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We are here.  In Maine.  Finally. 
44 deg, 29 min north latitude ... the most northerly place of
The Chambliss 2011 Summer Tour.

We are now 3,150 miles from Vista, California.
     We are now 1,600 miles from Largo, Florida.
          We are way up north!  And it is beautiful here.

After a shopping spree for Linda at the holy grail of all yarn stores (WEBS), an overnight campsite in Massachusetts, and a gorgeous drive through picture-postcard-perfect Vermont and New Hampshire, we arrived in Bethel, Maine, on Sunday afternoon.

Why Bethel, Maine?  Well, our neighbors at the mobile home park in Florida are Bethel natives, that's why.  They spend 2 months up here every summer, and our original plan for this trip was to make it to Bethel and spend time with them before they headed back to Florida in August.  But, our timing turned out to be off, and we had those pesky delays, to boot. 

Nevertheless, we visited their summer camp today, and spent some time just sitting and enjoying the natural beauty of their place.  What a gorgeous place they have to spend their summers.

Downtown Bethel is downright quaint and beautiful . . . so many lovely buildings and interesting shops.  There is a lot to see, and the community is bustling.  We contributed heavily to the local economy when we discovered a "Made in Maine" store and purchased lots of souvenirs and gifts.  We intend to take in the Bethel historical museum tomorrow and have dinner at the highly- rated local diner.

We are so glad we made it to Bethel.  We intend to come back.

Restless

We have been at Ilion long enough to know the TV stations, and some of the Walmart cashiers know our name.  It may be time to go.  The Erie Canal is now flowing in the opposite direction from what it was doing pre-Irene:  west-to-east before Irene, at a dead stop for 2 days post-Irene, and now east-to-west.  Canal management.  Why do we think tax dollars are involved?

So, what's next?  We will be leaving here on Saturday headed for Maine.  It is simply coincidental that one of country's largest yarn stores is on the way.   How could we possibly drive by the WEBS Yarn store (yarn.com) and not stop?  Don't answer that.  The store is almost exactly half way to our Maine destination so Linda will check out the store, we will stay the night at a nearby camp, and then (finally) arrive in Maine on Sunday.

We looked through our original, pre-trip itinerary to see exactly how delayed we have been with our mechanical troubles and hurricane interference.  Surprisingly, we are only 6 days behind schedule at this point.  Not bad, considering.  It's just that some activities have been truncated and some rearranged.

But as we have noted before, it has all been a wonderful experience.  We have met interesting people during our delays here and there.  And we have seen local culture that we would not have seen otherwise.  Google 'chicken riggies' if you have any questions.  It is out-of-this-world delicious, btw.

The Best Laid Plans

Hurricane Irene may be off the major news broadcasts, but her effects are lingering still.  Because of flooding, the New York State Thruway, aka I-90, aka our route to the east, was closed for 100 miles between Syracuse and Amsterdam until 11:00 PM on Tuesday.  (That significant piece of information did not seem to make the national news.)   Well, traffic was in havoc around here for the duration, being rerouted either along 2-lane country roads or to other interstates 75 miles out of the way.  As we did not want to venture into the chaos, we elected to stay put and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of Herkimer County.  Our plans were again delayed . . . we had originally intended just to be here for 2 or 3 days during Hurricane Irene, but we are now short-term members of the seasonal RV community at the Ilion Marina and RV Park.

On Tuesday we went to the Remington Firearms Museum and Store.  We were hoping to take in the factory tour, but it had been discontinued in the spring.  The museum was small, but interesting.  We also picked up some hunting gear for Frank and a t-shirt for Linda.

After that, we drove up to the Herkimer Diamond Mine.  Herkimer diamonds are faceted quartz crystals that are found only in Herkimer County, NY.  They are lovely.  You can look them up on the internet.  The mine charges $10 a day for prospecting on the property, and people can keep all the "diamonds" they find.  We did not do any prospecting, limiting our visit to the gift shop and short interviews of people as they came off the prospecting field.  We decided that when we come back next year, we will probably prospect ourselves
... actually, Linda will probably prospect while Frank visits a nearby driving range.

The Erie Canal is at a dead stop today.  It looks like a lake, not a river.  Irene's debris is still being cleaned out downstream, and it will be a few days before the water flows again.  We watch the news about the Vermont flooding with sadness.  It is such a lovely state, and we are grateful to have seen much of its beauty before the storm hit.  We will always have a place in our hearts for Vermont, even though we only spent 4 days there.

The Morning After

Irene has come and gone.  Our decision to leave Vermont for the more familiar (and we hoped, safer) environs of Upstate New York proved prescient.  We are grateful that we are not stranded in central Vermont amongst the flooding and chaos up there.  The very place where we were in Vermont suffered damage from the storm ... parts of the very roads we traveled on to get out of Vermont were flooded and washed away.

We awoke to a beautiful blue sky in Herkimer this morning.  The marina master told us the Erie Canal crested at 5:00 AM this morning, just 15 inches below the top of the wall, but was in no danger of overflowing.  We began this morning to make plans for the next two weeks or so of our trip.  We really want to "do Maine."  We want to spend a few days at our friend's camp in Bethel and do touristy things along the coast (ie, visit LL Bean and eat lobster and blueberries).  We want to go to Martha's Vineyard for a day.  All in good time.

We may have to stay here another day or so, as the New York State Thruway is closed in two places between us and where we want to go.  That's the story of this trip of ours ... two steps forward, one step back.

We are just making memories.

Irene

Decision made.  The hype and drama of the Weather Channel and NOAA notwithstanding, we couldn't afford to take chances with our safety, so we drove 150 miles back west to Herkimer NY to stay in a safe campground with full cable TV, wifi, restaurant, and laudromat.

It's ironic that we were relieved Hurricane Irene was going to miss Florida while we were gone, and so we didn't have to worry about damage to our condo, only to find ourselves in her path 2 weeks later.

So we sit, waiting for Irene to pass over.  It has been raining constantly since about 2:00 AM, but fortunately there has been little or no wind.  We are parked beside the Erie Canal and this afternoon the water turned muddy looking and a lot of plant and wood debris starting floating by.  The park manager assured us there is no flood danger.  It's a beautiful place to stay during the storm.

We almost forgot to mention the nice local couple we met in Vermont who spend their winters in Largo, Florida, of all places. They have a mobile in the Town and Country park on Missouri.  Small world.  We'll renew the acquaintance when get back to Florida.  Town and Country has bingo on Friday nights, which is of interest to Linda.  

We will be here until tomorrow, then back to our original itinerary.  We are determined to keep Maine on our destination list, as well as Martha's Vineyard.  While sitting in the rain today, Linda figured out the convection oven and made cupcakes.  Frank made his signature sausage and chipotle burritos, too.  Yummy.

It's good to have a slow day and just watch the world and the rain go by.  We'll be rested for the move tomorrow.

A Lovely Day In Vermont

We spent another day in Vermont, taking in some sights and watching the weather reports on Hurricane Irene.  The day was absolutely gorgeous so we took a big circle tour around the area.

We went to Calvin Coolidge's boyhood home, then on to Woodstock which is a quaint skiing/tourist town with a nice yarn shop.  Of course, Linda had to buy a couple of skeins.  Berocco Alpaca Light, if you must know.  Then back to Quechee Village to pick up a couple of souvenirs we passed up on our first visit there yesterday.

As we watch for and wait on Hurricane Irene, we are reminded of how little impact we humans really have on the world.  Certainly we can pollute small areas; we can over plant fields and cut down too much lumber in places.  But do we really have the ability to change the planet?

Stopping hurricanes would be a fine place to start ... a hurricane is really not all that big, considering the size of the whole earth.  But ... but ... but, you say, scientists have been trying for years to stop hurricanes or find a way to lessen their size or their impact, and haven't been able to.  Precisely the point.

The earth is God's creation and has an amazing ability to heal itself.  It goes through cycles and seasons, most of which we don't understand fully.  Much of mankind is bent on bringing God's great universe down to something they can understand.  God says, "My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts."  Call us naive, but we don't need to know more.

Tomorrow is decision day on our destination for waiting out Irene.  Tonight we have meat loaf, salad, and memories of a lovely day in Vermont.