Sat afternoon delivery went very well. I spent extra time unwrapping and detailing the boat one last time (I wanted that thing spotless). I was somewhat impressed at how the boat held up from all of the road bashing I put it through for the last 2800 miles. There was absolutely nothing out of it's place when I opened it. That's the sign of a good packing engineer.
The day was warm and sunny and fairly gusty out around the lake, but I heard it has been raining for the last three days so we really lucked out or must have brought a little sunny weather with us. We launched, and oriented Ann Marie with her new toy on the way back to her dock. She was very happy and all set for a great summer.
Just like that our trip takes on a totally new direction. Today we find ourselves meandering around on offbeat roads discovering little bits of americana stashed around. We made it a point to take the roads less traveled. The tiny roads on the map that lead to the tiny dots. It took forever to get across one state, but we saw much more. It might have been because we were stopping quite often too.
We really wandered way off (it was a dirt road) on a tip that brought us to Sugartree Farms. It is a working maple syrup plantation but since it is slightly off season they were into their other mode of aging cheddar cheeses. They gave out samples of all 18 different varieties of their cheese(some aged 36 months) and 3 of their amazing maple grades. Very tasty. We also toured the grounds and learned about how it takes 44 gallons of tree sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Those had better be special pancakes!
The history hidden in all of the valleys is amazing. The buildings cannot be described and show samples of construction techniques that aren't done any more. The communities built around them all have such charm and I bet most people just see it all as everyday construct that occupies the dirt. Probably not. It's all cool stuff and they know it too.
Another totally random drive-by/stop had us walking down some tracks of history when we found a collection of train cabooses on a sidetrack in a small town we were passing through. There were also some rail cars there too. Nobody was around so we couldn't find out anything about them tho. Some of these looked very weathered and original and others restored. A few even had For Sale signs on them. No, Paula wouldn't let me take one home. It would have been a tough fit on the trailer anyway.
The day was warm and sunny and fairly gusty out around the lake, but I heard it has been raining for the last three days so we really lucked out or must have brought a little sunny weather with us. We launched, and oriented Ann Marie with her new toy on the way back to her dock. She was very happy and all set for a great summer.
Just like that our trip takes on a totally new direction. Today we find ourselves meandering around on offbeat roads discovering little bits of americana stashed around. We made it a point to take the roads less traveled. The tiny roads on the map that lead to the tiny dots. It took forever to get across one state, but we saw much more. It might have been because we were stopping quite often too.
We really wandered way off (it was a dirt road) on a tip that brought us to Sugartree Farms. It is a working maple syrup plantation but since it is slightly off season they were into their other mode of aging cheddar cheeses. They gave out samples of all 18 different varieties of their cheese(some aged 36 months) and 3 of their amazing maple grades. Very tasty. We also toured the grounds and learned about how it takes 44 gallons of tree sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Those had better be special pancakes!
The history hidden in all of the valleys is amazing. The buildings cannot be described and show samples of construction techniques that aren't done any more. The communities built around them all have such charm and I bet most people just see it all as everyday construct that occupies the dirt. Probably not. It's all cool stuff and they know it too.
Another totally random drive-by/stop had us walking down some tracks of history when we found a collection of train cabooses on a sidetrack in a small town we were passing through. There were also some rail cars there too. Nobody was around so we couldn't find out anything about them tho. Some of these looked very weathered and original and others restored. A few even had For Sale signs on them. No, Paula wouldn't let me take one home. It would have been a tough fit on the trailer anyway.
3 comments:
Very cool stuff.
I gotta say tho, that shot of you with the syrup looks like there's something besides syrup in the little brown jug *hic*
I'm enjoying the vicarious trip!
So you're hauling that trailer full of sailboat fuel back after all. Might come in handy.
Just a note to let you know the blogs are not going off into the ether and we are enjoying every one.
Greg
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