Having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on this year’s adventure and already thinking about what’s next, we pulled into our driveway in Vermont to… a power outage. Estimated to last 3-4 days. No electric, no water, no heat, although we do have a wood stove. We walked into the house, started a fire, assessed the situation over a cup of tea, and moved back into the RV. Let the adventure continue…
St Louis has the Arch, Gateway to the West. That’s nothing compared to Al’s place, Gateway to Our Adventures. Al, who we’ve known for more than 30 years, holds the record for number of visits on our travels at 4. Whether we’re heading to or returning from the west or south, Al is nearby. Visits with Al are always comfortable. They always include conversation late into the night, Al’s super home cooking and some fun outdoor adventure.
We’ll be back…
Our friend John is the second person we met when we started skiing at Sugarbush in 1999. We’ve been friends ever since, sharing passions for skiing, biking and fine (ok, very good) dining, and Doug and I have occasionally served as marginally competent crew on John’s sailboat. Over the years, we’ve also become friends with John’s brother Phil and Phil’s wife Barb, who visit Vermont regularly. Since we found ourselves near where they live, we arranged to visit.
Within a mile of the Ohio River, West Virginia made a definite transition from valley to Appalachia. Rolling hills gave way to steep mountains and narrow, twisty, up-and-down roads – as well as gorgeous foliage. And it stayed that way until the Hudson River, with the exception of the rolling hills along the Susquehanna River Valley in south central Pennsylvania.
Time for green splotches with a twist…
Continue reading “West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey parks”
If you’re looking for my usual warped, humorous and light-hearted travelog posts, don’t read this one. Stop at part 1. I’m going to take a short break from that…
We expected to see barges, bridges, river towns and manufacturing plants in the historic Ohio River Valley, and that we did. However, there were also a few surprises… Travel (especially nomadic style) has a way of shaking up the usual everyday stuff to create learning opportunities, provide different perspectives, and stimulate deeper thinking to all who heed the call.
Continue reading “The Ohio River Valley, part 2 – the serious”
Just because we’re heading back to VT doesn’t mean we can’t explore new places. However, with ski season (read: snow) on the horizon, we’re aware our schedule is no longer timeless. We opted to explore the Ohio River Valley. We’ve been to the source in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and to Paducah, Illinois near where it joins the Mississippi. From prior travels, we’ve learned that river valleys tend to have unique stories and a sense of inter-connectivity. And we’d get to see a slice of the other 4 states along the river: Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Continue reading “The Ohio River Valley, part 1 – the usual”
Our route through the Nebraska Sandhills left us perfectly aligned to explore southern Iowa and central Illinois, areas of the heartland we’d not yet seen. As we pored over Google maps looking for green splotches, we also noticed we were heading toward the Ohio River Valley, another gap in our travels.
After our sprint through the cold snap, we wanted a day off to chill, read, play music and hike (ok, walk) somewhere with a view. In Nebraska. We set a course for a green splotch called Pine Ridge.
Did we mention snow? We planned a quick truck maintenance and re-provisioning stop in Utah. While tucked into a Walmart with an award-winning view of the Utah mountains, we checked the weather forecast for routes east through the Rockies. Hmmm… The forecast was for snow and unusually cold temps for mid-October – nights in the teens – for the next 3 days.
From our point of view, our friends and family tour of the west was hugely fun! Since August 10, we’ve made 16 stops to visit friends and family (17 if we count seeing Dana and Muffin twice). It’s important for us to stay in touch. And it was outrageous to meet up with long lost cousins!
Ah, but the leaves are changing, the temps are dropping, and there’s snow on the higher ridges. That can only mean one thing… We’re onto the fourth portion of this year’s adventure – our re-positioning back to Vermont. There’ll be fewer destination stops. And we’ll be seeking out adventures along a more direct (our definition) route while keeping an eye out for early cold snaps and snowstorms.
Stay tuned…