New Discovery State Park, Oct. 7-11 2011
We arrived on Friday. We had left the camper door open at the check in while we got some firewood. Meanwhile the campground ranger woman happened to meet Sadie, our rag doll cat at the door. When I came around, she said “your cat is foaming at the mouth”. Yup she is! We had some explaining to do. We assured her that it was because she’s a rag-doll and is nervous. She asked if the cat stayed inside, we said for sure and assured her of Sadie’s vaccine status. She said she would google that rag doll drooling thing! LOL
Saturday morning, we saw posters for an Applefest at Seyon Lodge. We had ridden our tandem bicycle up to Seyon Lodge the previous trip when we were at Ricker Pond. If that was our only way up there, we wouldn’t be going no matter how awesome the Applefest might be. The park ranger suggested we talk to the park volunteer, Sandy, suggesting he may give us a ride up in his truck.
We talked to Sandy, whom we realized we’d actually met at Ricker Pond the year before. To our surprise he offered to let us borrow his truck, Big Blue. He was very kind to offer. His truck was quite a truck. A blue 86’ Ford F150 with green doors, a homemade flatbed box, and shotgun rack in the rear window. He did remove the shotgun before loaning us the truck. His truck was great fun going up to Seyon Lodge with all the locals giving us a big wave when we went by. At first we wondered why everyone was so friendly, then we realized they thought we were Sandy coming up the road. Attached is a picture of my wife alongside Big Blue. The Applefest was fun, too. Great homemade applesauce, pizza, and cider - and apple crisp, too. There was some good folk music, too.
It was a wonderful weekend of cycling, hiking and festivities made even better by the friendly VT State Park staff and volunteers.
- Brian Kinsman
