Stratton Mountain Vermont
We spent the night in a lovely Timeshare Property 'Long Trail House'. I must add a complement for Caravan Tours. The accommodations they have afforded us on this tour have been outstanding. The food service has been excellent, the guest services wonderful. All the amenities have been first class.
Stratton Mountain is a major ski slope area in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The affluence of the area reflects the anticipation of the snow returning and with that the snow the ski bunnies. You'll notice the ski slopes on the mountain in the enlarged view.
We are loading early this morning on the bus to load up and head up into the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Say Hello to our new best friends. These are our Traveling Partners with Caravan on this tour of New England. We'll give Tom and Caravan Tours the credit as the way the trip was organized and handled, the bonding within this group was amazing. Too, it all happened in just one week.
Plymouth Notch. Vermont, the birthplace of our 30th President of the United State John Calvin Coolidge.
President Coolidge. He served from August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929. He elected not to run for a second term and was succeeded by Herbert Hoover
It was here in the Coolidge General Store that Calvin's father John Coolidge swore in the 30th President. Coolidge Senior was a prosperous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant. He held various local offices, including Justice of the Peace and was a Notary Public. On the news of President Warren Hardin's passing Calvin's father swore in the Vice President as the 30th President of the United States in the middle of the night, on the family bible. When asked about his authority to administer the inauguration oath, he replied "nobody told me I couldn't".
President Coolidge was born in this cabin located behind he general store, on July 4th 1972. He has been the only President to share a July 4th birthday with our Nations birthday.
Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was commonly referred to as "Silent Cal". An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." He replied, "You lose." You got to love this guy!
Once after visiting Harrah's Auto Collection in Reno, NV were all the automobiles had original price tags, like in this photo. I remarked to my Grandfather how cheap an automobile was then. He quickly straightened me out say how much easier it is to purchase a new car now than then. He said "The THEN payment plan was..... one simple payment - CASH".
Woodstock Covered Bridge. This bridge was rebuild and/or replaced in 1969, but hey that was 50 years ago!
I love taking photos of structures like this bridge. The patterns set up the most interesting scenes of symmetry.
We are in Woodstock Vermont, and this is a local fundraising annual event. Each group is sponsored by a local club, organization or commercial entity. Each team puts together a Maple Table and we caught them just as they were finishing their handicraft. The finished table are then auctioned off with the proceeds going to community youth projects. Cool!
The Master Craftsman is applying the finish coat of varnish to their table. They were a such friendly group and explained the event to us as we passed by. The Master offered me the brush to add my touch. I declined. I've secretly kept my talent of painting from my wife. Go easy, go easy. If by chance she were to discover this latent talent of mine the 'Honey Do Jar' would overflow.
Oh! and Woodstock is famous for their Homemade Ice Cream, to which our group will attest. Why are these travelers eating on bench, ‘they are not allowed to take their Ice Cream onto the bus’; when they were asked if they needed any help in finishing their cream by loading time, and they replied NO!
The famous White Mountain Black Bear.
This was a spectacular drive through the New Hampshire White mountain passes to Portland.
Footnote. We have the Green Mountains in Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but I do believe that only the Natives can tell the difference.
Our stop at Fadden's maple syrup refinery and store. 
James Fadden represents the fifth generation in the Fadden family of maple syrup farmers. They harvest maple sap from about 120 acres with over a thousand trees. Josh was very patient in explaining the difference in maple trees as well as the sap gathering and syrup refining process.
Now we are passing through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and made this photo stop at the Mt. Washington Lodge.
Now you can count the number of ski runs, and I suggest the you enlarge the photo to see all the detail.
The Saco Covered Bridge the original of which was erected in 1890.
Tom, our historian and teacher is giving us another lesson and the best part is that we all are attentive. He is almost as good as Mr. Google. We are afforded a most spacious and comfortable bus.
In Portland we walked and toured somewhat. I saw these classy 'bib overhauls' and I like the color. The ole Blue Denim bib overalls signify 'Work" and I'm allergic to any such implication. The Holy Donut is famous local favorite, of course one always appreciates a donut, so we visited. All their donuts were potato donuts. Not Bad, don't knock it until you've tried one. Yummmy!
These are cute signs and when I saw the card that Dottie is holding, I couldn't resist taking this picture. This photograph is going to be printed and mailed as our Children’s and Grandchildren’s Christmas, Birthday, and 4th of July Cards.
We enjoyed an interesting cruise ride in the harbor of Portland. Portland is a major port for Cruise ships and when the fall colors are in their fullness this is a busy port. They start in Montreal, sail up the St. Lawrence Sea, but by all means they make a stop in Portland, Maine.
A gun bunker from the 1700's. rather reminded me of the German bunkers we observed at Normandy Beach.
Portland’s beautiful Point Lighthouse. Wow what a setting!
Steady as you go Mate!
Inward bound and our crew nestled inside as they had experience all the ocean breezes they wanted on the out bound leg.
The Daisy Boat. My style of a Yacht
What a beautiful little City. We found such quaint shops with interesting New England arts. How about this for a Doggie Store!
A reminder that Fall just might be in the air.
Just in case you might not remember George H Bush's home is in Kennebunkport and this is a very popular T shirt.
Walker's Point the home of George H Walker and Barbara Bush in Kennebunkport. May they Rest in Peace.
In Kennebunkport we stayed in the beautiful Nonantum Resort in a most beautiful setting. I mentioned the Caravan had hosted us to excellence in their choice of our accommodations. Here in Kennebunkport they did it again; Class Act!
The monument we walked into our room I was taken by this view out our bedroom window. I had to back off enough to include the chairs and the heater all framing this gorgeous, but very New England scene through of our window. My promise is that you'll see this scene again.
We were offered the treat of a whole lobster for dinner or a New York steak. It is easy to pick out the Lobster eaters by their bibs. My Granddaddy told me "always, always follow the example of your Leader", so when Tom tied on his lobster bib we did likewise. But being quite frank, we didn’t know how to handle that large lobster.
Look, look all of these Ladies are Lobster eaters.
Uh Oh, we have a decenter in our mist and she is going for New York Cut.
What another decenter, but what can we say as she is from Colorado and a connoisseur of a good steak.
I'm bothered here a little as Barbara is a Doctor with the US Health service and she going for the steak?
But, wait a minute I may be taking these photographs before they have "bibbed out".
EWhat a delightful group of fellow travelers. It was rather fascinating to see the bonding of this group as we traveled our way down life's highway. We met as strangers and left as good friends with a common bond.
See, I wasn't kidding about the size of that lobster.
The Nonantum Resort knew some of us would have a problem and to our rescue this lady popped right up and broke that ole lobster in to pieces we could handle. God Bless.
Before dawn I was ready on purpose to catch this photograph out our bedroom window. I told you earlier that you'd see this scene again, didn't I?
The shortly the sun rose and this gorgeous scene changed before our eyes.
As we are about to part and go our separate ways and probably never to meet again. We have so many people to appreciate that have made our journey unique. Let me first thank Isabel and she will represent all who have done the little unseen things that made us feel so welcome and special. Isabel is the grounds keeper at the Nonantum; she is grooming these flowers just for your enjoyment.
Isabel to you and the many others who paved the way for us this week we give you our appreciation.
Gracias Señora.
But before we do What a Ride! We've covered the 6 New England States and the tip of upper New York, but we're now counting them. In traversing these 6 states it dawned on me that combined they are only one half the size of New Mexico, but they have seven times the population.
Seems sort of crowed doesn’t it, but they all seem to get along, so we thank them for being so nice to we visitors.
Too, we want to thank Caravan Tours for such a wonderful trip. They have given us a First Class adventure. This tour with Tom and Joel has been interesting, informative and impressive. The Ribble’s will be a returning customer.
And now as we do in New Mexico, when we pass .......................... we wave.
ADIOUS ~ Amigos
Remember to wisely use your QTR!
QTR - Quality Time Remaining
Come on Willie sing us another verse, and we’ll move on down the road.
