Summer 2016 EscaPODes

We went to the Natural Bridge area a couple of years back, loved it. We had a great lunch at the Pink Cadillac diner ( or something on that idea).  Sounds like a blast!!!

We continued on our journey with our next destination being in Vermont. we were actually ahead of schedule, so we wanted to find a place to spend the night. We looked and found the Emerald Lake State Park along Vermont route 7 in Dorset. We stayed in Tentsite T04. While it is called a tent site, the site was large enough to easily accommodate our R-Pod 179. What was not so easy was getting backed in after dark. My initial placement was off, so I ended up pulling back out and backing in again. This time, the back of the trailer was to the right of the fireplace pictured in the site picture (see link above). That done, it was then an easy matter to do the little bit of leveling needed and get things set for our stay. We ended up staying two nights.

Vermont parks are pretty much no-frills camping. There are no electric or water hookups except for the camp host's site. Water taps are scattered about, but these have smooth ends so one can't attach a hose. There are bathrooms and showers, but the showers are coin-operated hot water. There is a dump station near the park entrance. We used the R-Pod's shower. I ended up having to borrow a water container to add some water to our fresh water tank as we were already somewhat low from the several days of travel we had already done. I realize now that i will carry a water jug, even if empty, for this purpose in the future.

We spent the time "chilling out." I hiked down the trail to the lake for some swimming. The weather was warm during the day, but cool enough at night that we did not need the air conditioner. We would not have been able to run it anyway as there were restrictions on the hours during which generators could be run. I did run it for a bit to make sure the batteries were adequately charged. That was the only time I ran it on this trip. I probably did not need to do so. It was just being a bit cautious as I did not want to run out of power for my CPAP machine.

We really enjoyed this park. It is a place to which I would like to return. It would probably be a great place for a Pod rally. It came time to leave. As we were traveling to Washington, Vermont, we spotted the Norman Rockwell Museum in  Rutland, Vermont. We were not aware of it, so we turned around and navigated around some construction to get into the parking lot. After some maneuvering to get the R-Pod out of the way, we went in and toured the museum. We purchased one print and one small book showing Rockwell's work

Our next stop was the Calef Retreat Center in Washington, Vermont. We parked and set up in the driveway. The caretakers were kind enough to allow us to connect to a 15A circuit. We had use of indoor facilities for showers, so we had no worry about exhausting our fresh water or filling up our gray water. We were there as part of a team from Grace Baptist Church. We came to conduct a Vacation Bible School for Waterbury Baptist Mission. This meant that each day we were there, we had to travel almost an hour to get there. In order to support the group, my wife and I had volunteered to do the grocery shopping and prepare meals for the group. Since we had our own vehicle, this was easier and meant that a meal was ready for the team when they returned to Washington. In prior years, they had to prepare meals after returning. Last year, we did the same so they got more time for sightseeing after the day's projects were completed.

If anyone goes to Vermont, there is one thing you should try. Maple Creemees. A Creemee is the Vermont term for soft-serve ice cream. A Maple Creemee is just that--soft-serve ice cream flavored with maple syrup. It is as good as it sounds. Waterbury, VT is also the home of Ben and Jerry's. There is also a Cabot Cheese outlet there. Barre, VT is home of the Rock of Ages granite quarry. We toured it and bypassed some other places that the team wanted to visit. Last year, we brought home a granite rolling pin. This year, we brought back a granite pastry slab. Barre granite is a fine-grained black and white granite (think coarse salt and pepper mixed). A lot of the granite quarried there is used for memorials. There is a World War One memorial, "Youth Triumphant," in Barre (scroll down on the page to see a picture of it). The bench behind the sculpture has a remarkable feature. If one is seated at one end, one can hear clearly the speech (even a whisper if it is quiet) of someone seated at the other end. Hope cemetary (linked from the page linked above) has some other example of artistic use of Barre granite. The pictures are only a few of the many artistic memorials there.

We had a very successful Vacation Bible School, and enjoyed our stay with the group at the Calef House. We slept in our R-Pod, but were with the group otherwise.

Unfortunately, no. The second floor is still off-limits to visitors.

Columbia, almost my back yard.  Only about 20 minutes from where I work.  Nice trip report.