Caching in Vermont & New York 7/8-10/2009

Wednesday we left the campgrounds and headed for N. Bennington to do some caching as we thought it was going to be a nasty rainy day, which of course it wasn't. We took a couple of easy traditional caches that were in N. Bennington and then we were off to a 10 stop multi-cache named MEGA Moose-tery Tour. The cache involved going to 10 different sites where there were decorated moose at each site and getting a number off each one to make up the final coords. Bennington was having what they called 2009 Moosefest which is a charity event held for Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Bennington Free Library, Young Professionals, and Bennington Center for the Arts. The events start in May and last all the way into October. Some of the events are a silent auction, summertime music concerts, fireworks, horse shows, maple festival, garlic and herb festival and a antique and classic car show. This year there are 40 moose sculptures painted and decorated by many local and out-of-town artists located at 40 different sites in and around Bennington. We started our Moose-tery Tour in N. Bennington with "Chocolate Moose" and the subsequent moose were as follows: "Moose Ink", "Lickety Split", "Snowdrifter", "A Native Moose Family" ( which consisted of "Wobigo Megeso Moose", "Princess Inuit-Yupik-a-Moose" and "Chief Wandering Bull Moose"), "Mystical Moose, "Moose Scoops", "Moostang Convertible", "Full Metal Moose" and "Mooscle Car". Each of these moose will be on the blog in the order we visited them with the name plates before the picture. As we visited each moose we got the numbers needed and then plugged them into the final coords and drove to the campus of Bennington College and walked into the woods and found the final cache. This ranks as one of our most favorite caches that we we always remember.
Thursday we spent at the coach just relaxing and watching TV. We did go out for dinner to Jonathon's Table a very small local restaurant just up the road from the campgrounds. We had a fantastic meal as I had prime rib that would melt in your mouth and that had a delicious flavor. Mom had veal Jonathon that also was so tender that you could cut it with your fork and was also delicious.
Friday we headed for Hoosick Falls, NY to do some caching as we are almost right on the border of NY and VT. First couple of caches weren't anything special, one on a street sign, on in the woods on a hill. Next was a cache at Hoosick's only falls seeing as Hoosick Falls was originally named after waterfalls at the center of the village on the Hoosick River. Unfortunately, due to recurring flooding the Army Corp of Engineers was forced to blast the falls. Now water coming over this damn which was down a hill along the river south of the town, is the closest thing the village has to a falls. Next caches was a cache in the center of town on a bench overlooking the river.
Next was a cache on the bandstand in a small park which was dedicated to Henderson E. VanSurdam. who was born in Hoosick Falls, N.Y. in 1881, Harry lived to be 100, passing away in 1982. An outstanding player, coach, and official in the sport of football during a career that spanned more than 60 years, Henderson “Harry” Van Surdam, also known as “Dutch,” did not let his diminutive size hold him back. Playing at Wesleyan from 1901 through 1905, Harry earned all-New England honors as a quarterback in 1905 despite his 138-pound frame. He led the Cardinals to a 7-2-1 record that year.After graduation, Harry coached at Marietta College and was one of the first coaches to incorporate the forward pass into his play-calling after it was made legal in 1906. He surprised many opponents as well as officials with his daring maneuvers. From Marietta, Harry moved to the University of the South, then to El Paso Military Institute, which eventually became the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). After returning from a stint in the Army during World War I, Harry began a football officiating career that stretched for some 50 years. In 1963, he was honored by the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) with the designation “Dean of College Football Officials.” He also founded and served as president of the Touchdown Club of New York. Harry was a member of Wesleyan’s varsity track team. He led Wesleyan’s glee club, and his interest in music spawned activity as a composer and conductor. A number of his compositions were highly popular on college campuses. He also spent time in hotel management and as a cruise director. He was inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1972. He became friends with Grantland Rice when Rice was a young newspaperman in Nashville. Mr. Van Surdam had studied music at Wesleyan, and he later set to music some of Rice's poetry about football.
Next cache was located in the mailbox on the front of a house that was dedicated to cancer heroes. Next cache was on a street sign. Next cache was in a cemetery at the grave site of Grandma Moses and it was or 2800th cache find. For those of you who don't know who Grandma Moses was a renowned American folk artist. She is most often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Moses began painting in her seventies after abandoning a career in embroidery because of arthritis. Louis J. Caldor, a collector, discovered her paintings in a Hoosick Falls, New York drugstore window in 1938. In 1939, an art dealer, Otto Kallir, exhibited some of her work in his Galerie Saint-Etienne in New York. This brought her to the attention of collectors all over the world, and her paintings became highly sought after. She went on to exhibit her work throughout Europe and in Japan, where her work was particularly well received. She continued her prolific output of paintings, the demand for which never diminished during her lifetime. Grandma Moses painted mostly scenes of rural life. Some of her many paintings were used on the covers of Hallmark cards and one of her paintings, Sugaring Off sold for $1.2 million.
Our last 2 caches were located near a private golf course along the bordering trees and rough. Then it was stop for an ice cream, take some pictures and drive back to the coach. That was it for the day so we will say until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad