We woke up to a chilly 32 degree morning in Vermont. Michael thought a short run would be a good
idea… the girls and I thought staying indoors was a better idea. I think after 3 miles, he agreed with
us!! It was a pretty overcast/foggy
morning in Vermont—I was hoping the sun would come out soon and warm things up
a bit.
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| Bridge from NH to VT |
Our first stop of the morning was in Fairlee, Vermont at the
Lake Morey Resort. When I was a baby, my
dad was a golf pro and worked at this club in the summer. I haven’t been here since I was about 2,
needless to say, I don’t really remember it!
It was right across the river from our campground last night, so we made
a quick drive around and I snapped some pictures for my parents so they can see
how much it has changed.
Today’s theme was a “Taste of Vermont”—not a super long day
of driving, but a lot of fun stops planned to taste some of the things Vermont
is famous for. Our first stop was at
King Arthur Flour. They have a bakery,
café, store and educational center where you can take baking classes (which
would have been SO fun!). We browsed
through the baking store and made some selections at the bakery (scones, rolls,
cookies and pastries) to take on the road.
A sweet start to the day! After
we left King Arthur, we noticed the sun was finally breaking through the
clouds—hooray!!
On our way to the next tasty location, we happened by a
covered bridge. It became our unplanned
stop #2. It was clearly new-ish
construction but still very pretty. I read later on a map that it was actually
built this year to replace a bridge from 1970.
While we were taking pictures of the bridge, two hot air balloons
drifted into the pictures!
Stop number three was Sugarbush Farms in Woodstock. This is a working maple syrup farm that has
been in existence since the 1700’s. They
also make a variety of cheeses. I also feel that I must mention here that
Sugarbush Farms was a TINY bit off the beaten path… and our excellent driver
navigated the one-lane, hilly, dirt road like a professional! The farm also has
some animals out back that you can pet and feed. The horse was hilarious—if no one was feeding
him, he would nudge/gnaw on the feed box on the fence as if to say, “the food
is in here people”!! We watched a video
on syrup production and saw all the equipment in their syrup house. They were busy loading up the back of the
house with piles and piles of firewood in preparation for the season. It was interesting to see how clear and thin
the sap is—it looks just about like water.
They said it takes 40 gallons of sap to cook down to make 1 gallon of
maple syrup. We got to sample a bunch of
cheeses as well as 4 different grades of maple syrup and purchased some of our
favorites to bring home.
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| Notice the chewed on feed box! |
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| Cheese and syrup tasting room |
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| Just a small portion of the wood |
Stop number four was also an unplanned stop but one that was
based on the recommendation of the owner of Sugarbush. She routed us back to the interstate via
Quechee Gorge—a.k.a. the “Grand Canyon of Vermont”. It was not a big canyon by any stretch, but
it was very pretty. Glad we made this
little detour.
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| Quechee Gorge |
Stop number five was one that had been HIGHLY anticipated by
the two youngest members of the family… okay, I’ll be honest—the THREE youngest
members of the family! (Not that the oldest was opposed to the stop, he is just
not quite the fans of the ice cream we are!!) Ben & Jerry’s factory in
Waterbury was a must-do in Vermont as far as the girls in the family were
concerned! The free sample of the day
was Strawberry Cheesecake. It was okay,
but we all knew we wanted to pick our own form the “Scoop Shop”. I was able to try a new flavor called, “Candy
Bar Pie” and it was delicious! Our tour guide told us that as an employee, he
can bring home 3 pints of ice cream per day for free!
We piled back into the RV for one more food stop—the Cold
Hollow Cider Mill just up the road from Ben and Jerry’s. We got to watch them making cider and had a
free sample of the cold apple cider—which was delicious. I purchased some of their ‘famous’ cider donuts
for later—at this point, we were pretty much sugared out!
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| We saw a ton of solar panels in Vermont. |
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| Adirondack Mountains in the distance |
Our planned destination for the evening was a NY State Park
campground just across Lake Champlain from Vermont. However, knowing we had nearly 400 miles to
drive the next day and because we were making good time today, Michael and I
opted for us to drive a little further and just find somewhere else to camp for
the night. Which sounds completely
doable—people who are not planners do this all the time, right?! Well… factor in internet connections that are
completely spotty up here (apparently AT&T must not be a major carrier up
north??!) and it makes it a little more difficult. I found a state park near Saratoga Springs
that looked like a decent option (if you call basically paying for a place to
park overnight a decent option?!)… but I was also REALLY wanting to find a
campground that had a laundry since we haven’t been able to do laundry since
staying in NYC and the bag is overfull… and some of us are running out of
clothes (don’t judge if you see pictures of the same outfits on multiple
days!!). Google found another campground
that looked very promising (cost was not much more than the state park and it
was only 5 miles more down the road) so we switched our GPS destination for
this location.
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| Lake Champlain |
Here is how the rest of the evening went. Get off exit for campground and follow GPS
directions—which cause us to drive past campground. Michael turns RV around on a dark country
road to get back to campground. Pull
into DARK campground. Office is
closed. No directions for late
arrivals. No campers/RV’s in sight. Creepy.
Decide to leave. As we are
leaving, a car pulls in. Okay, so there
are people staying here—maybe we just need to drive a little further into the
park. Decide to give it a try. Campground turns out to be SLAM FULL of
permanent (or at least seasonally parked) trailers/RV’s. So people live here
but clearly this is not the part for just overnighters to stay in. Drive
through a very winding, tree-lined, narrow road. Original thoughts this was a
creepy place confirmed. Decide this is NOT the place for us after
all. Please, Jesus, let us just get out
of here!! Don’t know where else to go.
Decide to go back to the NY state park 5 miles back from the way we just
came. Pull into state park. They are still open. Praise Jesus! Oh, you don’t have sites that accommodate a
35 foot RV? Are you kidding me??! Ranger says he will call someone more
familiar with the park who might know of a site we will fit in. Thank you!
Ok. There are several. Thank you
Lord! Spend 20 minutes with the bored
“chatty Cathy” Ranger checking in. Drive
to campsite. In the dark woods we are
all alone in. Creepy but we don’t really
care at this point. Help Michael back
the RV into a HUGE site (are you kidding me? This site could probably hold TWO
of our RV’s and you tell people you don’t have spots for 35 footers? Someone
needs to take a refresher class with a measuring tape!) It is now after 8 pm and we still need
dinner. It is after 9 by the time we eat
and then fall into bed (again, I know—we are the life of the party. I know it seems funny that you are tired
after just driving/mostly sitting all day but it just is what it is!)
Final thoughts on Vermont.
So cool for me to see the place my parents lived when I was a baby and
have grown up hearing stories about. The
countryside of Vermont was very beautiful—but I have to be honest and say that
the leaves were not as pretty as I was expecting. I think we might have missed some of the peak
season already—we saw many bare trees but then also a lot were still green…
which seemed odd. Vermont did not
disappoint on its food, however—it was awesome!
Overall, another great day (except, maybe, for the last few hours!)
