Last full day in Barre, VT

Sunday evening – Sep 14

W: Where to begin. It was a day like any other, except…
1. It was my birthday (yes, 68 years completed, another XX to go?)
2. We saw and experienced things we’ve never seen or experienced.

So where to begin? Let’s start with breakfast. Have you ever had eggs-in-a-bag? No, neither had I. On Sunday morning (at least this Sunday morning), the campground owners sponsor a “brunch”; sort of a covered-dish-supper but for breakfast.

Margaret cut up fresh fruit (honeydew, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, and oranges). Other campers brought just-baked cinnamon rolls, blueberry buckle, and muffins. Others cooked sausage on the grill, potatoes and onions, and toasted bread. But the piece-de-resistance was: eggs-in-a-bag.

So what is (are) egg-in-a-bag? I would guess it’s a carry-over from tent-camping / campground days where one doesn’t have a gas range or microwave oven. In a nutshell: you take a large pot of water boiling; break your serving of eggs into a freezer-proof ZIP-Lock bag along with your choice of ingredients (today’s included: red and green diced peppers, onions, and Jalapeno peppers). Other options might include cheese and mushrooms.

Once the eggs and ingredients are in the bag, you seal the bag (getting out all the air you can) and then “mash” / mix the ingredients. Pop the bag into the boiling water for 5 (up to 9) minutes. Voila! You have instant omelet! Actually pretty good. The eggs are cooked perfectly. The eggs and ingredients are all hot (as hot as the boiling water). Plus no leftover dishes to clean up; it just slides out onto your plate. And anyone can do – even yours truly.

Add to that hot coffee and mimosas. Yum. Today’s first photos are of this process in action.

Next? Weather. We expected (forecast) rain, wind, and thunderstorms as IKE makes its way north. But guess what; at 4:30 this afternoon, there were blue skies, scattered clouds, light breezes, and 78 degrees! In other words, beautiful weather.

It had been our plan to make a shopping run to Costco and then finish the birthday at one of the local fine-food-emporiums. But as so frequently happens as you age, we both ran out of steam about 3:00 in the middle of the feeding-frenzy at Costco. I thought I’d been in busy Costco’s before, but this one (in Burlington, VT) was madness. Folks crowding the aisles, pushing and shoving to get to the displays, and with their carts blocking any semblance of order. After 15 minutes of this, we looked at one another and said, “Let’s get out of here. And let’s go back to the RV and hide.” So we did.

But the day was not without additional surprises. On the way to Burlington (about 40 miles west of here), we were tooling along I-89, enjoying the scenery. Roads and interstates in Vermont cut through some hills with impressive outcroppings of granite and stands of firs, birch, and elms. Coming around one curve I looked up and about 30 feet above the road, a person was clamoring down through the roads and ended up standing upright, facing the oncoming traffic. Only one small problem: he (definitely a HE) was stark naked! Yes, I’m talking full frontal nudity!

I kept my cool and casually asked Margaret did you see that? At first she wasn’t sure what she’d seen. I then confirmed what she’d seen. Unfortunately the camera was not at-the-ready, so we’ll never know the nude’s identity. At first I thought it was someone trying to climb down the rocks to the roadway; but after examining his personal parts (so thoughtfully displayed), I decided he was just exposing himself to modern interstate traffic.

So how does one top that? Well, one doesn’t. But in order to not lose the day’s experiences, we continued west to Lake Champlain (just past Burlington). Unfortunately, there were lots of clouds and haze, but the wind surfers were out enjoying themselves and we saw the lake and lots of islands.

Just before entering Burlington, there is a sculpture beside I-89. The tails of two whales (?) rising from the ground. Very clever; a very brief look as you fly by at 70 mph.

I had thought to drive back to the campground via the surface roads (instead of the Interstate), but after getting somewhat lost on the campus of the University of Vermont (very pretty campus), we jumped back on I-89 as soon as we stumbled on it and home to a fresh insalata caprese and more to follow.

Monday a.m.
W: Thought I’d get this out early, but I wanted to add a couple of photos. The first is the entrance to the campground – Lazy Lions. We really have enjoyed our stay here – the folks are nice. We think we’ll probably return here at some point in the future.

The second photo is of a house across the road from the campground. Although Fall has not yet arrived (either by the calendar or the weather), the leaves are starting to change. We’re not sure why but there are individual trees whose leaves have changed; yet, the rest of the grove is still green. Is that because of a fault of tree? Is it a early / late bloomer? Bad genes?

The other photos are from our eggs-in-a-bag breakfast from yesterday.

We were supposed to get rain and wind from IKE, but so far (at 10:00 a.m.) we’ve got mostly blustery breezes although it is trying to mist. Sort of like the northwest weather: mizzle and drist.