We were awakened to the light drumming of rain on the Invader and democratically decided to lay low and limit our activities to lounging near the campsite. After a few cups of coffee laced with Irish Creme, however, we decided to do a little exploring of the Springfield area. We hopped into Charlotte for a spin about the area and started our explorations by driving all the way to North Springfield which looks a lot like Springfield except that it has no interesting buildings, no interesting houses and ordinary roads with secret identification signs so tourists like us will be unable to find their way to all the uninteresting stuff North Springfield possesses. We did find a back road which would lead us back to a highway giving us an alternate route back to Springfield that almost instantly turned to dirt or gravel. It was hard to tell which it might be since it was raining and, when wet, appeared to be mud. It was a nice drive through unexplored territory on the west side of Springfield with neat little farms surrounding decrepit residences with ample junk in their yards. Very snazzy.
On our way back from this short foray into rural Vermont, we stopped at a grocery store called Shaw’s which had prices that may make one appreciate the benefits of competition because normally cheap items like potatoes and apples had prices that are normally found only in upscale neighborhoods like Beverly Hills or La Jolla, CA. After parting with more money than we should have for fewer items than we wanted, we consoled ourselves by returning to the Shanghai Gardens restaurant for more very reasonably priced Chinese food served by folks wearing the same shorts, wife beaters and cheap zories they were sporting yesterday. Although their attire may not be spiffy, the food is very tasty and the prices were dirt cheap – appetizers and two meals with egg rolls, wonton soup, fried rice, pineapple chunks and fortune cookies for $26.
Mutually deciding to curtail our exciting activities for the day, we drove back to the Tree Farm campground to steel ourselves for tomorrow’s drive into upstate New York. Tree Farm is a gem of a campground with all the stuff you might want in an RV camping venue and without any interference from your neighbors who you can hardly see since the place has big sites with timber between spaces. We found out they had adequate security when we elected to take a drive around the entire campground to see how many folks were in the campground and were followed home by one of the campground operators. He was very nice and explained that he only followed us around to make sure we were registered guests and not merely casing the joint for easy pickings. Whatta guy.