not sure how to do the pic from the road sal, will get it to you when I get back.

no ben and jerry today. we chose the cabot cheese place and we drove an hour one way. everyone kept saying "oh yeah, thats about an hour...that way!" so we felt like we were never going to get there, and chose to do some local shopping, come back to the B&B and crash.

tomorrow morn we check out, will head for ben and jerry and then head home. its pretty isolated up here. no real stores, and I am not paying 100 dollars for a 20 dollar item. no way! so, for now we will entertain each other.

This really is a dairy state. God I love milk !

Saw B&J today. Had americone ice cream as the ending treat. it was fun, but my tummy is upset, and I have tons left undone, and my computer is acting up, and I am going to lay down, dont care about any of it. im very tired, and need to sleep first.

The local B&J is gone. The big rage in our area is do-it-yourself yogurt.

Are any of you familiar with these? There are about ten flavors of soft serve and two islands filled with cookies, candies, nuts, a huge assortment. There is also fresh fruit and lots of syrups, marshmallow, chocolate, carmel.

A sugar dream. The yogurt may be fat free but with all the junk on top? I get a toothache thinking about it.

Then the cup is weighed and paid.

favorite flavors? Red Velvet or Cookie Dough. I do one side in each and put in a few circus animal cookies, the ones that are iced in pink and white.

Oh yeah, Aarcyn! We have a Yogurtland . I love peanut butter and chocolate swirled together.

Sorry about the hijack Dej. We've got an ice cream fixation going on .

these hot summer days and ice cream, it is easy to hijack a thread if ice cream is mentioned!

We all need to go to Australia. It is winter there.

current temperature in Sydney 54 degrees.

OMG! the vacation from heckpie is over! First, we got an amazing deal, and I thought WOW! this is a half price deal AND we get Ben and Jerry tickets, AND we get Cabot cheese tour tickets, AND we get to blah blah blah. Well, "handicap accessable" room I was given was UP two flights of stairs! The mattress was so hard it was like sleeping on the floor. The sheets wouldnt stay on the bed because they were so old and worn out, the HUGE monster AC unit that hung from the wall sounded like a jet engine when it went off and on every 20 minutes. We opened our windows only to find 6 employees had their bums parked in the rocking chairs out front SMOKING! the smoke drifted up and into our window. UGH! we closed that window and opened the other to find NO screen. Every bug for 3 miles found our window. The folks across the way sat out on chairs gossiping till 1am, SMOKING! UGH! so, we closed the window and dealt with ol bessie the cow of a AC unit. Unable to get any rest with a jet engine going off every 20 minutes we woke at the crack of dawn and said "lets go out of here!"

We wandered the over priced town for hours and still nothing was open. No stores open till 10 except a few coffee/breakfast style places. We kept walking, and window shopped. Pretty flowers, gorgeous scenery and before you knew it we had gone to smugglers notch. wonderful scenic place. We had breakfast that was overpriced at the resort there, and made our way home. The B&B employees still out front puffing away, so you had to run the smokers guantlet to get inside. We tried to nap while it was semi quiet, but then the housekeepers started in on the rooms around us. UGH! We decided to go find this cheese factory that no one knows where it is. Well, no one truly knew! We asked 3 employees! its included with the price of the room! no one knows?? they said Morsetown. so off we went. no one in morsetown knew. Oh you mean Morristown? Dear god! it was still an hour away! so, we went back to B&B. all this for $2 tickets to see cheese!

Went back to our room, and watched time not tick by. The antique TV has 4 stations on them, and all have CNN, CNBC, or the democratic watch...UGH! I hate politics! so, we rented cheap movies off of netflix after I rigged my antenae to pick up their wireless signal from the front desk (shh dont tell. you are supposed to go to the sitting area if you want to use the internet.) and then we ordered a pizza. The pizza guys call to say "im at your door" we open the door. no pizza dude! um..dude, where are you? "at the stowe resort." NO! we are at the STOWE INN!" so, 30 minutes later, we have our cold pizza. He forgot our salads, and didnt bring silver ware. Good thing I packed some.

We had a carpet pizza and watched bad movies. there was NO table to use, and only one over stuffed, broken chair to sit in. my back is screaming mad at this point. I took pills. We talked, we laughed, we remininced and we tried to make the best of it. I took pills at 7 and we went to bed. We left the window open and would rather face the talking people and the smoke instead of ol bessie the AC unit.

6am we are ready to go. We get up, we walked to breakfast up the road. Had bad corn beef hash and eggs, and walked to hotel where we packed, and dropped the key in the early check out box, and headed for the Cheese Annex near Ben and Jerry. it was nice enough. over priced stuff, but it had cheese and some videos of cheese making. We got gifts for the cat sitters and moved on, but not before I got the dire rear. oh joy! so, we got to the ice cream place just ahead of a tour bus RAMMED with kids! We just made the tour ahead of them, but we did get the pushy NYC couple and their teenage girl who thought this lame, and the over stressed mom with 5 kids under the age of 5, who kept saying "i am going to take you home if you dont behave! is that what you want, to go home?" she wasnt going to take them home, and they knew it! Not to mention stroller dad who kept trying to clip my ankles with his stroller. DH finally got between us and said "my wife has MS and if you knock her over, its ME you need to apologize to, got it?" He disappeared. Tour was over, had a tiny cup of americone ice cream and a video about Steve...whatever comedian its named after and some political views.

Got back in the car after skipping the over priced gift shop, and ran for home. very pretty ride, but construction everywhere! Got home and all my babies were thrilled to see me. I cuddled them all up, and we went to bed. Woke this morning after 12 hours of sleep and was asked to give a review of the B&B...you dont even want to know what I said.

Im home! Im happy, and I will be home till the next adventure. Good gravy. that was fun.

Wow, Dej, that really stinks. You have the worst luck!!

Sometimes I think planning for a vacation/trip and the anticipation is more fun than the actual trip.

dont get me wrong, I NEEDED to get away from this house. I really needed some time out, but there is nothing that makes you appreciate how cozy you have made your nest till you leave it for a bit. My sheets are clean and fresh, not old and worn. My AC unit works and I can shut it off and open my windows without a gaggle of folks smoking under it. I have pretty views right off my own deck. I have a lake in my back yard. I have great organic, first quality ingredients to make great food right here, and I dont have to pay $40 for ONE chicken thigh on top of a bed of chedder polenta, with 5 stringed veggies, and then pay $12 for a slice of dry poppy cake, let alone the $4 glass of milk. Heck isnt this town surrounded by cows? why was the milk so pricey?

So, time away from home helps us all appreciate what we have right here. I have a HUGE TV that I can see the screen, and can pick just about any movie I want. I have a couch that you can sit on, and a table that I can eat at. No one wants to charge me $20 to go inside and look at bad art. No one wants to charge me $14.99 for a 2 egg/2 pancake breakfast. I mean, come on! its an egg! its not a masterpeice.

So, time away has helped me come home and snuggle in, and appreciate my tiny circle here. I dont have to talk to folks if I dont want to. I dont have to be nice when I am getting shafted, and I dont have to pay anyone to be rude to me. Just thought you guys would like to share in my misery. lol.