Where the great giraffe is stored?

Sometimes what people hear is way better than the original lyrics. "He has trampled on the village where the great giraffe is stored" is certainly more evocative than the cryptic original, "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored."

The Grapes of Wrath...where are they stored anyway? Are the people going to rise up against the bankers and politicos? The midterm elections are coming. We saw an old guy wearing a t-shirt with a peace symbol that said "01.10.2009:....it seemed very dated and ironic in context.

They played the Battle Hymn of the Republic when President Bush spoke to the Nation after 9/11 and promised us a "Crusade"....I thought I'd choke ...maybe I can get it as a ring tone...

Revelation 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

Revelation 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

You might also like, "He's the champion out of Venice where the great surf master scored." (1600 furlongs = 321.8688 kilometers)....or "He is trampling through the vintage where the caves of rattlers snored".

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

"Glory Glory Hardly Knew Ya!"

Mrs. Phred want to improve her mind with math, puzzles and music. We are also looking for a xylophone that will fit well into the RV and fold easily for transport.


I can see us doing the karaoke circuit in Paris. I'll sing "Summertime" while she accompanies me on the xylophone.

"Suppertime, and the liver was greasy..".

'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy....

Leaf Peeping

Vermont in the Fall

It's been a very warm summer and fall. The leaves on the trees seem a little confused but it's always spectacular in New England around Columbus Day.

Somehow this picture of Cayuga lake in the town of Geneva ended up in the Vermont folder.

We spent two nights in this Bed and Breakfast in Wilmington, Vermont. There seem to be Wilmingtons in every state we drive though...what's up with that?

The first town we hit in Vermont is Bennington. Mrs. Phred came here years ago for Bennett's wedding. Ethan Allen had a home next to this graveyard.

The creek running though Wilmington. Lot's of ski lifts and hiking trails nearby.

Robert Frost is buried in Bennington.

Another graveyard shot.

The Wilmington Inn and Tavern....they had a bar but the bartender wasn't around much. We found a little pub that had cod...also a high tech jukebox...I played "do you feel like I  do?' by Frampton and "Give me all your loving" by ZZ Top.

"Well, woke up this morning with a wine glass in my hand.
Whose wine? What wine? Where the hell did I dine?
Must have been a dream I don't believe where I've been.
Come on, let's do it again."
-Peter Frampton, 1973

Goodbye Vermont...Hello George Washington Bridge.

We'll be at the Key West Fantasy Fest this weekend...more about that later.

Tiebreaker! Tiebreaker!

Burlington, Vermont

You may have been following my years of tennis losses to Mrs. Phred. I usually lose 6-1 or 6-0 with a very rare 6-3.

Today we went 6-6 but then I lost my first tiebreaker by 7-5. I felt like I was Andy Roddick playing against Fedderer on my best day.

We've been playing together frequently up here so I'm starting to mentally figure out where she's going to place her return and get there in time. She played a little like she might have had an overnight mini stroke. Also, my serves and returns were more consistent than usual.

Whatever the factors, I'm starting to think I've got a shot at winning at least one before I die if we play often enough.

Black Fly Season

Burlington, Vermont

Another problem with Canada in early summer is the season of the black flies, which starts around Mother's Day and ends around Father's Day. The male black fly drinks nectar but the female craves blood and has been known to kill cattle. The bites may cause severe allergic reactions and cause a disease known as "river blindness".



So maybe we'll ease into Canada about the third week in June after the black flies die off. We can hit the coast of Maine for a few weeks and eat lobsters while we wait.

Beyond Salmon

Vergennes, Vermont

We're parked on a lovely Vermont Island in the middle of Lake Champlain. Our old friend, Judy, suggests going to the French Heritage Festival in the little town of Vergennes. I look at the activities list and see a firehouse breakfast.

The breakfast is French toast, bacon, sausage, coffee and orange juice. They have fresh strawberries, blueberries and maple syrup for the French toast. I look at some of the trophies and firehouse mementos and firefighter Mike Collette comes over to talk and explain the history of the town fire department.

Mike has been a volunteer firefighter since 1961. Mike tells me that the houses and businesses were originally required to keep two leather buckets and a ladder on hand. All structures were inspected for fire hazards on a monthly basis and $2 fines were levied for failure to correct defects. He found an old fire pump in a corner of the firehouse. It was built in 1853. Mike took it home and rebuilt it with new leather gaskets. It will spray water 100 feet with two men on the pump handle. You fill it with water from leather buckets.


It's a beautiful little Vermont town. The town square park is filled with people dressed up as French dandies, soldiers and Algonquin Indians. They also have antique cars, tractors, blacksmiths and tarot card readers. They are weaving animal hair, making lace and showing how the French lived here 200 to 400 years ago.


I read a book laying in the grass of the park for most of the day and listen to French singers and the first person accounts of old French explorers. They fire off "matchlock" muskets periodically and produce huge clouds of smoke. I talk to an old French Marine from the revolutionary war. He tells me that he is an ensign and one of 2,200 French Marines who fought on the rebel side in Yorktown. He says that there were more French there than rebels. He asserts that without French financing, I would still be a British citizen.


The town hall of Vergennes doubles as an opera hall. They have a series of French singers and cloggers that perform throughout the day and evening. All the business have posted signs in French on their windows. The signs say things like "Bon Jour (hello)".


I find the library and buy a pile of surplus books. It's an impressive structure with a huge glass dome. They have lectures during the day. One was "They walked with Champlain". The second floor is full of antiques and Indian artifacts. The town has a waterfall and is full of lovely old homes. I could live here.


The breaded and pan-fried walleye fillets were delicious. The customs people wanted to know if the heads had been removed when we came back over the border. Webster came out with some new words this year. One of those was pescatarian. Those are the people who eat fish but not other meat. I found a new website, Beyond Salmon, that talks about bluefin tuna and other cool fish. Most bluefin has been shipped off to Japan in the past, but it's starting to show up in American markets because of higher oil and shipping prices. Apparently bluefin has a much higher fat content and is less red than the inferior tuna that we normally get to eat.

Spook Lights

South Hero, Vermont - 30 September, 2006

It'a 3:30 AM. Mrs. Phred kicks me out of bed to go out and turn off the Toyota headlights again. They turn themselves on in the very early morning and drain the battery, but not every night.

The dealerships have done nothing about the problem because "we can't reproduce it". We bought the new car in late June. The battery has drained eight times now.


This time it's very starry out again and again heavy dew has formed on the windows. Turning the light switch off and on did not extinguish the lights this time. Therefore the problem is getting worse. Finally I put the light assembly lever in the high-beam position and the lights finally go off. I suspect a short in the light assembly that is activated by morning dew or a lazy gremlin.

We've been driving in Vermont's Green Mountains looking for fall foliage, graveyards, covered bridges and dairy cows to photograph. Some sources say the peak colors are yet to come, others say they've passed. I'm really tempted to buy some postcards and scan them in to save on gas.


Today we plan to go to Montreal in Quebec and look at the underground city. It's only about an hour north, so it should be a fun day trip.

Vermont is unusual. It has the only state capital without a Macdonald's hamburger palace. It was the last state to receive a Wal-mart, the first to abolish slavery and the first to eliminate property ownership as a condition for voting. They drew "first blood" in the Revolutionary War. It's known for beautiful fall foliage, maple syrup, skiing and dairy cows. It is the most "blue" state.

There are many anti-Bush bumper stickers here:

- Somewhere in Texas a village is missing it's idiot
- No one died when Clinton lied
- Trust him twice: shame on us
- If you can read this, you're not the president