Vergennes, Vermont

We visited the Johnson's this afternoon.  They are friends and neighbors of Joy and Walt.  They had planned a picnic, but the weather didn't cooperate so we ate inside.  We had a good time talking with them.  He used to fly for TWA.  I'm not sure what she did over and above raising kids and now they have at least 2 grandkids who were at the picnic.

Sadly, I got sick in the afternoon after the picnic and was sick all not.  I'm not sure what caused the upset, but it was very unpleasant.  The next day I slept most all day and felt much better by evening. 

We had thought we'd go directly home from New Town, but I felt well enough to continue and Robert said he felt fine.  We stayed another day; it's always hard to leave the Kopeskys.  It is such a comfortable household.  However, now they have a grandson living with them.  He is not easy to have around; I'm not sure how Joy copes, but she does.

We left New Town on Thursday, the 5th, and headed for Cabella's in E.  Hartford.  They have a free dump station for RVs.  That is a great service!  We toured Cabella's, but couldn't find anything to buy.  Guns? no fishing gear? no and so forth. 

We went on to Essex Junction where step-granddaughter, Renee lives with her husband, Jonathan and their 3 very bright and very lively children.  Grandma Myrna has an apartment attached to the house and she is their live-in sitter.  She does a wonderful job; is gentle, but firm.  Jonathan and Robert hit it off.  Robert's comment later was that Jonathan was a fantastic teacher.  And I'm sure he is.  He teaches physics, but dreams up wonderful hands on experiments to teach various concepts.  It really sounds like a fun class to take.

Myrna took me to the local hospital lab to get an INR test which tells how thin my blood is and whether I should be taking more or less warfarin.  That took a long time because they insisted on having my whole life put into their computer even though I'll probably never visit their hospital again.

In the evening we all went for ice cream.  Before supper Renee was so tired she could hardly move, but after dinner she suddenly announced it was ice cream night.  She had to work all weekend so we left the next morning.

We drove to Vergennes, VT to visit my college friend, Sue.  We left about 10:30 and arrived at Sue's about 11:30.  She had been watching for us so showed up at the Van.  It was good to see her.  She has really downsized.  From a huge farm house in MA she had moved to a one bedroom apartment.  It is very nice, but very small and on the second floor.  We had lunch at Sue's and then took the VAN to David's where we'll park for the weekend.  David is having a slate roof put on his old house.  He and Robert talked about solar installations, briefly and then we left in Sue's car to return to her place.

We walked around Vergennes and visited the library where she volunteers. 

Later we had dinner at her place...and then she took us back to David's.  Between all this she and I talked non-stop.

We'll leave here on Monday.