6/5/2015 Vermont And New Hampshire On Route Back To Rhode Island

Newport, Vermont

Campsite Lake Memphremagog

Milestone - This is the first time we have camped with the RV in Vermont and New Hampshire so we get to add theses state stickers to our map!

Just over the Canadian border on Route 91 is the small town of Newport, Vermont.  Located on huge Lake Memphremagog, the rail road went through town in the mid 1800's and tourism flourished.  Not much more in this cute downtown today than there

was then according to all the historical placards and photo's around town. Bought some delicious beet greens and rhubarb at the farmers market.  The plan is to make Deb's dad's mom's recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie!  Walking by the lake near our Prouty Beach Campground, we saw beaver and deer and a brown mink like animal.  

On the Green, Dartmouth College

A few hours down the road we stop in Hanover, New Hampshire where John attended Dartmouth College for his undergraduate and Masters of Engineering degrees.  John was in the NROTC program there during the Vietnam War when the military on campus was highly unpopular.  While walking through Thayer Shool of Engineering, we came upon a hall of class photos.  On one side of the hall was a photo of the Master's Degree Class of '48 which included John's father.  He attended Dartmouth for his undergrad and graduate civil engineering degrees as part of the V12 program after serving as a Navy signalman in WWII on the island of Espiritu Santo in the South

Plaque at Dartmouth Campus

Pacific.  We still have some of the signal flags  he sewed which he used for controlling ships coming into the harbor.  The V12 program was set up after the war to educate returning vets.  On the opposite side of the hall was a picture of the Master's Degree Class of '72 which included a photo of John.  Father and son were practically looking at each other. John still finds it odd to see so many women on campus as it was a men's college until shortly after he attended.  He remembers a couple of women exchange students on campus.  In particular, one in his Russian class named Meryl Streep (future actress).  
Walking through Dartmouth's Baker Library, we

Baker Library

remembered a visit there long ago. We lived in Newport, Rhode Island when the kids were little (they were born there) and we used to spend time in New Hampshire at our camp at Ephraim's Cove on Lake Winnisquam. On a visit to Dartmouth when Zoe was about 4 years old, we walked into this beautiful, quiet library where many students were studying and Zoe loudly pierces the solitude with "Look at all the beautiful books!" We and the students had a good chuckle.  

Lake Mascoma Campsite

 Lake Mascoma Campground in Lebanon, New Hampshire was our next stop.  While kayaking on this crystal clear lake we noticed few houses and the thick surrounding forest grew right down to the lake shoreline.  It reminded Debra of a camp her grandfather Vernon  had on Loon Pond in New Hampshire when she was a kid.  Oh what fun we had there with no running water or electricity, an outhouse, and wood stove for heat and cooking.  She remembers brother Steven taught her how to play black jack, grandmother took a piece of wood and chased a bat out of the loft, had to stay inside one day because a bobcat or mountain lion roamed through camp, fishing and picking blueberries.  

Deb was driving through New Hampshire at 65 miles an hour when a tire on the RV blew.  We heard a pop sound and Deb saw debris flying all over the road. Not just tire debris but other stuff as well.  Good thing we have two tires on each side of the

RV since it was barely noticeable that we were riding only on one.  We found a very safe place to pull over.  Boy were we surprised to see the damage to the RV from the tire that look like it had exploded.  The under flooring above the wheel well was ripped out which accounts for all the pink insulation and wood debris flying across the road, but also two steel wheel well reinforcements were mangled.  Amazing what 80 pounds of pressure in a tire can do!  A few minutes after we stopped a New Hampshire DOT pulled in behind us with their flashing lights.  Two guys jumped out and got right to work helping us with the fastest tire change in history.  We were on the road in no time thanks to these wonderful ROAD ANGELS.  Deb wrote of letter of thanks to these two gentlemen which was posted on the New Hampshire DOT website :)