Thankfully today did not start till 4am and that was just rolling over and going back to sleep. No midnight maneuvers by the troops or things that go bump in the night. I woke again at 5:30 and immediately rolled over until 7 or so. Breakfast was uneventful, oatmeal and coffee and then we hung out for a bit.
The excitement came around 9:15 when the smoke alarm went off. It was definitely loud enough to wake had we been asleep, but we’re not sure what set it off. I’m fairly certain that we didn’t light a camp fire indoors, and the airy nature of the wall would have long dissipated last night birthday incense, besides, unless it’s the slowest to react detector in VT I’m sure it would have gone off last night. So, beyond that I’m not sure what the offending element or chemical reaction was, perhaps is was the Deep I strayed near the door.
In any event the park workers were notified as I found several at the head up the road…it was a meeting of the minds at the head! After a brief conversation which was deciding who would stay and clean the head while the other went and informed the office staff, clearly there’s a chain of command that they were adhering too, and it seemed like an easy choice to me, one was dispatched to the office at the main entrance. I sat on the back porch, turned off my hearing aids and settled in for the long wait. Remind me to tell you about the long wait sometime.
Holiday weekend in VT no one is moving fast, except to the liquor store or perhaps a dart to the BBQ to save some burning hotdogs. A good while later we saw the truck approaching through the trees, but it never arrived. Perhaps it was another meeting of the minds at the head, actually, JMan rode his bike up and reported back “there just standing around talking”. In the meantime the alarm stopped annoying us!
Apparently it times out after 30 minutes. Makes sense when you think about it. Either you’re well cooked or your house has burned to the ground in the length of time. Either way you’re not too concerned with the annoying beeping and voice announcement “Get out of the living room”, living room, it’s a cabin in the woods. Apparently that wasn’t an option in the set up menu.
A while later again two of VT finest appeared with an extension ladder. I made a bit space and they set up the ladder. The younger of the two went skyward. After removing the entire unit from the bracket the older and more wiser one on the ground informed him that the battery door was on the side and there was no need to remove the unit. However, the beeping and annoying voice telling us to get out of the “Living Room” was back, it must be tamper proof. Battery door found and the discovery that two double A’s were required. Of course what they had was incorrect, not sure what they had so the older suggested the younger drive back to the office as he said they had a big bag of batteries back there…good job they left them in the office, otherwise they might get used.
So I can talk to a damp wall on a cold night, but didn’t really want to spend another 45 minutes, round trip time to office and back is really an 8 minute drive, so I popped the back off a lantern and said “here, why don’t you use these and save the trip”. I received and number of very polite no thank you and we’ll be sure to replace yours and so on. However, I insisted or persisted and once the unit ran through a test if finally shut up. I did ask if they could reprogram to have it say “get out of the cabin” as “get out of the living room” might confuse other visitors. Not sure they saw the humor, but I know my wife will. If it goes off tonight I’ll scale the wall and permanently disconnect it…that is assuming the place is not on fire. In all fairness VT finest came back at some point and left a new set of batteries to replace mine. Real nice folk in these parts and all the VT State Campground we stayed at to date are really nice.
After that we went to the beach were JMan braved the not too warn water. It was even cold looking so I’ll wait till September before getting wet on purpose….outdoors that is.
Back for lunch then the boy went fishing I went to conquer that hill again.
Not sure I beat yesterday’s time as I ran past my previous end point and then double back but where the trail cross the main road I took it back to the camp gate. Today was 3.03 miles in 43:06 minutes. Not exactly a stellar pace but up and down, dodging tree and branches, over rocks, root and the odd steam will definitely keep you on your toes. Also, keeping an eye on the upcoming trail blaze is a fairly important task. Not that I’m too concerned with getting lost in the wood, but its real easy to stray off trail.
Later in camp the boys wanted to light a fire. So off we went to the office to get some timber.
A few handfuls later I’m currently patiently waiting for GMan to catch dinner. Kinda wish we hung onto the few he caught earlier…dah.
No fish but we have a dang good fire. Back to freeze dried options. We have an official tie on the duds, well a majority tie. We tried Chicken and Dumpling and Beef Stew.
The former was bad, it smelled ok but had an odd consistency which is never a good thing to say about food. The latter I ate but you already know my high standards and since it had peas, GMan could not eat it and JMan has an eversion to any food type that’s green, with the exception of chewing gum and mint ice cream, not too high on the food chain, but food none the less.
The best dumplings I ever had were from Eileen Galvin’s kitchen. Eileen was a farmers wife back in my hometown in Ireland, and was well used to feeding hungry men and all her children. Occasionally I’d be sent “out the country” as if anywhere in Ireland with the exception of Dublin was not out in the country, to help with some laborious chore around the farm. My dad was a part-time farmer, meaning he had a regular full time job but also keep a few cattle and saved hay in the summer. So between that and all the other things we did, like saving turf and mending fences we were busy enough. But family help family and so it was. Brendan, Eileen’s husband was a true bog man, spoke at 1000 mile an hour and even a townie like me had to pay attention to keep up with the conversation. He was dead sound as we say in Ireland, a true gentleman. They build a new house ” out in the country” on the other side of town, all towns have one of those, closer to where the bulk of his land was.
I have no idea how much land he had, but it was way more than the 1/2 dozen or so fields my dad owned. Anyhow he was building a shed at the back of his house and I was there helping, can’t honestly remember what I was doing but I’m sure it involved some “hand me that” or “can’t you pass up a few block” or “while your standing there will you stir that cement so it doesn’t harden up”. The while you are standing there or as my dad used to “while you’re sitting there doing nothing”, mind you we were the only two in the room watch the same show on television, so how is it that I’m sitting here doing nothing! In any event, remember that earlier conversation about meal? So we went in for dinner (that’s lunch for you lot) and Eileen had prepared a spread of food, all homemade, fresh from the field the day before or possibly that morning and straight from the oven. Best of all were the dumplings, however, the bread was also killer, but the dumplings stole the day. Mind you she said take it handy (go slow in english) on them dumplings as they’ll fill you up right quick. The smell was intoxicatingly so I beat in and gobbled down a few without even tasting them. I slowed the pace on the next one and severed every bite. I attempted another and then the right quick feeling set in…right quick. I practically had to be rolled back out after dessert, that tea and biscuits after your dinner (that’s still lunch to you lot).
Trust me when I say that today dumplings were nothing like Eileen’s. The only commonality was in name.
After two duds we made a last ditch effort and cracked open Lasagna, vegetables Lasagna that is.
Uncooked it looked like twigs and dirts, perhaps getting down on all fours and eating off the campsite ground was in our near future or perhaps it’s a better idea.
This one took 13 minutes and the hope here is anything beyond the normal 8 or 9 has to be better as 13 minutes is really aging it. The boys not into watching the grass grow or in this case the twigs and dirt re-hydrating went fishing again. I think the thought of eating a vegetarian meal pushed them over the edge and were hoping to catch dinner instead. Still no luck on fishing but the Lasagna was quite good. Of all the noodle based dishes we tried to date the noodle in this one tasted and more importantly felt like your expect a noodle to. But alas the word vegetarian did them in from the start, JMan shoved it around the plate but GMan got into a bowl. I’m not worried about then fading away as they had a little of everything and the last of the cheese, crackers followed by lemon snap cookies.
Highlight of the evening was JMan losing a tooth! I wonder if the tooth fairy will visit us out here in the woods…time will tell.
Additional updates: VT finest paid us a house call to insure out smoke detector was behaving itself. So far so good I said and thank him for the batteries. Also, GMan caught a 2lb wide mouth a Bass at 8:45pm!
Timing is everything in life…so is love, family and real friends. Any order you like on that list.
Lights out at 10:15 after a chapter or so and more hearty chucking for JMan.
alan j quinn 