The rain that was predicted for yesterday, Sunday, moved to today. It rained all day, but it gave me an opportunity to finish planning and preparing for a three-day hike on the Long Trail that I'll begin tomorrow. Also, it was a good day for Linda to do some baking.
Denise, a local who we met at the Fledermaus Teahouse last Friday night, invited us to join her and her husband and some of their friends for dinner. I told Linda it may be our first "civilian" dinner invitation. My memory may have failed me and we've been invited to dinner a lot, but this is the first one I can remember where it had nothing to do with RVing.
So, Linda was making dessert for our group of seven and she went to the grocery to pick up a few items while I started packing my backpack for my three-day journey in the Green Mountains. I'm loading it to capacity just to see what it will be like for me to carry the 30 or so pounds up and down in the mountains. I won't be doing more than nine miles a day, but it'll be over some fairly rough terrain with some hefty elevation changes. It should be another good test.
After loading everything I could possibly need in my pack, including a couple liters of water and three days of food, it topped out at 33 pounds. I'm sure I can cut that down, but it's good to know that my max would be about 35 pounds with up to five days of food. It's sort of like moving into an RV - stuff everything in you can possibly think you'll need and then start purging the items you don't use to lighten the load.
Linda baked some lemon zucchini bread and a caramel pecan apple pie for dinner. The pie came out of the oven a couple minutes before we had to leave.
The rain stopped, it warmed up a bit, and we drove over to Denise & Brian's house. We met their friend, Karen, an Earth Sciences teacher from the Buffalo area, and Max & Monique, caretakers of a large property near our campground. Denise & Brian had been caretakers at the same property and were Max & Monique's predecessors.
Max is considering the purchase of a vintage Vogue motorhome, so the conversation did get around to RVs at one point, but mostly it was conversation about all of our unique lives. Denise worked with Outward Bound guiding troubled youth in the wild for a total of 15 years. Max had been a teacher and counselor in native Alaskan village schools. And the stories went on from there.
Dinner and Linda's desserts were delicious, and the conversation flowed easily. We were there from 6:00 until 10:00 enjoying the company before finally departing our new friends with hugs and handshakes. A wonderful evening indeed. Linda plans to join them again tomorrow evening for the Tuesday Night Live Event in town, which includes live music, food, and more. The fellow we met Saturday on Prospect Rock, Doug, told us he was one of the founders of this event back in the 1990s.
Driving the back roads home, we saw several deer in the fields, and we drove slowly to avoid any potential moose in the road. The skies were clearing and it looks like it will be good weather over the next few days (although I'll be prepared for any sudden changes). We went straight to bed with a plan to get an early start in the morning. I'm a little excited and a little anxious to see how this hike goes, so I hope I sleep well. I'll see you in a few days with a full report. :)
Sounds fabulous Howard! Enjoy!! Hope you brought moleskin.
Posted by: Sherry Boyd | Tuesday, August 02, 2016 at 05:55 PM
That's a great hike
Posted by: Dothetimebaby | Wednesday, August 03, 2016 at 07:05 AM