Back in Vermont

 After a month in Baton Rouge of grand-parenting and other essential activity, we are safely back in Vermont tonight.  1739 miles in about 3.5 days.  Except for the about 100 miles from Albany NY to White River Junction, VT, all of it was interstate highway, making for an easy drive of just about 11 hours daily for 3 days and 7 hours on the last day.  It is remarkable how much difference a month makes in the appearance of things.  Places in Pennsylvania and Virginia where leaves were just beginning to show color in October now are bare. Fall grasses are now brown.  And there was SNOW on the ground when got to our house: not much but a good dusting.  With temps already in the low 20's tonight it truly seems like winter has arrived.

I think that the dogs were the happiest to be back, although snow is not something they have much experience with - only one time in BR in 2008, I think.  It took them all of two minutes to feel at home in the house. We will work on outside tomorrow. They are unusually good travelers, sleeping in the back cargo area of the car almost all the time and behaving beautifully in the pet friendly hotels.  Shadow gets hot or restless occasionally, but a blast of air from an open window will fix him in about two minutes.  We discovered only today that half a banana is the perfect tranquilizer - they slept for 4 hours coming across Vermont's mountains and on the last 100 miles of interstate.

Our route goes through 11 states, although you will miss some of them if you doze.   LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, VA, MD, WV, PA, NY and VT.   Georgia, Maryland and West Virginia are the whistle stops.  The rest are substantial drives, especially Alabama, Virginia and Pennsylvania.  For me the most interesting drive was through central Pennsylvania, where I-81 runs along the mountain  tops.  The valleys are large and spectacular, especially when headed northward and the sun is out.   At some of these vistas, I expect the distant mountains were 30 or mor miles away.  There are only a few substantial towns along this rouge, but there are several industrial parks, most of which are the home to huge distribution warehouses.  My only disappointment with this drive was that none of the many rivers were identified. 


On the same day (Thursday) we were enjoying the view, my neighbor called to say that my furnace was broken and the house house had no heat.  He was concerned because the temp prediction was for 16 degrees on Friday night.   Well, he was a true neighbor... he called a repairman who was there at 8:30 Friday and by noon it was all repaired.   When we arrived later that afternoon, the house was a cozy 70 degrees.   Thank goodness for neighbors for Dave, it would have been another night in a motel, otherwise, and perhaps several if no one wanted to work on the weekend. The only down-side -- I had to spend 4 hours  cleaning the basement from top to bottom to get rid of the soot from the 'blow-back'.  Really makes one appreciate the convenience of natural gas.

For those that want pictures of the snow, sorry.   It is a sunny 36 today and the snow was gone by noon.  I'll have plenty of other photo ops, of that I am certain.