This month marks three years on the road for us. It feels like it was only yesterday that we started this journey, yet we can hardly remember our lives before. We’ve had many ups and few downs living an in RV, but we’re quite content with our lives. Part of this may come from the transformation we’ve experienced since we’ve been traveling full-time. 

How Living in an RV has Changed Us

We know we changed as the years passed, but this was recently confirmed when we visited some friends from college. The last time we had visited was two years ago, only one year into traveling full-time. This visit, they couldn’t get over how much we’ve changed, especially Brandon. It helped us to see there were more changes than we realized happening and we knew it all stemmed from our experience on the road.

Curtailed Consumerism

When you live in an RV, you adopt a mantra: one in, one out. There just isn’t the room to collect things. We started paring down our collection of stuff in preparation for living in an RV, but once you’re in it, the lack of extra storage space really helps to curtail any retail therapy you may employ. The fact that we no longer watch much TV and even fewer commercials means we’re not as bombarded by messaging to buy, buy, buy and have less impulse to go shopping. We now collect memories and sunsets with a few smashed pennies and stickers thrown in for good measure.

Additionally, we enjoy slowing down, sitting around campfires with friends, hiking, exploring in our off-road capable toad, and generally just hanging out. We aren’t out to see everything possible and spend every dime we have to get into theme parks and such. We take pleasure in what’s around us and the company we keep.

Laid Back Planners

While neither of us were ever crazy planners, Kerensa did like to have a general plan of where we were going and what was around when we got there. Sometimes that skill still comes in handy like planning for the Florida Keys, but for the most part, we don’t make reservations anymore. We prefer to stay loose with our plans and be able to adjust quickly to meet friends, dodge weather, or choose a destination on a whim!

Our lives have become more laid back and we have become more laid back with them. Going to Mexico for a dental check-up was not something Brandon would have entertained three years ago. Now, it’s just part of the RVer life. When things break, we don’t stress too much. We just make a plan to fix it, adjust, and move on.

Super Social

We both identify as introverts and only keep a few close friends. But living in an RV has made us more social than ever. We are usually up for any kind of RVer meet-up and we’ve made so many friends this way. Connections are made quick, but deep. Never before have we felt such a strong sense of community while living in a fixed location. We keep up with our friends digitally when not together, but we will go out of our way to meet-up when possible. We plan gatherings in the winter and try to attend Xscapers convergences when we’ll be in the area. We have more friends in our circle now than all our years before! We wrote more about how we stay in touch in Staying Social on the Road.

Only a small portion of the friendly faces we’ve met on the road

Best Things about Living in an RV

There are many reasons we love our life on the road. The top one is being able to travel, of course, but the RV life has afforded us other opportunities we didn’t think about when we took off three years ago.

Spending Extended Time with Family and Friends

Instead of taking a few days off of work and flying out to see family twice a year, we can now park nearby and visit like we’re neighbors. This also applies to friends scattered throughout the country. When you have limited time to travel, you may only get to see some friends every few years if at all. Now we’re working on making a second loop to visit everyone again!

Living Like Locals

Again, we’re not stuck to a vacation timeline. We are not on vacation, this is our life. So instead of pulling in for a week and cramming our days full of sightseeing, we balance our days with work and play. We choose what we would like to see, but don’t feel compelled to “get our money’s worth.” We may stay a few days or a few weeks depending on what we want to explore in the area. During this time, we’re carrying on a normal life similar to a resident by shopping at local stores, eating at local restaurants, and participating in daily life. I cannot say we are true citizens by any stretch, but it does give us a better sense of place than a vacation usually does.

Wild Camping or Boondocking

We didn’t start doing this one right away, but, boy we were happy when we did! It really opened up the possibilities for us and made us love this life even more. Upgrading our batteries and adding solar upped our game and allowed us to get off the grid even if it’s just at a Harvest Host or casino. But being able to camp amongst the red rocks of Sedona is something special, especially when it’s just you or a small group of friends. It’s a good breather between campgrounds and something we try to do as much as possible. And can you really beat the low, low price of free?

Worst Things about Living in an RV

We actually have a hard time with naming the worst things. That’s not to say everything is perfect and all rosy in RV living, it isn’t. It’s just that nothing seems so awful that it needs to be called out. Maybe it’s our more laid back attitude or just knowing things like dumping the black tanks are just part of life, but it never seems that bad. Still, we feel compelled to come up with something, so here are our least favorite things about living in an RV.

Getting the RV Serviced

This is mainly because it is our home and office and it can be disruptive. If we need to be out of the RV while work is being performed, we have to find somewhere else to work or wait with our pets. We’ve done this at the service center, at a friend’s house, and once we just rented a hotel room because we didn’t want to work in the car all day with two dogs and two cats. We don’t think they wanted to sit in the car all day either. We’ve also spent the night at service centers which are not the most scenic locations, but really aren’t all that bad. Sometimes you even get to plug into power.

There are some things we do ourselves, but it’s not like we carry a full mechanic’s tool set for everything that comes up. Installing our sway bars in the desert sounded like a good idea, but after a couple missing and broken parts were uncovered on the RV, we had to put it all back together and go to a shop.

Driving Around Big Cities

We were city dwellers before heading out on this never-ending trip. We drove daily to work in big cities like Dallas and the area around New York City (for her part, Kerensa will readily admit she took public transportation daily in NYC and was already out of practice).  Doing it in a car is one thing, but in a motorhome is an altogether different experience. Cars tend to zip around you and most people don’t realize how long it takes for an RV to stop. It can be a little nervewracking. To combat this, we try to avoid rush hour and may take alternate routes. PSA: Don’t cut off an RV in traffic. You may think you’re jumping ahead, but you may be dooming yourself to being rear-ended by something 5 times your size.

Remembering to Book Holiday Weekends

This is a little bit of a whiny thing to say, but it’s real. Holiday weekends tend to just blend into the calendar now and it’s easy to forget to plan ahead. We’ve been lucky so far and already had holidays booked totally by accident, found boondocking, and spent Independence Day parked in a dive buddy’s driveway, but we have forgotten holidays and so have our friends. Memorial Day weekend campground reservations may be booked months in advance and we just don’t think like that anymore. Maybe now is the time to set reminders.

Boondocking in Buffalo Gap National Grassland outside of Wall, SD

Highlights of Our First Three Years

There are so many things that we’ve loved that it’s hard to choose, but there are a few stand-outs.

Wintering in the Desert with Friends

Last winter, we spent the week leading up to the new year with around 40 other rigs in the Anza-Borrego desert. It was truly one of the most memorable New Year’s Eve nights we’ve ever experienced. We sang karaoke (well, not us, we watched karaoke), burned a plywood borrego, and ate like kings at a potluck out in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty fantastic. From there, we broke off with a smaller group in search of better internet and continued with the community happy hours. We then hiked it up to Quartzsite for an Xscapers convergence and another gathering of close friends. It was a pretty great way to spend a month, especially before we all dispersed in different directions for the spring.

Meeting People

We already discussed becoming more social, but meeting other full-time RVers in this community is one of the best things that has happened to us. There are some people we consider friends that we haven’t even met in person yet. The RVing community is welcoming and open and we often start friendships online through Facebook groups or Instagram before crossing paths in real life. 

And beyond RVers, we have met many interesting people living all over this nation. We’ve watched artisans work their magic in New Orleans and listened to teachers in small towns describe what it’s like teaching in a school of fewer than 10 students. Traveling has shown us different perspectives. Moving around the country, we realize that people are more alike than different. They all have their individual struggles and are just trying to get by the best way they can. What brings us together is a sense of community and we love to help foster that.

Being Surprised by Places

This comes with the territory as we are always exploring, but there are some places that just sneak up on you. Case in point is the Buffalo Gap National Grassland in Wall, South Dakota. We stopped in Wall to see the Badlands and visit Wall Drug, but ended up being blown away by the beauty of the grasslands. We were able to wild camp on the edge of the Badlands for free (thank you USDA Forest Service!) and witnessed some of the most beautiful skies and scenery. This beautiful and peaceful site is easily one of our favorite places we have camped so far!

We already knew we enjoyed Vermont having traveled up to the southern part of the state a few times when living in the area. But we were still surprised by how much we enjoyed Burlington once we got up there. We only had a few weeks, but could have easily spent the whole summer there. It really seems to come alive and Vermonters make the most out of the season. Brandon was able to dive Lake Champlain multiple times and explore a wreck only a handful of people had seen before. And seriously, we’re out of maple syrup, so we may need to go back this year.

Getting a New RV

When we say new, it’s only new to us, but that’s how we prefer it. Let someone else shake it down. After hemming and hawing over trading in our previous RV, we finally decided to go for it. We knew our old one was too big for us and we didn’t want to invest in upgrades like solar when we didn’t feel like it was ours. It was the right choice and we’re very happy with our current set-up. We installed solar panels, so we didn’t have to worry about the batteries overnight or running the generator twice a day like on our old coach. We have more options as to where to stay with our smaller size and off-grid capabilities and that makes us very happy. Now we just need to redo the interior a bit and it will be all ours.

Low Points of Our First Three Years

Living in an RV doesn’t magically make the world stop and we’ve had our share of heartache and frustration over three years, a lot of it personal. Kerensa lost two grandparents within a year and when you’re on the road, it can be hard to get home. And sometimes things just go wrong.

Losing Both Cats

We only had our little Gypsy cat just over a year when she snuck outside in San Diego during our pre-desert stay. The next month was filled with constant searches, fliers, and talking to anyone in the neighborhood, but we never found her. A short time later, our older cat Dylan was diagnosed with lymphoma. This is something most cats can live with, but six months after losing Gypsy, we lost Dylan, too. We did learn about coordinating intensive long-term medical care for a pet on the road and where all the animal oncologists on the west coast practice. Thankfully, our initial oncologist was so helpful in making sure she was looped in with what was happening along the way that we felt we had a primary vet on staff.

Mini Catching on Fire

Yes, we’d say having our car catch on fire in west Texas definitely ranks as a low point. We had stopped at a pull off area in between the small town of Alpine and the smaller town of Marfa looking at wildflowers when Brandon noticed the car smoking. Brandon ran back and found a fire in the engine compartment. We pulled our small fire extinguisher out of the trunk and knocked the flames down. Brandon was able to pull everything out of the car while Kerensa called for help. The signal is very spotty out there and we were able to maintain signal just long enough to get our location to the operator. When she asked for a call back number in case we were disconnected, the line died and the signal never recovered. Thankfully, the sheriff and fire department were already on their way and they were able to put out the fire and take us back to the campground.

We scrapped our plans as our car was towed off to be repaired in El Paso and we had to move to a bigger city to find a rental. It turns out that Minis have an issue that can cause them to catch on fire at any time. Not trusting it after that, we switched it out for the Xterra. It was a pain at the time, but now it’s a story to tell around the campfire.

The Future

So you may wonder after three years on the road if we have plans to buy land, jump on a boat, or keep driving. We can whole-heartedly say we want to keep driving. We love the RV lifestyle and what it has brought us. So much so that we are diving in even more and focusing on RVing in our work lives, too. We have big plans for the coming year and we are excited about what we are doing next. We want others to share in this journey and know that they can do it, too.  

RV to Freedom: Our new Facebook community to help others learn about living in an RV.

We are opening a Facebook group called RV to Freedom: Learning to Live in an RV where anyone can come and ask questions to learn about living in an RV. We truly hope to help people get over their fears, cut through the clutter of opinions and information on the internet, and learn how to live on the road. We hope you’ll join us and share your experiences, too. The full-time RV community is welcoming and open and we want to encourage everyone to join, participate, and form connections. It makes us better prepared and better people. We hope to see you there and on the road!

Share our post or tell your friends to join by going to RVtoFreedomGroup.com. We can’t wait to chat!

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We fell hard for Burlington, Vermont. From the mountains to Lake Champlain to the restaurants and artisan food, this place had everything we crave. In no particular order, here are seven reasons to love Burlington, Vermont.

1. Factory Tours

   Do you watch “How It’s Made” on tv? Then maybe you’re like us and love factory tours. Burlington is flush with them for its size and a couple of them even come with delicious samples.
   

   • Ben and Jerry’s is in nearby Waterbury and runs tours of their factory (no photos in the production area for all you Slugworths). You do receive a sample at the end of the tour, but they have a full-service ice cream stand with lots of flavors, too. We liked wandering the flavor graveyard looking for past favorites and reading the very B&J humorous tombstones.
     
   • Burton Snowboards lets you take a tour of Craig’s R&D and prototyping facility (again no photos). For geeky product designers like ourselves, this was pretty awesome. Neither of us has ever stepped on a snowboard, but it really didn’t matter as the tour still captivated us.
     
   • Lake Champlain Chocolates is not so much a tour as a window into their factory. You’re seated the whole time while they explain the process and you watch everyone working. There are ample samples and it’s in their store selling their full line of chocolates and seconds which didn’t make the cut, but are still perfectly delectable. Across the street is the smaller factory room for their bean to bar venture, Blue Bandana. We used to dabble in bean to bar chocolate making and we liked watching the giant version of our melangeur grind the chocolate while we had lunch at the adjoining South End Kitchen.
     
   • The Vermont Teddy Bear Factory also has a tour, but we never made it there. It’s across from the Shelburne Museum and you may be able to tack it onto a trip if you budget your time accordingly, we did not.
     

2. Summer Festivals

   We have no doubt that Burlington is beautiful in the winter and filled with winter sports. After that snow finally melts, though, it feels like Vermonters try to suck everything they can out of the nice weather. I’m sure there are plenty of more festivals to see, but these are the ones we encountered while we were there.

   • The Festival of Fools fills Church Street marketplace with street theater. These buskers put on all kinds of performances from music to acrobatics to yo-yos. You can see busking in many touristy towns, but what is interesting here is the festival staff curates the performances and the performers hail from all over the world.
     
   • There are many outdoor music festivals in the area all summer, but we happened to arrive in time for the Summer Nationals Tour featuring one of my favorite bands Bad Religion. It was everything my 16-year-old self could want. It seems likely there would be some music to strike your fancy during your stay.
     
   • Nearby Stowe, Vermont hosts an Annual Antique Car Show and parade that started before half the cars were even considered antique! Combine it with some nearby trails and maple walnut ice cream and you’re set.
     

3. Local Specialties

   If you know us or read the sidebar, you’ll know we like to find regional foods. That is easy to do in Vermont. For some reason, I had it in my head before we arrived that I would try to cut down on my dairy consumption. Yeah, that didn’t last. Between the cheese and creemees, I was a goner.

   • Vermont is known for maple syrup and for good reason, the state produces 42% of the country’s maple syrup. Maple doesn’t only come in syrup form or have to be used on pancakes, check out our Maple Pumpkin Spice Muffins recipe.
     
   • Creemees are Vermont’s version of soft serve ice cream originally having a higher fat content than regular ice cream. They come in multiple flavors, but the most ubiquitous and unique to Vermont is maple. I don’t even care for ice cream all that much, it’s usually Brandon’s department, but I became addicted. To top it, some places offered black raspberry, my favorite fruit, so I ended up with a cream/purple swirl cone…and I’m starting to drool. Next!
     
   • Most people will recognize Cabot Creamery and some of their cheeses. They are a co-op of farmers across New England and New York and sell some fantastic cheddars including the hard to find Chipotle. They run three Cabot stores in Vermont including one in Waterbury Center, so you can visit on your way from Ben & Jerry’s. The stores have lots of other Vermont goodies, too. Technically, Grafton Village Cheese Company is in the southern part of the state, but you can find their products around Burlington, too, so be on the lookout. May we suggest the Maple Smoked Cheddar?
     
   • Apples are grown throughout the U.S., but not everywhere we’ve lived or visited, so seeing an orchard always make me happy. We were a little early for full-on apple season, the honeycrisps were starting to ripen, but that didn’t stop us from visiting Cold Hollow Cider Mill nor from them having an Apple Cider Festival. The mill has a store filled with Vermont-made foods (including the aforementioned Grafton cheese) and often have tastings of different varieties. In addition to a large jug of cider, we picked up apple cider jelly, and a cider doughnut that is made right in front of the store. Also, they have a separate lunch restaurant that was pretty good.
     
   • Finally, I know a lot of our friends and fellow RVers would be all over the brewery scene happening here, but that’s just not our jam. We did try a sampler at Citizen Cider, but overall, I’ll just say there are a lot of breweries for you craft beer loving folks. Fun fact: Vermont has more breweries per capita than any other state. Of course it has the second lowest population, too.
     

4. Good Eats

   Yes, more food! There are so many awesome restaurants in the area that we hardly made a dent in the selection. Here are a few of our favorites that we did get to try.

   • Sneakers Bistro is in nearby Winooski. The campground owner recommended this place and he did not steer us wrong. We went for brunch, so I could get the top rated breakfast items while Brandon could still have his preferred lunch fare. Both were delicious!
     
   • Another endeavor of Lake Champlain Chocolates is South End Kitchen. We had lunch there after touring the chocolate factory and it was just as good as their chocolates. Brandon’s burger and my quiche may seem at opposite ends of the spectrum, but they were both equally good. They also offer classes on cooking and chocolate making at this location.
     
   • Folino’s Wood Fired Pizza in Shelburne turns out exquisitely made pies. I chose The Yellow Submarine and it was one of the best pizza choices I have ever made. The yellow San Marzano tomatoes were a little sweet, but that’s balanced by the bite of arugula and black pepper. Goat cheese bathes the mouthful in a tangy creaminess. Folino’s is BYOB, but Fiddlehead Brewery is connected right next door, so no worries on picking up some brew.
     
   • On Friday nights in the summer, food trucks gather behind Arts Riot in the South End Arts District for Truck Stop. There are a lot of choices from tacos to cupcakes.
     
   • For a quick-lunch in Church Street Marketplace, the Red Onion serves hearty sandwiches.
   • If you want a quick bite next to the Lake, try The Skinny Pancake for savory and sweet crepes.

5. Outdoor Activities

   It’s Vermont! You know there will be plenty of things to do outside.
   

   • One of the unique things to do is bike across Lake Champlain. The Island Line Trail extends into the lake with a small break for boats to go through. At this point, there is a bike ferry that will take you across to the island in the middle. If you’re feeling strong and adventurous, you can bike to the other side of the island and catch the ferry to Plattsburgh, NY, then ride south to catch another ferry back to Burlington. We weren’t feeling that adventurous, but we did pick up some apples and a baby creemee at a little store on the island.
     
   • Hiking abounds in Vermont. Pull out a map, put your finger on it, and I’m sure you’ll find a trail.
   • For those who prefer to stay in town, Stowe has a 5.3 mile recreation path that allows you to walk, run, or bike around the city.

6. Diving in Lake Champlain

   Maybe this is an outdoor activity, but Brandon thought it was so awesome, he wrote a whole post about it.
   

   • It’s cold and dark, but it’s clear.
   • The chilly freshwater has preserved shipwrecks, unlike the ocean where they tend to disintegrate.
     

7. Shelburne Museum

   This museum deserves a point by itself and not just because it doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else. It’s another one that we had to write a separate post about because it was So Much More than We Expected.
   

   • The museum houses a vast and amazing collection of New England buildings, art, decor, and more.
   • It is so overwhelming, your ticket is good for two days.
   • Just standing in front of the Ticonderoga and pondering how they moved this giant steamship to the middle of the field is worth the admission price.
     

So there you have it, our reasons for loving Burlington, Vermont. It checks off all our criteria, drive, dive, and devour, plus a few more. Maybe next time we’ll make it to Misery Loves Company, a restaurant recommended by a local diver and add it to the list. Or we’ll pick up a new roasted caffeine habit and seek out Green Mountain Coffee. For now, though, I’m pretty happy with our list. Is there anything you’d add?

Maple syrup and Vermont go together like peas and carrots…which I actually hate, so maybe that’s not the best comparison. How about peanut butter and jelly? Either way, I dare you to not think of maple syrup when Vermont is mentioned, I know I do. Before we took off on our full-time adventure, we used to drive up in March to attend the Maple Festival in Southern Vermont touring all the sugar houses covered in snow. The houses would be warm and toasty inside boiling the sap down into the liquid gold that is maple syrup. The owners had little paper cups ready for you to put under the spout to fill with the freshest and warmest maple syrup you’ve ever had. We’d down these sugary shots, pick up a bottle or two, and move to the next house until our stomachs rebelled and made us eat proper food.

Maple Hill Farm in March above and boiling sap into syrup below.

When we visited Burlington in the RV, it was the edge of summer/almost fall, but maple was no less prevalent. I cannot tell you how many maple creemees I ate while I was there. Maple products, the bulk of which is mainly maple syrup, are found on shelves all across the state. Outside of maple producing areas, you can find maple syrup, but not maple candies, sugars, or spreads. The good thing is you can still do a lot with maple syrup other than drizzling it over pancakes, though let’s not discount that use. It’s great in oatmeal and on baked apples. You can also use it as a substitute for sugar while baking, just remember to use 3/4 cup syrup for every 1 cup of sugar and reduce your total liquid by 3 tablespoons. Or you can follow a recipe that is already tooled for maple syrup like these Maple Pumpkin Spice Muffins. They’re everything you love about fall in a muffin. Even though sugar houses produce maple syrup in early spring, the taste is reminiscent of cold weather pancakes. And, of course, there is the pumpkin and the spices that go along with it. I think America has renamed fall “pumpkin spice season.” So bake up a batch and eat them with your pumpkin spice latte, you won’t be disappointed.

First a word about maple syrup grades. You often see “Fancy” in stores, but don’t let this term fool you. This is often the first syrup made and is lighter in taste and color. It’s still delicious, but if you want a more pronounced maple flavor, go with a Grade A Medium or Dark Amber. These are the grades you’ll find as pancake syrup on tables across Vermont.

These muffins are a cinch to make and use a one-bowl method rather than separating out dry and wet ingredients. This is a lovely thing in a small, dishwasher-less kitchen. As with most baking, you’ll start by pre-heating your oven to 350 degrees and either greasing or lining your muffin pans. Most often, I just grease the pans for muffins, but these paper liners made for much cuter muffin photos!

Start by stirring together the maple syrup, salt, and canola oil.

I didn’t try this concoction, but I wonder if the salty sweet would be good like salted caramel which is delicious.

Next, whisk in the egg until thoroughly blended. This is the one item keeping these muffins from being vegan.

The all important pumpkin must be added. Adding pumpkin to your baked goods is a great way to keep them moist.

Add the dry ingredients and that fall taste with the pumpkin spice mixture including fresh nutmeg. You don’t have fresh nutmeg? Well, if we meet in person, I have extra, so just ask.

Stir the dry ingredients together on top before folding them in with a spatula until just combined.

Fill the muffins cups 3/4 full and bake. The recipe makes a dozen regular muffins, 24 mini muffins, or a combo of 6 regular and 12 mini.

See that scoop in the photo? I love these dishers/ice cream scoops. The one pictured fills regular muffin pans pretty well and makes large cookies. A smaller one fills the mini tin and makes standard size cookies. They’re a baker’s dream and I wouldn’t leave them behind when we moved into the RV.

Let them cool (well, try to let them cool) and enjoy! Tell me how they turn out or your favorite way to use maple syrup in the comments below.

Maple Pumpkin Spice Muffins- An Ode to Fall in Vermont

 

Save Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Maple syrup, pumpkin, and pumpkin spice- what more could you want out of a muffin?

Author: Kerensa Durr - Drive Dive Devour

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Serves: 12 regular or 24 mini muffins

Ingredients

• ¾ c maple syrup
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ c canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 c pumpkin puree
• 1½ c all-purpose flour, alternatively you can use 1 c ap and ½ c whole wheat
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp cloves
• ½ tsp ginger
• ½ tsp nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease muffin pan.
2. Stir syrup, salt, and oil together.
3. Whisk in egg until thoroughly blended.
4. Add pumpkin and stir to combine.
5. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and all spices to bowl. Stir the dry ingredients together and then blend into the pumpkin-syrup mixture until just combined.
6. Fill the muffin cups ¾ full and bake until firm and a toothpick comes out clean. About 12-15 minutes for mini muffins and 24-26 minutes for regular muffins.
7. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove muffins on to a wire rack.

3.4.3177

Kerensa decided that we should book it to Burlington, Vermont to get out of the summer heat of North Carolina. Of course, the first thing I did was get online to see if it was even possible to scuba dive in Burlington.

It turns out that yes, you can dive in Burlington and it’s pretty damn good diving too!

It doesn’t really matter how good the dive was when you surface to a view like this.

A quick Google search came up with Waterfront Diving in Burlington. Their site contains a list of historic canal boats that sank in the cold fresh water of Lake Champlain. As a shipwreck hunter, the news of well-preserved wooden wrecks really intrigued me. The next step was to find some locals to show me around. I put up some posts on Scubaboard and connected to the Vermont Divers Facebook group to find some fellow divers to point me in the right direction and take me out for some dives. Little did I know this would lead to one of the most interesting dives I have done to date.

An unexpected  dive on a relatively unknown wreck deep in Lake Champlain

I went on nice evening dive with a couple of the locals I met through Facebook. I didn’t realize at the time, but they were testing me to see if I was capable of conducting a dive they had planned later that week. We met up at a location called Thompson’s Point. There isn’t much to see here, but it is one of the deepest places in the lake. From the shore, we were able to gradually swim down past 100′ to cruise along a ledge that drops deeper into the lake. It was pretty dark at this depth, so I don’t have any photos to show, but as we went along with our flashlights we started to find old bottles strewn along the bottom. We collected a few for one diver’s personal collection and surfaced shortly after to the beautiful sunset in the photo above.

Once we surfaced, they invited me to dive on a wreck that they and a local boat captain had recently re-discovered. The wreck was a steam-powered tug boat that sank in 1931. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum found the wreck in 1996 and sent a few divers down to verify its identity. Even though the museum identified the as the US La Vallee, the location was not shared publicly in order to preserve the site.

My new dive buddies invited me to dive this wreck with them and be one of the first to see it since the survey crew located it in 1996. As a thank you for the boat captain, I created this video to show the wreck and credit Larry’s Diving Services. The wreck lies at 105 ft near the current Ferry Lanes in Lake Champlain. The water at that depth is very cold and pitch black. Due to the depth, we only had one dive with a limited amount of time. Below is the video we managed to capture during that short first dive. I hoped to get back to it again but the weather didn’t cooperate and we had to move on.

The wheel and rope pulley still intact on the La Vallee

Bottles and other artifacts were still present on deck

You can read more about the US La Vallee on the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum website.

The OJ Walker

In addition to the US Lavallee, I dove a few other wrecks with Waterfront Diving. These were also on Captain Larry’s boat since the shop contracts with local dive boats. One of my favorites was the OJ Walker. The OJ Walker was a schooner-rigged canal boat which is basically a sailing cargo boat that designed to fit through the canals and locks to bring cargo up and down the Hudson river from as far away as New York City into Lake Champlain. The size of the locks determined the size of the boats and because of this archeologists can determine the age of the ship from its size. As time went on, the locks grew bigger and bigger in order to bring through larger and larger ships laden with cargo.

According to the Waterfront Diving website, the OJ Walker went down in a storm in 1895 carrying a heavy cargo of bricks and tiles. Even though this ship has been underwater for over 100 years it is remarkably well-preserved. The cold fresh waters of Lake Champlain serve to preserve these old wooden ships, unlike the ocean where currents and living creatures will quickly eat their way through a wood ship like this.

The Wheel of the OJ Walker: Care must be taken in order to avoid damaging this delicate structure

This wreck lies at a depth of 65ft and is considered an intermediate to advanced dive. Good buoyancy control is mandatory to avoid running into and damaging the fragile structures on the boat and to avoid touching the bottom and kicking up a cloud of silt. Here some light still filters down from above, but a good flashlight really helps you take in the details of the site.

In the gallery below, you can see the deck and mast of the OJ Walker as well as some of her cargo of bricks still resting on deck and one of the brick carts laying on the bottom near the ship.

A dead eye from the OJ Walker: Although these look skulls, they are used in the rigging of the sails

There are many other wrecks in Lake Champlain that all have their own story to tell. The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation puts out a very nice pamphlet that describes the wrecks, their history and gives specific location information. I picked up my copy from Waterfront Diving.

Brandon and I passed the Shelburne Museum on our way to Burlington and thought it might be an interesting little museum to visit. Boy were we wrong! It was a very interesting BIG museum to visit. We arrived mid afternoon and had to return the next day to see everything in the 38 buildings (25 are historic). Thankfully, the staff anticipates this and your ticket is good for two days. The rambling 45 acres on Lake Champlain houses everything from fine and folk art to an old hunting cabin to a local decommissioned steamboat. It’s so vast in size that it’s hard to know where to start in person and in this post.

A Little History

I say we start with a little history of the museum. Electra Havermeyer Webb founded the museum in 1947 when one of her other homes was closed. She was an avid collector of decorative art and needed a new home for her collection. Thus, the idea for the Shelburne Museum was born. Instead of housing it in one gallery, she chose to showcase local New England and New York 18th and 19th century architecture and relocate 20 buildings to the property to display her collections. The buildings include houses, a general store, a jail, a covered bridge, a schoolhouse, barns, and more.  The museum has the feel of a small village and you can wander through the historic buildings and beautiful gardens at your leisure.

Fine Art

Although Mrs. Webb was a fan of the decorative arts, her parents were fine art collectors and amassed a large collection of impressionism and other fine art. She took over this collection and part of it is on display in five rooms that were brought to the museum from her New York City Park Ave apartment. Lucky me, there was a special showing of the all the French Impressionist paintings in the gallery at the museum. Impressionism is one of my favorite movements and I was thrilled to get a chance to get close and personal with Manet, Monet, and Degas. What was even more interesting and personal was a painting by Mary Cassatt of a little Electra and her mother, the artist and family were good friends.

The gallery below the French Impressionism collection displayed a selection of star quilts from all over America.

Sleighs

Next, we visited the Round Barn that was currently housing a large collection of horse-drawn sleighs. The details and workmanship of the sleighs were beautiful! I can imagine during the Vermont winters these sleighs would see a lot of use. There was also a traverse with a long red velvet seat that would carry 8-12 people. In the winter of 1877-1878, traverse coasting was a competitive event in the Vermont Winter Carnival.

The Circus Building

Near the Round Barn is the u-shaped Circus Building with a collection of, you guessed it, circus memorabilia along with carousel animals. On the inside wall, the finely carved carousel animals line up beckoning you to take a ride. Competing for attention on the outside wall is a miniature circus parade that extends 525 feet. If it was full-scale it would be two miles long. Roy Arnold and five assistants spent 25 years meticulously carving all the people, animals, and wagons. The attention to detail even extended to fully-functioning brake systems on the wagons. Outside, in the center of the u-shape, you can take a ride on a functioning carousel.

Dead Animals

We stopped in at a log-built lodge that represented Adirondack life and hunting where the bears seemed to preside over their trophies. The other rooms were sparsely appointed and the gallery next door displayed all kinds of firearms used in Adirondack life.

Railroad

The museum also contains a railroad station, a 10-wheel locomotive, a beautiful rail car from 1890, and assorted other railroad relics. It’s amazing how they have everything set-up just as it would have been when in use: the books laid out like someone is about to come back from lunch and write in them, the sleeping cars on the train waiting for you to climb in bed. There is a lot of attention paid to the exhibits here.

Ticonderoga

One of the jewels of the Shelburne Museum is the Ticonderoga, a 1906 Lake Champlain steamboat. You can explore all 220 feet of this steamer from the engine room all the way up to the wheelhouse. The Ti operated as a day boat on Lake Champlain until 1953 when automobiles finally took over as the preferred method of getting to and from the port cities of Vermont and New York. The ship was brought to the Shelburne Museum in 1955 during the frigid winter with temperatures that went to 20 below 0. The ground had to be frozen to support the tracks being laid for the Ti and the ship itself on the two-mile journey. It was an amazing engineering feat and still stands as a great example of maritime preservation. There is a short film about this effort that I’d recommend watching to fully understand how such a huge ship makes into the middle of a field.

General Store

The General Store on site looks as if it just came out of the mid 1840s with all the goods one could ever want. Personally, I thought the cash register was one of the most stunning pieces on display. You can hardly recognize the thread tying together this elegant piece from the past and the ipad registers of today. A doctor is also housed in this building and we made sure to pick up some cod liver oil and leeches on our way out.

This same attention to authentic detail was on display in the Pleissner Gallery. In addition to exhibiting the works of Ogden Minton Pleissner, they also recreated his Manchester, Vermont studio with his own brushes, canvases, and memorabilia.

Folk Art

We strolled through the Stagecoach Inn which contains folk art sculpture, trade signs, whirligigs, and more. Is it any surprise the watch designers had to take a photo of the giant pocket watch?

Miniatures

I have a special fondness for miniatures and there were many to view here. I love the detail that goes into these displays. Usually, I lean toward mini kitchens with tiny pies and rolls, but my favorite here was a view into an artist’s studio. I felt like I was a giant spying on this little man.

At one point, I had to throw Brandon in jail. He finally made amends and we continued on our tour viewing more horse-drawn carriages, a working printing press, creepy dolls, and a room full of hatboxes.

This feels like a very long and overwhelming post, but it’s still only a tiny bit of what we saw. There were more buildings full of quilts, fiber arts, glass, scrimshaw, antique toys, ceramics, etc. If you have an interest in some aspect of American New Englander life, it is probably here. I would whole-heartedly recommend a stop, but make sure to pace yourself. And if you need a break, look for the lighthouse below. It is your beacon to a relaxation lounge to recharge.