Are we there yet?

Not yet.

How about now?

Not yet.

Now?

We have to drive until we get to Nowhere, then we have to keep driving until we get to the Middle of Nowhere, and then we’ll be at Grandma’s house

How about now?

We just passed the border of Nowhere, so we have to keep driving for about 30 more minutes until we get to the Middle of Nowhere and then we’ll be there.

Now ?

Ok, now, we’re in the Middle of Nowhere, Grandma’s House.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!!

My parents live in Vermont. I love Vermont, but the area they live in is actually in a small town known as the Middle of Nowhere. Many miles from the nearest town with any kind of services, this is a town that would not be seen on most maps. Beautiful area, but the weather can be crazy. In this town is a valley where there is a micro-climate of bad weather, all year long. In this valley is where my parents live. It can be sunny and warm ten miles down the road, but in this valley it will be rainy and cold. In the winter, there will be snow. Lots of snow, lots and lots of snow. It will snow for days and eventually the town will stop plowing some of the roads. Some years it will snow until the end of May.

My parents are perfectly happy there though, I think my Dad actually enjoys the bad weather. He will call be up and say ‘Get any snow yesterday ?’. ‘No, it’s May 20th, no snow here, it snowed there?’ ‘Four inches of snow!’ he will say with apparent glee.

Here is a photo taken during our Mother’s Day visit last year, that’s sometime in early May. We never know what we should pack when we go there, especially when it’s anywhere near Winter. I’m sure it was bright and sunny at our house when we left for the drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. When we arrived it was raw, wet, windy, and there was about four inches of icy snow on the ground. Poor Mr. C just has a rain coat on in the photo below, and just a few miles away there is no snow on the ground at all.

Where’s my Winter coat, Dada?

So when we went for a visit this past weekend, I thought that it was the middle of summer, we won’t need to bring anything special. When we left our house in New Hampshire, the next state to the east of Vermont, it was bright and sunny, probably 80 degrees. When we entered the valley of crazy weather in the Middle of Nowhere, it didn’t snow, but it did rain. All day Saturday it rained like a tropical hurricane had descended upon us. Sheets of rain made it hard to see out the windows of the house.

Ms. J noticed a panicked look on my face. ‘What’s wrong?, she asks. I had left the windows open at home. Usually when I leave the windows open at home that means that we’ll get some rain water on the floors, and with this downpour headed our way, our floors would be soaked. Thunder and lightning shook the house all night long as their cat ran around the house looking for a safe corner to hide in. My parent’s house has a metal roof which made for a loud night. Not a bad sound at all, kind of soothing after awhile, but non-stop, which only added to my soggy floor anxiety. Mr. C slept through it all, he sleeps through anything.

The skies cleared Sunday, and it turned into a rarely seem nice day in Nowhere. However, all day I had visions of soggy floors in my head.

Here’s Mr. C riding on Ms. J’s shoulders down a busy stretch of road in Nowhere, Sunday afternoon.

I should have know better though. We arrived home later that day and there were no soggy floors, no water at all inside. Bright and sunny all weekend, we didn’t get any rain at all.