Hello everyone. After teaching several classes the past two weeks, we are back on the road again. While traveling from town to town in Vt., we did take some time to explore. We visited Stowe...home of Ben and Jerry don't you know! We were going to stop for a visit and some ice cream, but the line was long and moved slower than the lines at Disney so we opted to go to dinner instead! We came upon the Trapp Family Lodge...yep the folks from the Sound of Music. I was tempted to break into a chorus of "The Lonely Goatherd", but restrained myself. The family still ownes the lodge. The youngest son Johannes is running it now, but at 70, he is getting ready to turn it over to his son. Driving along I-89 and 100 in Vt was an experience. The views were breathtaking and just when you thought you had seen it all, you came around a curve and saw something even better. I told my classes I could see myself living up here except for one small problem...WINTER!!! You know you aren't in Kansas anymore when you see snowmobile crossing/road closed in winter signs.

On Wed., we arrived in Lake Placid, NY and were greated with a temperature of 40 at 2 in the afternoon. The trees are almost at their peak color here and it is gorgeous! We have been the ulitmate Olympic tourists, visiting some of the venues from the 1980 games. When we went to the Olympic complex, it is connected to the complex from the 1932 games. We got to see lots of memorabilia from atheletes through the years including Sonja Heini (1932 winner for figure skating), Dick Button (1950/54 winner for figure skating), Eric Heiden (1980 for speed skating), and lots of stuff from that historic hockey team that beat Russia for the first time ever and then went on to win the gold medal. We actually sat in the arena where this game took place and we could almost see the game playing out in our heads all over again. When we woke up yesterday, we were greeted by snow! Just flurries, down below, but up on the mountains, the snow stuck. It made for some good shots. We went to the High Hill Gorge and climbed around like mountain goats and saw some incredible sights. While sitting at lunch, the snow was coming down so hard, I thought for sure we would have accumulation...but it was too warm. Next, we went to the bobsled/luge/skeleton venue and got new insight into these different sports. Our guide there was a very engaging woman who just happens to be a Disney fanatic, so of course in between the history of the venue we swapped Disney stories.

Today, we visited the ski jump venue where there are 90 m/120 m/30 m jumps. We were able to watch some of the atheletes training from the 90 m hill and all I've got to say about these people is that they are nuts!!! We rode the chair lift (what an experience that was) to the top of the hill. They actually had to stop the chairs for me as I couldn't hike my butt up into the seat fast enough and almost kissed the ground trying to run away from the seat!!! Once on top, we were even with the guys at take off. Then we went to the top of the 120m tower (that's 253 ft) and were able to walk out on the observation deck to get a first hand view of what a jumper sees as they are taking off. We learned that when they hit the take off, they are going 60mph! This afternoon, we were off to the alpine skiing venue at Whiteface Mt. This mountain has a 3400+ vertical drop, the sharpest drop in the Eastern States. There was still plenty of snow at the top of this 4,700 ft mountain, so it made for a beautiful drive, and the scenary when you reached different pull outs really took your breath away.

Oktoberfest hits here this weekend, but tomorrow calls for a full day of rain so it will be a day of lazing around the camper. Hopefully, sunday will be a better day and we can see all the festivities.

Hope everyone is well. Happy New Year to all our friends. It was very wierd not being home and cooking for the holidays. I will have to make up for it at Hanukkah. We should be home by then!!!

Take care...more later.

Terry and Mark