Vermont

It felt good to be "home" in the US, not that Canada was bad. Canada has a completely different feel to it, with Ontario being influenced by the British culture and Quebec by the French. I think some Americans regard Canada as the "USA-2" but there are distinct differences in outlook and attitude that I personally like and welcome.
But it's still good to be "Home" where you can buy beer in a grocery store and get Shiner Bock too!

Shiner Bock and Wensleydale Cheese.

Vermont has been looming on the horizon all year. We made reservations for the "Escapades" Rally back in May I think and apart from the reservations we have for the winter in Florida, this is the last fixed time and place we have to be this year.

Pedestrian only shopping on Church Street Burlington

I suddenly decompressed when we got settled in a nice campground in Barre VT. Subconsciously I must have been stressing about getting here.  Now I feel better about myself than I have for several weeks, much more mellow.

Vermont has been a family vacation destination many times. When we lived in Maryland we'd trade our timeshare for different resorts around Stowe, Killington, Smugglers Notch and a few others I've forgotten. It's a very pretty state with mountains and lakes everywhere. If you like autumn leaves, this is the place to be in October.

The big lake is Lake Champlain, which the locals claim has a monsters like Loch Ness. Me I'm not convinced. But it is a gorgeous lake it's worth a trip out to the islands of North Hero and Grand Isle which are accessible by bridges.

At the harbor in Burlington

Lake Champlain with upstate NY in the background

In case I'm sounding like an ad for the Vermont Tourist Board just take is as read that I LIKE Vermont.
Being a small state means you can see a lot of it in a short time so we spent a couple of days visiting the capital Montpelier (smallest state capital in the US!), Barre and Burlington.

Hmm what to order?

I had some prep work to do for the painting class I'm teaching at the rally. I invented a disposable easel made from cardboard, bought enough supplies for 12 people, prepared boards  for painting on and typed up a guide for the class. Now the car and rig are full of painting stuff! It'll be good to get back to normal after next tuesday! I'll report on how that went after it's all over.

Prepping 12 hardboard panels for the painting class.

And of course there's the rally coming up  so we have to plan for daily "happy hours" with our home RV club the Shanty Shakers fro San Diego who are apparently going to here in force with perhaps 20 members in attendance.
It's going to be busy!

Look out the party is about to start!