June 27, 2010 – Day Fifty-one

The dogs normally awaken us around daybreak, which depending upon the tree canopy we’re camped under, can start as early as 4:34am – way too early to be getting out of bed for normal humans.

We could hear the dogs wrestling with each other, and when I finally dragged myself out of my cocoon at 5:15am I was shocked to see that the floor of the trailer was littered with shreds of paper.

These were receipts I’m anal about recording into my accounting program. But I couldn’t blame the dogs for their misdeeds, since I failed to properly block off the area were I stowed those receipts.

I awakened Marianne to allow her to savor the destruction. As I walked the dogs for their morning constitutional, she gathered up all the confetti and laid it in a pile for me to see what I could do with it.

I spent the next hour working on one of the most complex jigsaw puzzles I had ever done, Scotch-taping these shreds back into recognizable receipts. I have to admit I did a pretty good job, but there were some with holes, which were probably the parts that the dogs ate.

From this lesson I learned that if we ever run out of dog food, we can feed them Kleenex and receipts, since they love them and try to eat them every chance they get.

We loaded up the trailer and headed to Vermont. Marianne had never been to Vermont so it’s another state for her to check off. I was pretty sure I was there, but this would confirm it.

Our first stop in the state was the birthplace of Calvin Coolidge, the 30^th President of the United States. As the vice-president under Warren Harding, he began his term upon Harding’s strange death in San Francisco in 1923. He was sworn in by his father, the local notary public, shortly before 3am in the family living room here in Plymouth Notch, a home without a telephone or electricity. A messenger had to deliver the news of Harding’s demise. After he was sworn in, he went back to bed. Later that morning he returned to Washington where he was sworn in again, since there was some doubt that a state notary public could administer the oath of office to a president. Calvin was elected on his own right in 1924, but uttered the memorable words, “If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve,” when he could have run again in 1928.

Finding Plymouth Notch is not easy. First off, the State of Vermont administers the site, unlike the federal government for both of the Roosevelt homes, and secondly, Vermont doesn’t allow billboard signs, so all you see are little highway signs for businesses, and some of these signs are very well hidden by shrubbery.

But we found it.

There was a large meadow next to the nearly empty gravel parking lot where we let the dogs run. And run they did – chasing each other at full speed, like they do now whenever we let them loose on a place where they can safely run.

The admission to the hamlet of Plymouth Notch, which has only about eight buildings, at least two of which are barns, was only $7. As a state historical site my Golden Eagle pass didn’t work, but my AAA card was worth a 50¢ discount. The admission price for the both of us it was only $13.

There were probably only a dozen tourists at the site.

Docents provided the staffing; one docent sold the entrance tickets, another provided the information on Calvin’s dad-owned store to which a tiny home was attached where Calvin was born, another one ran the still functioning store, and one more was at the home across the dirt road from the store where Calvin moved when he was four. This is the house where he was sworn in as President.

The docents were proud to state the furniture in the two homes was the actual furniture that was in those homes during Calvin’s time. This was unlike other presidential homes, which often use reproductions or similar period pieces.

In the summer of 1924 while he was in office, Coolidge's younger son, Calvin, Jr., developed a blister from playing tennis on the White House courts. The blister became infected, and within days Calvin, Jr., only 16 years old, developed blood poisoning and died. After that Coolidge became withdrawn and later stated in his autobiography that, "when he died, the power and glory of the Presidency went with him." This, probably more than anything, prompted the quote I mentioned earlier.

Calvin’s wife, Grace, who was his exact opposite in personality: she was talkative and fun-loving, while he was quiet and serious, declared that she never wanted to spend another summer in Washington, DC. All of the states vied for the opportunity to host the Coolidge’s as their summer White House, but for a reason I never understood, they picked the Black Hills of South Dakota. Once I visited this area, I discovered why: these areas are strikingly similar, yet the Black Hills didn’t carry with it the emotions of a lost son.

There was also a small working cheese factory in the hamlet that doubles as gift store, as well as the tiny church where the Coolidge family worshipped. We spent a little more than an hour checking everything out before heading further east.

Vermont is not a very big state, and its east-west borders are only about 110 miles apart where we crossed, so in no time we were in New Hampshire, a state that neither of us had ever been to before.

While Vermont has the Green Mountains, New Hampshire has the White Mountains. We were headed to the KOA at Twin Mountain, in the shadow of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft. It is famous for its dangerously erratic weather, and long held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface, 231 mph on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.

For New Englanders, these are impressive mountains, for us in North San Diego County, it’s no big deal since Palomar Mountain is only 150’ lower than Mt. Washington, and the San Bernardino Mountains are about a mile higher. But we have nowhere near that kind of wind speed, thank heavens!

Driving through Vermont and New Hampshire we were impressed. The little towns are “darling” (Marianne’s term). We saw several covered bridges, and there were signs to be on the lookout for moose crossing the road – we never saw any.

We were only going to spend one night here, but it turned out there was so much to do, so we elected to spend a second night.

There’s a crispness in the evening air that makes sleeping without an air conditioner possible and enjoyable.

Sweet dreams!