Hottest day yet to Albany, NY state

One of the great things about a lot of the places we have stayed is that we get a small double bed each, I love it!!!!  Started off this morning by leaving our car at the motel and walking down to the lake 3 minutes away to do a cache.  The lake looked so clean, cool and inviting we walked back up, changed into our togs and drove back down for a swim.  Lots of private beaches roped off for other resorts and only a little space for us, but big enough. It was delicious as already the day was hot.  We did a few more caches around Lake George, then I remembered we had left no tip so back to the motel to drop it off.  Last night we did a cache by a Richard E and he sent us a very nice email recommending we do one of his caches called the Tin Man which had won an award.  On the way there we did caches on the lock gates for the canal system between Lake Champlain and the Hudson and on to lake Eerie I think it is.  

 This was our lunch spot.  Desperately trying to find some shade in 94deg (about 33).  We watched a barge move through the canal on the right.

We got to the Tin Man and it was wonderful (see photo). 

The Tin Man geocache.  Lindsey holds the ammo can cache beautifully painted.  The door is open to show the Tin Man's beating heart.

Shortly after this we were just about to leave a cache when a car reversed back to us and asked if we were caching.  We said yes and we were from NZ, the cacher got out the car and came and introduced himself as Richard E and gave us a tin man geocoin which we will release when back in NZ.  

 

Two proud, geeky cachers after the geocoin presentation :)

That's Richard E who made the Tin Man.

We spoke a while and will see him again at the mega.  He has done 26 thousand caches and has hidden 244, of which we did about a dozen today, some of them very clever.  He's proud to say he never gave a lame TFTC (thanks for the cache) log and I think that is why he emailed us as Steve makes a good effort to log caches well with a story if possible.  

 Lindsey with another one of Richards caches - called "Exhausted"

We did about 25 caches all up and by then it was getting on for 4 and we had had enough of the heat up in the high 30's, so set heading for Albany.  It took us 3 accommodation places till we found a bed, apparently there is a baseball game or something in town.  Wonderful to be out of the heat, nachos and ice cream for dinner in our room and sitting on our beds on the free WiFi watching the time trial for the Tour.  

Travel from Burlington, VT to Lake George, NY

Tuesday 16th JulyToday was not that exciting, a travel day really. Our one and only cache in Burlington this morning was magnificent, a huge wooden carved statue of Chief  Grey Lock  the "greatest" leader of the Abenaki people.

 Lindsey strikes the pose in front of Chief Grey Lock

After visiting the great chief we head south towards tonight stay at Lake George NY.

The next stop was Vergennes.  America's third oldest city, incorporated in 1788.  Population around 2,750.  Vermont's smallest "city".

Vergennes Falls

We discovered these falls on the river running through the middle of town.

Next stop was the Vermont side of Lake Champlain overlooking Fort Ticonderoga (on the New York side).  There was a ferry available. $8 for a car $1 for a passenger.  Very reasonable.

This area was significant during the American revolution.  This waterway runs all the way from Canada, connecting to the Hudson and reaching the Atlantic at New York.  The British made many attempts to invade from Canada to rest control from the revolutionaries.  We visited a lesser fort named Mt Independence.  Named as soon as the news arrived that the Declaration had been signed.

Had lunch in Fair Haven.  Our last town before entering New York State.

Lake George where we finished today is full of motels and tourists. It's pretty horrible but we did find a nice place to eat looking over the lake and watching the authentic paddle steamers plying their trade though the food was not nearly so good as last nights.  One really good thing is that we can get the "Tour" on telly, that's a first since Florida. 

Burlington, Vermont

Monday 15th July
Flash breakfast, with lots of goodies and I also took a bagel, egg and cream cheese in a napkin for lunch which we did not get to eat till about 4!!!  Hired bikes again at the waterfront, we had to be given the warning "cycling is dangerous" and helmets which we promptly deposited in the car and pedalled off along the bike path bordering the lake.  Very hot so, we took togs.  Very easy cycling and nothing too exciting in the cache department, just all very pleasant.

The previous night I had noticed a heavy fragrance in the air and it was still  there this morning. We have just googled it and it is from the American Silver Linden trees that are planted all along that part of the cycle way for shade.  We know them as the Silver Lime in the UK.  Also further on there  were these amazing trees with roots growing around rocks.

We were caching near a couple who were having a problem when the guy ( aged 54)  collapsed, the wife said he had a heart condition and called 911, I think he had heat exhaustion and as he had run out of water  I gave him my remaining bit.  We left them too it and at the next road/bike path intersection the cavalry had arrived.  Must have been a slow day as there was an ambulance, another car, a golf cart with a stretcher, as they had to drive along the path to get to him and also a fire department vehicle.  We cycled along the causeway must have been low 30's, nearly to the end at one stage a stoat ran across the path nearly under my wheel, what it lives on amongst the rocks and gravel who knows.

Just as we turned around Steve got a slow puncture.  We cycled on and stopped a guy with a pump but after another couple of k's it was flat again and the tyre was off the rim.  By now we were among houses so we knocked on a door and they took us in to phone and gave us cold water ( very delicious in that heat). While we were waiting I mentioned I was going to have a swim later so they sent us down to their private beach, it was lovely, the water was cool and they sit there in the evenings watching the sunset with a fire on the beach from all the drift wood.  The guy did say that the mozzies were bad at night though.  I can vouch for that!!  Rescue came in the form of a guy on a tandem, no ordinary one but with a recumbent bike in the front (see photo) and a trailer with another bike on it, there was also the young assistant from the shop on another bike.

Anyway the story went that the couple that called 911 just locked their bikes up (also rented) and the bike people cycled out on the tandem to collect the bikes then they got the call that Steve needed a new bike so they about turned and came and switched bikes for us, excellent service as always in the US  We decided to stay another night here so out came the voucher book and tonight the motel has,an outdoor pool (lots have covered pools previously) so we had a welcome dip then into town to the pedestrian only mall, a bit like Cuba street for dinner.  The food was delicious and we ate out on the pavement and then treated ourselves  to an ice cream.  Oh yes before we went out we had to talk to our insurers about the damage done to our Nelson flat, the wonderful Barbara is taking care of that for us and sorting out our ghastly tenant.  And now to go with the bites, I have just found a tic attached to my thigh, bugger.    :-(

Road to Burlington on Lake Champlain

Vermont Sunday 14th July;

No free brekkie this morning so no waffle.  Cached our way to Barre, one cache was a huge box beside a cachers work, only out during work hours so he can keep an eye on it, it was filled with goodies, lots of trackables and toys,  I got 2 plastic dinosaurs for Remy.  

 Now that's what I call a GeoCache container.

 The "swag" box within.  Lindsey loved rummaging through it.  We now have two dinosaurs travelling with us!

Barre has some wonderful granite buildings, they are so clean they look pristine, one cache was at a granite statue commemorating fallen youth it was beautiful and behind it was the whispering bench, an oval bench like seat and if we each sat at an end about 25 metres apart even with the statue in between us so we could not even see each other we could whisper what we wanted to say and it was as though the person was sitting next to us, but when Steve was standing 5 metres from me in a direct line he could not hear what I said due to traffic  noise.  

 Erected inn 1924.  Look how pristine the granite is.

 Lindsey sitting on this amazing "Whispering Bench".  I sat at the left hand corner near the people in the photo and we were able to converse normally.  "inside voices" no less.

Must discover the science of it.

Montpelier is Vermont's State Capital.  This is the State House.

Vermont State House, Montpelier

We also did a walk through forest up a hill with about 5 caches on it, we were so hot and the sweat just poured off us as it was so humid.  We covered ourselves in insect repellent as there were tick warnings in the cache description.  We got no ticks but I definitely have a bunch of new bites from somewhere and visited a drug store to get some antihistamine and anti itch cream, I don't feel anything works and bites drive me nuts.  Steve also saw a small snake, brown or black with an orange stripe. We walked round the streets of Montpelier too, very hot, I jay walked and the traffic stopped for me,very embarrassing but they truly look after pedestrians here. The drivers are far more polite than Kiwis  too.  We were in a town called Richmond which had a old round church, of course with a cache,  the church is open and we got talking to the woman looking after it for the afternoon, she was very excited to write in the book that she had visitors from Richmond NZ.  

We added a bit of zip to this lady's day.  A sixteen sided building.

Round Church - Richmond VT

The building itself was cute.  We then drove to Burlingotn and in the evening drove down to the Lake Champlain water front.  This is a wonderful place to see a magnificent sunset and the world and his wife was there with us photographing it.  

 Burlington on the shores of Lake Champlain at dusk.

We got back to the hotel to discover that our worst tenant had a broken header tank!!!!!   The wonderful Barbara has looked after the problem for us but I did phone The Squaw as we call her to help sooth troubled waters.

On to Vermont

The guy in charge of breakfast had obviously heard about me as he made my waffle for me this morning!  We also took a couple of sweet Danish pastries for lunch as we did not want to go back to the supermarket this morning. The room was great, just a box, but we could sleep with the back door open so it was cool and bug free.  Drove to the bike shop and hired 2 bikes for the day and off we cycled along the rail trail. 

 

 Our lunch spot on the rail trail.  The main river is behind the photographer where she'd just had a pre-luncheon skinny dip.

 We were the only cyclists all day but quite a few ATV,s known in NZ as farm bikes, they were a pain and quite a few of the riders could have done with trading them in for 2 wheels and some exercise! We did 43 caches, a lot were really clever hides.  We had a routine; the finder would sign the log and replace the cache while the other took the GPS and rode on to the next cache about 300 metres away.  We had lunch by the river and I had time for skinny dip to cool down.  The air temp was about 28 and a bit muggy but it was overcast which helped.  

Another swing bridge and another cache.  They give really high "terrain" ratings for these caches and warn people who may be scared of heights.

 

Steve did not put on any bug spray and while in the shower this evening found 2 ticks thinking of attaching. I found raspberries ( more than yesterday) and small early brambles ( blackberries) for eating.  also a bird flew up from under my feet, could it be a grouse and a small chipmunk like creature ran in front of the bike.  Took us about 6.5 hours and we were back in the car heading to Barre VT.  Love the coupons we have for our accommodation, the hill top inn, cost us $70 instead of over $115. We bought a cooked chicken and salad in our room and another bottle of Californian wine for under $8. love it.  Now on the Internet, all free, would cost us about $100 in QLD.

From Maine to New Hampshire, Thurs & Fri 11 & 12 July

Portland, Maine: Thursday 11th July. Wet again this morning, went to a virtual cache with lots of "likes" and I am not surprised, it was the Delorme building, they make maps and inside the building, 3 stories high was the most amazing revolving globe of the world.  You could walk up the 3 stories and admire it from viewing platforms.  You could also see all the techtonic plates and volcanic atolls and as for the Map Shop :), we spent a good hour in the building.  

 Lindsey outside the centre at GZ.  A cache log requirement photo.

 Steve telling the world where he's from!  And hoping that Lindsey would hurry up with the snap as the world was turning.

We then headed inland to see if we could get out of the fog and ended up in North Conway after caching for the night.  

We managed a short 2km hike up a "mountain" to stretch the legs and came to a lovely "turret" which could have provided a panoramic view if the weather had been better.

At the top of the turret while interviewing a New Jersey family from Russia!

We have vouchers from a travel book for discounts on accommodation so the places we stay are not flash.  This is where the fun began; She gave us a room and then we thought it might be a good idea to stay 3 nights as there were lots of caching trails in the area, so she then decided we had to move and the next room was $20 more expensive for the next 2 nights (no voucher) and no fridge or microwave so we said no thank you.  Later that night, the desk lady rang to say she had been shown how to move the rooms around and they could offer us the 2 extra nights in the same room.  We said OK and went to sleep to be woken at  1 by drunken 19 year olds who kept us awake till 3 in spite of me getting out of bed 3 times to tell them off.

  

New Hampshire - Friday 12th July:  Next morning we decided to move on and went down to breakfast only to have me break the waffle dispenser and have waffle mixture flowing freely onto the floor and of course over my clothes too.  Steve managed to fix it eventually before the entire contents were on the floor.  Breakfast which was free was pretty awful and the desk clerk (a different one) was not happy when we said we were moving on.  Lovely day today mid to high 20s with little humidity.  We had decided to drive up Mt Washington the highest peak in New England being the height of Mt Hutt but when the gate keeper said $34 we changed our minds.    We happily cached our way towards what was possibly our destination of the day.  One was on a double tier rail bridge across the river which was not a problem once we worked out there was a top tier and that it was a rail trail as opposed to an active rail bridge.  And then the honeymoon  bridge with the wooden covering.  We realised that the walking bridges are covered to keep the snow off them as they would not withstand the weight.  yesterday we ate wild blueberries about the size of Brookes thumb nail today it was 1 tiny wild raspberry the size of her pinkie nail!  At one stop I dipped my body in the river to get a second wind (cold but delicious) we then put the car GPS to work to discover that the navigator (I was driver) had take a wrong turn and we were heading back to North Conway where we had spent the night!!!! 

 Wishing she had her togs &/or wishing the other punters would B.....r off so she could skinny dip.

 Aha the"cold but delicious" moment.

We did a U turn and ended up at a low key motel in a very pretty tow

n called Littleton.  Went supermarket shopping and ate in our room.  On the way back to the motel we called by the old part of town (just one more cache!)  The place was alive.  Stalls and a woodwind group playing in the street.

 In Littleton, New Hampshire.  Just found the cache!

The bridge and the bakery.

The woodwind group playing in the street.

Day 1 leaving Florida

Great flights but OMG we are back in Scotland even if it is 20 deg (68) for some of my rellies.  Low cloud and even rain and we are told it will stay till Friday so maybe we will head west, sad cos it is probably beautiful.  Spoke to a woman in the super market who sent us to a lunch and lobster cafe, like fast food but fresh lobster, potato salad and coleslaw with a bucket and pincer crackers!!  Steve then did a cache in the rain as we had to do one and now we are sitting in the motel chilling.

 Lobster Dinner - yum

 8:30pm after dinner.  Still light but very low cloud.

South Freeport Wharf - Maine

The scene of the Lobster feast.