Wednesday June 7, 2023 - Starksboro to Bristol VT (and all over)

 

Today we split up. After breakfast and coffee and goodbyes at John and Amy’s, Deb hiked south off the mountain on her (and our dog Zorro’s) favorite abandoned road, Mason Hill South, and Milo took the van to get together at his old workplace, AllEarth Renewables, for a meeting to go over the new Flower product design.

Milo’s day:

After the meeting, Milo got to visit with all his old co-workers, still trying to save the planet. Next stop was a dear friend Tom and his wife Kathy, who Milo worked with since the 1980’s. We had lunch and caught up and Kathy showed me her tiny book collection. Some of these books are hundreds of years old and she has been collecting them for a long time, so she has an impressive collection. Love people who dive into areas of interest up to their eyeballs.

Next stop was a visit to another old engineering friend Guy who lives on a beautiful piece of land overlooking Lake Champlain. He still does engineering work but has started going on months long tours of the Rockies, in the winter, with his Toyota truck and home built custom camper.

Then back to Bristol to pick up Deb and make our way to get together with Deb’s old work mates from Mount Abe High School.

Deb’s day:

I had a lovely rainy day hike over the hill and down into the village of Starksboro. So many memories along the way! Priscilla picked me up at the Starksboro village bus stop at 10, and we drove into Bristol, hoping to stop for a cup of tea. After realizing that the 2 coffee spots were closed, we headed to Beth’s house where we had plans to meet for lunch. We had a wonderful lunch at Beth’s, with Priscilla, Beth, Ellen, and me (aka The Boccettes). No bocce since it was a cool and misty day, but so great to catch up over good food at our “annual meeting”.

The weather cleared up enough in the afternoon that Priscilla, Beth, Moose (Beth’s black lab) and I all headed to the Bristol Waterworks property for a beautiful walk on their trails. After the walk Beth and I drove to Bristol and had a drink at The Bobcat and caught up for another hour or so.

At 5:45 John picked me up in Bristol and we drove to my former colleague Gary’s house for dinner and to spend the night. Gary sold his former Bristol house over a year ago, and has since built a spectacular home on a smaller piece of land outside of Bristol. He designed the home and did a great job locally sourcing lumber and materials. We had a wonderful dinner with Gary, but also with our good friends Paul and Joanne Stetson, and Mary and Jeff Stetson. Gary, Paul, Mary, Jeff, and I were work colleagues at Mt. Abe for many years and it was quite a treat to spend the evening with them.