Stopping by the woods on a summer afternoon .....

Hello again!

Mileage:

Buster: Finger Lakes to Higley Flow to Franconia Notch to Newport, ME: 514

TOTAL: 2048

Enclave: 1181

TOTAL BUSTER AND ENCLAVE: 3229 miles

STATE COUNT: 11 (add Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to previous posts!)

We have spent most of the week in the north woods, culminating in beautiful Franconia/Franconia Notch, farm home of Robert Frost in 1910 era .... our post begins with a shot taken across the valley right across the road from his farm house ..... inspirational, don't you think? Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening has always been a favorite poem.

We've haven't seen much historical this week, but it is fascinating to see towns established in 1779, etc along the way here in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

After we left the Finger Lakes area on Saturday, August 15, we had a long day of driving (243 miles on two lane roads) to reach Higley Flow State Park in upstate New York ... the Adirondacks .... in fact I think we were within about 40 miles of Canada .... very close to the southern shores of Lake Ontario. It was a beautiful place, and it was a beautiful campground. Each site was tucked in between its own buffer of pine and foilage, so we felt very private. Liz has come to be a regular campground kid with her bike .... this is what they all seem to do .... bike and scooter around, and it is quite safe as the speed limits we've learned are usually about 5 MPH! Everybody watches out for kids on bikes.

The other thing that was great here was the lake swimming .... Gary, with much more experience in this than I, said it was "perfect" lake swimming: smooth sandy bottom, no rocks, no weeds, very gradual slope into the lake, pretty warm. So they spent much of the time in the water. I joined them briefly but am still a little "iffey" with my knees. Here they are having fun!

On Monday, August 17, we headed out once again. We resumed our trek along US 2 through New York, Lake Placid (where we did a little shopping).

It was fun being where the 1980 Winter Olympics were held and there are many reminders from the venues and nearby ski mountains. This area is simply beautiful including Saranac Lake. We encountered road construction regularly along this route, but they had short stretches where the waits were very tolerable. Gary continues to do a masterful job of muscling our big rig through curvy moutain roads. He just LOVES it .... he has fun every day just driving this thing. I probably don't need to tell you his favorite TV show is Ice Road Truckers .... I believe he's secretly planning on transitioning from orthodontia to ice road trucking!

The biggest thrill of the day for us might be labeled: Buster Takes a Boat Ride. When we reached the New York/Vermont border at Lake Champlain, we needed to take a ferry across. We fortuitously timed it perfectly and after we paid our $35 (and learned we must have cash typically in these situations), Buster was loaded on the ferry first almost taking a figurehead position!

It was a short 15 minute ride but very exciting to see the water outside the windshield!

We made our way through the beautiful hills of Vermont, through Burlington, and hoped to connect with Jane and Mark Erickson's daughter Christy who lives with her little girl Lily in Waitsfield, but the mountains interfered with our cell service so that we never could make a connection and then we got too far away.

The next three nights, August 17, 18 and 19, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE GROVES!, we spent camped at Echo Lake in Franconia Notch State Park. Another beautiful little lake with a great swimming beach. Liz made the acquaintance of Smyrna and her sister, and had a lot of fun riding bikes and swimming with them.

Franconia Notch is a beautiful valley between two ranges in the New Hampshire White Mountains. It's got a nice ski mountain, Cannon Mountain, and is very popular in the winter as well as summer. Franconia is the quaintest of towns and was the site of Robert Frost's farm (see above) in the 1911 time frame.

We visited The Flume ... a very interesting waterfall chasm formed thousands of years ago when hot basalt filled in some vertical granite cracks, but them ... as it was softer ... eroded away and left this very narrow granite canyon wall which now has water running through it. It was a personal triumph for me as it was an uphill 0.3 mile walk with about 120 stairs thrown in, and I was able to go up and back, now just 8 1/2 weeks after bilateral knee replacement surgery. I was sore, but made it, and I'm sure it was a good work out for my knees. They are slowly coming along.

One of the more entertaining things that happened this week was an impromptu performance by Liz of her own choreography to her parents archaic music choice of John Denver's Rocky Mountain High! She used towels and furniture cushions to set up her back stage prep area, and we had a good time enjoying her enthusiasm and creativity.

On Thursday, August 20, we visited a New Hampshire award winning site .... Polly's Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill. It WAS delicious, and, of course we were favorably inclined to love it due to it's shared namesake, our own Polly League Jones .... she's now 27 weeks pregnant with TWIN BOYS! We are following her progress closely and are ready to welcome these little guys whenever they decide to make their appearance.

We ended with the panormic views of the Notch available at the top of the Cannon Mountain tramway, before we hooked up the car and headed further northeast.

We ended up in Newport, Maine, where we will finish our planning for our next 10 days into Canada: New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia as we travel to the Gaspail Peninsula, Prince Edward Island and the Bay of Fundy among other things.

But first, today, August 21, Gary and I are celebrating our 10th Anniversary of wedded bliss! It all started in Posy and Jake Krehbiel's White Garden, and those beautiful memories return to us today. We certainly couldn't have predicted that we'd be on League's Excellent Adventure ten years later! We are grateful everyday for the love we share and our "little project" ... Elizabeth Mariann League!

Be talking to you!