Alburg RV Resort- Alburg, VT

 Alburg RV Resort- Alburg, VT

After 2 weeks of Ethel sitting still, she was ready to hit the road and continue our journey.  We left Sylvan Beach with heavy hearts. Our time there was filled with friendship, love and remembrance.

We saw this on the drive to Alburg.  The steeple was so massive and elaborate, we had to take a picture. We don't know anything about this church, but we found it interesting. The best part is this is our journey- we can stop/detour/take pics/explore anything that grabs our attention. The joy of this lifestyle is that it doesn't have a rule book of hard and fast rules.  In fact, there are no rules. It can be anything we want it to be. 

We saw these leopard frogs on a hike.  There were signs in the park asking hikers to be careful because they were on the endangered list.  In about 1/4 mile distance, we counted over 200. The little guys were all over this particular park. And yes, we literally made a loop around a pond and counted them. It does not take a lot to entertain us and now you have proof.

Not sure when this sign was hung on this tree, but it has become part of the tree (more proof we are easily entertained).

This was a new one for us.  The small tree in the saddle of the 2 bigger trees is a different species.  We assume a seed fell into the crotch of the tree and somehow this one started growing. Betcha didn't know trees had crotches!

We stopped to enjoy a peaceful view of the wetlands at Missisquoi Wildlife Refuge. There was a beaver dam further down. We enjoy stopping to really look around- you truly never know what you may see if you stop and look.  We are learning this lifestyle is not a race to the finish line. It is all about the memories, the journey and enjoying this wonderful earth the Lord has graced us with. 

We drove over an hour to hike in a park in Ausable Chasm. All of the "what to see and do in....." articles included this  as being a wonderful hike.  We rarely go on any hikes without Karma.  He is extremely well behaved and he LOVES it.  When we got to the location, we were surprised to find that this was a privately owned park.  The next surprise was to learn that it was posted in the parking lot "NO Pets Allowed"  and they cannot they be left in vehicle.  This significant information is not mentioned in the flyer or on their Website.  We were extremely disappointed. They had some hard and fast rules. The family behind us was deaf- they were denied entrance because of their deafness. The deaf family did not have a service dog, they just have rules about deaf people. I asked about service dogs for disabled people/veterans. They do not allow any service animals regardless of the disability.  I am surprised the owners do not have a mile long list of lawsuits against them. We decided to spend our money elsewhere. We walked around the perimeter of the park with our dog to see what we were missing. Granted, the sights were amazing- but they did not get $80 from us. 

We made the best of our day after the failed attempt to visit Ausable Chasm. We went for a hike at Point Au Roche State Park on Lake Champlain.  Because of both Lake Champlain's connection to the St. Lawrence Seaway via the Richelieu River and the existence of the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain is sometimes referred to as "The Sixth Great Lake."

The Battle of Valcour Bay was a naval engagement that took place on October 11, 1776, on Lake Champlain. The main action took place in Valcour Bay, a narrow strait between the New York mainland and Valcour Island. The battle is generally regarded as one of the first naval battles of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the first fought by the United States Navy. Most of the ships in the American fleet under the command of Benedict Arnold were captured or destroyed by a British force under the overall direction of General Guy Carleton. However, the American defense of Lake Champlain stalled British plans to reach the upper Hudson River Valley.

 I bet you cannot guess which one of us wrote this piece?

This is a cool little school we saw as we drove down the road. The exterior of the building had been well maintained.  They even maintain the outhouse at the back of the school. This area has a great historical society.  They obviously place a high value on the history of their community. 

We stopped by this cemetery for absolutely no reason other than it intrigued us. We were unable to read the engraving on the grey center stone but the medallion and flag designated the person as a Veteran of the Revolutionary war. Neither of us had ever seen this military designation at a grave site before. Another oddity we observed in the cemetery was families were not buried together as you typically see now. They appeared to just randomly bury people without familial consideration according to time of death and wherever you happened to die.  One interesting thing we noticed was how they engraved the tombstones for women. Often, it just said "wife" or "the wife of .....Bob Smith"- but Bob was no where to be found.

 Cemeteries are like churches- we find them interesting. 

Obviously, this was a very old Cemetery.  How we engrave headstones now is very different than how they did it 200 years ago.   Notice on this headstone it gives date of death and age, instead of date of birth.  Some even omitted age and just had date of death.

This marked the end of our journey for this part of our adventure.