Well, I am sitting in a beautiful new hotel in Bennington Vermont. The irony of it, is that even though New England hotels tend to be pretty expensive by our standards as veteran off season travelers, I got a great rate on this place. We just love it, and believe me, we are picky about hotels! When we checked in, the guy at the front desk made me smile right away when he had a small fridge loaded onto a luggage cart already waiting for me! It's so much easier to take care of my injection meds with a fridge in the room. No messy ice issues and cooler chests to bring in! He was awesome. His name was Simon, and he works at the Bennington Hampton Inn. If you ever pass by here, this hotel is a must stop!
So, onto our day. When we travel out west, I have long stretches of road on which to fire up the laptop and type my little heart out. Well, we are in the east, and it's different when we travel in the east! So, this is my evening recap of our day.
We left at about 5:20 AM. We were all wide awake, and Riah never even napped today. I expect he will crash soon! His daddy will probably follow. Oh, wait, there's a pool here, I bet they still find energy to swim!
Outside of State College we had deer cross in front of us on the roadway. We were being careful, having had and heard our fair share of deer crash stories, so we were able to stop in plenty of time. They just stared at us, like, as if to say, "Excuse me, this road belongs to US this time of the day!"
We really enjoyed traveling Route 14 in Pennsylvania between Williamsport and Troy. As we drove along, I found myself feeling a sense of pride living in such a beautiful state. I get sentimental about weird things!
In New York, we were reminded almost immediatly after crossing the state line that we hate New York road surfaces. Mostly because they never seem to FIX THEM, but the drive through New York was pleasant enough despite the potholes and bumps. Gentle rolling farmlands filled most of the day.
We had the time, we had our National Parks Passports, so we headed to Saratoga National Historic Park. The Visitor Center seemed older, but still had some fun features. We really love touch and feel areas where Riah can feel and experience history! He dressed up like a British Redcoat, and he just loved it. The smiles on his face in the pictures tell the whole story. Of course Wayne had to play along as well! And, while I was attempting to dress my little soldier, he actually pulled a gun (wooden stick shaped like rifle) on his mommy even! We decided it was a good thing the toy guns didn't have bayonets on them! He would have given us hair cuts and shaves in his zealous play if they had!
We hiked some in Saratoga NHP. It was in the 90's and humid, so we were pretty hot when we got back to the van. Praise God for AC. Praise God for other small miricles as well. An odd green caterpiller fell out of a huge tree two steps in front of me as we walked. I was grossed out enough looking at it, let alone had the thing fallen in my hair. I love the great outdoors and all, but that green dude freaked me out!
We barely made it into Vermont for gas, where I knew it would be cheaper. We were almost on E when we pulled into the station! In North Bennington we found a leftover moose from last year's MooseFest. His name was Benn. Yes, two n's. Of course that got Riah chattering about Big Ben being toothless now! MooseFest was another of those wacky city wide fiberglass art projects we just love. This year they are doing art pallets, and we later found a bunch of creative ones downtown Bennington. We also found a few more leftover moose! How cool ;)
Vermont was state number 48 for Wayne, number 43 for Riah. I have been here before, but oddly had few memories until we went to the Bennington Battle Monument. For some reason, as I drove up the hill, I remembered being here before. Funny how the mind works. I think I was maybe 11 or 12. Bethy hadn't been born yet, but I was old enough to ride an alpine slide alone! I'll have to find out from mom and dad when we were here last.
We quickly visited an old gas station that has a cool gift shop, and we found lots of plates for sale, but they were priced really high. We figure we'll look more in antique shops rather than pay $10.00 for Vermont plates that weren't that great. It was a neat stop, the kind of little treasure I like to surprize The Boy with. Riah loves that kind of place.
We had a nice Father's Day meal takeout from Chili's next door. We wanted to eat somewhere local, but the only place we found was a fish fry place. Ummm, yuck! (to the fry part, not the fish) We had a good meal, and ate in in the spacious breakfast area in front of a big screen TV, which Riah was able to control since we had the place to ourselves.
Well, The Boy is asking to swim. Surprise! I have managed to convince Wayne to go to bed though, so Riah will have to wait for another night to swim. It's been a long day, and we don't want to wear Daddy out on Father's Day! Pictures are being compressed and uploaded next, hopefully they will get on tonight. Goodbye until tomorrow...