Since we were in Vermont we wanted to learn about maple syrup. Steph located a place a bit south of our campground called Dakin Farms that seemed like a place we could learn something and try some of the sticky sweet goodness. So we loaded up the family truckster and headed through the hills along Lake Champlain to Dakin Farm. Its not maple season right now so we missed out on seeing how its done live, but they had some videos and a little museum/learning center where we were able to get a feel for what all goes into making maple syrup. They also had a store full of meats and cheeses and jams and spreads and dips and, of course, maple syrup. I think we tried just about everything and ended up buying some stuff for our picnic dinner we had planned for the evening out by the lake.
Author: Huck
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream
I was undecided about going to Vermont but Steph made an executive decision to go so I booked us a couple of nights at a campground in Shelburne near Lake Champlain. Our route there from New Hampshire would conveniently take us right by the Ben and Jerry’s factory so we made sure we left early enough to stop in for a tour and maybe a cold treat. The name Vermont literally translates to green mountain, and man, let me tell you the mountains are green….freakishly green! But they were beautiful. We arrived at Ben and Jerry’s which has RV parking and we ate lunch in the parking lot before taking the tour. While we grazed on our lunch, the holsteins in the pasture just outside the rig grazed on their lunch too.
Spoiled
Grandma spoiled us! So did Aunt Sara and Uncle Mike. Grandma met us at a Cracker Barrel on our way to Chester New Hampshire and treated us to lunch. Then we followed her along the twisty, windy roads to Aunt Sara and Uncle Mike’s house where we were going to try to driveway surf. The driveway was long but mostly straight so I was able to get Ava in a good spot to spend the weekend. First order of business though was to fix Ava’s leg which wasn’t too hard but took longer than I’d hoped.
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Surgery
Ava has been limping along with her one good leg and a temporary stump leg after her right leg broke. It has actually worked out fine but takes more time. Her replacement leg arrived at the UPS store near our campground at Wompatuk State Park and we barely arrived in time to pick it up before they closed.
The part came with zero instructions so all I had to study was the video from loveyourrv.com. The confusing part was how the motor attaches to the leg.
I decided I’d just have to dig in to figure it out as I go. To do the work I needed the weight off the landing gear and so the Beast would be tasked with holding up Ava during the surgery. We were heading to Steph’s aunt and uncle’s house to hopefully driveway surf so I figured that would be a good time to do the work; right after arrival at their house. This way we could use their house while Ava was in the OR.
We arrived and I actually impressed myself backing into their 100 yard long driveway and placing the rig in its resting spot with only a minor adjustment at the end.
Freedom Trail
Yesterday we were able to get about half of the Freedom Trail completed, so today we were targeting the 2nd half. We knew what we were doing this time so before we left home I dismounted the truck’s antenna and we cruised on out to the Braintree station. We go in to pay for parking but this time I’ll do it myself. I insert the ticket and it says I owe $7. I insert my credit card, it sucks it in then spits it out saying it can’t read it. I try it again…sucks in, spits out, no read. I carefully look at the diagram and realize that I had the stripe pointing the wrong direction. I insert the card the correct way and after a bit it says “Rejected”. It is then that I notice a separate card reader that is probably where I should have slid my card to make the payment. Oh crud, I think I just jammed my credit card into the ticket slot instead of the credit card slot and now its eaten my card!!
I go to find an employee to help and there she is. The same kind woman who helped us yesterday recognizes us and says “oh hi! You’re back…can I help you?” I explain to her that I put my credit card in the wrong slot but then she assures me I did it correct. She presses the “Need assistance?” button on the machine and a crackly voice comes on “yeeees”. She explains that the machine ate a card. It takes several calls to get someone to arrive and during our wait Carol asks about our day yesterday, and our trip and she talks to the kids. Eventually someone comes and opens the machine to find….no card. She says “are you sure you don’t have your card?” Come on, do you think I’m that dumb? I humor her by pulling out my wallet (a rubberband around my cards) to prove that my Discover card is….hey…wait a minute….how did my Discover card get in my wallet? Am I really that dumb? My brother is a magician….I have never had the skills to do any slight of hand until this moment. I’m so good in fact that my hand was even quicker than my own eye!! Seriously, I have no idea how that all went down. But here is the cool part. Carol was awesome!! She was so much help both days. She was so kind and genuine and interested in us that we just had to get a photo with her. Thank you Carol for all your help!!
Boston
We had a full 3 days scheduled in Boston and the first day we woke up to cold and rain. Since we hadn’t really had any down days for awhile we decided we were due so I worked, Steph ran errands and the kids played Legos. All three of them played all day with all the Legos. It was really fun to hear them playing together and to have them come out and show their latest designs to me. They were preparing for some epic battle which they finally had at the end of the day. It left their room a total disaster…a minefield for adult bare feet….but they had fun.
Leg sling, dump disaster and new records
It was a perfect day for driving. We were laying down the miles singing some songs together, reading together and laughing at each other’s jokes when I look in the mirror and see an epic display of sparks spraying from the trailer. Parts start ripping off the side and leaving a trail of debris behind. I’m putting everything I can into the brake and it won’t stop. Then I woke up!! That was the dream I had the night we moved from Phillie to NYC. You see, Ava’s leg was broke. Basically there is a threaded part that stripped out. It still had a little bite but not much. So there was nothing really to hold the leg in position….down or up. So when hitched up the leg could just drop out to the ground and start dragging and that is exactly where my subconscience went in that dream. How we made it from Philadelphia to NYC on those bumpy roads without that actually happening…well, had to be an angel holding the leg up the whole way.
Our time in NYC was up and with a long day ahead of us we wanted to get on the road by 10:00 which meant we should be hooked up by 9:30 and heading to the dump station. And we were on track to do that but retracting Ava’s leg revealed an issue! The exact issue I had dreamed about. Fortunately, when we retracted the good leg Ava’s bad leg just continued to hang down like a sad broken leg should. I got some cord and fashioned a sling for her and all this set us back about 30 minutes.
The Big Pear
I already titled a post The Big Apple so I used a relative of the apple for this post. Today the target was the Empire State Building. The rain was gone and the forecast was clear skies and sunny! We walked down to the subway station, got our tickets (again, one at a time) and hopped on for a ride to 33rd street station. For a Sunday morning I guess I was expecting the subway to not be very busy…I guessed wrong.
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The Big Apple
I once had a business trip to New Jersey and had planned to go to New York City one evening to explore, but the colleague I was visiting talk me out of it saying it was too crazy and dangerous. I should have went. Well, now is my chance and I get to go with my whole family!
I had read about the Liberty Harbor RV Park long before we even left on our trip so I was pretty well prepared for the prices and that it was more of a parking lot than a park. The reviews are all pretty bad. But the few decent reviews say its all about the location. I think it was good that I read so many bad reviews as it set my expectations really low. But it wasn’t so bad. Absolutely nothing fancy about the place at all and the only green at the RV “park” were a few pads of astro turf for tent campers. But it had what we needed: electric, water and a dump station. The staff was nice, helpful and quickly took care of us by finding a place to park the truck since it didn’t fit in our site. We had nice French speaking neighbors from Quebec who had a dog, Pica, that the kids adored and they also shared with us a little tidbit on a walking path out to a nice view of Manhattan. I thought for sure it would be hard to sleep with all the city noise but it was quiet. With a nice nights sleep under our belt, let’s go see the sites!
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Ava breaks a leg
Our stay in Philadelphia was short but we had reservations at Liberty Harbor in Jersey City for our NYC visit so we had to move on. We were all packed up and were just raising the front end of Ava with the landing gear to get her hitched up to the Beast when Caden stopped and said, “Uh….Papa….its making that weird sound again”. The weird sound he was referring to was first heard all the way back in Fort Davis TX when we’d sheared a pin off the shaft that runs to the follow leg of the landing gear. I opened the hatch to check the pins and found them in tact. But to be safe I decided to crank Ava up by hand again. I had only made a couple of revolutions with the crank when CLUNK…Ava’s right leg gives out and the whole camper drops several inches on that side. Caden assessed the situation correctly, “hmmmm, that doesn’t seem good”.
