Category: perseverance

nature, photography, memories, friends, travel, adventure, perseverance, childhood, moments, 'scene' along the way, road trip

Campello kids…

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The connections I’ve been making, both with family and also with friends, have mostly been with the kids from the south side of my hometown.  ‘Campello kids’.  Kids I may have gone all through school with, but in my mind when I have thought of them I remember them best as the Jr. high school kids we once were.  I connected with another one of them yesterday.  I was already close to her VT home, at least as the crow flies.  GPS showed three routes to her house from the NH campground.  One route seemed ridiculously out of the way but would keep you on highways the whole time.  I ruled that one out right away.  The other two were on a diagonal, point A to point B pretty much in a direct line.  I ignored the ominous warning box at the top of the screen.  It announced that the directions might possibly include unpaved roads!  Which one?, thought I.  That it might be both of those routes didn’t occur to me.  So yes, despite my trepidations I did turn onto Bobbin Shop Road, and it wound this way and that, and up and down.  And it eventually turned into an unpaved road.  But it got me there, and the scenery was worth it.  And the visit?  It was perfect!  Not rushed, a quiet afternoon talking and letting our minds wander together.  Was it enough time?  No, but there were a lot of years gone by to talk about…

I started out early, with fog hanging in the air and no sun out.  But as I drove the sun came out and the day became so pretty that I hoped I’d stop again as I retraced my route home, but I didn’t.  And I did manage to stay on paved roads this time…offtoJoan's4boatsOfftoJoan's2boatsofftoJoan's2_1greenboatOfftoJoan's1offtoJoan's5offtoJoan's6

'scene' along the way, dogs, fun, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, road trip

Pups in the air…

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Pups in the air is a group that puts on shows with their amazing frisbee-catching dogs. They were entertaining the crowd at the Quechee balloon festival, along with musical performers, helping to fill the 12 hour gap between balloon launches.  First up was this 11 year old border collie.  It’s amazing how focused these dogs were on their handlers.  I’m not sure they even knew the crowd was there.  All they wanted was to catch that frisbee.pupsintheair4Pupsintheair5

Must you be a black and white border collie to belong to this group?  Nope.  There was this little Jack Russel terrier too.  She was a mighty fast dog.jackrussel

This youthful black and white border collie was only one year old, but his enthusiasm and energy showed.pupsintheair6dogcatch1.jpg06_15_19dogcatch

I’ve had dogs all my life, but only one of them would focus in on you and try with all his might to figure out what it was that you wanted him to do.  That was Tag, a mutt of indeterminate breeding but a herding dog in there somewhere.  I was quite young and enjoyed teaching him to do tricks, hitch him to wagons, fun stuff for me and I think he liked it too.  The neighbors hired me to train their dog to do tricks also, but that dog was supremely uninterested in learning anything, at least from me.  Tag used to jump through the hula hoop for me but after a little of that I thought it would be more exciting if I could figure out how to make it a flaming hoop for him to jump through.  The problem was that I could never figure out how I would hold the flaming hoop for him to jump through.  I’m thinking that that was a good thing for both of us…

'scene' along the way, a second look, adventure, friends, fun, moments, nature, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, road trip

City girls in the country…

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“Look,” said one city girl to the other. “Cows in a field of flowers! We have to go back for pictures!”prettycows

“They look so pretty, I love cows,” said the other city girl.bulls?

“Un, you don’t think they’re bulls do you?”, asked the first one, the light dawning a bit.ohoh

And now taking her photos from behind the car.oopsfencebull

Just two city girls out for a drive, seeing what they could see along the way.  They had gotten their photo of the ‘cow’ in the flowers, and so it was time to move on…bullinflowersmailboxes

 

a second look, adventure, Camping, connections, food, friends, fun, leap of faith, life goes on, memories, moments, perseverance, photography, road trip, travel

Hitting the jackpot…

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The Jackpot being all the photos ops that could possibly be crammed into one 24 hour period.  Or maybe it’s the jackpot of having your lifelong friend be the one person who would be willing to pull the car off to the side of the road to capture, or try to capture, the scene that has caught your eye.  What a treasure it is to have someone in your life who has been your best friend since childhood.  Somehow our interests, and also our worries, have always been compatible.  We haven’t lived in the same state since we graduated from college together, but that hasn’t mattered a bit.  And we are now finding our way alone in life, but together.  Yes, I certainly hit that jackpot.

But this particular jackpot took place at the Quechee Balloon Festival on Sunday morning.  We actually went on Saturday, almost all of the photos we took were on Saturday, and it was a perfect day from the cardinal we saw as we started our day (a husband or two stopping by to cheer us on?), the glorious lunch we got at Simon Pearce (gazpacho soup and a fabulous quiche, two grown up ladies such as we may have pictured ourselves years ago when we were little girls together), and the lovely day with blue skies sandwiched between days of rain in the weather forecast.  Yes, all was going well, and then the clouds got heavier and the winds came up, and we started fearing the balloons wouldn’t go off at 6PM.  Which is about when I realized I didn’t have my phone.  I lose things often, but not usually my phone, which currently is my lifeline for  this adventure I’m on.  We gave up on looking, left info to reach us, and went back to the campground with a damper now weighing down the entire day.  Only they did call!  They had my phone!  We decided to wait until sunrise to go back to Quechee and got my phone, and also saw the balloons launch!  Every good story needs some drama, and this was no exception.  We made it back to the campground in time for the wonderful Father’s Day breakfast the owners put on for everyone.

Quechee has a covered bridge, we’ve taken pictures of it before, but it was the kids under the bridge that I hadn’t ever seen before.  Jumping off the cliffs (sort of) and into the water.  Do they really know that there are no rocks hidden under the water?  It was nerve wracking to watch, but of course we took pictures.  These aren’t as clear as I wish they have been but they do show the scene.06_15_19bridge06_15_19the whole scene06_15_19upriverview06_15_19quecheejumper106_15_19quecheejumper206_15_19quecheejumper3

But it was the balloons we came for, the third time I had come to a balloon launch and the sixth time for my friend, but we saw the balloons for the first time together.

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Quite an eventful 24 hour visit.  Can’t wait for the next one…

a second look, connections, coping, courage, finding my way, friends, growing old, life goes on, live and learn, memories, perseverance, photography, road trip

Bridging the gap…

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I was looking for bear tracks the other day when I wandered down to the river and saw that the bridge was ‘lit up’, so I took an iPhone photo.  I often forget to check the iPhone even though I take pictures with it frequently.  I have to work a little harder to take pictures with the camera, and here I had the nicest picture right in my pocket the whole time.  Looking at this picture you have VT on the left side of the bridge and NH on the right side.   And at this moment in time I feel as if I’m standing on a bridge and I have my nostalgia for my ‘home’, my roots, for the people I used to know and the person I used to be on one side, and on the other, what exactly?  I have no clue, but I’m working on it…

And yes, there was a bear in the campground the other night.  Which explains why I now drive to the bathroom in the middle of the night…

'scene' along the way, adventure, bugs, Camping, finding my way, natural wonders, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip

The Kancamagus Highway…

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That was my goal Wednesday when I set out to take some pictures.  I think I just like to say Kancamagus, and it was too pretty out to stay home.  If you look at it on a map it looks like it goes in a diagonal line from where I am now, to Lincoln, NH.  That’s not true though.  You have to drive a bit to get to Rt. 112, and I discovered several distractions along the way that slowed me down and kept me from traveling the whole highway.  Which is okay because a friend of mine is most at home in the Lincoln area and I’m in hopes we’ll get back there together eventually.  This farm was a distraction along the way.  And when I stopped to take a picture this cow came over to say hi.farmagain6_12_19cowandbarn6_12_19cowandbarn26_12_19redbarnscene

Then the town of Bradford provided it’s own distraction.  Just a block long, but quaint, and good food.  A pastrami reuben at a little coffee shop called The Local Buzz.  What a great name, and a great sandwich.6_12_19waterfall1bradfordlibrary6_12_19townturretthelocalbuzzBuzzmap

Eventually I did make a run at the Kancamagus though, and I got there.  As promised by my cousin, the scenery is spectacular.  But pull-offs are too few and far between.  Which explains why I turned around after I passed the Beaver Pond scenic area and returned for photos there also.  But I turned out to be the main course for the black flies and mosquitos that were just hanging around waiting for an unsuspecting tourist to show up. When I told my cousin that I stopped at Beaver Pond he said that he and his wife hiked a trail there once and encountered a swarm of black flies that had them running to their car.  Glad to know it’s not just me being a wimp.  Nobody bothered my DEET infused legs, which was nice.  But too bad I didn’t think to spray my ears because they got gnawed on pretty fiercely.  Now my ears are burning, you aren’t talking about me are you?6_12_19beaverdamoverlook26_12_19beaverdamoverlook6_12_19beaverpondredux