9/9/2012

Jack drives first in the morning which gives me an excellent opportunity to update my blog for the previous day. Yesterday I ate 1562 calories. I had eaten about 1300 before we went to dinner and everything on the dinner menu was huge, so I was looking at throwing away a bunch of food. Luckily, Jack asked about sandwiches and we learned that they had a bar menu. They had a portabella mushroom on sautéed spinach with feta cheese appetizer on that menu. It was a perfect dinner for me!

When we got back to our motel room (we stayed in Lincoln, New Hampshire last night) we brought my fifteen pound weights up and I did the strength training routine that Jeremy prepared for me and that I described in a previous post, with a few minor changes. First of all, Jeremy must have still been half asleep when he put the routine together. He said I should do each of the two sets of four exercises four times, and then do it again, both sets of four exercises four more times. Well, by the time I got through both sets of exercises four times, I had been at it for almost an hour and a half and I was spent. That was plenty. For some reason once he got the routine all written out he said, "That won't take you very long, so do it twice." Yeah, right!

He also had me do this crazy exercise that he called Elbow-Ups where you start in a plank position, with your toes and forearms on the ground and your body straight, as if you are going to do a push-up from that position. And then, basically, you do a push-up from that position. From resting on your forearms, you put one hand on the ground and push up enough to get the other hand on the ground, and then push yourself up till your arms are straight. I was supposed to do 20 in each set. I could barely eke out 10. They were hard! I did the last 10 from my knees, which was much easier. All in all, it was a very difficult workout. I got a few curious looks and a couple of comments carrying my weights up to my room, too.

We had a great day on the road yesterday. After heading North from Fort Montgomery we decided to stop at Kingston, founded 1635 and the first capitol of New York. We walked through the water front area and then drove to the main part of town and saw the old State House and stockade area. Very historic and interesting. Most of our drive yesterday was on two lane country roads and we ended up going through Bennington, Vermont, home of the Battle of Bennington Monument. The monument is an obelisk about 450 feet tall with a viewing area at the top. We paid the $3 each to ride the elevator (to Jack's relief the stairs were closed) to the top from where you could see New York, Massachusetts, the Green Mountain range, and another range whose name we can't remember Considering when the monument was built, between the years of 1837 and 1841, it was pretty impressive. The monument was all stone, 9' thick at the base, with no steel or other types of supports. There was also a cute little gift shop where Jack was able to add to his toy soldier collection. They had some wooden Revolutionary War soldiers that were hand made by a local artisan. It was a perfect stop!

The rest of the day was spent driving through the White Mountain National Forest with a couple of minor stops, one of which was to check out a covered bridge. The leaves have a hint to color to them, but just a hint. We got a lot of rain yesterday from the storm front that spawned a tornado in Queens. This morning, thankfully, the rain is east of us.

I guess that's about it for this morning. I'm pleased with the fact that I have stuck to plan through the first three days of vacation. I am confident that I will stay on track throughout the rest of our time on the road. Making the commitment and starting on the right foot is the hardest part. I am now in the groove, and that feels good.




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Location:White Mountain National Forest, NH