Central Vermont

After Delaware, we made our way north a bit, staying a few days in the Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania.  Not much to report from there, just the normal relaxing time in the country.  We stayed a place called Secluded Acres, probably a mile down a gravel road after a couple hours of over hill and dale driving.  I had to drive out of the campground 15 minutes just to find good enough cell signal to check into my classroom.  Plenty of room for Missy to run around, though, and folks were having a great weekend away from the daily grind of work.  After that, we spent 2 full weeks at one of our favorite campgrounds, Lake Champagne in Randolph, VT.  Vermont is quiet and sparsely populated to begin with, so saying we had a nice, relaxing time in the hills is a little redundant.  That's apparently what one does in Vermont.  The scenery is something like out of The Sound of Music, rolling hills and farm country with lots and lots of trees.  Lake Champagne is just a great place to hang out and avoid the heat, for the most part.  Even New England has been in somewhat of a heatwave and drought this summer.  However, we got a lot of days with no air conditioning, either hanging out at the rig, visiting friends in the area, or just driving through the country to see what we could see.  Our friends Mark and Amy that we've known for over 20 years live near by, and we got to visit with the Paddocks, friends from Tampa.  Bob and I worked and traveled together in the Middle East several times, and he was a great mentor of regional dynamics for a newbie Air Force computer nerd trying to learn security cooperation.  Bob's recently retired and was in the area visiting family.  It was such a nice two weeks that we're going to circle back and stay another couple weeks the last half of August before we start to slowly work our way south in September.  Slowly.....

Right now we're just outside Montreal, Canada.  We had a smooth, quick border crossing and are looking forward to practicing our French for a couple days.  Pardonnez-moi, avez-vous un poupon gris?  Just two pictures from the last couple weeks, good grief.

We went out for a country drive in the Poconos and happened upon a Blue Grass band performing at a restaurant.  Of course, we had to stop

Lovely view for lunch one day.  Growing up, I had trout stream envy.

Delaware Seashore

Laurie scored 3 nights on the beach in Delaware after we left the Outer Banks.  It was a nice drive up to Hampton Roads, then over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel for the 2nd time.  We took this route up the coast back in 2012 during our first summer.  You avoid DC entirely and end up in some pretty nice beach country.  We pretty much blasted through Delaware's coast in 2012.  I mean, it only takes about an hour being so small, but this time we stopped for a few days.  It was great!  We camped at the north campground of the Delaware Seashore State Park.  During our three days on the beach, we sat on the beach all three days.  The weather was perfect, and we knew we were heading for inland New England, so we took advantage.  We explored the local towns of Bethany Beach and Dewey Beach.  I talked my way onstage to play guitar and sing a few Johnny Cash songs at the marina near us, walking distance actually to a very nice restaurant by the boat slips.  This is one of those accidental discoveries we made that had us thinking "...we'll be back."  Just a few pictures...

The beach.  The waves were great, lots of surfers and people enjoying cloudless, hot weather.  Missy stayed in the air conditioning!

Our beach rig.  This umbrella and these two chairs have seen some serious action.  In fact, we're on our 2nd versions of both.

I couldn't get a good shot of this light show, so I found one online.  This is the view from our campground, at night.  They light up the bridge over the inlet with blue lights, and it's just plain purdy...

Further Wanderings

Wow, it is so easy to slack off the blogging when we're just drifting around visiting friends.  After Indianapolis, we went to Pittsburgh and stayed in Dan and Michelle's driveway again, for the third time since we started this road trip.  We went "don ton" (Michelle's take on the 'burgh accent) for the art festival and, of course, it rained.  Apparently it always rains in mid-June in da burgh.  We also visited with friends Dan and Jane from MacDill while we were there.  After Pittsburgh, we headed up to a campground near Mansfield, PA for a few nights at a US Army Corps of Engineer park.  It was, again, blissful to be out in the country at a very nice park with plenty of room for Missy to run around.  Next stop was a return to a park near Ithaca, NY that we stayed at during our first summer in 2012.  We got the prize spot overlooking their pond.  I caught a couple bass in the lake too!  Snedacres campground is between Seneca and Cayuga lakes in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.  We had a very nice, relaxing time for 6 nights before moving south again.  We had to stop in and see musical friends Dennis and Sue, staying in their driveway outside Lancaster, PA for a night.  Moving south again, we stayed 3 nights at a military campground outside Washington, DC.  We thought about fighting traffic to get into town, but we've been there a few times so we just chilled out at the campground.  Next was a stop outside Raleigh at Falls Lake for a visit with John and Phyllis.  We're currently "camped" at Kevin and daughter Stephanie's place in Kill Devil Hills, NC, in the Outer Banks.  The Outer Banks (OBX) are their own little slice of heaven.  It's been a bit warm, but fun and great to see "the kids" again.  Some pictures from the last couple weeks...

Dan, Michelle, Laurie and me.  We've been friends since late 1986!

Dennis singing the favorites in E-Town, PA

Panoramic view of our "porch" at Snedacres

While we were in New York, we caught a really good Johnny Cash tribute band

View from the RV at Fort Belvoir, on the Potomac downstream from DC

Great little spot at Holly Point Campground outside Raleigh

Kill Devil Hills on July 4th.  Packed!

Laurie and Steph

4th of July in OBX

Steph lives minutes from where the Wright Brother's made their first flight