandy.  One of the best things about the Escapade is seeing so many friends.

The Row has information about all the Escapees chapters and campgrounds. 

Opening ceremonies filled the room with the 1300+ attendees.

My favorite shirt.  Sure is true about us.

Staff members John, Monica and Sky.  We worked with Sky and were responsible for setting up, moving and tearing down the rooms where the eighty plus seminars where held.

There was entertainment each evening.  The first night was Jimmy Travis, a singer and comedian who had everyone in the place laughing.  Another evening was the Ham-o-Rama where SKPs had a chance to show their talent.  These are the Marlins, four brothers who played everything from country to blues, to a great piano pounding out Jerry Lee Lewis. 

Of course there was a marketplace with 50 vendors selling just about anything any RVer will ever need.  Since we had many miles and ten years of towing on our old one, I bought Nanc a new Blue Ox tow bar.

Even Santa was there passing out SKP hugs.  There is now a new branch of Escapees called Xcapers that is geared to families traveling with kids, so Santa was really busy.

The Class of '07 mates gathered for a happy hour social.  This group includes people who started fulltiming in '07 and many friends whom we have adopted.

This is the '07 group at our first Escapade in Goshen, IN in 2007.  Many of the original members are no longer on the road and a few have passed away.

Nanc with Sarah, who was helping her grandparents with morning coffee along with Jan and Bill who we just met this spring at Betty's.

We were happy to see Charlie whom we have crossed paths with several times.  His wife Sherri passed away and he had not been traveling for a while. He has since met Margaret and is once again on the road.  

What almost 700 rigs looks like at the Champlain Valley Expo.  It was the first time the Escapade has been in the Northeast and the turnout was great.  Opus is the rig with the white roof :-)

The day after the Escapade ended we had dinner with Michael McCormick, a former student who now lives in Burlington.  We have kept up with him through his father Bill who was our dentist but had not seen him since we went on the road.  We had a lot of catching up to do including hearing about his five week, 9,000 mile trip across America he, his brother Andrew and friend Patrick took a couple of years ago. 

He showed us around Burlington and we were treated to this beautiful sunset on Lake Champlain.  We had a great time in Vermont playing tourist and seeing friends and decided it is another place we would like to return to some day.

Vermont -- Capitol, Ice Cream and Rocks

After leaving Quebec we stayed in Barre, VT for a few days before going to the Escapade in nearby Essex Junction.  We added the Vermont capitol to our list, tasted a bit of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and toured the Rock of Ages stone quarry. 

This is the third capitol in Montpelier.  It was built to replace the second one which burned in 1857.  The front portico was the only part of the burned building that was in good enough shape to be part of this building.  You can still see fire damage on the columns.  The 57 foot high dome is painted with gold leaf and topped with a statue of Agriculture.  The original statue was replaced in 1938.  This was our 20th capitol tour and the first where we could get into the building without going through a medal detector.  Very interesting.  

The statue of the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen, has been on the front portico since 1886.  Allen is famous for capturing Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775 without firing a shot.  It was the first victory for the patriots and provided the artillery used in the siege of Boston.  Like the Agriculture statue, this statue was replaced in 1941 because of deterioration. 

The 30 member Senate chamber has all the original furnishings with the addition of modern electronics.   

Unlike the other legislative chambers we have toured, this one has a very small gallery overlooking the floor.  Visitors are allowed to use seats on the floor when the Senate is in session.  As part of the guided tour we were able to sit in the lawmakers' seats. 

The Governor's office has been restored to its 1859 appearance, including the paintings, carpet and desk.  Today it is only used for ceremonial purposes when the legislature is in session.  The chair behind the desk was carved from timbers from the U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides." 

The 150 member House of Representatives chamber is restored to its 1859 appearance, but has fewer desks because the number of representatives has been reduced.  The chandelier was originally a gas fired light.  The painting of George Washington is a 1836 copy of Gilbert Stuart's original.  It was saved when the old building burned in 1857. 

The marble floor at the entrance has fossils in several of the tiles.  The portraits are the two presidents who were from Vermont, Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur.

The Cedar Creek Reception Room has this huge painting of the Civil War battle at Cedar Creek, a battle where many Vermonters fought.  The artist used pictures of the soldiers who were there making the painting a more accurate representation of the battle.  The Vermont capitol is a very well preserved building that has been restored to its original 1850's grandeur. 

Montpelier is the smallest of the 50 state capitol cities.  The downtown is very quaint with many well preserved buildings.

Just down the road in Waterbury is the Ben & Jerry's factory.  This iconic ice cream business was started in Burlington in 1978.  They continue to make a great product while being socially responsible even though the company is now owned by world wide conglomerate Unilever. 

We arrived and were shocked to find an hour and a half wait for a tour and this long line just to get into the roped queue to buy ice cream.

We waited and found the tour to be interesting but no pictures were allowed.  I went for the Stephen Colbert American Dream and Nanc opted for the butter pecan. 

If you love ice cream don't forget that April 12th is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's.

Just down the road from the campground is the Rock of Ages granite quarry.  The company started here in 1885.  The company quarries stone and makes civic and personal memorials.  

It is impossible to capture the scale of the quarry.  Each of those lines in the stone is 28 feet high.  There is more than 300 feet of rock exposed and over 200 feet under water.  When they get down to the water level they will pump the water out to access that stone making the whole thing nearly 600 feet deep.

The pool of clearer water on the left is an area that has not been used for several years while the water on the right is clouded with particles of stone from the active quarry.

Even though they have been taking stone out of the quarry since 1885, they will not be running out any time soon.  At the present rate they have enough stone to quarry this site for another 4600 years. 

We did not tour the factory where they carve the stone but we found many pieces of their work including this granite bowling alley, a failed attempt to find another use for their stone.

This statue in Barre is a tribute to the Italian stone masons who worked at the factory.

Not to be missed is Hope Cemetery where you can see many examples of their work.  A couple together forever in stone.

A throne or just a chair, it is still carved from stone.

A race car.

A couple of M&M nuts who are really planning ahead.

Even a biplane for a flight enthusiast.  

We had a great time and squeezed a lot into four days in the area.  This is a part of the country we definitely want to return to some day.

On the Road Again

We ended our five week stay with an old tradition of watching both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 with Tom & Georgie. It was a great but long day and we could not hang to the end only making about 1000 miles. So after a wonderful five weeks in WashPA visiting family and friends we are on the road again. We left early Memorial Day morning with the plan of staying in a Walmart. As we got near our expected destination we decided it was way to hot and humid and if we dry camped we would have to run the generator all night so we could have AC. We ended up paying and staying at the Lickdale Campground in Jonestown, PA. It was a nice place but we did not drink the kool aid.

We wanted to collect some new states for our map and "our rule" is we have to spend a night, so the next day we stayed at the Cedar Ridge Campground in Montague, NJ. It was a short drive which gave us a good part of the day to explore the area including the Delaware River Gap National Recreation Area. This is one of those places that made us wish we had kayaks. There are many places to launch a boat and a float trip would be a great way to get up close with the land and water along a stretch of river with very few houses. We did a short hike in the park to see two waterfalls. We also went to Grey Towers in Milford. It is the family home of Gifford Pinchot, a former Pennsylvania governor and head of the US Forest Service. We got to tour the grounds but were too late to tour the house. Once again this is an excuse to return.

On day three we traveled in six states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, which is something we have never done in the motorhome. The drive was only 235 miles so it was not really a big deal but driving that distance out West rarely gets you into two states so we thought it was pretty cool. We stayed one night at Hidden Acres Camping in Dummerston, VT and were able to add another state. We plan on getting MA, CT and RI on the return trip. At Hidden Acres we spent the evening with our RV neighbors, Jim & Gina Portesi, who have only been fulltiming a short while in their new to them Dutch Star. We had a great evening sharing stories of our adventures.

On day four we drove to Pine Knoll Campground in Albany, NH, another new state, where we are staying for three days to explore the White Mountains. We will be cover that in our next blog.

The Delaware River at the Gap. It looks very inviting. We crossed several big rivers (Monongahela, Youghiogheny, Susquehanna, Delaware, Hudson & Connecticut) the last four days. They are all bigger than most of the western waterways we have seen.
A small forest lined stream in the Gap.

Silverthread Falls is the second highest in Pennsylvania. The rock looks like it was carved by people not mother nature.

Dingmans Falls is a beautiful cascade of water.

A interesting toad who was not interested in us.

Pinchot's Grey Towers is administered by the Forest Service rather than the Park Service.

Some of the garden at Grey Towers