Jeepers!! Duncan and I are writing this blog in the safety of Chicago, watching all the chaos caused by Hurricane Irene in all the areas that we have just been in! We are so lucky! Just over a week ago we were in Vermont experiencing the countryside in picture perfect weather and now we are watching the vision of countless bridges been taken by over swollen rivers and mass flooding. That is now; a week ago it was a different story…..
We bid a fond Adieu to French Canada as we headed back into Vermont. Duncan and I love Vermont, it is our kind of State. Everyone is focused on ‘the nature’, and green initiatives, it is very outdoorsy, and it is one on the least populated states in New England an area we have grown to love (Vermont’s largest city having only a mere 130,000). The Great Outdoors rule here and boy it is pretty!
All up, we spent another 4 days traversing this (quite small) state. After relinquishing all our fresh food to the Customs Officer coming back into the US we were in need to stock the pantry and car fridge again. Driving down one of the main roads (which really looked more like a wooded lane) we happened across on Amish Food Stall. We went crazy and bought so much succulent food. It had just been picked hours ago, so it all was so-ho fresh – and it was grown by the Amish – it had to be good right?
A little further on we drove through Smugglers Notch, a natural notch which creates a pass through the mountain that they have put a road through (although very narrow). Other than being amazingly picturesque, this notch has a cool history being used by escaping civil war soldiers trying to get over to Canada. During prohibition, it was converted into a smugglers road to get alcohol from Canada, hence the name. We stayed in the state park at the foot of the Notch. Wonderfully wooded, it made you think you were intrepid campers a million miles from anywhere and anyone. For the first time on this journey we camped away from our “lounge room”, but it was a short walk from the campsite to our car. We had a spectacular campfire dinner of roasted corn, carrots, potatoes and green beans (thanks to the Amish stall) and succulent smoky steak.
Quick observation; America really knows how to run a good State park. We are staggered by the high level and facilities and how well maintained all the parks (not matter how small or remote) have been. The campsites are amazingly good. To be completely honest the amenities have been cleaner and better quality than the privately owned campsite that we have stayed in. Walking into the Smugglers Notch State Park bathroom I was greeted with a little zen fountain and plush stone tiling and wonderfully big shower units. You have to pay a quarter or two for hot water, but you don’t really mind when it goes back into the maintenance of the park.
The ‘hills are alive with the sound of music’ – I’m not kidding! The Von Trapp family, of Sound Of Music fame, live in Vermont and run their huge Austrian style resort up here. A must visit for me, although only a brief visit, there was no chance that we could afford to stay. Continuing on our Vermont road trip we visited a local Cider Mill – only to find out that we were 2 weeks too early for the next batch of Cider – Duncan was devastated and we almost had to change our plans just to stay for the Cider! Moving on from the devastation we visited a Cheese factory and probably took too many liberties on the free tastings – it was so yum! Then to the famous (to be honest I hadn’t heard of them) Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream factory. We were going to do a tour of the Ice Cream factory but school holiday = crazy busy! Instead we enjoyed observing the 20 or so Amish people who had made the trip to Ben and Jerry’s in their buggy. Quite peculiar to see these traditional people sitting enjoying an ice cream at one of America’s quintessential commercial hotspots.
Still smarting from the Cider Mill which had no cider, we visited the Magic Hat micro brewery (Vermont has the most amount of micro breweries in America).The brewery looks like something out of a Tim Burton film. A brewery unlike anything I have seen before with crazy characters and dark and dingy weird things lurking at every corner. Beer was super good!
I couldn’t drink too much because I unfortunately had a conference call that night with my work at ALIA. We had requested three extra weeks on our trip and work had asked if we could talk through a couple of things. It was a very unique conference call, sitting with my mobile on our picnic table next to our campfire and tent while I discussed the height of politics regarding the Australian Library events! It was worth it, with three weeks extra leave granted. Yay!
Red wine came thick and fast that night. With a healthy amount of red wine in our bellies Duncan and I went to bed, only to be woken by a unmistakable ‘wildlife’ noise coming from just outside out tent. In our red wine haze we had forgot to clear all food scrap and left our garbage bin outside which some sort of wildlife had now discovered. It took Duncan some time to warm up to the idea that ‘it was the husband thing to do’ and go outside to check it out. Not sure whether he would be in a fight to the death, I was a little surprised to hear Duncan call out a weak “Shoo, shoo, shoo” to the wildlife outside.
He poked his head inside the tent. “It’s a skunk… What do I do, it’s not moving from our bin..”. Skunk = dilemma, how do you remove a skunk who does not want to be removed and can skunk all over you?? Apparently you stomp the ground and call out “shoo” – according to Duncan. Much dancing and shooing later did remove the skunk from our bin and my bid burley mountain man who tackles wild mountain creatures retired to his bed J
Our travels through Vermont took us to another micro brewery called Long Trail. This brewery had a wonderful setting next to one of those great mountain rivers which are so clear you want to jump straight in if it wasn’t that they were so cold. Duncan and I had a highlight lunch sitting on the back deck which our beer tasting platter and god old burger to help wash the beer down 😉 A recommended stop if you are in the area!
