Another Great Aliner RV Rally ! Spring 2017, Burlington, Vt.

Well, another great Aliner rally.  This time it was an “Ad hoc” rally.  No formal activities or shared meals planned.  Just a group of 25 Aliners and 52 Aliner owners getting together to swap stories and enjoy a little camaraderie.  Oh, and I think if I counted correctly there were approximately 11 dogs, and I didn’t see any cats.  There were a few campfires, but not any big events like we usually have in a rally.  It could just be that there wasn’t any one cheerleader person  herding everyone together.  But we had a great time meeting friends from past rallies and subscribers of the channel.  I could not have guessed how much fun I would’ve had in a place I used to visit all the time, Burlington Vermont.

We drove 4/5 of the way there to a little campground in the Adirondacks Wednesday.  We did a little sightseeing there and a little review of the campground which will come out in a video after this is posted.  The campground was called Magic Pines, and was run by a couple who told me they were originally from Newfoundland.  And that they run the campground in the summer and own the mobile home park next door that they maintain all year long.  But they do travel back and forth to Newfoundland and Florida occasionally.  They were a very friendly couple and showed me around some of the amenities that were not quite open yet as I was there the first real weekend of the 2017 season.  It had good power and pretty good water after we flushed out the rust.  And plenty of hot water in the showers and the showers were only a quarter.  But most of the campground was pretty rustic in appearance as most good Adirondack camping is.  While there were no big attractions within walking distance,  the Essex ferry to Vermont was just 12 miles away, and only $10.95.  The campground was also only 25 minutes from Poko-Moonshine Mt. and its fire tower, and Hurricane Mountain and its fire tower.  So for a nice quiet comfortable campground I think it was really in a pretty nice spot.  I may recommend it for a fall rally.

So we spent some time at the Aliner rally visiting with people, flying the drone and taking pictures.  But then we toured around Burlington to see what was new in the last 20 years, when we used to come across the lake to ride bikes on the trail and get a good meal.  The character of the town hasn’t changed much though there is a lot of new breweries and artsy stuff. But I did a video on the campground we were in, North Beach campground, and some of the Burlington waterfront and other attractions.  That video should be out the day after this is posted.  But the big video that won’t be out for at least another week, is the video of the Shelburne Museum just south of Burlington on Route 7.  I paid the $22 to get in the museum and figured I could hike through it and video it in about an hour and a half and then make a 15 minute video showing the highlights of the museum.  Boy was I wrong!  It took me a full four hours to see roughly 3/4 of the exhibits inside the fence of the museum.  And there was a lot more to see.  The ticket is good for two days so you don’t have to rush through and I will bet that it will easily take two full 6 hour days to see all the stuff and understand it.  I am working on that video now and the raw footage is over an hour and 30 minutes long.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it down under 30 minutes are not.  It was very interesting though.  It goes to show you how much a person can accomplish when they have unlimited amounts of money.  I can’t imagine how much it would cost today to move a huge luxury yacht/steamship from the lake up the side of the hill just so it could be in your backyard.  I’ll bet it would’ve been cheaper to buy all the land from the museum to the lake and leave the boat in the water.  It’s one of the exhibits I did not get enough time to see as it was one of the last I went to.  But they have a video of how they got the boat up out of the water and up to the exhibit.  We live in the wonderful age of photographs and video.  It allows us to experience so much, but I’ll try not to get too philosophical. 

So here is my BLOG for the trip and hope you get out and explore the world !  The boys say Woof!  And keep coming back !

Stay Safe !

Rick, Caesar, Dakota !

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