What a beautiful 93 mile drive along what is called a "scenic by-way" traveling along Route 89. The trees are showing more color each day and the mountains we traveled along were just beautiful. I left messages for Lanie and Jamie and then talked to Nancy Savage. Neil and Nancy are leaving tomorrow and heading to Kentucky to do seasonal work for Amazon, starting on Monday and working until the week of Christmas. We wish them the very best!
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| There goes Chuck and Melissa! |
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| And the pretty trees go on...... |
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| ...and on..... |
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| .....and on! |
We reached our destination, the Quechee/Pine Valley KOA, where we were greeted by the owner and his son. It is a very nice CG with friendly owners who upgraded our sites for a minimal charge so our sites would be closer to each other. How nice!!
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| This is the body of water you see when entering the CG. Pretty nice, huh????? |
Set-up was rather interesting. It went well until we couldn't get the electric to work. The owner came to our site and we realized it is our surge protector again! This is our 4th Progressive one and even though they are guaranteed for life, every time you have to send it back you have to pay postage and it needs to be insured! Wow! Last time I called and talked with the owner and he admits they have trouble with this particular model getting water in it. But, each time they send us a "new" one it a reconditioned same model. We are extremely disappointed in their customer service or lack of it. We will be talking to him again in the very near future! After that, Ken realized the front tire on my bike was "flat as a pancake", so that was his next job!
Chuck and Melissa stopped by and they told us that their large slide that they had major repairs on about a year ago as developed a crack underneath. So, they have decided that after this stop, they will not use that slide until they are able to talk to the folks who repaired it and hopefully get it corrected. Wow, this lifestyle is not for the "faint of heart", but we wouldn't change what we do. It is too much fun and so exciting each and everyday!
At 2:30 we left the CG and enjoyed the drive to a well known place in the area, Sugarbush Farm. It is so far off the "beaten path", but so famous for their cheese and maple syrup that 40,000 visitors find them each year. It certainly isn't a "fancy place", but they know how to make cheese and maple syrup.
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| More scenic driving.... |
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| .....and fall foliage! |
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| This is where you sample the cheeses and maple syrup! A fairly small operation, but so good! |
First thing when you arrive is cheese sampling and they have about 14 kinds. They even have a 10 year old cheddar that was delicious, plus a smoked onion with herbs, blue cheese, etc. They do something a bit different with their cheese - they dip it in wax so it can be shipped and kept for a longer time. Then on to tasting the maple syrup. This gal discovered something today - I like a simple maple syrup. I always thought I didn't like the taste of maple, but surprise, it was delicious. We tried 4 varieties, each one a bit strong, but I liked the very 1st one.
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| This is the table where they cut the cheese for you to sample! That is crumbled blue cheese and all the different cheese in their wax packaging! |
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| I hope the cheese sampling begins soon! We are hungry! |
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| Next we sampled the maple syrup. |
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| This is the melted wax where they dip the cheese! |
Maple sap is collected in Feb., March, and the beginning of April, so we weren't able to see how it is made, but we could tour the area of production and also walk the path through the maple trees and see how they get the sap to the storage tanks. No longer do they have all the manual labor of bringing the sap by the bucket, but through plastic tubing that connects 100's of maple trees in the woods. The amount of sap that can drip into a bucket can vary from none to up to 16 quarts per day - imagine! A tree can be tapped each year without harm, but a new hole must be drilled 6 inches from the previous year's hole. The sugaring process only takes 7% of the sap so it's not harmful to the tree. They do have to go out into the snow in Feb. and drill a small hole in each tree and connect the tap so all the sap can flow down to the holding tank. It amazes me how labor intensive the process is and how little maple syrup is actually produced from a large amount of sap - 5 buckets/pails only produces 1 QUART of syrup and the heating process(using wood) to make the syrup requires a person to be there all the time. Maybe maple syrup isn't that expensive after all!!!!!
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| This is where the sap is heated to become syrup! |
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| Wow, it takes a lot of sap to make maple syrup! |
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| In the winter, that tap is placed in a hole they drill into the tree and the sap runs through the plastic tubing! |
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| There are many different factors that affect the amount of sap you actually get from a tree like temperature, wind, and barometric pressure! |
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| There were tubes everywhere on the hillside! |
From there we did a little scenic driving and then went through the town of Woodstock, which is a quaint little town with many shops, inns, and B&B's. It looked so inviting that we all decided we will go back there tomorrow and walk around.
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| It is getting so colorful and beautiful! |
Back to the CG by 5:30 and Ken made his dinner while I rested on the sofa. I had a bad stomach ache all day, hardly ate anything, and felt rather drained! It's good Ken is a good cook and he could make his own dinner. I felt better after Ken served me some toast and hot tea (what a guy), so Chuck and Melissa came over and the women won Pinochle and Skip-Bo. That helped my belly too!!!!!! The guys are just having a tough time beating us!
By 10:00 we ended another great day together. We continue to feel so blessed.
So are you feeling OK now? Miss you guys!
ReplyDeleteWish we were on this journey with you. Ernie & Noella's place sure looked nice!