The end of our time in Vermont

I was scheduled to return to Vermont on the overnight flight from Phoenix on Newark on Wednesday night June 18 (not long after my last post).  The flight was cancelled about 11:00 p.m.  The plane coming in from Washington broke, was replaced by a plane coming from Chicago but that Chicago plane and crew were delayed too long.  The cancellation created long lines in the United Club, at the gate and at the United ticket counter outside security.  I could have waited in line and gotten a voucher to pay for a hotel or a taxi back home, and retrieved my luggage.  When I saw how long the lines were, I just rebooked myself on my laptop, then took a taxi home.  I was rescheduled for Thursday morning and retrieved my luggage when I got to the airport.  My flights to Dulles airport in Washington D.C. and on to Burlington were uneventful - although on the first flight I went from an aisle seat in an exit row to a middle seat in the bulkhead row - fortunately, my seat mates were much smaller than me.

On Friday, I went to Montpelier for my last Advanced Standing Committee meeting.  The ASC members evaluate portfolios created by adult students in the Assessment of Prior Learning class.  APL is a three credit course and each porfolio includes an autobiography from the student, the course descriptions with learning objectives and then documentation to support the request for college credit in those classes.  It is an amazing program and is part of the OEP program (Office of External Programs).  Gabrielle had brought non-alcoholic bubbly (in lieu of champagne) to recognize my years as a committee member and made me the lovely OEP Hero hat with fall foliage leaves attached.

After lunch, I met with Val about developing an EDP (External Degree Program) course that will include travel - our tentative plan is to offer the class in Spring 2015 and the trip will be to Washington DC.  Most likely, the course will be Contemporary Issues.

I then drove back to our condo in South Burlington and continued to move things out to the garage.

Saturday, I drove to Hillsborough NH to learn more about the 14th U.S. President by visiting the Franklin Pierce Homestead - the only problem is that Google Maps took me to the wrong location.  Once I finally got there, I met my sister and brother-in-law Helen and Phil and we had a very nice 45 minute tour and history lesson.  We then drove to Concord for lunch (but could not eat downtown because of an arts festival that closed off the streets) and went to the Pierce Manse where we had another nice tour and history lesson.  We learned about Pierce's father, NH Governor Benjamin Pierce, about Pierce's law practice and about the deaths of Pierce's three sons, the third one after Pierce was elected but before he was sworn in.  We also learned about Pierce's military career in the Mexican American War of 1847 - 1849, and the Gadsden Purchase of southern Arizona and New Mexico in the first year of Pierce's presidency in 1853. 

I then drove back to Montpelier, VT, to meet old friends from Woodbury College.  There was an arts festival going on, again blocking off streets - so I parked in the municipal lot some two blocks away and found out that the parking was free.

In the Library Room of the North Branch Cafe (formerly the home of the Capital Grounds Coffee Shop), I arrived late to meet up with eight Woodbury faculty and staff to honor Jean Myers in her retirement from what is now the Woodbury Institute of Champlain College.  At the original Woodbury in Montpelier, we all taught in the paralegal certificate, paralegal associate and bachelor degree programs, the pre-law program and the Masters of Science in Law program (none of the people from the Mediation or Prevention programs came).  We chatted about old times for a couple of hours and split up around dinner time.  Then it was back home for more moving of furniture and household goods to the garage.

Sunday, I went to Red Cross in Burlington and gave my usual triple product of platelets and plasma.  All went well with the donation.  I then met Ann and Terry at their home on Park Street, and we walked downtown for lunch.  The weather was great and we sat outside under an umbrella on Church Street in front of Ri Ra Irish pub.

I had to verify with Patty which things were donations and which things to bring back to Phoenix.  The two jackets, toiletries and clock radio (in the green bag) are in suitcases to return with me.  Everything else was a donation to someone or some organization.

On Sunday evening, a number of things went to Amy, the god daughter of our former Westford neighbor Diane.

The rest of the big things went to Habitat for Humanity on  Tuesday morning.

After one last load to Goodwill later Tuesday morning, the condo was empty.

After lunch, I headed to the Buyer's Attorney's office for the closing.  I arrived early, only to find out that the Power of Attorney that Patty had done did not meet with the Buyer's Attorney's satisfaction.  So I tracked down Patty, our attorney emailed a "Delegation of Authority" to Patty, who was able to print it, get it signed, witnessed and notarized, and then faxed back to Vermont.  After that, the closing went quickly and we thought everything was done.  The Buyer's Attorney said it was too late to wire stuff  that day (Tuesday) but it would be done first thing Wednesday morning.  Since we were paying an extra $75 for this service, I assumed it would be quick and easy like it was when we closed on the sale of our home in New Hampshire - at that closing, a regular "Power of Attorney" was adequate and the funds were wired into our bank account in less than 30 minutes after I left the closing.  It turns out that the Buyer's Attorney either lied or did not know how the system worked because NEFCU said they only do wires once per day at 2:00 p.m.  After calls to our attorney and our realtor, and an unpleasant call to the Buyer's Attorney and from NEFCU, it still was not final - the proceeds of the sale finally got to our account around 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday - 24 hours after the closing.  If I had known that, I would have demanded a bank check, sent it by Fedex for $20 and it would have been deposited before 9:00 a.m.  Such is life.  Other than waiting for the release of mortgage loan, it appears that we are done with the condo in South Burlington.

I am now at the Burlington Airport waiting for my flight to Chicago and on to Phoenix.  While the flight from Burlington is showing on time, the incoming flight is showing as 90 minutes late - the joys of travel.  The good news is I have had time for a beer and an order of French Fries, and have been able to post in both my Constitutional Law blog and this blog.

A week in Arizona

At the end of our cross country trip, we drove through Taos, NM.  We thought about visiting the Taos Pueblo - but the cost was high and the town is clearly a tourist trap.  So we simply drove on.  We stayed in Gallup NM as planned and then drove on, arriving in Phoenix as scheduled on Wednesday June 11.

One of the first things I did was take Mr. Shadow to be groomed at the local Pet Smart.  They thinned and cleaned his coat, and he seemed to really enjoy his visit there.

Each morning, I take him for a walk around the block before it gets too hot.  One morning, I came across this cactus bloom.  I put my hand in the photo so that you can see the size.  This is a night blooming cactus, where one or two blossoms open up each night and then wilt during the day time heat - each day, the high temp is in the 100 - 100 range and the night time low is in the 75 - 80 range.  The forecast calls for it to warm up with highs in the 110 - 120 range and lows in the 80 - 90 range.

We visited Home Depot and learned about the types of wood and laminate floors that we could have installed.  We brought home eight samples and finally decided on one of the laminates.  On Tuesday, we had the floors measured for the laminate and also had the windows measure for interior wood shutters.

Patty and I continue to go through things and on Saturday, we made a car load of donations to Goodwill.

We found that the best way to walk Mr. Shadow during the afternoon was to take him by car to the Steele Indian Park, about a mile away.  There he can walk on grass and dirt.  The park is beautiful at this time of year.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Grassroots Restaurant to help Anne and Jane celebrate their 61st birthday.

We bought a cooling pad for Mr. Shadow.  It has gel in it and when I step on it, I can feel that it is cool on my feet.  Shadow will only lie on it if I make him do so - it cools him off, but he will not lie on it of his own volition.

 

Besides sorting through things for donations, we are also organizing and collecting things to bring to Ben and Martha in Portland, and to Megan and Jon in Ketchikan.  Hopefully, I will be able to get all of their things into the Subaru.

I will bring two bikes on the bike rack - one is the black bike shown here (the large red bike is mine and will stay here in Phoenix) and one is Megan's street bike that came here from Vermont.

The one thing to remember when we are here in Phoenix is to walk Shadow in the morning before it gets too hot, in the afternoon at the park (shown below) and in the evening after dark.

Once is not enough; driving to AZ June 4 - 11

You might think I am a little bit crazy.  After driving a truck across the USA in the last week of May, I am now driving a car across the USA - this time with my wife, our dog and some houseplants.

My flight on Tuesday evening was a little bit delayed, but I got to our condo in South Burlington around 10:30.  Wednesday morning, I ran errands and loaded the car.  Our friends Bridgette and Mike came by to say farewell.  And we left our condo around 10:00 a.m.  We stopped in Weverton, NY, for lunch and drove to Batavia, NY (a little east of Buffalo).  We had dinner at Applebee's and then a decent night's sleep.

On Thursday, we drove to Cleveland and stopped at the USS Cod on the Lake Erie waterfront (it is next to the US Coast Guard station and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame).  We took a self guided tour through the sub, which meant going through the original doors and where I hit my head several times.  After Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Cod was one of the subs sent after the Japanese fleet.  While not enjoying much success initially, during the war they did sink six Japanese Navy ships, twenty cargo ships and a variety of smaller boats that the Japanese used.

This is one of the six torpedo tubes at the front of the sub

Bunks did not have much room for tossing and turning

After our lunch break, we continued on to Montpelier, OH.  After checking into our hotel around 4:00, we went to the Stoney Ridge Winery:  http://www.stoneyridgewinery.com/ We sampled wines and had cheese and crackers.  We got wine for ourselves and as a gift for our upcoming visit with Kaye.  And back at the hotel, we shared a bottle of wine with our dinner.

On Friday, we drove to the suburbs of Grand Rapids, MI, where we had lunch with Kaye.  Kaye was our fantastic group leader on our trip to Peru in April.  We also got to meet her husband Jeff and see their lovely condo.  After lunch, we drove on to Rantoul, IL, the home of the former Chanute AFB.  It had been a technical training center when I was an enlisted troop back in the 1960s.  It was one of the bases closed in the first round of base closures in the middle 1980s.  Mr. Shadow enjoyed our stay at the Magnuson Hotel Heritage Inn.  There were many places for him to take me on a long walk.

On Saturday, we drove to Springfield, IL, and visited the Abraham Lincoln Museum.  It is very new and hi-tech with a couple of hologram style video shows as well as exhibits about President Lincoln and family.  There was a Civil War soldier who often participated in reenactments of civil war battles.

In addition to the museum, there is a library, a park and a small museum in a train station - this second museum is all about the making of the movie "Lincoln" including sets and costumes that were researched, reproduced and then used in the movie.  There was a Subway restaurant in the museum where we got lunch and ate outside in the park are with Mr. Shadow.

It started to rain just as we were ready to leave and as we drove on to Cameron, MO, we crossed the Mississippi River.  We had a quiet Saturday night in preparation for our one day of no stops. 

Sunday we drove more than 650 miles from Cameron to Colorado Springs, CO.  The ride was uneventful until we left Kansas.  Once in Colorado, we drove through counties where there were a tornado watch, a tornado warning, and heavy rains and thunderstorms.  We did not encounter the tornadoes (they were north of our route) but several of the thunderstorms forced us to slow down and stop, and one caused us to get off I-70.  I noticed the temperature change from in the 70s in Kansas, to the 60s in Colorado, and then a quick drop to the mid 40s.  Once the weather eased up a bit, we continued on towards Colorado Springs.  I kept seeing small amounts of white stuff on the sides of the road and at first thought it was soap suds - but where did they come from?  As we continued on, we realized it was snow - in some places there were accumulations of snow on roof tops, on the grass and on the sides of the road. 

We eventually got to Colorado Springs and checked into our hotel.  We walked across the street and had dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill restaurant.  I had seen tv commercials for them, but this was the first time either of us had been there.  We ordered off their pasta menu.  Patty had a salad and linguine with clams, while I had soup and shells with bolognese sauce.  Much to our surprise, all of these pasta items come with two bowls of pasta - and they ask before serving whether we wanted the second bowls in take out containers, which we decided to do.  Those take out containers would become our picnic lunch on Monday.

After a good night's sleep, on Monday morning I took Mr. Shadow for a nice early morning walk in Colorado Springs.  The temp was 44 with a wind chill making it feel like it was in the low 30s. 

We set out for Great Sand Dunes National Park.  After driving south on I-25 for about 90 minutes, we headed west on Route 160.  We were clearly heading into and through the mountains and could see snow on many of the mountains.  I tried taking photos of the mountains while Patty was driving.  The photos do not capture the size and beauty of these mountains which were over 14,000 feet tall.

We got to Great Sand Dunes National Park a little before noon.  After Mr. Shadow had a drink, Patty and I found that there was a Ranger talk at 1:00.  So we went to the picnic area and had lunch.

We went back to the visitor center and all three of us enjoyed the Ranger talk.  We learned about how the sand dunes were created, the different types of sand, and how things were constantly changing in the park.  After the talk, we went for a walk on one of the loop trails and had a close encounter with a whitetail deer.  At one point we were within 20 feet of the deer and Mr. Shadow was very excited by the experience.

We then went to Medano Creek, one of the two streams that bring water and sand from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  We expected the water to be cold as it was obviously still snow melt.  Much to our surprise, while the creek was more than a hundred feet wide, it was only a few inches deep and as warm as bath water.  We waded and walked through the creek for about 30 minutes.

We then went to the amphitheater and campground and found a trail that took us up on the side of a hill and allowed us a view of Medano Creek and the dune field.  The tallest dunes are between 700 and 800 feet about the level of Medano Creek and the dune field spreads for more than 30 square miles - a most unexpected area in the high desert of the San Luis Valley.

We then drove on the Alamosa.  Tuesday we will stop in Taos and Santa Fe before spending the night in Gallup, and then reach Phoenix on Wednesday.