31 January 2024
Vergennes, Vermont
Marc- Today begins our winter land voyage with our camper Elsie. Those Southern campsites among the palm trees are calling. Our first day will bring us to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
We did have a last minute snag due to ice accumulation inside the camper that prevented the slide out from working. It has been rather cold here in Vermont lately with daily high temperatures only in the 20's. In fact we could not load the camper without first opening the slide out. When we tried to activate the slide out a weld promptly failed on the piston drive bracket. It took 24 hours of interior temperature of 80 degrees to melt the ice. I also had to design and build a new steel support bracket. Mission accomplished. I am really looking forward to warm temperatures.
The highway journey was uneventful through Vermont, New York and a slice of New Jersey. No snow on any of the roads. We entered Pennsylvania at the Delaware Water Gap National Park and traveled some 20 miles on park roads. The park is impressive even in winter passing multiple waterfalls while descending the Delaware River valley. Unfortunately all of the Park campgrounds are closed in winter. We found a nice campsite at the Delaware Water Gap KOA near the Southern border of the Park. We visited Stroudsburg and found many open shops, pubs and restaurants. Best of all we ended the day with some blue sky.
Sue- We went to a Price Chopper (large grocery store) in East Stroudsburg near the campground. It's a 24-hour store, something we have not run into before. We went to Sew & Vac, a quilt store in town. It was massive, full of sewing machines, sergers and long arm quilt machines all set up for demonstration. There were pretty fabrics, too, but I wanted 2 small things and they didn't have them - a gold aurifil thread that our home shop in Middlebury had (and I forgot to bring with me) and I wanted a small rotary cutting board and they didn't have that, either. It had very few quilts hanging up, and just lacked inspiration. To me the vibe was "no personality."
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