Getting Drenched, Don Juan & More

August 3-9, 2026                                                           Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground                       Costly Discovery of Carelessness
St. Johnsbury, Vermont       Pizza Disappointment & Shocking Motorhome

GETTING DRENCHED

The most memorable thing today is one I have no pictures of but below is a picture of the lovely Moose River as I passed it on my walk to East St. Johnsbury up route 2.  

I had been intending to go kayaking but it had said it was going to rain.  I waited all morning long.  I went over to chat on the porch with Mary and whoever was there to fill the time and kvetch about waiting for rain when Mary told me the rain wasn’t coming until 6pm.    With that information I decided it was too late to kayak so I’d take a hike up the hill to the next little burg.  On my way I crossed over the Moose River and took its picture.   When I was the farthest I intended to go from the campground the sprinkles started and then it RAINED.  Nothing to do but just keep walking.  Ultimately I was soaked to the skin.  All my clothes required wringing out including my shoes.  Not sure how many days it will take them to dry out.

My nearby neighbors Carol and Glenn kindly invited me for dinner.  They are from Deltaville Virginia which is on the Chesapeake Bay.   We had a great time talking about our travels.  They are only here for a few days unfortunately and then they move on to New Hampshire to visit his daughter and her family.  They are big bikers.

Salad and fish parmesan over pasta.  It was delicious.

LOWER SYMES

I visited Lower Symes Pond and doubt I’ll return.  This is the road that leads to the access area.  Notice it is only wide enough for one car.  Not sure what I’d have done had there been someone coming the other way.  PLUS there were 4 miles of dirt roads getting smaller and rougher before this.  All of that did mean I had the Pond to myself.

The boat launch is actually the kind I prefer.  No cement to scratch up the bottom of the boat.  It could do with a little less gravel and a little more grass.

It’s a cute little pond but has quite a bit of  plant life blocking the sun from the water and making it difficult to paddle through.   There were interesting looking channels I just couldn’t get to.

Yes, the lilies are pretty until they are everywhere.

There were 3 homes on the shore.

And they all had these signs.  It made me wonder if they had been victims of theft by water or been visited by a security system salesman.   The same sign was posted by each home saying “Security cameras in use”  I wondered if there were also signs on whatever drive comes to the houses.

The loons made the morning worthwhile.  The adult was calling and it was echoing back to her.  She did it several times but she quit shortly after I turned my camera on so this video is about 10 seconds.  You may have to play it twice.  I really like it.   At first I thought another loon was responding but it was just too quick.

DON JUAN

On August 6 1926 the film Don Juan with John Barrymore and Mary Astor premiered  in New York at the Warner theater. 

The Catamount Theater here showed it on a full screen on its 100th Anniversary.   Price was free and  it was great fun.  So glad they did it.  You can watch the full movie with the link above.  If you have a big screen and do that, I’d love to know what you thought.

The film was unique as the first feature-length movie to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. It featured a fully synchronized orchestral score by the New York Philharmonic and sound effects.  Though it had no spoken dialogue it did have some dialogue screens. The fact that I found most hilarious was that it also set a record for the most on-screen kisses.  Sadly I didn’t find this out until the talk after the movie but I did notice he seemed to kiss everyone and often.   If you watch it know that Barrymore amazingly did all his own stunts,  the sword fighting, the balcony jumping and all.

MARTIN’S POND

I had much better luck on Thursday at Martin’s Pond.  It’s beautiful, easy to get to and has a nice launch.

It wasn’t the house so much as the kayak in the yard that caught my attention although I am amazed at how many red white and blue banners, drapes and 250th decorations are on the pond/lake houses this year.

I assume this is a wooden boat but with plastics these days I can’t be sure without touching it.

Wildlife sighting

There were some reeds in the water but they were light and lovely not invasive like at Lower Symes.

The stack of tubes and the painting over the door caught my eye here as I paddled around the circumference of the pond.

I really hadn’t seen much wildlife other than the turtle and a lot of dragon flies until I was almost back to the launch when I came upon a pair of adult loons and a pair of adolescents

Is mom teaching them to fish?

Looks like mom did the fishing and handed it off.

This was the last time I saw the two adults together.

Get ready for too many loon pictures.  I can’t help myself.  They are so beautiful and intricately feathered and interesting to watch.

I interrupt these loon pictures to bring you a picture of this gorgeous day on the water.   I have been so lucky in such fabulous weather this summer in Vermont.

This is the picture I took to go along with the video I took of the two adult loons calling to each other.  This went on for quite a while.  Perhaps he was trying to convince her to come down to where he was further down the pond.  Better fishing??

Right after this, the rest of them disappeared.  Perhaps persuaded to go down to the other end.   Time for me to leave too.

Nearly the perfect boat launch.  My honda waits in the background.

Here was the lovely view that I stopped to take on the way back to the campground.  It was too pretty to just drive by.   Vermont is a gorgeous mostly rural state or at least the “Northern Kingdom”  where I am.

THE PRIZE AT THE END

On Friday I went to Joe’s Pond, not to kayak but to hike the rail trail.  I don’t kayak two days in a row to give both my back, kayak seats are not known for comfort, and my shoulders a break.   Scenic parking right on the Pond.  I still have issues with Vermont and what they call a pond and a lake.  Joe’s is a BIG pond.

Some of the houses on the lake back up to the trail.

The water lilies have taken over this marshy section of Joe’s.

I hiked up to Joe’s Brook, just over 2 miles and then turned around to go back for my reward.   I love the word brook.  Stream is nice too.

The brook is looking just like one should in my opinion.  Another fantastic day.

A short walk from the Rail Trail parking is Hastings Store, a historic, family-owned general store and post office in West Danville, Vermont. Operated by the same family since 1913, it serves as a local hub for groceries, takeout food, local cheeses, baked goods and ICE CREAM  and lots of other things.  I love that they are the West Danville post office like Pages Store used to be the Batesville Post Office but sadly is not any longer.  My rural part of Virginia has lost a lot of its charm in comparison with Vermont.

I chose blueberry cheesecake.  Trying to like Taiwan Travelogues.  More next week.

Through a separate entrance or a doorway at the far end of the store is the craft store which carries a great variety of locally made crafts including jams and pickles.  A working loom is at the far end and I was wishing the weaver was there but not today.  Probably the week-ends.

This is the knitted neck warmer I wanted my friend Pam to see.   There were also gloves, hats and scarves which I’m sure sell very well given the winters here.

ANOTHER UNIQUE RV

When I got back I was very interested to see my new neighbor who came in with an 18 wheeler cab towing his toy hauler, a smart car riding between the cab and the 5th wheel and a 3 wheel motorcycle inside the toy hauler.  He had it all.

The picture was obviously taken after he got the smart car down.  He keeps the motorcycle in the toy hauler only bringing it out to ride and putting it right back.  There have definitely been some interesting rigs here this year. 

AROUND TOWN

On Saturday I went to the Farmer’s Market and my walk around town.  Here’s some of what I saw.

There are several octagon buildings in St Johnsbury.  These unique, mid-19th-century eight-sided structures were built during the national architectural fad popularized by Orson Squire Fowler in his 1848 book A Home for All. The buildings reflect Fowler's belief that octagonal shapes offered better sunlight, air circulation, and economical space.  These were built in 1856 by George Merrill who was the first superintendent of the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad.

The two-story, eight-sided, brick house with an octagonal lantern at its apex stands on a knoll along the slope of Eastern Avenue next to the Catamount.  This is the only greenery around.

This small two-story brick octagonal guesthouse is behind the brick house.  Sadly they are no longer surrounded by grass and flowers but by a parking lot and are commercial structures now.

There is a 3rd Octagonal building on Pleasant Street which I’ll look for next Saturday. 

Another of the beautiful large homes on Main Street.  As I mentioned earlier, red white and blue is everywhere.

Near the end of my walk I went by the church where in years past I’ve been able to walk the labyrinth.  It’s still not open but I thought this sign was great.   In Virginia where I’m from they have the Blessing of the Hounds every year.  This includes all animals, horses, sheep and anything else you want to bring but I don’t think backpacks.

CAT VIDEOS

My week ended with Catamount showing 90 minutes of cat videos collected by some group that does it every year.  I’ve never been but when I told my cat loving friend Laurie I was going she said she’d been once.  I should have paid more attention to “once”.  Some of them were funny, some were cute but not enough to fill up 90 minutes IMO.

BOOKS

I’ll close with the books I finished this week. 

Country People was light and funny in parts.  It takes place in Vermont.  A family moves from LA,   Truffle hunting dog.  Not as good as his previous novel North Woods  or an earlier one The Piano Tuner I didn’t think.  If you’ve read it, I’d love to know what you thought.

Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America’s Love for the Wild.   Not sure I agree with the “ignited” but these 3 women, Georgie White, Anne LaBastille and Delores LaChappelle were definitely some of Americas first outdoor women.

I found the book by chance at the library on the new book shelf and it attracted my attention because I knew and admired Delores LaChappelle and had attended a week long Deep Ecology workshop with her.  She had been famous as a white powder skier early in life but her last years were spent writing books about Earth Spirituality and Deep Ecology.

I had heard of Anne LaBastille  because of her series of books titled  Woodswoman.  She lived alone in the Adirondacks, and was one of the first women to teach in the Environmental Studies Department at Cornell. But when she was publishing, she found that oftentimes her papers wouldn't get accepted so she submitted papers under the name A. LaBastille instead of Anne LaBastille, and those papers got accepted.  Hmmmm….

But I’d never heard of Colorado River runner Georgie White.  She was one of the first documented non Native American people to run the Grand Canyon in boats, and she was also one of the first people to guide it commercially. She was the first woman to do it, and the only woman down there for decades.   I highly recommend this book and the stories of these exceptional women.

Let me know in the comments what you’ve been doing and reading.  Hope Blogger doesn’t make you anonymous but if so, please sign your name.