As a connoisseur of the pugilistic arts, you can imagine my delight when returning from summering on Lake George in upstate New York that I happened to drive through the town of Queensbury. I hoped that the sleepy hamlet was named after the Marquess of Queensbury, namely the 9th Marquess, John Douglas, who, while not the creater of the boxing code that bears his name was its first public endorser. Sadly the town was in fact named after Queen Charlotte, who to the best of my knowledge had zero fighting skills. this disappointment caused me to fall into a deep funk, one so deep that only nachos could get me out. In particular nachos at the local Queensbury establishment the Adirondack Bar & Grill.

When traveling through the green mountains of Vermont you may happen upon the town of Waterbury. Sure, you could have gotten there by accident, but most likely you went there to visit the Ben & Jerry’s Factory to see how the magic, and ice cream, is made. Is it a great tour? Meh, it’s ok, and you get some ice cream, but not nearly as good as the nearby Woodchuck or Magic Hat brewery tours. What they do have that trumps all is an ice cream shop, where you can get the Vermonster, a 14,000 calorie 20 scoop bucket of ice cream, or a reasonable sized sundae. If you want something other than desert though, you need to head into town.

There is a beast in Lake Champlain. Known as “Champ”, “Champie”, or “Champy”, the creature has been seen hundreds of times since first viewed by explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1609, and the “Tatoskok” was whispered in legends of the Iroquois and Abenaki long before that. Some think it’s a Plesiosaur, some a Basilosaurus, others a Tanystropheus, and still others complete BS. In my youth I was an avid monster hunter and ate lake monster sightings up, but now I am an adult, an avid nacho hunter, and they’re what I eat up.

FYI, “El Gato” means “The Cat” in Spanish.