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We’re home after a quick (hey, it’s all relative…) month-long trip to visit my mom in Florida. Although it’s not our preferred pace, we took just 3 hops to get back to Vermont from there. The timing for the whole trip allowed us to see friends on the way down, visit 2 National Parks we’d never seen, and spend a week with my mom. However, the timing of events and appointments between Florida and back home required a northbound skedaddle. Fortunately, on a previous trip we’d scouted out the best/shortest/most direct route should we ever need to get to my mom’s in a hurry, and we used that route in reverse to get back north.

On the road again, again

Time to visit my mom in Florida! Driving to Florida in the RV, as opposed to flying there in an airplane, gives us opportunities to spend more time with my mom, bring instruments along for jams, and see friends along the way, so we’re out again for about a month. Plans include exploring a couple of east coast national parks we’ve not yet visited (aka going places that we’ve never been) and, yes, making music with our friends.

Hey mom, see you soon!

Happy homeowner projects

It’s been 20 years since we bought our home and did a thorough round of remodeling and renovation projects. That means… it’s time to do them again!

Greetings from the Fourth of July Capital of the Universe!

Honest. Our tiny town of Warren, Vermont (pop 2,000) bills itself as ‘The Fourth of July Capital of the Universe.’ The entire celebration revolves around the Warren Parade – a unique, quirky, often political and always hilarious event that typically draws a crowd of 10,000 from New England and beyond, in the absence of a pandemic. After slightly smaller crowds over the past 2 years, the Warren Parade was back with a vengeance…

Variations on adventure

Early May is when we usually leave for our summer adventures. After missing 2 adventure years due to covid, we took a deep breath, put our least emotional and most rational hats on, and decided to sit out one more year. Covid uncertainty abounds in New England right now and projections about if, when and where new waves may occur over the summer are up in the air. I also had another shoulder surgery in late March, for which a solid few months of physical therapy will improve the outcomes significantly – and that’s much easier to accomplish at home than on the road.

So instead, we have a different kind of adventure this summer. We are planning to do some short trips to explore New England and hang with local friends and family. We’ll be responsible adults and take care of some much-needed, deferred maintenance on our home. And of course, music will continue. Stay tuned…

A classic Vermont fall

Fall in New England is a delight. The weather turns cool and crisp, all outdoor chores get done to prepare for winter, and the leaves turn into a colorful palette of bright reds, oranges, and yellows mixed in with a bit of peach and burgundy. Since we’ve been traveling in September and October for the last 6 years, we were looking forward to the fall foliage display as we’re in Vermont this year. It did not disappoint!

Home

Home again! After a delightful visit with my mom, great meet-ups with friends along the way, and exploring a few new-to-us sections of the Atlantic coast, we’re back in Vermont.

We made a decision not to plan an epic adventure trip for this summer – we felt there was still too much uncertainty about the virus – and this short trip confirmed that decision. Although the threat from the virus is waning, it’s not over and collateral effects continue. The border with Canada is still closed. Several museums, visitor centers and other attractions we’d hoped to visit were also closed – many because they did not have enough staff to operate.

We’re happy to spend another summer in Vermont, which is nearly back to normal. We really appreciate the beauty, pace of life and outdoor activities here, and we love spending more time with our friends.

Sumter, NC

One of the things we do for kicks when needed while we’re traveling is to google ‘organic food near me.’ It’s a great way to find little natural food stores and it takes us to places we might not otherwise have visited, usually with good results. At other times, outstanding results…

We found a little natural food store in Sumpter, SC. We arrived about 30 minutes before it opened. Not a problem as the map indicated a park nearby – the Swan Lake ~ Iris Park. Wow.

On Hitting the Road Again

Well, we’re vaccinated now. Yippee! Of course we’re aware the pandemic isn’t over, but the vaccines are effective, COVID contagion is way down, and it seems folks might responsibly start venturing out and doing a few things again. Non-essential travel probably isn’t one of those things. On top of that, for our next major excursion we’re hoping to tour the Maritime Provinces, and travel to Canada is still not possible for Americans.

However, as much as it’s been a tough 14 months for everybody, it’s been tougher still for seniors in assisted living facilities. Sue’s mom lives in such a place and is long overdue for a visit, so we’ve packed up the quarantine-mobile and we’re heading south to spend a little time with her in Florida, returning back home before it gets too hot for us down there. It will be a shorter trip than previous ones, and we’ll see how it unfolds.

And just like that, we’re off on a new adventure. It feels a little weird…

A Bit of Optimism, Light at the End of the Tunnel, Hope on the Horizon, Happy Spring!

After a year plagued (pun intended) by changes in, well, just about everything, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We anticipate receiving our COVID-19 vaccines sometime in April. That will be a giant step toward the next phase of normalcy in our lives.