ALL PICTURES AND WRITINGS ON THIS SITE ARE COPYRIGHTED BY DONALD SCHULTZ

DOUBLE CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO ENLARGE.

“Damn leaf peepers!” Sara and I could just feel the words flung at us by a local as his car careened around us. Seemingly oblivious to the kaleidoscope of color around him, we marvel at how anyone could drive that fast through such a breath taking landscape. But just as the beauty of the ocean, desert or mountains can supposedly become mundane to someone who sees it everyday, so too, it appears, can the fall color. We pull over and let him pass. After all, we are retired.

For past three weeks, we have been chasing the color change across New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York. These areas are legendary for their fall color and include four of the ten top areas for leaf peepers in the nation. We began our tour in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, continued to the Green Mountains of Vermont, touring around Lake Champlain, and finished in Upstate New York at Lake Placid and Lake George.

In New Hampshire, there was only a hint of fall. We visited a science center near Holderness where Sara added several birds to her life list including a Baltimore Oriole and Great Horned Owl. We saw a mountain lion, bobcat and several deer. Our visit included a boat ride on Squam Lake site of the movie “On Golden Pond”. We saw where Henry almost crashed his wooden Chris Craft into the dock, where Jane Fonda sunbathed on the pier in her bikini, the covered gazebo where Katherine Hepburn read her book, and the rock in Purgatory Cove where Norman and Billy catch Walter “the big one” and crash the boat. We saw an antique steam tour boat and sighted several loons. There has been a huge effort to re establish the loon on Squam Lake and our tour guide beamed with pride as we spotted our first pair.

We then spent a week in the Lake Champlain area which divides upstate New York from Vermont. We were joined by old friends from Wisconsin, Dick and Sandy Ihlenfeldt and their miniature daschund, Gretta. Sandy was our younger daughter Polly’s babysitter over 25 years ago and Dick is a recently retired bank president. We cooked, explored and traveled together for over a week. The campfires were filled with laughter and stories that warmed the heart as did the fire. After all, our families had grown up together and since starting this full time RV lifestyle we so miss seeing friends. We base camped just south of Burlington, Vermont. Dick graciously drove his huge Suburban so we could visit together and Sara cuddled Gretta to ad nauseum. A trip around the northern end of Lake Champlain included a chance tour of a restored Schooner, the Louis McClaire, on the eastern shore. It was fascinating and free, and staffed by volunteers all in costume. We toured the nearby Green Mountains with its waterfalls, covered bridges and maple syrup stands. Sandy knows how to swing a deal with the syrup vendor.

But the highlight of our time together was a day spent at the famous Shelburne Museum, the largest in Vermont. Situated on over 40 acres of rolling grounds, we saw round barns, a circus display, a blacksmith demonstration, hundred of antiques farm vehicles, a Lake Champlain steamboat, the Ticonderoga, which was painstakingly restored to every detail, an art exhibit of the works of Georgia O’Keefe and several priceless Monets. It was one of the most eclectic collections of historical memorabilia and items we have ever enjoyed. Any trip to Burlington would not be complete without a visit to the Shelburne Museum.

We also visited the famous Ben and Jerry Ice Cream factory where we enjoyed a movie on the history of the company, which had graciously been sold by Ben and Jerry recently to a large corporation, according to our guide, to be able to make this “extra premium” delight available to more people. The guide pointed out that the founders still lived in the area and visited the facility often to keep an eye on their pride and joy. I pointed out that we had just seen them at Cape Cod at their 4 million dollar plus home recently and suggested that they probably wouldn’t be sighted today, much to the “chuckles” of our fellow visitors. Then we saw the production room where such delights as “Cherry Garcia” and “Chunky Monkey” are created and packaged. The spills were until recently fed to pigs at a local farm, until it was discovered, according to the tour guide, it was causing clogged arteries and cholesterol problems for poor critters. Enough said.

We then moved to the tasting room for a small cup of “American Pie” a new apple flavor. Not being able to fill our tummies to satisfaction, we moved out to the ice cream stand for a double dip of “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, New York Super Fudge Chunk and Peanut Butter Cup.” As blood sugar skyrocketed and our hearts strained to push their loads through our narrowing blood vessels, we were visited by a local street rod club with their shining rigs and roaring engines in the parking lot. The cars were fun to see and hear and capped off a day that required no evening meal.

The next day the Ihlenfeldt’s sadly had to leave us starting their trip home back to Madison, WI. Sara got tears in her eyes at their departure and said, “I want a home to go back too.” A comment, while painful to me, was answered by a glance at the 50 ft., 22,000 lbs structure parked 3 feet from our picnic table.

Before leaving the Burlington area, we toured Church St, the down town equivalent of State St in Madison. Bordering the campus of the University of Vermont, Church St is a collection of art shops, outside dining and books stores. Sara’s wish list of books was fulfilled at Borders, much to the joy of the Buddhist clerk whose daily sales commission reach a new level of Zen he rarely achieves, based on his checkout grin. Don settled for a gyros from a street vendor, smothered in raw onions and garlic sauce and washed down with a bottle of Vermont’s finest local brew, Two Bags Beer. Tt was a gastronomical delight with evening emphasis on the gas.

Our final stop before leaving the Burlington area was a visit to the famous Vermont Teddy Bear Factory on the outskirts of Sheburne. Vermont Teddy Bear is the brainchild of John Sortino, who made his first bears in his wife's sewing room in 1983 and sold them from a peddler's cart at an open-air market in Burlington. The company now sells over 350,000 bears per year. The tour was conducted by a delightful gal who had our group convinced that these little critters really did have a personality of their own. We saw them sewed, stuffed, and even repaired at the Bear Hospital. There was Lover Bear, Heart Throb Bear, Stud Muffin Bear, Sweet Heart Bear and Holstein Bear just to name a few. Sara’s favorite was Bride Bear. Hummmmmmmmm….. But one thing all Vermont Teddy Bears have in common a is $30 to $60 price tag and that is for a nude bear. Of course, there are full lines of fashions with all the necessary accessories. Fully decked out, a Vermont Teddy can run well over $200. Thank God there were no bunnies for Sara to buy, and thirty years experience as a biology teacher was enough to convince her that bears and rabbits are not compatible partners in an RV. I could almost feel Jack, Jill, Joy, Plain Jane, Jeszebell, Jack Jr, Julia, Jennifer, Grampa Jeremiah and Jocko back at the RV give a collective nose wiggle of relief at the knowledge that a damn bear was not joining them. Oh my God, we are getting closer to having a real dog.

We left the Burlington Vermont area by crossing Lake Champlain on a ferry for Lake Placid, New York, site of the 1950 and 1980 Winter Olympics. We attended an Octoberfest at White Face Mountain and toured the many Olympic venues that are still attractions in the Lake Placid area. The ski jump was a highlight. To stand at the lift off of the 120 meter main jump and realize that jumpers have soared over 450 ft on the vertical and 1200 ft on the horizontal at over 60 mph gives real meaning to the phase, “The People That Fly”. We stood there, looked down and could only shake our heads in disbelief. You couldn’t get me to jump off that hill if you lined the entire route with a 50 foot thick layer of marshmallows. And guess what; they jump in the summer on special grass-like surfaces at these break neck speeds. Unbelievable.

After Lake Placid we moved 50 miles south to Warrensburg in the Lake George area. The fall colors were at their peak and serious leaf peeping was about to commence. It is truly hard to describe the color of autumn in upstate New York. You awake to morning fog, crisp air, rustling leaves, fresh apples and changing colors that become more and more intense as the days progress. Just about the time you think you have seen the most spectacular scene possible, another even more awesome catches your eye. It is a photographer’s paradise and no matter how many times you click the shutter, you can’t get enough. And while some of the pictures come close, none ever seem to really capture the beauty. We will share some of our best, but oh how we wish you could be here with us to experience this eye bursting delight.

One of the nicest beds I know
isn't a bed of soft white snow,
isn't a bed of cool green grass
after the noisy mowers pass ,
isn't a bed of yellow hay
making me itch for all a day--
but autumn leaves in a pile that high,
deep, and smelling like fall, and dry.
That's the bed where I like to lie
and watch the flutters as they go by. - Aileen Fisher

Everyone should take time to sit and watch the flutters go by and if you every have a chance to leaf peep in New England, do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!