After eating a hardy breakfast at Betsy’s B & B I headed off to meet the maintenance crew of Vermont College to install Dick Hathaway. It went so easily. The guys had reinforced the bench, and did a great job. They had plenty of muscle to unload him and when placed on the bench his foot touched the ground. there can sometimes be shrinkage with bronze and I feared his foot would not touch. The satchel was placed next to him, holes drilled to secure him and he was actually welded onto the bench. when the gallery curator came she wept. That is the emotional reaction that I long for. It is a younger Dick Hathaway, after placing him the maintenance crew just stood on a looked.

They also took the plywood out of my car. This helped to secure Dick in the back of the SUV, it was also used to secure my windows during the hurricane. It is a reminder of what a long two weeks this has been.

Once the sculpture was placed I could not help but have a few shots of the two of us on the bench. I can’t wait to see others interact with the sculpture, and when you do, PLEASE SEND PICTURES. When the sculpture was installed, I covered him with the sheet that I sewed by generator in Houston after the storm. There he sits, a black ghosts awaiting the unveiling tomorrow evening. I can’t wait.

This evening I sit in yet another bed in another home, the home of the curator. I guess until now I was working on adrenaline. I feel quite tired now, but relieved! I hear I am hiking in the woods in the morning. I hope I can get up.

When it was all done I jumped for joy!

I failed to mention the auction items from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Pennsylvania auction item is a small coffee cup. Ohio is a corkscrew from another winery, no we are not winos we just could not find anything at the last minute. I’ll have to post pictures of the coffee cup later.

New York’s auction is… I believe Jam, but I’ll have to look and post that photograph later.

UPDATE
It took much longer to get to Vermont than we thought. we had estimated 7 hours but the ferry from NY to Vermont runs on the hour and we missed it. Then it took an hour on the ferry before arriving in Burlington and another 30 minutes to Montpelier. Dick at this moment is home in his green mountain state.

Prior to getting to Vermont we drove through the Adirondack mountains. I learned so much like, “never sleep in the clothes that you cook in.” It is a black bear thing. Gloria and I tried to dump the trash from our cars but could not open the trash cans. It dawned on me that they are bear proof, apparently they are also Gloria and Bridgette Proof. If there was a hidden camera taking pictures I am sure the rangers would have a good laugh at the humans. Cell phones don’t work in those mountains either. God forbid something should happen to the car, we have food for those black bears and it also occur ed to me that we could not get to the spare tire for the weight of Dick Hathaway. No more worries about that, we are here now!

The “send help” poster was on the back of a map of the Adirondack mountains.

Tomorrow we install the sculpture. This is what I have worked so hard for the last two years. Can’t wait.

Leaves were beautiful in the Adirondack mountains. I think they will even be better by Friday when we leave. We got in so late that we had to stay at Betsy’s B. and B.’ s in Montpelier for the night.

More later

Nothing special about traveling through Ohio. I’m glad to be in Buffalo, NY. It is my home town and the resting spot is my sisters house before we go on to Vermont. I’m looking forward to the last leg of drive to Vermont. It will be during the day and hopefully a little more leisurely. I’ll post the Dick Hathaway state auction pieces in the next day or so. Just 7 or 8 hours of driving, but still so tired.