New England Rewind 2008

I can't be everywhere, but during my latest trip to Vermont and Massachusetts I feel like I tried. Regardless, I couldn't visit everyone, so a recap will have to do. The purpose of the trip was to fulfill my best man duties at Sean and April's wedding on 8/8/2008 in Bennington, VT. Followed by a trip to Sharon, MA for Tiffers big 40th b-day with the family. So with apologies to everyone I couldn't see, this is what I saw - in my New England Rewind 2008 The Bennington Monument in Vermont - site of Sean and April's wedding
It rained when MaLe and I arrived and rained all day Friday. Thanks to Mandy's magic, her gift to Sean was a spell to clear the sky for the 30 minute outdoor ceremony. It worked. The rain stopped and resumed shortly after heading inside.

The lovely bride and groom
If you're going to do a best man toast, do it right. With the Bee Gees in the background and me with sassy pose (and one too many drinks in me), I gave my off the cuff speech which drew one audible gasp but thankfully ended with laughter and applause. I have no idea what I said. The bride made me wear pink.

But the bride may have said something to the groom a bit later about the speech.There's no intended innuendo in this picture of the monument.I'm genuinely happy for Sean and April and I meant all the good stuff I said. I miss the old days, but wish you well on the new days ahead. Hopefully it won't be another 15 months till we see each other again.

Got to spend a little time with Bill. Not enough time. He was nice enough to come get us in Bennington and travel with us east to visit Tara, Peyton and Carter.


Is Peyton not the cutest?

A trip to visit Tiffer and family is rarely without mischief. Why an 11-year old knows when to hold'em and when to fold'em is beyond me. He also knows when to run.
This is how you rock out on Guitar Hero"
Jim cookin' the dogs and burgers for the brood.
Aunt "Ga" and baby Carter
What's the problem Peyton? Why the face? (Hi Stelly - you made the blog again!)

More mischief with Abigail.
Poor Peyton - your brother gets to have birthdays too....
Nighttime geocaching with Cubbie and Little SmileyLion
The whole nighttime caching crew.
Aunt Mandy with baby Carter. Super Cheeks!

And back home on JetBlue. Only 30 minutes late this trip. Miss the family already.

New England Rewind

How often do things go according to plan? And when they do are they worth reading about? Depends on what you planned, but my trip to Massachusetts and Vermont to visit friends and family was fantastic. I'm sorry I missed out seeing a few of you - but I have the perfect destination for any of the New Englanders once winter comes. Come on down to Florida!

Since a previous post had the baby making a "fiend" face - I felt I needed to put a nicer one. 2 1/2 year olds are fun and learn many bad things from uncles.

This is not one of them. This makes me tense but the baby likes doing the Shake-n-Bake on the beach in Mass!

One of my obsessions during the vacation was to find a geocache each day. These are "treasures" hidden around the globe. You can find out where there are on http://www.geocaching.com/ and then use a GPS to find them. Here Brian and I search the rolling hills near Newburyport (with success).

Since she could walk, Peyton has marveled at the Turkeys that live outside her window. They roost in the pines nearby and when they feed in the lawn, she'll go from window to window to see what they are doing.

And sometimes she plays "Babyzilla".

Back out at Rockport, we check out the lighthouse and the old quarry 1/4 miles from the ocean. We're as high up as it looks.

New baby is thinking "Please don't blog this". Poking the baby does not make him crawl. It's been 10 days since he was born. Do something exciting!

Jacob, Abigail, Tiff and I went geocaching to find Abigail's birthday cache. The fun is going to places you might not ever know about otherwise.

I rented the Ford "Funion" in Mass to get me to Vt. I dunno what it is really but the kids got a kick out of me driving around in a pumpkinmobile. It was so energy inefficient that even the picture drains the amount of space I have on this blog for photos.

In the hills of Grafton, VT is the Starry Mountain Alpaca Farm run by friends John and Kim. It's the most ideal spot I can think of. They grow their own food, raise the Alpacas for wool, live off the grid using solar and they have DSL! The animals are beautiful if not territorial as I found out while feeding one of them. She made a cute little squeaking sound which I thought was a happy noise until she sneezed/spit the food back in my face and all over my shirt. I was lucky, as it was recently swallowed and had not been dredged up from the rumen where it would have come out hot and gooey - which is how I like Krispy Kreme Donuts - not Alpaca spit.

I love this picture. It's even better in person.

Bill, me, John, Kim and Sandy the barkless dog (thanks to a deterring citronella spray)

Had a nice 2 day visit with Bill who darted around Vermont with me. We even went antiquing (for Smurfs - kids lov 'em...) Bill and I visited my old stomping grounds. The view is from the edge of Lowell Lake in Londonderry where I was the Park Ranger for 6 years.

There's a beautiful log cabin at the state park with requisite Moose head. I do miss the place.

The gang gathered at the Inn at Long Trail in Sherburne where everyone seemed to have a Guinness - but I a Margarita. From left to right (Benjamin, Amy, Annie, Lisa P, Mrs. S from the witness protection program, Debbie, Steve, Sharon and Survivalman Mike. Bill and Pete in the front.

I don't know what i did wrong, but click on the picture and it looks like I am getting a serious scolding from Lisa.

I always said "Home is where the mom is" and these days I sometimes feel a little homeless. But here in Plymouth, VT, where mom worked for 6 years is where she is in spirit to me and I can't help but associate her with this quintessential Vermont scene. Mountains, rolling hills, pasture and gigantic Swiss Rolls.

Back in Mass to visit Lil Sister in Plymouth, Ma where husband Josh and Estelle are searching for frogs.

Found one.

And Stelly and I rounded out the week with another cache on the 9th straight day. Fun little spot and cool little walking bridge!

And just to come full circle - My final evening at Brian and Tara's before heading home where I was treated to the Boot Scootin Boogy.

Can't wait to come back. Can't wait for you to come down.

Maddogs and Englishmen

As Bill said to me afterwords, "Only maddogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" and yet there I was on Sunday, 95 degrees and relatively high humidity and I'm trekking through the wilderness of the Fakahatchee Strand State Park in search of alligator babies.

The jungle! (click for larger view)

String Lily

The Park is 64, 000 acres of sawgrass prairie and cypress swamps and although the water level is usually high and the mosquitoes offer their daily blood drive, the rains have not come as they usually do and without water, the mosquitoes have no place to lay eggs. So water and bugs aside, the only thing I had to contend with was the heat. My plan was to head up a remote trail in search of a gator hole where mother and pups might be found. The walk would be just over 2 miles, but as I approached the "trailhead", a flock of Black Vultures stood their ground. They were resilient and I was concerned I'd find a rotting feast of some sort, but as I slowly drove on, they scattered and revealed a simple puddle of water.

No sooner had I passed, the flock returned to the road and with my eyes trained ahead on the narrow, pothole riddled road, I spotted what I first thought to be the biggest dog I had ever seen. It stopped in the middle of the road, look towards me and continued on.

It was a Florida Black Bear!

or bigfoot?

As I got closer to the spot where the bear entered the woods, I grabbed my camera and followed, but like a big fuzzy brown ghost, it disappeared without a sound into the thicket.

There are an estimated 400 bears in this part of the state. They have long legs for ease in walking through the swamp. It was amazing to see and surprising considering the heat and time of the day. They may be active at any time of the day, but I figured they would have more sense than a maddog.

Back Up Until it Sounds Expensive

"Back Up Until it Sounds Expensive" is a Bill Schreiberism. I had the opportunity to try this today.

If you're going to do damage to a vehicle, make sure it's not your own. Or make sure it is your own. I haven't decided.

Today I led an Everglades trip on my day off. The boss is away in Vegas for his 20th wedding anniversary. Manfred our senior guide has driven 5 days in a row, so I get to drive. With the boss away I chose to drive the primo Mercedez-Benz Sprinter. It's nice. Seats 12 comfortably. Great speaker system, room to walk down the aisle between the seats. Great views from every seat.

I also asked MaLe to go on the full day trip for her first time. Since we had only 5 travelers booked it would be no problem. We only go out if we have 4 or more people and when 3 of the 5 canceled at the last minute, I figured we were in for an interesting day. The two ladies from Pennsylvania had gone with us before and knew the routine, so it was bound to be a fun day.
Typically I don't go on the Everglades National Park boat tour. The 1 1/2 hour trip travels through the 10,000 islands in Florida Bay and although it's a nice cruise, once you've heard the boat captains puns, you don't need to go again. But MaLe was along today so I decided to go. While I took care of the tickets inside the gift shop, MaLe and our 2 travelers boarded the boat. The boat doesn't leave without our tickets, so nothing to fear. Until the boat left without me.

Since I never go, the boat captain insisted that I wouldn't be going today despite MaLe's pleas. Slightly shocked, I hung my head like Charlie Brown and plunked myself down on a bench to wait for their return. This became boring after 5 minutes and I drove the primo Mercedez-Benz Sprinter down to Chokoloskee Island to see the sites. There's an old turn of the century general store which has been converted to a museum that I planned to visit. They have old Seminole fabrics and clothing on display, various antiquities from the old rum running and pot smuggling days and a variety of other historical artifacts. There's not much of a parking area. Just a few sandy spots among the Australian Pines and Coconut Palms, so I chose one and began to back in. Checked the left mirror. Checked the right mirror. Slowly backing in and BAM!

$%#%# PALM TREE!

I backed into a palm tree! The slight dent I could deal with but the jolt shattered the glass which exploded all over the back seat of the van.

Think. Quick. I was shot at by an old island coot. An old fart backed into me. A skunk ape hurled a coconut through the window. Ann Coulter finally exacted her revenge against me and head butted the back window....I need an excuse. I need to LIE!

But after coming up with too many poor excuses I decided what I knew all along. I'll tell the truth and accept the consequences.

Tune in Tuesday morning to find out where the truth gets me. It may be expensive.

And what did they see on the boat cruise? Dolphins, Manatees and Bald Eagles!

Coffee: Cream, no Salt

In October of 2001, Bill, my mom and I drove to Montana to check on Bill's place in The Yaak (The only town in the U.S. that starts with a "The"). It was just after 9/11 and heading for the hills near the Idaho/Canada border felt like an escape of sorts. The 10 day adventure that awaited would involve no indoor plumbing, electricity from the generator we would enjoy sparingly, no tv, and a radio that picked up only CBC news from Alberta. But there was coffee. And I could live with that. On day one, we set up shop; cleaning the house, getting the generator going and rifling through the 50 gallon barrels of flour, popcorn and other necessities for Armageddon. We were really just visiting, but it felt like we were digging in. While mom and I worked on the wood stove, Bill made coffee, prepared it for us and brought it over near the fire which was now driving away the cold, damp air. Coffee would be good. I took a sip, looked at mom who had the same look of disgust and came to the conclusion that this would be a long cup of coffee and a long 10 days in the Yaak. Bill makes awful coffee. It would seem, that a man who drinks his coffee black, is quick to put any white substance in someone else's coffee. It was salt that sweetened that cup of coffee and thank God he had more beans to grind.

Re-enactment of this morning's cup of coffee (Part 1)

I thought about Bill this morning as I spit my coffee out. I usually have a cup at home before work, but since it's been mandated that we all conform to this arbitrary and unnatural time change, I required a second cup to get me through my Everglades trip. (I'll take this moment to welcome this blog's 50th subscriber - Estelle! Lots of big words in the last sentence kid, but basically your Uncle Petie is annoyed that we had to change the clocks an hour...grr). So anyway, I stop at the Valero convenient store, poured a cup, mixed in my 4 teaspoons of the sweet stuff, prayed that no one was judging my sugar intake and took a big old sample swig. And flashed back to 2001.

Why they put the unlabeled salt container next to the Splenda, Sweet n'Low and non-dairy creamer is beyond me. But needless to say it was naaaaasty.

Re-enactment of this morning's cup of coffee (Part 2)