October 13, 2012, Manchester and Weston, VT Scenes

October 13, 2012, Manchester and Weston, VT Scenes.  I told you yesterday that we would be warm and cozy in Harvey as the temperatures dipped into the mid-twenties last night.  I was wrong.  We should have been warm and cozy.  About 8:00 last night, the heat pump stopped working.  I didn't know why, but I switched over to the gas furnace.  The furnace worked until about 3:00 AM, then it decided to stop.  We huddled under the comforter until the seven o'clock hour, then started the van to take the chill out of the air while we got dressed. 

I looked in the very well-organized books Annie assembled for the RV.  The first thing I found is that the heat pump becomes ineffective when the outside air temperature drops below 40 degrees.  I figure that happened about 8:00 last night.  I read on.  If the furnace goes out, is should not be restarted for at least two minutes.  Of course, I tried to restart it immediately.  So, this morning, I restarted the furnace after it had been off for the required period.  It worked.  Tonight, I turned on the heat pump.  With the outside temperature in the fifties, it worked.  Tonight the predicted low is 40.  I think we will be warm and cozy in Harvey. 

We had lunch at The Little Rooster Cafe and walked around Manchester.  Manchester has been named the Vermont village with the most beautiful foliage.  We must have missed the peak season.  Many of the trees were bare of leaves and those that remained were brown and colorless.  So, I was left to photograph some of the architecture and scenery symbolic of New England. 

We drove about 25 miles to Weston to visit The Vermont Country Store.  You can find the Web site online.  TVCS has just about everything from clothing to fudge.  We have clothes, so we had to buy fudge.  The store has an interesting collection of toys.  However, those folks are awfully proud of their merchandise.  I declined to pay thirty dollars for a sock monkey or forty dollars for a winter cap.  But, it was a nice trip down memory lane.  The toy section took me back to the 1950s.  The store sells marbles.  You just can't find marbles anymore. 

We plan to stay another day here before turning south through western Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Perhaps, the trees further south will not yet have suffered the ravages of freezing temperatures.  We plan to be at West Point October 17 and stay for the award ceremony for Ike Skelton on the 18th.  Ike will be surprised to see us 1500 miles from home.