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Published: June 24th 2018
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our cabin
Burnt Mtn cabin, Ricker pond state park We used to call our back porch that. We'd go out on the porch and just have some quiet time.
It's not as quiet here anymore. Traffic, work, schedules. Barre has grown and changed, not necessarily for the better. We lived in the southwest, that city became too big. Barre may have become too big now. I really wasn't expecting to snag a cabin at one of our state parks this late in the year so when one came up unexpectedly that I happened on, I grabbed.
It may have been just what the doctor ordered. The
loons, oh that beautiful haunting call, the woods. And I'm not sure what happened but the people around us were all friendly, quiet, respectful. We'd pass each other and say hello.
This included their kids. In Barre you run into lousy attitudes and language from both adults
and kids. The license plates I happened to notice were a cross section of the area: VT, CT, NH. The loons, the birds, the
quiet. Even though the camps were close together, everybody gave the other person space. Our last experience in Barre
before going out to camp was a Walmart trip I couldn't do because I was up to my ears in last Friday. I had to delegate tasks off. Ken remarked people were rudely stupid and it was packed. He needs a cane to walk and it's common he'll grab a scooter to go in there. People don't give him space. I tell him to run people over, it's the only way to get their attention. So it was a pleasant shock to get out to camp and be treated completely differently.
God speaks in mysterious ways. Ken and I needed to let our brains breathe then we brainstormed. Speak to the water, the trees, the animals and listen to them speak back. I packed my bathing suit but it was never really warm enough to go in the water. No matter, we weren't there to swim. I stuck my hand in and was surprised to find it felt warm! The next day after rain it had cooled off. We had a chipmunk we flipped out over. We'd sit still on the porch and one ran almost close enough for us to pet him
Ricker Pond
Perry Merrill cottage several times! We loved watching him. I think my only regret was not packing enough warm clothes. Rain was expected all weekend and there were times I had trouble shaking the chill. Even with the beautiful spot we had I still wanted to scope out the campground to see, like I did at a Randolph, VT resort recently, the furthest spot from people. I found a spot close to the end of the property that looked a lot like the spot we had in Randolph, even including a babbling brook running through it. There were cottages that might have suited an annual party my friends and I have but for the noise. We aren't quiet 😊
Ken is retired, I'm semi retired, looking to join him as soon as I can. I've wanted a camp of some sort I can call my own for several years but none of the options seemed feasible until I was searching for something else and stumbled over a solution. Purchasing a camp is expensive and you'd have to deal with vandals. A stroke of luck or somebody cancels out is the only way we're able to rent
a cabin. After those two I was figuring we'd need to provide our own accommodations.
Enter shopping for a structure stronger than a tent. Ken needs more, I wanted more after hearing coyotes get too close for comfort at Randolph. My first attempt I was figuring we could do “x” with it and we couldn't. I bought a large pop up camper which we tried every way possible to find a vehicle to tow it with. Once I let it go, i.e. sold it to a family of six from Maine who bought it sight unseen, our vehicle dropped in our lap. It's a wheelchair van used at a nursing home in Fort Edward, NY. The previous owner bought it for his son who swore up and down he wanted it. Three months later it's for sale. It mostly just needs brake work and an inspection sticker. The beautiful thing about it is we can customize this to our needs and wants and that's where the brainstorming came in. We're hoping to get it legal in time for our annual party and at least throw in our mattresses for that night. The wheelchair
Camouflage
Is it live or is it Memorex? We kept expecting this "frog" to jump to get away from us! Ken touched it with a small rock and of course being a leaf it just sat there, made us both crazy! lift will be sold. I was told those go for $8,000 new so even asking half for a working lift will be a help. We need a rug in there and paint it as many light or white colors as possible. Make every effort to make a small space bigger. We both liked the idea of a waterproof screen room and talked about how that would work. Watching Ken dealing with his old Coleman cooler called for refrigeration rethinking. Put it on wheels? We're tossing up options for a camper toilet, there are a couple: black water, compost, what we call the “diaper genie” and chemical. The “diaper genie” might work best for us. One of the vans we looked at gave me basic ideas. The living parts don't need to be inside the vehicle, they can pop out the back. A guy built one we almost bought. Everything came out the back of the vehicle. An old camp stove will work great for cooking, we may do a crock pot too since I love those. Air conditioning and heat will be needed. We can customize to include a ton of storage or none at all. Although the wheelchair lift
Ricker pond
Mating bugs might not be appropriate, we can have something that holds a wheelchair on the back like a bicycle. There will be days I need to drive it so we'll install a back up camera. The last time I drove something that big didn't work. And after our wonderful experience this weekend I asked about how long a person can stay at a campground at the same time. The people I spoke with have had this question before, got an instant 21 days. People take a day off and go to another campground for the same amount. I was pleasantly surprised, like the sound of this! All of us smiled. I've considered the Workamper lifestyle. Haven't done the cost comparison between van life and living in our apt but I'll bet it'll work well. I even have an idea for repainting the outside since it has Fort Edwards across the top.
The park staff was right on top of everything too. When a camper moved out, they were right on it, cleaning up. And even with a change in neighbors within our two night stay, people and their kids were the same, quiet and
Ricker pond
Mother Nature is not fragile respectful. We found out a maple leaf can become round and look just like a frog. The camouflage Mother Nature uses can make us do double takes. The first night we were there I helped Ken to the restrooms and there was a toad that looked just like the dirt. I was doing double takes, hoping I wasn't stepping on him! I took a number of pictures. Found another example of my old phrase “Mother Nature is NOT fragile!” Plants can germinate in a rock. Mother Nature is fierce in her simple need to survive. And it's not a revenge thing against man. I remember one lady years ago took me wrong on that. “No, she's not mad. She just IS”. It's what she does. Even after a volcano or nuclear devastation she WILL come back. A funny: I went out to the car to get something and a pair of bugs dropped onto my car, right at the window.
They were mating. We just laughed. There's a lot of water in the area. I looked at the map and there's a large bog up north. Spotted a little bog here too. The last time I looked at the lake
Bog
Walked along the park, spotted this there was a fog wandering over it. Beautiful.
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