Our first night (July 18th) out on the way up to Vermont, we stopped at the West Chester, PA, KOA. A very nice place, with a gorgeous ride up - with the exception, of course, of our little brush with the D.C. area. **shudder**
This is a record of our trip in July, 2005, to Vermont, Niagara Falls, State College, and Luray caverns. It was our first major trip with our new Forrest River Wildcat RV, and two weeks really wasn't enough to pack in all the fun we had - but we managed it!
Please remember that you can click on any of the photos for a larger view, and that any text that is underlined and/or a different color is a hyperlink to more information about the subject.
RVing is a wonderful way to take a family vacation, as you will see from this album. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed taking them. If you have any comments, please feel free to drop me a line at romeokat -at- gmail -dot- com and let me know.
Our first night (July 18th) out on the way up to Vermont, we stopped at the West Chester, PA, KOA. A very nice place, with a gorgeous ride up - with the exception, of course, of our little brush with the D.C. area. **shudder**
The ubiquitous KOA (does anyone not know that it stands for "Kampground of America"?) archetecture of the main lodge. KOAs are great: they usually have a full range of amenities - pool, laundry, full hookups, activities - and the people have always been friendly and helpful, in my experience.
Darling Munchkin and Beloved Husband took a walk while I set up dinner.
I really enjoy my guy's photos! Doesn't he do a good job?
Just some quick shots as we drive up from Gretna, VA, to our first night in Pennsylvania, en route to Vermont. Lots of neat scenery and old houses... Mom would be loving this!
A beautiful old bridge - I would have asked Beloved Husband to stop, but we had cars behind us so it wasn't convenient. Well, we also had a 31 foot 5th Wheel RV behind us too, but that had nothing to do with it. Really.
More beautiful old buildings. I don't even remember what town this was. Hey, six hours of driving - including skirting D.C. with the RV - will do that to you!
This is our camp site at the peaceful and extremely lovely Pine Hollow Campground in Pownal, VT. We spent our second though fourth nights here and loved it, even though my laptop was being persnikity and not letting me connect. Fortunately, Beloved Husband loaned me his so I could check my mail and so on. My hero!
Pine Hollow had a little pond with - as you can see - a fountain. There's also a little wading beach just on the other side. Darling Munchkin liked wading and looking for minnows, as well as riding her bike on the shady road which circled the pond.
After the heat and mugginess of Virginia, Pownal was a welcome respite: it was cool (well, upper 70's) and lightly breezy with very low humidity.
We arrived here on July 19th, and left on the 22nd.
Found one!
Bennington was having the Moose Fest, and had around fifty differently art-decorated mooses ("meese"?) scattered throughout the town.
Bennington is full of beautiful, old buildings! Unfortunately, I'd left my camera at my brother's the previous night, so I couldn't point-and-click to my heart's content. Beloved Husband allowed me to use his camera, though...
And yet another!
As you see, this one is a quilted moose, and therefore my favorite of all the mooses we saw. The Moose Fest is lots of fun!
This is the view off my brother's front deck. How would you like to wake up to this every day?
In the foreground, you can see a little irregularity in his lawn where the pool used to be. It was old and leaking, and a pain for him to keep up, so he filled it in.
In the center of the picture, you can perhaps make out a bare hint of the town of Bennington, VT, which is beautiful and quite historic. We were fortunate that they were having the Moose Festival while we were in town.
Here's a telephoto of the same view, focusing on Bennington. That little, tiny spike you see, center left, is the Bennington Monument.
This is the old covered bridge on Rte 313 in West Arlington. My family used to own a house just east of this bridge, and we loved coming here to swim.
There is a website all about Vermont's covered bridges, as well as one specific to the five bridges in Bennington county. Here is the information for "our" bridge. I didn't know Norman Rockwell's old house was near by...!
Just another view of the bridge. I liked both of these pics, so I put them both here on this photo album.
We used to have a rope swing at the corner here, so we could plunge into the Battenkill River - but it's been taken down, of course. I loved sitting on the ledge near the water and looking for minnows or tossing pebbles into the water. My brother and sister were much more adventurous, but the Battenkill always seemed cold! to me, LOL.
Of course, Beloved Husband and Darling Munchkin seem to have no problems with diving right in, cold or not!
(But BH said it wasn't that cold, anyway...)
The Battenkill river, known for its fly fishing - but mostly because it was a wonderful place for my brother, sister, and me to cool off on a long, hot summer day when we were young.
Oooh! It's the Battenkill river-monster! Run! Save yourself!
Darling Munchkin really liked swimming at her mom's old haunt. It just warms the cockles of my old, shriveled heart...
Beloved Husband finds opportunities for gorgeous photos in my brother's backyard. (And now you know whose photographic talents were on display the last couple of pictures!)
Minka the Magnificent accepts proper offerings of skritchies from the Darling Munchkin. My brother is Minka's person, but he recieves adulation from anyone. He has a little brother, Wink, but Wink wasn't interested in being photographed.
After travelling all day on the 22nd from Vermont to Niagara, we booked a half day tour before kicking back and eating dinner (which was a very yummy swordfish steak, thankyouverymuch!).
Today, we followed our intrepid tour guide, Dan, all over the American side of Niagara Falls. He was very informative and helpful, and we enjoyed our day immensely!
Now we're in Niagara (funny spelling, don't you think?). This is the day after we arrived. We decided to take a tour rather than figure it all out ourelves, and we were very glad we did!
These rapids from the Niagara river, downstream of the Falls, pour into the Whirlpool area. Apparently, when the Falls were at this point however-many-years-ago, there was a buried gorge in the upper right corner. Since that material was weaker, it was worn away much more quickly, and left this jog in the river.
The grandeur of Creation - and the Munchkin enjoys it so much!
For lots of interesting fact about the Falls, go to this website, and check out all the fascinating information about the Falls.
This is the American side of Horseshoe, or the Canadian, Falls. This particular fall of water is only a yard, if that, away from the railing!
Seeing all that power go flowing by is a real rush!
