Well, we tried to pack lighter and leave earlier in the day, but we still managed to be traveling at 8:00 p.m. the first day and were pretty much unable to see out the back window of the truck. Oh well!
As usual, getting here was an adventure, and I spent a lot of time sleeping, especially the first day in the car. Craig is REALLY a trooper when it comes to driving us here every year. This year he tried to listen to some of his book,
The Lost Symbol, but it was kind of predictable so he started listening to
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. AWESOME story.
We were only just past the Virginia state line when we passed
The Quilting Connection in Boones Mill.
There, we met the owner, Jill Setchel, and several of her favorite customers. I say favorite because they were very helpful, offering opinions and asking where we were going, and all that stuff that happens in those small shops.
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| These are wool needle cases, pin cushions, and other goodies. |
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| A close-up of a really cute little needle case shaped like a handbag |
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| Bags and table runner kits. The table runner is very much like the bag pattern -- very clever and quick to complete. I bought one of her little kits for $14.95. She made it up for me while I waited out of fabrics that I chose. I can't wait to get home and make it! |
What was great was she had a lot of newer fabrics, some I had not even seen before, and lots of little kits from patterns she made up on her own. She also had lots of samples in the store you could see what things would look like when finished. I really enjoyed it. I bought a kit and also some Alexander Henry rooster fabric, along with three coordinating fabrics. When I get home, I will make myself a bag and an apron! Yay!
We snacked on things we brought from home, but at some point much later, we stopped to get a cup of coffee at the
Starbucks in Chambersburg, PA. Standing there in the INCREDIBLE heat, we decided to stretch our legs and wake up a little. So we adventured a couple of blocks down the road and came upon this charming little place -- well not so little -- but still.
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Bender's Potato and Produce Barn
David and Linda Bender, proprieters |
At
Bender's we bought a lovely hunk of fresh watermelon and some luscious ripe necatarines. We ate the watermelon on the spot, with s small knife we bought there and some plastic forks -- dividing it carefully in half. While eating, we were entertained by the goats in their pen, and we also enjoyed watching the other animals in the pens across the way. YUM-MO! We ate the nectarines for lunch today. I love places like this, and I especially love finding them on trips!
After a decent night's sleep in Wilkes Barre, PA, we headed out for the final leg of our drive to Vermont. We couldn't leave Wilkes Barre without visiting the
Bakery Delite, which Craig found on an earlier trip.
This place has the biggest cases of baked goods I've ever seen. Rows and rows of stuff. Wonderful eclairs, cinnamon rolls, elephant ears, you name it1
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| After two long days of driving, we finally made it. Vermont is lovely with lots of farms with old stone silos and huge barns. We stopped at this cute little welcome center on one of the back roads around the bottom of Lake Champlain. For all of the Harley riders in my life, this would be a great ride. As it is, we are loving the wide roads with bike lanes! |
After we got settled in our new digs in Shelburne, just south of Burlington, we took off to find the waterfront and scope out things for the next day, get water and milk for coffee, etc. We found the waterfront in Burlington and got to see some of the best sights of Lake Champlain.
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| The sun beginning to set over Lake Champlain! This was unplanned and such a great way to end the day. |
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| There were gulls flying around and a whole community of people had gathered to stop for a few minutes just to look. |
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| Sinking lower.... |
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| and lower.... |
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| Some nice folks offered to take our picture. |
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| I had to time it just right to get the light on! |
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| Vanished below the mountain but still there! |
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| Craig loves to take pictures of me taking pictures. |
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| It was really neat. Around sunset, everyone on the waterfront just stopped and started looking out over the water, taking out cameras, or just standing with their arms around each other, drinking n the changing light, watching time pass right before their eyes. What a cool thing. You got the feeling there were tourists as well as locals, and it was pretty quiet, given how many people there were. |
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| These are the bikes lined up along the bike path right by the waterfront. Craig took this picture, too. |
