Oct 2/3 - Silver Bay & back home

Whew. It was a whirlwind trip. A better plan would have been to spend a couple of days in Hemmingford and a couple of days in Silver Bay with Frank & Nancy but we had to take advantage of the scheduling open window, so to speak.

The drive down to Silver Bay on the 2nd was pretty, albeit mostly in drizzle. The leaves are not yet at their peak except for (pun intended) the mountain peaks. With the right lens and a sunny day there would have been photo ops, but not that day. I had been using "Lake George" when planning our trip with Google but when we put "Silver Bay" into the NAV it changed the route to Frank's recommendation which was to pick up 9N at exit 31. "Lake George" would have taken us most of the way down I87 and then only a few miles off the interstate but of course would have put us 30 miles south of our destination ... 9N is quite a pretty drive through hills and small touristy towns along the lake.

It took just over two hours to get to Silver Bay and we found the Tetz's without any difficulty. It's been a long time since we've seen Frank and Nancy and I swear that they have not changed. How time flies -- Frank has been retired for 16 years -- I think that we've seen them twice in the interim. We sat and chatted, having coffee and toast, then went for a walk around the area. It's a beautiful spot and Frank is the perfect tour guide knowing who lives in what "cottage" along the lake (7 figure cottages). There is a lot of money in the area, both old and new. Of course it goes in one ear and out the other for me so it's lucky that there was not a test at the end of the tour !

After lunch we drove down to the Silver Bay conference center and got another guided tour. Frank and Nancy have been very active in the facility serving on the board and there is a garden that Nancy designed and dedicated to her father. They showed us the small cottage that they used to rent when they were first coming to the area before they bought their own place 30+ years ago. I took a number of pictures which I'll post at some point that will give you a better idea of the scale and the character of the place. It celebrated 100 years in 2002 ... this is not some new, brash facility, but things have been modernized ... quietly & softly if you will. Through fees and foundations it has flourished.

Back to the Tetz's, Nancy finished the dinner that had been brewing for most of the day in the slow cooker. Luckily she had noticed that Frank had unplugged the slow cooker when he was making toast at breakfast ... or we would have only had wine and cheese & hummus ! Dinner was excellent, the slow cooked pork chops mixed with rice ... and I'm struggling trying to remember what else (Sandy would remember) ... and salad. As usual with anything good I had multiple helpings. I do remember desert details though -- pumpkin pie and whipped cream. I am not usually a big desert person but I love pumpkin pie !

Next we (not Sandy) watched the VP debate. Frank, Nancy and I were in the loft watching the TV while Sandy sat downstairs and read the NY Times. She could hear Sarah Palin's "you betcha's" though and provided some commentary. We were all of like mind so there were no arguments that day. I actually stayed up until 10:30 -- contrast that with the prior debate where Obama & McCain put me to to sleep within a few minutes. Of course that day we had driven more miles so perhaps that's the reason ?

I think that this debate was more interesting because I had not really seen much of these two before and it was an interesting contrast in styles. Question on healthcare -- well, let me tell you about energy ... question on taxes -- well, let me tell you about energy ... wink, wink, wink ... vs Biden's seemingly more knowledgeable and direct approach. They both had to know an amazing amount of "stuff" and Palin has had to cram a lot of information in a short period of time. My hat's off to both of them -- I can appreciate smart people.

The day was done and I was first to bed, naturally. The next morning I was first up, naturally. I made coffee and did more catching up with my Wired magazines. Soon everyone was up and we had breakfast, said our good-bye's and left at 8:30. By 7:15 pm we were back up at the cottage but there were many miles in between !

We changed our route north, taking 74, (I think), from Ticonderoga (I think) over to I87. It made the trip a few minutes longer according to the NAV but the interstate driving was faster. It was another pretty drive to the PQ border and at times we could again see great color in the distance but again it was raining. It cleared up at the border and we had mostly sunny skies all the way home with a couple of rainy patches thrown in for good luck. On the way into Hemmingford we stopped at the little grocery store and Sandy visited with an old friend, then we went to Sheryl's to pick up Abby etc. Jimmy was still working on the pool, making progress, but it's a tough job to dig out the water lines. Abby ran around like a fool, happy to see us.

There was a very welcome surprise ... date squares !! Sheryl makes date squares for me and I hoard them. I keep them in the freezer and eat them sparingly over the course of months, savoring them, so to speak. What a treat to be able to replenish my supply ! After leaving Sheryl's we went to Burger Bob's and had something to eat before hitting the road. For those of you who don't know Hemmingford all of this is within walking distance -- grocery, Sheryl & Jimmy's, Burger Bob's. I'm making it sound like we're going all over town, and we were, but they are all on one road within a few hundred yards.

It was a long day on the road, seemingly longer because of the number of miles of two lane highway. The drive is shorter than Philly to Loring, but more tiring. Sandy pointed out that perhaps we were more tired because of all the driving that we'd done over the last few days and perhaps that's it.

The sun had just set when we got home. It was 63F in the house so after I turned the water back on I started a fire. Next, of course, it was time for a glass of wine, a sandwich and a salad for me ... and Sandy made herself some pasta. We had agreed earlier that we would not stop for dinner because that would have dragged out the drive even more and knowing that we would arrive early enough we opted to keep going.

When we left Hemmingford the NAV predicted that we would arrive at 7:30. It varied up and down a little over the course of the drive. The NAV wanted us to cross back into NY at Mooers and follow 11, crossing back into Ontario at Cornwall. Instead we followed our usual route through Quebec -- Ormstown, Valleyfield to route 20 and the 401. 138 at Cornwall to 417 through Ottawa was clear sailing only slowing down at the junction with 416 where there was construction and then again a couple of times for construction along the way. We sat for 10 minutes on 17 waiting for the northbound turn at a traffic light that was maintaining one open lane across a bridge under construction. The biggest gain in time was along 522 where the NAV always overestimates the travel time and not because I'm pushing it either. The straight driving time was under 10 hours in total, which isn't too bad, in retrospect.

Today ... no plans yet other than Mass in town at 4:30. I don't have the ambition to go out for a bike ride since the temperature is in the 40's and not apt to get much warmer. Perhaps I'll get on the trainer ... The next few nights we are supposed to get temps at 0C, -2C, -2C respectively so the fire will likely be going full time. Stef, Aaron, Kylie and Lauren will arrive sometime today and Aaron and Kylie will head back tomorrow.

That's it ... I'm running dry.