Took me 28 hours to get to london .. when it useally only takes about 9.. it’s super late here and I gotta sleep.. just wanted to check in and say.. ‘im here’ .

big meeting tomorrow.. wish me luck !

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

ps. funnyish story.. the guy who checked me in to this hotels name was sam.. after he checked me in  i said  inneed to give you soemthing.. he sytarted to protest..because he thoguth i was goign to give him a tip.. he was pretty surprised when I pulled out a sams stone with his name on it..

he really liked it…. bt is that to wierd a thing to do ?

 

pss. Guilty admission.. i got here aroudn midnight and was starving.. I ate half an untouched pizza from uneaten roomservice across the hall. does that make me  a bad person ?

 

Sitting in the Albany airport aftera 3 hour quick drive down from Vermont. My flight to Dulles on the way to london was canceled and they resceduled me for Tomorrow.. hich would have me miss my meeting !.. I found a flight in Albany.. packed really quick and DIane took me to the airport to rent a car…

Now my flight from here is delayed and I may miss my flight in DC.. ugh !  Never a dull moment !

That all aside.. we had a very nice day today.. kinda tired after the float yesterday..   We met up with friends for a 3ish hour hike t brunch !.. We did the brand new trails up around Richmond

 

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check out the prayer flag spider !

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we got a view at the top.. but we couldn’t figure out where we were looking 

thank goodness for cell phone maps !

home again.. and man were we hungry !

 

lovely meal, love freinds

gotta run.. and figure out my flights..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Today was the 2nd anual Floatapalooza.. A fund raising event for the Burton Chill program  that gets kids who can’t  usually get to the maountian up on a snowboard.   the event was organized by our freinds mike.. and cara…

 

 

this years planning was so good. We let everyone use our yard for prep and filling up the floats and hanging out until time to launch. It was so grea.t. at one poitn tehre were more than 200 folks in our yard getting ready to float down the winooski

 

they had a dj to keep things lively

 

at noon mike organized everyone and they started takign their floats down to the river. 

 

mike even presented us with our own flat for helping. that was s uch a nice thing to do !!!!.. we were happy to help !

here you can see folks loading up

 

and our neighbors on the bridge watching the craziness. 

 

diane an i took turns on the foat and an intertube. it was so fun doign this together !

 

the ride down took more than 3 hours… folsk were hanging out, talking, drinking beer.. it was very chill  and fun !

 

at Cara.. or was it Pratts.. everyone got out and the guys fed everyone .. hotdogs and water. It was so nice of them to do that !\

 

there was even a band.. the tnederbellies.. an acustic bluegrass/blues/americana band. they were SO excellent !

 

 

i made a potatoe chip sandwich 

 

thne back int he water for the next 2/3 of the float

 

there’s gabe !

 

and Tom

 

the band loaded into to canoes and played the rest of the trip. it was so great having live music in the river !

 

we ran into our good freind Nick !

2/3 the way we all got of at ‘shotgun island’.. and took pictures.. and chugged beer.. very mature 🙂

 

about that time I ran out of phone batteries.. we did the rest of the float and pulled out at richmond green.

 

there were schoolbuses there ready to take everyone back to cara’s for an afterparty..catered by moe’s

 

 

 

what a great event.. thansk to Mike and Cara and everyone else for all the work they put in to make this a really magical day !

 

 

ok.. i cant keep my eyes open any more.. gotta sleep !. More tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tonight we headed over to the Davis Farm to artend the 3rd year remmeberance of our friend Elijah Davis’s passing. We got there very late.. but there was still a big crowd. You could feel the love and support of all the folks. A live band was playing and people were milling about socializing  .

We wanted to see Elijah’s folks Tammy and Gary,, they are good freinds though we dont see them often. It was very good catching upp. They are doign well. They have a ton on their hands witht he farm they run.. Gary was tellign us of the neighbor help he gets with milking. It’s not an easy life.. but you can tell by talkign that there are parts of it that they both love.

at three years from Elijah’s death they looked solid.. and at peace.. it was very good to see. We wish them peace !
nite all, nite sam

-me