Our son Tom ended up staying till mid August with us, every Thursday was tent moving day...couldn't let the grass die instead we had a patchwork yard most of the summer. While Dave worked most Mondays it was a day Tom and I both had off. So great to spend time with him, whether it was talking, going for a bike ride or visiting the local water park. The time spent with Tom this summer was an unexpected gift of reconnecting with him.
All of the headstones at Hope Cemetery are made by local granite artisans.
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| There was never a question if we ate good |
No trip to VT is complete with out a stop at Ben & Jerry's. Of course you have to pay respect to the flavors that no longer exist
Who knows
when we'll get a chance to all be together again.
We've of course seen our good friends who still live in the area, maybe not enough but as much as we could. Our friends Les and Deb are in the process of selling their home and hoping to be in Duck NC by March if not earlier. We hope our friends Mike and Carol will come visit us on the road one day. To say it's been an emotional time is an understatement...who knows when the six of us will be together again.
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| 20 years of friendship |
Needless to say we both been working a lot of hours. Dave worked as much OT as possible, while I have been putting 35+ hours a week here at the campground...at least my commute isn't forty five minutes each way on a two lane heavily traveled road.
Here at Maplewoods Campground we've had a busy summer, from the fourth of July holiday weekend through the Labor Day weekend we had 100% occupied. Thank goodness for the new campground reservation system. A new larger bath house and six more rv sites were added by the middle of July. Reservations this July, August and September blew out last years numbers. We already have fifty plus reservations on the books for next summer...the holiday weekends are already filling up-the best sites are already gone.
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| Friends who became family |
The best bosses ever, so many laughs and good times over the years.
Our years here have been filled with great times, good food and lots of laughter. We will truly miss our Maplewoods Campground family and look forward to the day our travels bring us back to our Vermont home.
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| The smallest rv this season |
This has been a crazy summer for Dave too, his company was sold to another. At the end of June this technically this brought about his retirement from IBM and immediate hire by Global Foundries. In mid August his leave of absence was approved. In mid September Dave received an email about a Voluntary Employee Separation package being offered. After reading all of the material and finding he was eligible Dave started the process to retire. Dave has always wanted to go out with a package and looking ahead we knew realistically we at the most had one more summer in VT. On September 23rd he received the notice he was approved, his last day was September 24th.
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| Really they can fix all kinds of things |
A small retirement party with Dave's closest co-workers with a nod to our adventures.
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| The End |
