A funny thing happened on the way to my Bachelor degree. I met Julie. And you thought there wasn't another person out there like me. Well, think again. Only she's got a green thumb and a clean house. You'll only see one boy in these pictures, but she's got another one just as great.

I spent the last weekend of September 2007 up there with her and her family, including Zenzi (the shepherd/rotweiller mix) and our little poodle, Zoey. I feel like she's half mine since I've been there from the beginning of her life with Julie. She seemed to think she was half mine, too, from the moment I got there.

It was a great weekend - weather was glorious, though the leaves hadn't changed much. The town is small and slow, and Julie knew everyone in town. For those of you around here, it was a bit like old town Warrenton or Middleburg.

You couldn't take a bad picture from the covered bridge we visited (we actually went through three). As you'll see, they're all post-card perfect. I intend to blow one of them up and frame it.

The monument we visited is the tallest war monument in the world and was built as an honor to the Green Mountain Boys (I seem to recall hearing about them in school). North Bennington is in the middle of the Green Mountains, though it's a town I'd never heard of until I met Julie. There were 3 tour busses at the monument the day we went. Go figure. What a vista, though, from this place. And it's all of about 2 miles from Julie's house. Her son had never been up in it, however. Come to think of it, my boys are 18 and have never been to the White House. How sad is that?

Have fun checking out the pics. There are some from the drive home - like the lady reading the newspaper. I had to stop for a car phone charger in some little hick town in New York and she seemed to exemplify the entire town. Just had to snap it. Norman Rockwell? -kdsg