WHITEHALL, NY – BIRTHPLACE OF THE US NAVY

I am always pleasantly surprised at how many wonderful things there are to see in the small towns we find ourselves in.

Whitehall, NY is another one of those little gems.

The village was founded in 1759 when a land grant was given to Captain Philip Skene of the British Army. The town was originally called Skenesboro and was the first settlement at Lake Champlain.It was one of two routes connecting English and French colonies.

During the American Revolution, the village was captured by American forces in 1774. Benedict Arnold built a fleet of vessels to confront British forces at Valcour Island (thus the claim that this is the birthplace of the US Navy).

On May 9, 1775 Lieutenant Samuel Herrick, acting as an advance party for Ethan Allen's attack on Fort Ticonderoga surprised Major Skene and his small garrison. While he intended to use Skene's boats to ferry men across the lake, his party didn't arrive in time.

During the late 17th Century, the area was a staging ground for raids between English and French colonies.

During the War if 1812 the village was a ship building community supplying vessels for naval battles on Lake Champlain.

The armory (which was closed as was the town museum) is the location of some of Benedict Arnold's naval artillery.

FERRY RIDE

After leaving Rutland, VT we needed to make a Walmart run in Ticonderoga, NY. The quickest way to get there was to take the ferry rather than drive all the way around Lake Champlain.

We timed our arrival beautifully and got there just as the ferry was getting ready to dock and load for the return trip.

The Ticonderoga Ferry is a seven-minute crossing on Lake Champlain between Ticonderoga, New York and Shoreham, Vermont.

The ferry itself is the Addie B, a diesel-powered tugboat with an attached 94-ton steel barge. The barge is guided by two steel cables that lie submerged in the lake when the ferry isn't operating.

NEW ENGLAND MAPLE MUSEUM

This gentlemen started off our tour of the Maple Museum. It was fascinating to learn how maple syrup is made and to realize that the process has not changed all that much over the years.

The Indians were the first people to boil the maple sap into syrup that sweetened their food for them.

Maple Syrup begins as sap in a maple tree. The sap is harvested in the spring when temperatures rise into the 40s during the day and cool off into the 20s at night.

The sugaring season usually lasts about a month, but it can be extended if the weather is right.

Trees are tapped using a drill to make a small hole. A spike is inserted into the hole and the sap drips out if conditions are right. The sap either drips into a bucket or flows down a special tube to a holding tank. Anywhere from 35-50 gallons of sap, depending on how much maple sugar there is in the sap, are needed to make one gallon of maple syrup.

The sap is collected into a large holding tank and from there is fed into the sugar house. In the sugar house, it is poured into an evaporator (pictured here). Maple sugar evaporators are specially designed to 'boil off' hundreds of gallons of water very quickly and so the sap is concentrated into maple syrup. This is called 'boiling down'.

As the water is boiled off and the sugar becomes more concentrated, the sap moves toward the front of the pan. There, the sap becomes syrup and is 'drawn off' into a pail or some other container before it is filtered. Once filtered, the syrup is put in bottles or containers and sealed until someone opens it up to enjoy a sweet treat!

I think the fact that amazed me the most was that there is only one ingredient in Maple Syrup - the maple sap.

We now have some wonderful Fancy Grade Maple Syrup for the next time we make pancakes or waffles or french toast.

RUTLAND, VT

I drug Jim out on another Roadside America hunt. The first stop was the bear family located in front of a restaurant in Rutland. They are looking a little worse for wear. And they weren’t dressed up. Somebody needs to spend a little time and care on them.

Also in Rutland is a rather strange Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The story behind this frozen GI is: John Reno, a Vietnam Veteran, had struggled with depression and recurring flashbacks following his service. The sculpture was begun in 1981 as a means for John to work through his anger and pain. But when he died suddenly in a boating accident in 1982, his artistic vision of a soldier lay neglected for years in a Castleton, VT gravel pit.

Finally in 1995, a fellow Vietnam-era veteran, John Bergeron, went looking for it. A sculptor from West Rutland, Don Ramey, took on the task of completing the sculpture as a tribute to veterans, applying his own creativity and skills to John’s basic concept.

Then there is the Water Tower Space Ship, also in Rutland.

We tried to find a rubber boot bridge but we couldn’t find it so I’m not sure if it’s gone or we just couldn’t see it.

DINNER WITH FRIENDS

Toni and Doug arrived at the campground about an hour or so after we did and it was wonderful to see them again.

A lot of the restaurants here in Whitehall, NY are closed for the season. So off we went on a quest for a place to have dinner. The GPS recommended a place in Poultney, VT however, that one was also closed when we got there. Jim stopped in a gas station and asked them for a recommendation.

The Trolley Stop seemed to be the place to go. And it was only a short distance down the block.

Found a great little Vermont tourist shop that we just had to visit and sitting outside was this huge pumpkin.

It’s owner (can you own a pumpkin?) told us that he had just been at a contest and took first prize with his 1,254 lb pumpkin. Doug got the low down on how he grew a pumpkin this large and how they move it in and out of the truck and onto scales. Toni, Jim, and i went into the shop and had some pumpkin fudge. It was surprisingly good.

The restaurant was really good. Jim said his roast beef sandwich was the best one he’s ever had. They had their Halloween decorations up

to celebrate the season. A lot of people up here in New England really get into decorating for Halloween. In fact we even saw some Christmas decorations that Doug tried to convince us were Halloween colors – green for the stem on the pumpkin and the red was really orange. Good try Doug.

AMSTERDAM, NY

Tonight we are at Camping World. We just needed a place to sleep and Jim wanted to pick up something to repair the scratches the acorns and tree branches had put on the roof.

So is this cheaper than staying at a campground – not really.

Pretty uneventful day which was really nice. We’ve seen enough excitement on the highways to last us for a long, long time. The GPS couldn’t find Camping World so we drove around and around until we could find a gas station we could fit into long enough for Jim to go find out what we were doing wrong. But we made it.

Tomorrow we meet up with Toni and Doug. They will be crossing into the US from Canada and it will be so good to see them again.

WILL WE OR WON’T WE

Fit that is. We are only about 15 miles from Amsterdam, NY where we are going to spend the night when we meet up with this overpass which is 12’ 10”. We have always said we need at least 13’. Jim pulls out his trust tape measure and climbs up on the roof (some days he seems to spend a lot of time up there). He figures we are about 12’ 3” give or take an inch or two.

Yes – we fit. But just barely. At least now we know exactly what our limit is and we won’t have to measure again.