5:45 a.m. September 27

        It's hard to believe that we will be starting our last five day segment of the long walk this morning. I spent much of yesterday morning on our day off going through Google maps again to sort out the last of the walk. Since we opted to stay in Vermont for most of the walk along the Connecticut River our walk will be shorter than expected, i.e. only about 450 km instead of 480 km. We could finish a day and a half early but we won't. There are some sore feet in the group and an early finish would mess up the prearranged camping and B&B's so we will just walk fewer km per day, 18.5 km instead of 20 km. 

        Our present B&B is a full house that we have to ourselves. It is located only about a 10 minute drive from the road we will walk to today and is on a very large lot. Our closest neighbour is a cornfield so it is quiet.

        The living room has a very soft carpet, nice furniture, and a wi-fi connection. We used it all a lot yesterday on our day of rest. It also has a TV but somehow I don't think anyone took the time to see if it worked. It appears that none of us are addicted to that machine. Computers, yes, TV, no.

        I took the living room photo yesterday before sunrise. Looks the same this morning. Yes, I am still up early but did sleep in until nearly 5:30 this morning. Even on camping days I have been up well before 6:00 a.m. out of habit more than anything else. Of course on camping days not one of us has made it too late to get to bed. Amazing how dark and cold can make one sleepy early. Not sure why I can't stay in the sleeping bag a bit longer. Well, OK, there are some physical reasons for me to get up but I could go back to bed, I just don't.

        Since the sun was shining and we had the space and time, I hung out all the camping gear in the yard yesterday to get it dried out properly. We have 4 more nights of camping coming up so it was good to get everything really dry again. If the weather forecast is correct we are in for a very warm day again today. Sunny skies and +26° C is what is called for. No freezing night here and we are walking further south so we are hoping for warmer camping nights.

September 25 - Briefly Off Road

        I find road walking rather less inspiring than off road walking, to say the least. On the road one has to keep very alert for cars and trucks both visually and aurally which detracts from other scenery. That being the case, any time off road is a special bonus and we had such a bonus yesterday on the 25th. I had stepped off the road to make my bladder gladder and what to my wondering eyes did appear but a gift from Saint Nicholas, or someone. It was a path by the Connecticut River. As it appeared to parallel the road, I walked on it for a while until I saw a road and building connecting the path to the road. When I went up I found a woman weeding her flowers. She informed me that the trail went up the river for another quarter mile or more before crossing to go up one on the local mountains. After thanking her, I went quickly up the road to meet Fleur-Ange and Pauline to tell them about my find and on our way back to the car we had nearly a mile of path walking instead of road walking. There is some advantage to walking back and forth from the car.

        In my mind, at least, this was the closest to walking the trail of Fleur-Ange's ancestor and a very enjoyable respite from road walking.

Another Frost Poem

Saw this wall today and it reminded me of another Robert Frost poem:

MENDING WALL

Robert Frost

---

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Sept 23 - Some Roadside Art

        I have been enjoying looking at the various art pieces in peoples lawns and on their houses and, yes, I am still photographing mailboxes. I will do another mailbox set sometime in the future but for now here are some art finds from the last couple of days.

September 22 - Observations

       Walking with Fleur-Ange is often twice as slow as walking by myself; however, walking with Fleur-Ange means that I see a lot more as she is much more aware of her environment than I am. (And I will not mention that she missed seeing her car at one point and walked right by.)

        How could one miss seeing a hippo in Vermont? Yet I did. I drove by it and walked by it without seeing it at all. Fleur-Ange spotted it easy and pointed it out as we drove by and yet when I drove the other direction I did not see it and when I walked back toward Fleur-Ange and Pauline I missed it again. Only when Fleur-Ange pointed it out as I walked by the second time did I see and get the photo.

        I also missed seeing this whirligig rooster as I walked. Fleur-Ange pointed it out and I pointed my camera.

        I did see a brown shape on a garage but ignored it. Fleur-Ange said, "Oh look at the fox!" Only when I put the camera on telephoto could I see what it was.

        I am always on the lookout for flowers but, again, it was Fleur-Ange that first spotted the Comfrey.

Quechee Gorge

        We are camped a couple of hundred metres away.