a Frosty weekend

With Madonna still ringing in my head from last night's 80s dance, I'm up and at 'em as they say, working in the computer lab. Since I'm the only person in here, I'm working pretty hard.

Moxie tackling the largest of the very stuck trees.

The other day Dan and I met for a puppy playdate at the Robert Frost Interpretive Trails near campus. The trails weave through some pretty woods and have Frost poems in semi-appropriate places. The important thing is that the bugs are not as bad as the Moosalamoo Trail. My favorite part is the place they chose to put "The Road Not Taken" which famously ends with the lines,

and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

You're at a fork in the road when you read the poem, but the trail makes a loop and you end up exactly where you started. What a difference!

Bryan and I went back there on Friday and a bee flew up my shorts and stung me. GREAT! 

In other news, the crew met at Kate and Josh's (Kate, if you're reading this, I did it!) absolutely beautiful cabin. The owner of the Robert Frost Mountain Cabins sounds as nice as Irene (the massage therapist with the most generosity - she honestly offered to let us borrow her Jeep for the rest of our trip so I didn't have to drive Bryan to and from work. Luckily, (because they wanted him to work full-time, they had a "mutually agreed upon parting) and we don't need it). Anyway, he's building these cabins with lovely little screen porches which are an absolute must here.

soggy campground tales

My shoes, what were once beautiful books, my folders, my clothing, the yurt floor, and my brain are soggy and wet this morning. As my beloved and ever-helpful mother reminded me, all adventures have good and bad (true) and I did complain one time, in one blog last year about missing water in Santa Fe. Oh, the irony. Serves me right (my kind mother did not say that last part).

Since the campground is perpetually nearly empty, I haven't many campground host stories to tell, but I do have one...

Tuesday night in the evening a group of backpackers triumphantly marched into Moosalamoo proclaiming, "We're almost there. For real."

When I drove out of the campground to head back to campus for dinner (very strange General Tso's chicken), I checked in with them, made sure they knew who was the head honcho 'round these parts, etc. I wasn't wearing my hat though...

Anywho, they were from Camp Kewaydin, and as their fearless leader Cameron explained, they were supposed to be hiking The Long Trail, "Vermont's footpath in the wilderness," and got "terribly, horribly" lost. I guess they figured out where they were and couldn't get back on the TLT, so they located Moosalamoo and called it home for the night. I gave my condolences and off I went.

Yesterday morning as I'm trying to ingest coffee to return to the land of the living, here comes Cameron to our door. This is a first. Evidently, terribly lost but now found camp group was once again in peril with a very sick co-leader. The stomach flu has hit his co-leader but all he wants to know is if we get cell service. Of course we don't, for about 15 miles. He explains that their van is coming to get them but he is on day 2 of a 9 day Long Trail trip and without a co-leader, he can't go on with the boys. Sad story, eh?

I walked over later to make sure the Israel, the co-leader, didn't need to see a doctor in town and in came their van to pick them up. I'll never know their fate, nor will you. Did they wait for another leader to arrive or did they abandon the trip of the summer? Anti-climactic, eh?

One more thing: a Minnesotan was at the campground last night too. Bryan played Minnesota nice with him.

on Amazon women and urban kayaking

 This week Bryan started working at Rosie's which is a bit of a logistical household nightmare. Also, I've been digging in to my research of Amazon warrior women for Male, Female, Other.  It involves reading things like below. The basic myth is that these women were part of a "warrelike" people and most of the husbands were slain in a battle. Devastated and wanting to be together in their grief, they killed most of the remaining men and basically lived in a culture and kingdom of warrior women. Supposedly they seared off one breast in order to be able to better shoot their bows and make war on surrounding countries. Interesting, eh? That's what I'm up to.

Ripton is where it's at

Delights in Ripton, Vermont include Robert Frost's cabin (yet to be explored), the Ripton Country Store:

The Chipman Inn which Katelynn and her rents discovered and we're bringing it back as a Bread Loaf hangout. We tried to go the square dance last night for the free beer, but we could not enter. It brought back too many memories of forced square dancing lessons in elementary school. We should have been brave enough, but were not. We rounded up another person who was hovering outside the door, Ricardo, and headed to the Inn which is a B&B with a bar and couches. It was a good time, but the only picture I got with this stupid camera is this gem (reasons why giving up Media at Esko is really sad.... goodbye DSLR)...

our retired explorer: campground envy

Friday we don't have classes and I didn't have to work, so Bryan and I went exploring. The previous night we attended the first pond reading which is a thinly disguised kegger by a pond behind the barn. It's called a pond reading because an expressive reading of Ellen, a book by the man who gifted Middlebury these grounds, takes place, followed by a professor's choice of readings. This reading was done by Professor Luftig and was alternately funny and moving. I left telling Bryan that it was at that reading that I finally felt like this campus was Bread Loafy. It's such a big campus that you're able to be pretty anonymous as you walk around campus, unlike at the smaller campuses. It has the feel of regular college and I had been missing the community that I had come to associate with Bread Loaf, so it was nice to see it here. I'm looking forward to more of that here. Here is the scintilating reading of Ellen by what I assume are some of the "frat boys" on campus (there is one dorm that throws what everyone calls frat parties): 

Friday we headed out to Silver Lake Campground where a couple in their 70s are hosts. They live in Middlebury and live out at the campground all summer. It's a hike-in campground, though I think they can access their host site via vehicle. Officer Ruth was a little in awe of them living in a tent at their age, but after visiting the campground, it's clear why they choose to live there. It's a lovely little lake in the woods. The sites are much more beautiful than Moosalamoo's and there is a great, wide open picnic area where you can swim. I wish we could move the yurt there, but it's 6/10 of a mile hike in which would be difficult with the yurt. Not to mention that I simply can't see how Moosalamoo would get by without our stellar hosting skills. Most nights the sites occupied are ours, Keith's, and one other by an old man in a van camper.

Here are the sights at Silver Lake:

 

 That night at work Katelynn and her parents came by and helped me pass the time. Having three Georgians to listen to speak made my evening! I love their accents!

Saturday we explored Sugar Hill Reservoir which evidently is a popular swimming and fishing place. It isn't as nice as Silver Lake, but we passed some time there.

There appear to be some pretty sweet cross country trails here, including one marked with this sign that is identical to signage out at Phil and Kelly's farm in Esko, Minnesota. Curious...

a break in the clouds

Based on the number of times I have reached for my camera, the past few days have been an improvement on the rainy mess that has been Moosalamoo Campground. The forecast still looks like this: 

but at least we've had hours of delightful sunshine, wind for the first time since our arrival, and the rain has mostly been starting at 5pm. Also, the humidity has lifted, so it isn't stank inducing to just move around, let alone try to get some exercise. We know the humidity lifted by our daily drive by Mt. Moosalamoo. If there is a haze around it, it's humid. If you can see it clearly, you won't want to die every time you move your body. Here is the first clear day's view: 

The result is that we've actually been capable of hiking and biking, we had our first successful fire last night with Keithers and it was downright pleasant. You know it's been a some crummy days when all three of us remark with a level of surprise that we're enjoying being outside by the fire. 

So, today we celebrate sunshine and a dry yurt floor! 

it's a midwest thang

As St. Lunatics famously wrote, "It's a midwest thang." Yeah, I just quoted St. Lunatics in my blog.

Today in Fictions of Finance, we shared some of our financial impressions and experiences and it got me thinking a lot about some distinctions I notice when I'm out here at Bread Loaf. It makes me feel very Fitzgerald-esque minus the eventual gathering of wealth and the jumping in fountains. Mostly, it's just the strange relationship with wealth. As someone who doesn't put a whole lot of stock in acquiring wealth [see leaving your job to live in a yurt] (don't get me wrong, I worry about money and want to feel secure), it has been interesting to read the books with my Midwestern, middle class world looming behind me.

I'm just always reminded of how different my experiences as a public school kid, working in a middle class community, are from some of my peers here. A lot of the people in the room work in supremely expensive (Marshall's got nothing on these tuitions) private schools where 1%-ers kids attend school. Since I have exactly zero experience with that kind of wealth, I'm always really intrigued by the stories told here and it just sort of hit me that I'll get to spend a class hearing more of those stories that are so far from my own understanding. That's pretty great.

In unrelated news, true to my goal of taking advantage of every opportunity for free food or drink, I had a free [probably leftover] wrap that was sitting in the barn instead of paying the $12 for lunch on campus. Then we had social hour on the Adirondack chairs. Here is proof since this would be the second blog without photos if I didn't add it:

Then I went to class and sat down to kill time for a bit and then torrential downpours set in, true to Vermont form. Good news! More free stuff: Bonfire tonight by the pond with beer (thank God - this campus has had only dry events which is not how I'm used to rolling at Bread Loaf), I got more work hours for this weekend, and Bryan presumably secured himself a job in the kitchen at the aforementioned delicious Rosie's in Middlebury. It's that good midwestern work ethic. They heard my MN accent and were all about hiring him. He told me not to blog about it in case it wasn't a sure thing, but too late.