I almost forgot!!!

It's hard to tell but the Falls are lit up

The view last night!!!

The show was short but spectacular and I had a front row seat from my window!!!

Both ends of a Rainbow!

This was my walk back to the hotel...

Look closely and you will see the rainbow ending in the Falls!

Maid in the Mist

On the boat heading past the American Falls

Getting closer to the Horseshoe Falls

It is hard to grasp how much the water is really churning

Heading under Horseshoe Falls

There's a little boat under there...

Do you see that little boat underneath?????        
                 

It's dangerous staying in a bad hotel

Friday August 13, 2010

View from my hotel room

After you stay in a bad hotel you want something nice, at least I did.  I had set my sites on Niagara Falls, Ontario and got it in my head that my room should overlook the Falls.  All along I knew I shouldn't end up there on the weekend because it would be crowded and more expensive.  SO, here I was going to Niagara Falls on one of the last summer WEEKENDS.  Oh well, sometimes you just have to go for it.  This will be my treat to myself - at least the one for this week, ROFL...  I'm on the 14th floor of the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel.  I will let the photos speak for themselves for my afternoon.  P.S.  I did drive the NY State thruway as I wanted to enjoy as much of my decadent hotel as I could!

More view from my room

Still in my room

So in speaking to my mother she said "you really have to go on the Maid of the Mist".  So here I go...  

Truly a day of Ambling...

Thursday August 12, 2010

I set my GPS for the "shortest" route and within 10 minutes I was on a road closed by a padlocked fence.  Okay this wasn't going to work.  I know there are people in my world that are already laughing...

So I figured out a new way to program the gps and had a wonderful drive for the next 4 hours.  I drive from mid-State Vermont to Upstate New York never hitting a major highway.  I saw wonderful barns, silos, and quaint little towns.  If I had stopped for all the photo ops I never would have made any progress.  Also it was alternating with pouring rain and cloudy skies so I tried taking photos from the car but they didn't come out well. I will only include this one.  It's amazing to me that they have a sign like this on even a small road...

Welcome to New York

I found that hours on these back roads were not nearly as tiring as the same amount of time on the interstate.  So much to look at.  The highlight was probably the two horse buggies of four amish boys.  They waved happily.

 

About 3PM I did call Hotels.com to find a place to stay, oy.  Rome, New York can be missed.  Nothing there but the Erie Canal.  Found a decent place to eat but the Quality Inn (which was the best I could find) was pretty bad.  Internet didn't work, which is why my posts are two days late.  Also I ended up with a room overlooking the road - trucks ALL night.

Onward the next day.

Leaving Vermont

Dateline: Ludlow, Vermont August 12, 2010

This was supposed to be sent from my cellphone but obviously it didn't work...

Post Options

Finally pushing off from Vermont. Its been more and more comfortable here and getting harder to leave. Off I go. I'll drive about 3 hours now and see where I end up. Here's hoping I can find a comfy place to stay. Wish me luck!!! 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Forgot a photo

When I was at Lake George Chris was driving us around to local sites.
He claims this is the start of the Hudson River.  Whether it is or not it was quite a nice gorge.

Bringing things up to date

On Monday August 2 I left Ludlow Vermont for Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH to see Kyle. He is attending Summer school at Tuck Business School. He is really enjoying it and learning a lot. The college is beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Chapel Hill 30 years ago. I lived there when I got my Master's degree and when I was first married.

We had a tasty lunch and then I took a leisurely drive over hill and dale, coming around Squam Lake, through Center Harbor to Moultonborough. My dearest friend JJ has an outstanding house on Lake Winnepausakee. We took long walks. She took me for wonderful long rides around the lake looking at the magnificent houses that are only visited on limited weekends.

We had lunch at a place called Castle in the Clouds. The view was beautiful but we couldn't eat out because of drizzle. The inside dining is a converted carriage house and you eat in the barn stalls. Back to the house and the clouds are clearing for a beautiful sunset!

        



I stayed at the lake until Wednesday morning. I drove the scenic route back and did some shopping for the Vermont house "The Box" on the way back. I never knew where Weirs Beach, Colby Sawyer College and so many boarded up downtowns were before. They were all very New England.

Thursday August 5

Resting, catching up on emails, bills, paperwork. Today would have been my 31^st wedding anniversary…

Friday August 6

Chores around The Box… Errands for tomorrow… Excited
Saturday August 7

I drove to Lake George to meet old friends Chris Keane and Barbara Keane and Karen Reinhardt. I took a longer route to drive thru W. Pawlet where my father, Herbert Meller, used to live. It was a wonderful drive over the mountains on roads that aren't open in the Winter. At one point two Spring fawns rang in front of my car. My father, had converted an abandoned coal depot into a house and had some adjoining properties. The adjoining properties looked better than before but the house itself was so overgrown and rundown looking.

So on to Lake George. It was a long, laugh filled afternoon, cruising the lake, drinking mojitos. We looked at more houses that no one uses. Anchored and swam in a cove.

Afterwards we went back to a house that Chris had borrowed from his friend. Thanks friend it was really comfortable. We went out to dinner, all a little tired but having enjoyed a fun day. More tomorrow!



We started out with breakfast with Chris' Mom. What a hoot

For those who don't know – the three on the right: Karen, Me, Chris were in grade school together. Chris and I just figured out that we were in Nursery school together. Then he went to Catholic School. We all got back together in Middle School (6-8) and then High School. I left after Sophomore year though Karen and Chris remained close friends. I only got back in touch 4 years ago.

Karen and I went to Woodstock together, yes Woodstock.




Back to the Lake. We "hung" on the lake for a bit waiting for Chris and Barbara's son Michael who joined us with his girlfriend. Nice youngin's. We went to a cove and swam ashore where Barbara led us to a beautiful waterfall. Back to the house, quick change and on the road.
 
Monday August 9, 2010

Busy day. I'm going to be the local handy person. There are 8 bricks that need to be taken out and put back in with real mortar. I actually mixed the mortar and did it. The faucet in the kitchen is cracked and leaking and needs to be replaced. Chris Keane gave me a plumbers special tool for this project over the weekend. It's called a basin wrench, very cool, really worked and I changed the kitchen faucet. Then I showered and went back to Dartmouth to take Kyle out to dinner.

He is outstanding. He has really taken it all in during this program. We had a great time. The drive back was tough at first. There was a horrendous thunder storm with pounding rain. They even interrupted on the radio about flash floods but the warning was for an area North of me and I was heading South. I decided to keep going and I drove out of the worst of it after about 15 minutes. Phew. I don't really like driving in the dark.


Tuesday until now

Wow, here I am somewhat caught up. The entries brief but I'm going to try to keep it up now. I'm a little stuck in getting out of here (Vermont). Gonna pack the car now and hit the road in the morning!!!!

 

 

July 29 - July 31

Dianne and I did some very important projects here at The Box.  Thanks Dianne I couldn't have done them without you.  We did some more site seeing - went to Woodstock and walked around.  Took in some local sites.

Did you know what a hop looks like?

It's been so fun to spend time together.  To talk, talk, talk.  Wow we have been friends for 40 years!!!

Yea I'm Homeless!!!!

The house finally closed this morning, yippee!!!

It was so hot sleeping here last night.   This house certainly isn't set up for the hot weather.  We will find something fun to do today to cool off, and boy did we.

We went up the road to Buttermilk Falls.  Sorry folks we didn't take any photos.  Especially of the two of us putting on our bathing suits in the street (no one around).  The Falls were wonderful and we laid out in the water ponds to cool off.

When we were done we went on a mission for brother Bill and wife Amanda.  They found a great deal at a place in E. Wallingford where you can buy Hubbardston Forge lighting at deep deep discounts.  Check out www.madeinvermont.com.    There were beautiful things and we purchased them 4 lighting fixtures for their new house.  Oh by the way Bill you bought me a pair of earrings for my trouble, LOL.

Then back to "The Box" and out for a sumptuous dinner to celebrate my homelessness!  So good to have the closing behind me.

Tuesday July 27

Finally done at the attorneys office and leaving for Vermont!  I will barely get there before my friend Dianne.
It is HOT HOT HOT.  We are going to stay at The Box our ski house on Okemo.

Should be a fun few days.

Guess What still no mortgage

Monday July 27 - Still no mortgage for my buyers - this is getting ridiculous and no I won't let you move in before you own the house!!!  But wait my attorney has a great idea.  I can give them a mortgage.  Well they didn't like the interest rate I wanted but who would in this situation. tough.

To make this much shorter, we negotiated the terms and they are going to close tomorrow with my mortgage, whoohoo I have a good investment for at least a little while.  I'm going to my attorney tomorrow to sign all the documents and leave.

My good friend JJ is letting me stay at her house tonight so I don't have to sleep on the floor again.  Thai food tonight!!!!

Sunday July 25

Decided to return to Sudbury to check on the house.  I didn't like leaving the house unattended for more than a week.  Stopped and got new tires on my bike, which I couldn't get done in New York.  Gotta love Landry's, got it done in 20 minutes.

Staying in the house tonight on my aerobed.  Weird to be back in a house that I never thought I'd be in again :-(

July 21 - July 24

These few days weren't very fun.  I was supposed to see some old friends but the stress of the house got to me and I was leveled by a very strong migraine.
There was no closing by Friday as the buyers had predicted... Oh @#*(@#% )(_)@$%Y now what!!!

How quick can you get rid of something??? Or What to do instead of a house closing...

Tuesday, July 20

Me: So Mom do you really want those windsurfers in your garage?
Mom:  No, but I don't know what to do, let's pull them out for the garbage man...
Me:  I'll take care of it, see you after bridge
Me:  Oh bright idea - Craigslist!
Lapse time : 3 hours
Mom:  What do you you mean someone is coming for the wind surfer
Me:  You told me to get rid of them!!!
Mom: Yes, but I didn't think you could do it so quick!
Me: HaHaHa
Man for the windsurfer:  What are you going to do with the other one
Me: It's broken
Man:  I'll take it anyway
Me:  Please remember you owe the nice lady $1.
Mom: HaHaHa

Gotta Love Craigslist.  Cleaned out my whole house that way.  Got much more than $1 though

Monday, July 19 2010
Well I pulled out of Sudbury after a long day of final packing and cleaning but not long after a very disturbing phone call from my attorney that they buyers were not ready to close the next morning.  Having no control over the situation (a delay in their mortgage) I gave them an extension for a week but were assured that the closing would happen before that..

So loaded to the "gills" I set off for my mothers in New York...