Is it still raining?
Not making decisions when you are tired, hurt or angry is a good thing to remember while living this lifestyle. Occasionally, when we reach a destination after a tiring day or week, we find ourselves saying that maybe it is time to find a nice place to settle down and just travel sometimes.
Crown Point
Our drive from New York took us by one of the most unusual and historic lighthouses located on the Vermont/New York border on Lake Champlain known as Crown Point. It was originally a windmill built by the French in 1737. In the early 1900s, a lighthouse was erected.
The Crown Point Campground on the south end of Lake Champlain looks like a great place to spend some time. But we had plans and headed across the bridge to Vermont.
Shelburne Farms
We decided to visit Shelburne Farm even though it was raining and chilly. Our ride was pulled by a tractor and we were the only people ready to brave the weather. Several times on our travels, people comment "People from Colorado are hardy and can handle the weather." No sense waiting for everything to be perfect after driving so far. We just put on an extra shirt and a jacket and go.
We paid for our tour. Then around the corner pulled up a school bus full of kindergarteners. We looked at each other wondering if we were up to 1 1/2 hours of cute but loud little kids. Our guide walked up and said that our wagon was on its way and we would be the only two on the tour. I felt a little bad about having her taking us around in the wind and rain that was on the way. She said she knew that "Colorado people" would go out in this kind of weather and she was game.
In 1886, Dr. William Seward and Lila Vanderbilt Webb began acquiring farmland on the shores of Lake Champlain to create a model agricultural estate.
The heyday was short-lived. Beginning around 1910, farming operations and other activities began to shrink, and subsequent generations struggled to find a workable future for this farm.
The 10 million dollars that Lila Vanderbilt had inherited didn't last forever. The 40 gardeners, lavish parties and building of this estate was expensive. Now it's a nonprofit organization, on a 1,400-acre working farm, forest, and National Historic Landmark.
The farm raises and grows most of the food it serves at its farm-to-table restaurant. That is the wagon with half of the cute kids. Guess we dodged that bullet.
Views of New York’s Adirondack Mountains, directly across Lake Champlain.
Our driver, Tony, was so attentive to our needs. We had our rain jackets on but he offered us ponchos. We did take him up on the umbrellas when the rain got harder. He had called down to the main office and had the school bus brought up to the main house instead of riding back down in the wagon.
If it had been a sunny or drier day, we could have walked some of the 10 miles of trails on the property.
Champlain Islands
We got another chance to ride our bikes on the Champlain Islands (a biggie on my LIST) on our last day in Burlington. My legs were feeling lazy as they always do our first few miles. The bugs flying around my head were enough to make me get moving. The Off that I had applied didn't fazed them. I looked down at my odometer at the two mile mark and wasn't sure I wanted to do this. As we kept going, the sun was sparkling off the water like diamonds and the cool breeze on my back made me forget about being a slug. Pretty soon I was feeling very happy and enjoying the ride and birds singing all around us.
We rode from North Hero to Alburgh and Isle La Motte. The brush along some of the side roads was dense at times. I wondered if a moose might barrel out and take us down. The clouds would blow over us at times making the ride cooler.
We passed several cyclists along the roads and passed a group that caught my eye. One of the tandem bicycles looked like an adaptive bike I had seen previously. We stopped for lunch at the General Store and that group was also having lunch on the deck overlooking the lake. The lady had a stroke 6 years ago and the bike was modified for their needs. Her husband showed us the special equipment as they got her situated on it. It was quite a production as I presume their lives now are. They were glad to share some of the difficulties this stroke has brought. She is paralyzed on her right side. He said the help from their friends made things easier for them.
We watched the group ride away and I felt a bit foolish for my laziness at the first of our amazing morning ride.
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| Burlington Breakwater North lighthouse After six days in Vermont, our heads were back on straight and back on the travel bandwagon. We have tried to settle down in the past, by buying a house and making it "ours". Once everything was how we wanted it, we would look at each other and say "Where next?" and sell it. |
