Temperatures are going down and it's time to leave Vermont
It's hard to believe that the summer is over, fall colors are fading, leaves are falling and the campground has closed. Normally we would put stuff away and pull out of the campground headed to our next destination but this year, we had a few other things to do before leaving without our new home on wheels. We put stuff away but had to put all food and any liquids in coolers or containers and put them in the car. You can't leave food because of little critters and liquids could and probably would freeze during the winter months in Vermont. Then we had to put most of our stuff in containers. They told us to do this because little critters may find their way into the rig and I would have to clean everything in the spring. Hey, sounds good to me if I don't have to clean everything again. Now we come to the part that was new to us; we had to "blow-out" all the hoses and water lines throughout the fifth-wheel. A compressor blowing air through the lines works very well and blows out all the water. We had to open all the faucets to make sure all the water was out and then put in antifreeze. Then we went around and put cotton balls with peppermint oil in small cups in every cabinet in our coach and in the basement compartments. Mary, the owner, told us that works best for keeping critters out; they don't like the smell and I don't either. We then turned everything off, including the propane tanks and put our three slide-out slides in. There sure isn't much room in the fifth-wheel when the slide-outs are in. We unhooked our electric, water and sewer lines and Gary moved our fifth-wheel to the middle of the campground. Then we put the jacks down, disconnected the batteries. We did all this in two days and found out we had too much stuff. The day we did all this it was 71 degrees and are we glad we did it on that day because the next day the high was 49 degrees.
Our last three days at the campground the seasonal campers helped Mary and Gary put things away and close the campground down for the winter. You can't imagine how much there is to do to close a campground. Gary and Norm use tractors to move all the campers along the river to the middle of the campground and a few in the roads to stop people from driving in. They do this to ensure no damage is done to the campers if the river overflows.
Well this summer really went by fast. I admit I had my reservations about staying somewhere for the entire summer months but now I am convinced that this was a good idea. There is so much to do around the area and the campground has something to do every weekend. We met lots of campers and feel part of the "seasonal family" here. The other seasonal campers welcomed us with open arms and hearts. We really enjoyed getting to know them better and look forward to next year. Mary and Gary are great people and are constantly meeting and greeting everyone that comes in. They participate in a lot of activities and Mary beat the pants off me playing push rummy, but more about that in a minute. The best part about this summer was sitting next to the river reading my books enjoying the great weather and sound of the river. There is nothing like hearing the sound of a river flowing by your window at night. I just love our site.
Now about that push rummy business. Mary taught me a new game of cards called push rummy. Much like other rummy games where you get a certain number of cards each hand to make runs or sets except with "push rummy" you either "pull" the face-up card or draw another and "push" it face down to your opponent and draw another for yourself. It's a lot of fun and Mary won every game except the three I did imagine to win. I'm not going to tell you how much she won by but it was a lot.....I'll learn this game over the winter and come back next year to beat her butt.
Well, we are now on our way back to Florida. We'll take the AMTRAK auto-train again and hope it doesn't take as long this time. See all our friends in Florida soon.