On the Way to Bennington, Vermont

Sorry for the break in vacation coverage, but we did not have wifi in Vermont. But now that we have access to the net again, I am catching up!

A little fall color. It really did look better in real life. I was taking photos through the windshield.

More color, and yes, another roadside graveyard.

Drivin down the highway.

Just outside Keene, NH there is an old railroad bridge that Mark mumbled something about bungee jumping. I could not really get the whole story, but it is a great looking bridge.

Keene, New Hampshire. Where Daddy went to college. This was our very first cloudy day.

Color.

Bliss at Friendly's for lunch. Lon like Friendly's ice cream. Still not so fond of whipped cream.

It has been less than a week and I can not remember which town green this solider is forever standing.

A Vermont Covered Bridge. This one is still operating as a bridge.

There was a path to the water, so leaving Lon and Mark at the car, I went down to see what could be seen.

We stopped at a roadside fruit stand. We got some apples and local maple syrup.



A Vermont Farm.

What could be more New England than this?

Our hotel was right behind this beautiful Catholic Church. There is a sign near the Church, that read, Serving Bennington for 150 years, looking forward to serving another 150 years. I thought this was an incredibly beautiful Church.

American Stone Henge

We left Connecticut this morning and took a short drive to New Hampshire.

We spent an enjoyable day with Mark's college roommate and his family. We saw a sign for American Stone Henge on the way up to their place, so we all thought it might be interesting to see.

Interesting it was.

There were lots of caves, way too small for me to go into. But Lon seemed interested in going in just a little ways.

There were people at the site who were very reverent.

This was a circle of stone that had rotting gourds and old burned out candles in it.

The line of cleared trees, there were several of these to have a clear view of the sun on certain days of the year. I thought the leaves were pretty.

After much discussion of the controversy surrounding the American Stone Henge, we went back to the house. They had generously provided a small pumpkin for Lon to carve. He drew on it and Mommy cut out his design. It was a side view of a Venice Carnival mask. The one with the bird beak. Yea, I am going with that. Not just the scribble theory. It was a really fun day. I am very glad we came and met some nice people.

B.F. Clyde's Cider Mill

This morning we went to see the oldest operating steam apple cider press.

It was mobbed. Too many people for Mark, but I watched the operation for a while. Mark and Lon played outside.

The apple mush comes down and they spread it out, wrap it in the white cheese cloth, put a lattice board on top, then do it again. Three layers.

Then it is moved around to the press. The press comes down and the fresh cider comes out! They do pasteurize it now. It is advertised as the sweetest cider on earth.

Lon outside with Daddy.

Looking at where the apples come out of the truck, up a conveyor to the chopping room.

In the pumpkin patch.

Another country road, another country graveyard

Bits of color. We stopped by Harry's. It is a roadside place. Picnic tables out back, order from the counter. Grandmalyn said she remembers this from her childhood. The food was pretty good.

Lon running in Cousin Laura and Curt's big backyard!

Lon had some ice cream with sprinkles. He likes Cousin Laura and Curt.

They have wild turkeys who come near there house. They gave three feathers to Lon. He was very impressed. It is so nice to connect with family.

We went back to our hotel, Daddy and Lon went swimming. I watched making movies of them in the pool. Cold Pool, Hot room.

We met up with Uncle Jeffy, Uncle Tek, Godfather and Holly. We had really good pizza at Pizza Works at the Old Saybrook Train Station. Lon was so good at dinner. He had three pieces of pizza. WOW. He was asleep before we got on the freeway to go back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, New Hampshire!

The Portland Connecticut Fair

This is the last fair of the year in Connecticut.

It is a very small town fair. They had two quilts entered. No, I will not talk about my view of the quality of the work.

All the animals, but the cows were in one barn. Very fun. LOTS of goats. If I have not mentioned it, I love goats. We saw baby rabbits, but no pigs of any kind. I thought it might be because rabbits, goats, chickens can be more urban, but they had cows. Which are definitely not urban.

We saw ponies! They had a pen to feed goats, a pen with one peacock and two ponies and one horse. The Shetland pony was the one Lon rode. They had a white pony, who was larger and the horse was brown.

Lon got his pony ride. Lon loved it.

After a while, the lady who was holding onto Lon, let go! She let him ride all by himself. No straps even! It was good.

Giant pumpkins! Some weighed in at over 700 pounds. Those are monsters!

We stopped for lunch. Lon ate some hot dog and most of this kid size small ice cream. The amount of ice cream they give here is amazing! There was a sign in front of the ice cream stand asking for quarters, as I fished out the required quarters I asked for lots and lots of sprinkles. He did give us lots and lots of sprinkles!

After our nutritious lunch, we watched one heat of tractor pulling. We LOVE tractor pulls. How fun is this, we watched front wheels come off the ground, some guys did clean full pulls, but most were not able. Lon was standing on my lap watching the tractors.

Regrading the pull area. At this point we were all ready for a walk.

We walked all around the booths, looked at the classic cars they had on display. Some were incredible. I found the boy scouts and got myself another tin of nut carmel corn. I gave the first one I bought to my mother so she had something to munch on during her trip back to Virginia.

Uncle Jeffy! What is that on your shoulder?

I have never seen a dragonfly land on a person before! The little creature stayed there for a long time, long enough for me to get very close and take a photo!

Uncle Jeffy and Daddy went home in Uncle Jeffy's truck. They stopped by Godfathers for a while. Mommy,Grandmalyn and Lon went home the long way. We stopped by Pasta Vita, got some yummies for dinner.

In Grandmalyn's mail there was a new toy catalog that Lon needed to look at and circle what he wants. He looked at the catalog all evening. We did get Lon a new game at the grocery store (we needed bread, which they did not have at Pasta Vita) A Cars Domino set. Lon played with Daddy, Uncle Jeffy and Mommy. He is really enjoying the game. He is following the rules. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he doesn't, but he wants to keep playing. The dominos come in a nice tin that will be a good place to keep them.

Today was fun, we love little fairs.