Green Mountains, Music, Hospitals, and Chocolate

We’re back. From where? you ask. Vacationing in New England to see family for two weeks. Cyndi and Bill went with us, Cyndi driving the car with me in it and Bill driving the truck with his dad, Stewart, in it. We needed two vehicles to handle luggage for four, a rollator, oxygen compressor, nebulizer, etc. etc.  For fifteen hours we made a two-vehicle caravan going from Angier, North Carolina, to Fairfield, Connecticut, with a few stops to fuel up the vehicles and us. Do you know how tiring it is to travel that far even without doing the driving? Very!

My Sister Donna and Me

The first stop was to stay with my sister in Fairfield for a few days.  She and Stewart got to meet and we got to rest up. I drove Stewart all over creation showing him where I spent my teenage years. Our one "sightseeing" spot while there was St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, CT. I knew Stewart was sick one morning when he refused coffee! He was listless all day at my sister’s, so we took him to E.R. where, of course, they elected to keep him overnight for a COPD flareup. He wasn’t happy to be admitted, but he was back to being himself the next morning, so they let him come home.

Bill, Donna, Stewart and Cyndi
 relaxing outside the motel in Barre

He was home in time to head further north, up to Vermont for two days for my cousin’s 50^th anniversary celebration. While in Barre, which is next door to the state’s capital, Montpelier, we went to Bragg Farms where they make maple sugar. They showed us the process then we of course visited the gift shop to buy real Vermont maple syrup and other gifts. My favorite purchase is a bumper sticker that says: “Vermont - What happens here, stays here. But nothing ever really happens.”  Another one says: “Bumpah stickah for your cah.” They appeal to my sense of humor and to the Vermont blood still in me from being born and raised in that state.  

Then it was back to Connecticut to stay with Tammy and Curtis for a few days. Happily, my son Mike and his son, Monterey, spent the weekend there, too, so we had good quality time together. Tammy and Curtis held a mini music fest in their back yard complete with stage, mikes, amps, tables of food, lights, flowers, and music, music, music.

We did manage to get a little sightseeing in. In Hartford, we went to the Mark Twain house and got to see where and how he lived. His house is next door to the Harriet Beecher Stowe home. He moved there purposely, after selling his first book, so he could perhaps become as well-known as she was at the time. I bought a small book, The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain which makes for some really good reading.

Mark Twain House

Then the caravan headed south and back to Angier.

Although we went north in one day, we took two days to come back home, stopping in Hershey, PA to visit Chocolate World and have a tour of how chocolate is made. And, of course, the gift shop. We have so much candy around here, our house looks like we’re ready for Halloween trick or treaters!

I managed to break an anchor tooth for my denture the day before we left to come home which made for a very painful trip. That problem is now being remedied by a dentist.

My kids - Cyndi, Tammy, Mike
at the music fest

All in all, Stewart and I have needed this last week to rest up from our vacation. I finally have the suitcases unpacked and laundry done. That’s enough for one week, don’t you think? I’d rather sit and relish the memories of my family all together in one place for one small moment in time.

Quote of the Day: No man needs a vacation so much as the man who just had one. Elbert Hubbard

Second Quote of the Day: The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. St. Augustine