New England in the fall

New England has the reputation of casting the most colorful palette of fall colors in North America.  We are now labeled "leaf peepers" (say this in your best new england accent) by the local camp hosts who cater to this demographic every September and October before shuttering their campground for the long winter.  Most of our campgrounds are quiet now as kids are back in school and the retirees don't make much noise.

We left Maine and headed to Manchester, New Hampshire for a couple of relaxing days in the woods.  We did a little fishing, caught up on laundry and made a grocery run.  The colors are starting to change slowly and it is expected to happen more quickly after the huge rainfall and drop in temperature from the aftermath of Hurricane Florence that hit the Carolinas four days prior.  We have rarely seen rain on our trip so we are relearning what life was like with rain.  The kids have not let it stop them as they trounce in puddles and wear soggy shoes all day long...no biggie, but the shoe compartment underneath the rv wreaks of fishy, wet shoes! The RV roof is slathered in fresh silicone in all of the weak spots and is keeping 99% of the water out while our little fan is drying out the remaining 1% from the inside.  The reason we bought a class C was for the overhead sleeping compartment which has been uninhabitable for the last six weeks.  This is frustrating.

We visited the small mountain town of Keene, NH where life looks idyllic and college students mix with locals in the picturesque downtown.  The kids found a bookstore to trade their books in for credit but we had to be there on a future date that we couldn't make happen.  Instead,  Erica and I decided that we would buy each if their stacks of books from them so we could lighten our load in the RV by donating them to Salvation Army.  Keene is a place we went back to a couple days later and would go back to again!

There are tree-lined roads over huge rolling hills to travel through much of both Vermont and New Hampshire, so we see why the colorful trees have such impact on everybody.  We enjoyed our drive to our next destination at Kampfires RV Campground outside of Brattleboro, Vermont. Brattleboro is an old town, again with the token New England all-white church with large steeple piercing the treelines but it is set against the backdrop of a mountainous wall of trees waiting to turn.  The people here are a mixture of small rural homesteaders and young hippies where the thing that's in is whatever you happen to be into.  

We ate at Superfresh! Organic Cafe in downtown Brattleboro and visited the Co-op grocery a short walk away to experience all the natural foods.  There seems to be a strong focus in this community on holistic health and healing practices which excited Erica and I to discover.  We also spent some time and a little splurg at the local sporting goods store.  Vermont has all the charm that one would ever need to call home and Erica and I had fun envisioning a life here. This was the hardest place that we have had to leave so far...I know, I keep saying that! 

Here is the book that the owner of Superfresh!, Jessica Jean Weston, wrote.  It is filled with great recipes for everything from what flavorful elixers you can enjoy during a cleanse and also day-to-day consumption of adaptogens, herbs, superfoods and fermentation. Her vast knowledge and experience in this space was very apparent in the dishes that our family ate at her restaurant.