July 10^th, we arrived in Colchester, VT outside of Burlington, VT near Lake Champlain. The campground is a really nice large grassy open area and thank goodness the site is fairly level since we have not had the front leveling jack replaced yet. After we setup we debated for almost an our hour on what to have for late lunch or early dinner and the decision was finally made to have leftovers of steak, buttered noodles and corn instead of spending money on a restaurant that had marginally reviews.

After our early dinner we made our weekly trip to the grocery store – this has become a family affair when all four Godwin’s venture to the local grocery store, Polly with a list in hand and everyone else with a “wish list” in their head. Zachary and Carson have to help decide which cereal is the least expensive and will fit into the weekly budget. This week we completely blew away our budget since we bought a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. The cost of food in Vermont is slightly more expensive than Asheville on some items and relatively the same on others.  The family is eating six pounds of apples, a gallon of milk and at least one box of cereal, and one other breakfast food along with other staples of bread, cheese and sandwich meat.  We usually cook several large meals a week and eat leftovers or use the leftovers to fix another meal. The adventure at the grocery store took too long so we rented a movie from a Red Box (a dollar a day DVD rental) and went back to the motor home to watch movies.

We have had a shower issue for several weeks which we thought was contributed to water pressure but after four showers using a cup on Friday night we decided that it was a faulty product not the campgrounds water pressure. On Saturday, we then proceeded to remove the old faucet only to have forgotten to turn off the water therefore water went everywhere. We found a local RV dealer online that had a comparable part and took a family trip to see if it would fit in our shower. The part was purchased even though it was a cheap bright chrome color and did not match the original.  It rained off and on all day so we spent the day fixing the broken shower faucet and cleaning the inside of the motor home. The replacement of the faucet took several hours since the opening underneath the motor home was approximately two feet wide and you had to lie on your back to see how to attach the hoses.  This was another one of those “spring cleaning” days which usually takes a large portion of the day especially when it is raining. After inspecting the motor home from top to bottom for any leaks, missing or loose screws and anything else that may need repairing Saturday day had turned to Saturday night.  The boys did get some time to play on the playground between showers but most of the day was spent inside watching Jurassic Park (one, two or three). We had homemade pizza for dinner and ice cream for desert- yummy!  Early to bed since we had planned a 15 mile (round trip) bike ride planned for Sunday.

On Sunday everyone was up, dressed and breakfast eaten by 8:30 and off to the bike trail which was called the Burlington Bike Trail. The Bike Path rides along the Lake Champlain shoreline, offering wonderful views of the lake and the Adirondack Mountains to the west. The Festival celebrating 400 years of Lake Champlain was taking place so we dodged people walking, other bicyclist and cars along the trail. There were beautiful views of the lake which made the ride much more enjoyable for everyone and helped the time to pass quickly.  The trail took approximately 3 ½ hours which included a stop at the end for a quick snack of cheese crackers and water.

The next adventure for the day was to find a beach access spot and go for a swim in Lake Champlain. Please remember that our trip in New England has not been as warm as everyone in the South, and it was only 70 degrees when we left for the lake. We found a beach access spot at Mallets Bay, parked, walked what felt like two miles down a path in a natural area to arrive at the beach which had very cold water. I believe that the people in New England must have very thick blood since the water in the lake was so cold that Carson’s hands and feet were purple within approximately 15 minutes.  Polly went in the water just enough to cover her feet and decided that she would take pictures of the family as they bravely swam in the frigid water.

I guess due to bike ride everyone stared getting hungry around 4:30, so we started preparing dinner. We ate sautéed chicken with onions and green peppers, fresh corn on the cob and red potatoes, another delicious family dinner.

Another weekly chore is washing clothes, this week we washed sheets and blankets too and we required six washers and three dryers.  The washing took 3 ½ hours to wash and dry and another hour to put everything away.  Who knew that one family of four messed up so many clothes in a week, this week the faucet fiasco wet all the towels that we had in the motor home. As a reminder to everyone we have a very limited amount of clothes – approximately a week and a half for each person depending on the article of clothing  (such as shorts and t-shirts); so it is not possible to go longer than a week without washing unless we started recycling clothes for several days wear.

On Monday our daily adventure took us into Canada. The Canadian border was about 45 minutes from the campground so we decided to ride into Canada, ride around, have lunch and leave. When crossing the border into Canada we were asked the following questions:

1)      Where are you from?
2)      Where are you going?
3)      What is your purpose in Canada?
4)      What is your license plate number? Of course this is something that we do not know off the top of our heads – so luckily the registration card was handy with that information.
5)      How long to do plan to be in Canada?
6)      What do you have in your car besides articles of clothing?
7)      Are you carrying any alcohol or tobacco?
8)      How many passengers are with you?
9)     Roll down the back window so i can see in!

After answering all of the questions the border officer scanned the passports and handed them back and told us to have a nice day. We did not even get a stamp in our books; everything is electronic now so we only have pictures to prove we went into Canada.

We rode into a small town, all the signs were in French and we learned a few beneficial French words from the road signs. We found a restaurant called St. Hubert in St- Jean- Sur-Richelieu which we figured by the sign had chicken. The inside looked like a Ruby Tuesdays or Applebee’s nothing fancy.  The waitress asked us our drink order in French but at our request asked again in English.  The prices were slightly more expensive than Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesdays; for a comparable meal. The menu was in French and English so were able to figure out what to eat since the waitress did not seem too interested in helping non French speaking Americans.  Our meal consisted of rotisserie chicken with broccoli, carrots and a side of gravy along with unlimited coleslaw, chicken potpie with French fries and a side of gravy. Zachary had a chicken tender sandwich with carrots and broccoli with a side of gravy.  Carson ate fries and bread from our plates.  The meals came with a beverage and desert which the boys really enjoyed – of course it was sweet.  After lunch we ran through the parking lot in the pouring rain and turned on the heat in the car – it was only 60 degrees. We made one last stop before passing back into the US border at a small duty free shop to buy a couple of things including a Lindt orange chocolate bar.  The young lady at the counter asked for the license plant number and it took three times for her to understand our Southern English accent.  Plus she could not find “North Carolina” in her computer.  The rest of Monday will be spent working and looking for another campground since we are leaving Colchester on Tuesday to take the motor home to have the leveling jack replaced.

On Tuesday we left Burlington, VT and stopped at a local RV dealer to replace the front Hydraulic Jack that stopped working in Cape Cod, MA.  Our next stop was Williamstown, VT a little more than an hour east of Burlington.

INFORMATION NEEDED: As we were leaving Canada we saw a cloud that looked like it was about to form into a tornado.  We stopped on the side of the road and watched it for a while.  Review the picture below and let us know if you think it was the beginnings of a tornado or not.  It eventually broke apart and went a way.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Everyday Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.