Much Brotherly Love

Back to our wonderful homeland. It was Wintertime 2009 not so long ago. We left Walden and traveled through Montpelier (so Amy could get one more day of babysitting in) and headed southbound with a full car and a full tank of veggie oil. The plan was to make it back in time for Robert’s annual Grinch Party, and we did just that (sans a sleepy Amy). This is also where I begin my unintended journey to gain an upwards of 10 lbs…

EXTRA, EXTRA! Sagittarians and Saris!

December not only brought us a lot snow here in the North East Kingdom, but it also brought us two fabulous events that we were fortunate to attend. Our great new friend Chris (Yogi Mukti) invited us to his annual Sagittarius party in Montpelier, and we were happy to accept because “we like to party” and, hey, I (Jon) am part Sag myself! The email invite stated that it would be a tropical themed party and to dress for warm temps which sounded entertainingly ironic for this time of year in VT. So, after picking up Brooke from work, we ventured to the outskirts of Montpelier. When we arrived, as promised, there were subtropical temperatures in Mukti’s home along with people decked out in bathing suits and tropical wears.

Thanks and SNOW!

Though we missed being with family for Thanksgiving, we were lucky enough this year to share delicious meals with some new friends. Our afternoon began with a visit to “community supper” in our neighboring town of Hardwick. We have volunteered at community suppers two times now, and we try to make it out for the meal whenever possible. Local farms and businesses donate much of the food, and many of the smiling faces helping to cook and clean up are people from a wonderful community called Heartbeet Farm. The meal was fantastic. We were thankful for the abundance of many tasty meatless dishes and happy to feel at home in such a positive environment filled with love and goodwill.

FEVER, FEVER, FUN!

The temperatures are cooling, and we have tried to imagine what it will be like when these great outdoors become less friendly and less like an addition to our cabin. See, we have no bathroom or plumbing (our running water has frozen) and we are used to going “#1” amongst the trees and “#2” up the path in the outhouse or at the house. So far, we have still been able to find comfort in the chilled air, but we are anticipating the changes.

Lettuce Bee Farm

It has been over a month since we arrived at Lettuce Bee Farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Through www.organicvolunteers.com, Lettuce Bee was the only farm we had secured a date to come volunteer before we had left Philadelphia in April. We signed up to volunteer 2 weeks with the possibility of extending it another week or so, and here we are 3 weeks later planning to stay the rest of the growing season and straight through a very snowy Vermont winter! Did I mention we have been staying in a little rustic cabin in the woods?

BALLS!

While visiting with Dorothy and Jay, we make and share lots of great vegetarian meals together. We have given a lot of business to Montpelier’s well stocked co-op, Hunger Mountain. At least once a day one of us is paying a visit to stock up on supplies and ingredients for the many dishes we have made. A few favorites have been Steak (seitan) and Salad, Indian Night, Tofu Scramble, Tempeh Reubens (made with Jay’s home made rye bread), and Falafel (from scratch)!

The Big Push

We left Chicago early. Our plan was to drive 950+ miles to Montpelier in two days (probably the most driving we have done between destinations). We left at the perfect time, missed Chicago morning traffic, and by the evening rush we had already passed through Cleveland, OH. Driving a little further thru Pennsylvania in the north-west town of Erie, we made our way into New York and spent the night in a motel. We cooked dinner in the room, watched some tube and fell asleep. We got another early start in the morning and made our way across the state.

Chicago (Burbs)

After awaking and saying our good-byes in Minneapolis, we got an oil change and drove to Chicago. Our actual destination was Bolingbrook, Illinois, which is a suburb, located 45 minutes outside of Chi-Town. Our drive took us all day. We passed through Madision, WI,

Minneapolis

After awaking and briefly searching for grease with no luck, we set out for Minneapolis. We spent a few hours driving straight there, arriving at Pete and Barbra’s in the afternoon. We have been to Minneapolis on several occasions since Amy has a few relatives living in and around the Twin Cities. Pete is Amy’s uncle and we were to stay with him and his lovely wife Barbara for the next 2 days.

Fargo, ND

Zipping through Montana and most of North Dakota, we finally landed in Fargo for the night. Well, we actually slept right next door in Moorhead, MN after exploring downtown Fargo and searching for food (suitable for vegetarians), grease, and a hotel… no luck. We had found potential hotel deals in the surprisingly not so small town of Fargo, but decided to keep checking out our options and ended up in a low budget hotel with a lot of character. Some features were reminiscent of an old school, or possibly even a detention center. There were cinder block walls, long hallways with fluorescent lights, fluorescent bedroom lights, and an overall feeling of a time from the past (specifically the 1970s). The rooms were clean enough, though, smelled fine, and had all the amenities we were looking for – a bed, bathroom, TV, struggling but existing wi-fi and space to set up some cooking supplies.