UVM Morgan Horse Farm

The Morgan Horse – America’s First Breed

        
“Figure,” the breed’s sire              U of Vermont Morgan Horse Farm

The Morgan Horse is named after Justin Morgan, who received a colt, Figure, as partial debt payment in 1789. As the colt had been considered a runt, it was surprising that he turned out to be such a legend and fine stud…
    From the AMHA’s site: “As Figure grew, his compact muscular body and stylish way of moving impressed many of the pioneer farmers and settlers. Soon tales of his beauty, strength, speed, hardiness, endurance, and gentle disposition spread amidst the small New England towns. His ability to outwalk, outtrot, outrun, and outpull other horses were legendary. His stud services were offered throughout the Connecticut River Valley and various Vermont locations over his lifetime. His most valuable asset, however, was the ability to pass on his distinguishing characteristics, not only to his offspring but also through several generations.”
http://www.morganhorse.com/about_the_morgan/history/
   
Figure lived to be 32 years old.

The tour of the farm was very interesting and the horses are beautiful!

Basin Harbor, Vermont

The trampoline was lots of fun, especially when you fall in the water


 
Wake boarding on Lake Champlain

Au Revoir, Gaudia!

Had a farewell dinner at Jardin du Nelson in Montreal-Vieux. Fabulous indoor/outdoor restaurant with live jazz and medium pricing. You certainly get the best value for your buck here! http://www.jardinnelson.com/

Next morning we got up early to drop Gaudia off at the airport and we cried a little…

Canada is the best country for RV trips

And Spring is the best time of the year to do it. 

Everywhere we go,  when we need it,  there is an RV park or campground.  There are well marked signs for them.  The facilities are neat & clean and quiet.   There are mostly what seems to be full-timers at these parks with just a handful of travelers.  I am glad we’re travelling in Spring though, I have a feeling in summer the few spots available for travelers would be booked.

Even in really remote or not-so-nice areas, there is a large amount of full timers.  I guess its a cheap lifestyle that the pensioners like more than some run down city apartment. 

Farm Country

TD: Himne’s sister, Gaudia, was denied a tourist visa from the US embassy in Calgary. They said they simply could not process a non-Canadian foreigner from their office (they essentially only process non-Canadians living in Canada). While I was in the lobby I saw all sorts of these foreigners get tourist Visas – foreigners that did not have any US sponsor. I understand that those foreigners were residents of Canada (guest workers, etc..) but a number of foreigners from all over the world (including Middle East) were cleared for visits to the US, meanwhile myself holding my American passport with a guest that had all the 100 pieces of paperwork and identification were refused. Basically people can travel around the world and pickup visas as they need them, but to visit the US as a tourist you have to travel all the way back to your home country to apply. I understand we have a security issue in the states, but not having any appeal process or alternate paths to obtain a tourist visa is insane.

It’s really hard to get a visa if you follow the rules. Ironically it must be really easy to get into the US from Canada if you don’t. When we were travelling to Vancouver island I became aware how porous the border is via the islands and waterways around this area; in addition for the fun of it we took a detour when we got close to the US border near a town called Abbotsford (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=abbotsford&sll=49.082412,-122.484512&sspn=0.404765,0.892639&ie=UTF8&ll=49.074766,-122.419281&spn=0.404823,0.892639&z=10&iwloc=A). We went down some random farm roads until we came up to the US border where it ended. I just wanted to see what the border looked like in some random rural area and it was quite pretty actually – just farmland. It must be so easy to get into the US from some random remote location along the Canadian border it makes the border check points seem irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

The US/Canada border.  The illusion of security.  What you can’t see from the picture is that this is just some random home’s driveway.  Behind Gaudia is nothing really but grass and farmland. 

Oh yeah – Farm Country…. Since we left Calgary its been nothing but farm country for two days.

Canada is nice, but it is expensive!

TD: The dollar has dropped from about 1.2 to 1.1 to the Loonie since we have been here, but that isn’t really the problem. The problem is that it’s just plain more expensive in Canada. It’s like going to Europe. The first time I went to Canada (Whistler) (on my own dollar) was about 15 years ago and I remember it being cheap, now it is just plain expensive. Eating out can be up to 50% more expensive. Services are 30-80% more expensive. Hotels are ~20-30% more expensive. These are for ‘equivalent’ things in the States. Some things, like park fees, are a lot more – but you get more services from them so it equals out. The average household income in Canada in 2007 was $61,800 CDN. The average in the US was $50,223 USD for the same period (About $55,000 CDN in today’s rates). So the Canadians are making about 5% more, but things are at least 20% more expensive. It seems that in the US we really do have a unique combination of high salaries and low cost of living (of course, not if you live in La Jolla).

Some thoughts on Canada and Canadians

TD: Although I have been to Whistler a few times I have never spent much time in the ‘real’ Canada. At this point in the trip we’ve been from Vancouver Island off the coast to BC through Calgary in Alberta and it has been extremely beautiful everywhere we’ve gone. Having Gaudia with us, her first time RV (or long term camping) experience I am really grateful we’re travelling in Canada and not the US because the services are so much nicer, cleaner, etc.. I have to say the same goes for the people as well. In the US if we were to travel around somewhat randomly like we are now we’d have been in some really scary, dirty, noisy/rowdy places. It’s refreshing to have only seen one set of spinners in the past two months. Gone are the gangsta’s, punks, tough-guys – all the intimidating ‘tribes’ we have in the US. What they do have is genuinely nice, friendly people that keep the place neat and have a high standard for their environment – both natural and man made.

Update: 6/13: Apparently I am not the only one that feels this way.  Go Canada!   Canada only has a handful of big cities, yet it got 3 of the top 10 most liveable cities in the world including #1: http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2009/06/liveable_vancouver.cfm