State 45

Well, we left Pennsylvania with regrets, having had a great time, and seen 456,987,123 autumn trees - and for those who asked, john DIDN'T stay with the Amish, or dye his beard - but wait till you seet the photo of him in an Amish hat!!

New York was merely a train-swap for us, although we raced out into the street, outside Maddison Square Garden, took a photo of the Empire State building, then caught the next train, this time to Albany, the capital city of New York State. It was a glorious journey - right beside the Hudson River all the way.

In Albany we hired a car and drove into Vermont - state #45 - unfortunately, we missed most of the Fall leaves here, but it's still beautiful. We stopped in Bennington and visited the Grandma Moses exhibition at the museum (come on, own up, how many of you are old enough to remember Grandma Moses' naive paintings that everyone admired in the 1950s!) and the Bennington monument, from the American Revolution.

We stayed the night with Nancy and Bob, Affordablr Travel Club members from Rutland, Vermont. For US$20 we had a lovely bedroom, our own bathroom, a good breakfast, and lots of Parliamentary comment, as yesterday was half-term election day, when people voted for State Governors, senators, and lots of other people ... including judges, police chiefs, head of the school board etc ... we didn't see any banners telling us which dogcatcher to vote for! This morning we visited the Norman Rockwell museum at Rutland (Clue - 1950s - Saturday Evening Post - Frances' Uncle Allan always gave them to her to read)

It was so cold this morning that the frost was still everywhere (even the tops of trees) at midday, and we saw lots of 30cm (12 inch) icicles hanging from rocks beside the road as we drove. We even saw patches of ice on a pond! It's been so warm and sunny further south that we got a real surprise! Fortunately we have lots of warm clothes, and our smart new black Mitsubishi Galant is toasty warm, too.

By the way ... What horse won the Melbourne Cup? ... there's no way we can find out here except for the internet, and our half hour is up ... Bye!