Monday - October 1

LONG day of travel starting at 8 AM when we left Twin Mountain and traveled in NH, VT and NY arriving in Swan Bay Resort, Alexandria Bay at 4 PM.    We had about 2 hours of rain, but mostly clouds and a very gloomy day - still enjoyed the beauty of the mountains, open green meadows with cows grazing, and the fall color.    320 mile journey today and a big part was in the 40's with a high of 53.

We were here September 5-6 and it's such a nice park on the St. Lawrence River (1000 Islands), but a far cry from last time as then, it was warm, sunny and lots of people out and about, tiki bar open, we went biking, etc.    Oh well......fall is definitely in the air.    Supposed to warm up in a few days.

Tidbits:   interesting towns we've gone thru or been close to in past few days.....Poland, Bethlehem, Israel and Lisbon.  We saw the police driving a pick-up truck, some very poverty-stricken areas with so much trash and very decrepit-looking homes (so sad) tons and tons of firewood stacked at homes preparing for the long winter ahead and lots more of those big marshmallows (wrapped hay bales).   We passed many dairy farms including the big Casarda Farm - HUGE with many buildings and Holsteins outside Malone, NY.

Some pics from today..

Driving down this New Hampshire road in the rain..

Winery in Cambridge, Vermont 

Lots of cornfields in Vermont 

These pretty trees were in St. Albans, Vermont - aspens?

Three things I wish I had gotten pictures of but just wasn't quick enough or no place to park or turn around with Flo and Big Red.  1.   A covered bridge in Vermont which was old and very neat near Johnson, Vermont;  2.  A beautiful green meadow with tons of yellow daisies (more like spring-time)?  3.   A big tree in thee most beautiful shade of bright red.

We stopped at Maplefields, a very nice service station in Johnson, VT for coffee and an apple pastry.   And lunch at McDonalds in Champlain, NY with a wonderful, big-rig/RV-friendly parking lot!

And then....on "Vermont 58" a road taking us across Vermont, we suddenly came to a dirt road (aka mud with the rain) and a sign that said "Your GPS is wrong, this road is closed in the winter".    UGH.....no way were we going another 9 miles on this?    Backed up Flo and found an alternate route!

Good night to stay in after traveling all day and Mark doing 100% of the driving!     We had spaghetti, salad and garlic bread - good comfort food.

Nice to be back at Swan Bay where we have all paved roads and a nice concrete pad for Flo....planning to stay in the area 3 days and do some "chillin"!

Annette and Maeve accompanied Luke and classmates on a field trip to Channel 3 News in Charlotte today....

Luke and classmates at Channel 3 (Luke on floor with hands tucked under his chin)

Wow!!!   3 new meteorologists in the family....

Just now making plans for tomorrow - we are meeting friends, Allie and Owen for lunch in

 Pulaski, NY.    Yeah!!!