Do we ever love recess! And, we like having our friends with us. Makes playing more fun. Especially when we know you played where we have.

September 14, 2006 we arrived in Colchester, VT. Burlington, VT is just 10 miles away. And Burlington is on the banks of Lake Champlain. Now you know the true drawing card. We did launch the kayak in Lake Champlain in the town of Colchester. A front was approaching giving us some cooler temperatures. Since we are bank huggers we completely enjoyed skirting around sailing vessels of all sizes and shapes. Probably spent an hour on the lake.

While in Colchester we left a pound of hair at Lakeshore Hair and I got a much needed perm. We find that we can conduct all kinds of business on the road.

We enjoyed our Colchester campground that seemed to be home to summer birds as opposed to snowbirds. The campground was pretty and units nicely gardened. It is rare for a campground in the north lands to remain open past the middle of October. We did meet another greyhound, Jay, from Quebec. He was in town to see a grey doctor. You may recall that greyhound folks seem to have a magnetic attraction. We exchanged E mail addresses and may see these folks when they winter in FL.

On September 17 we stopped in Queensbury, NY (Glen Falls, NY) at Walmart to have about a 2 hour visit with Chuck and Mary Fuller. They are friends from our winter getaway. Then we drove on to the Schnectady area to visit with Elsa Sakacs., She and her late husband are neighbors of ours in FL. Elsa prepared a lunch for us and we enjoyed our afternoon with her. She played her new organ for us.

We are leaving The Villages @ Turning Stone RV Park in Verona, NY. This is the Oneida Indian Nation. We fell in love with this park in 1997! It is just a resort with beautiful landscaping and lakes and ponds. This has let us bike and walk to our hearts content. This is also the area where the Erie Canal was begun. We wanted to tour through The Village of Erie Canal, recreated with buildings moved to rebuild the village. However, it was closed to prepare for Halloween.

Lake effect rains are a true experience. The rains descend with force and are often followed by beautiful and bright sun. This is followed by a torrent of rain with mammoth drops. Not sure I ever want to be here for lake effect snows. One local told us this morning that it can drop to -40 and – 50. When he was a boy the family’s apple trees just split apart.

We watched several boats lock through the Erie Canal at Lock 21 close to Oneida. This smaller, single lock was manned by a friendly guy who loved spending time talking about his lock. Today we returned to try and launch our kayak in the Canal but the launch area was steep and the winds high. Instead we settled for an 8 mile bike ride along the canal.

Recess is not over just yet but we can see our “teachers” pacing. We will get in as much play as we can.

We are off to the Finger Lakes at Watson Glen, NY. Then we will stop at Lake City, PA which is on Lake Erie. We are watching weather at home and where we are going and it seems that maybe rains will be in our way. In TN. tornado warnings seem to be in the picture.

Take care. Catch a breath because we are not done yet.
Marstons