Another state on my list of unvisited, Vermont. The home of Bernie Sanders. The home of that other guy who once ran for President (Howard Dean) but social media took out because he showed enthusiasm. The home of Grade A Maple Syrup. The home of of rural farmland, sheep and goats, and some very socially liberal values.
Vermont is a very pretty state filled with rural pastures, scenic covered bridges, cheese and maple syrup. It is not a land of technology. It is not a land of foodies who report to google what is open or closed during a pandemic. It is not a land where they dress up to go out of their house. Really, I’m not sure what people do there – but I’m glad we visited and saw the beautiful autumn colors.
On the way to our final destination in Vermont (a beautiful house on Grand Isle) we drove quite a ways and stopped at a very interesting garden – The Path of Life Sculpture Garden. In the pouring rain. The non-adventurous stayed in the car. The rest of us got really wet but saw some very lovely statuary and art.
Here we are very wet. And the dragon who lived in the park.
The Vermont Visitor’s Center/Rest Stop was also kind of a magical place. Having driven up after the rain and a long drive through the golden and red leaf covered landscape. (Autumn really does just stretch on forever in New England and the Northeast).
And then there was Poet’s Tower – a tall structure to climb and look at the leaves from another angle.
And we can’t forget the largest zipper in the world – somewhere in Vermont.
And finally, maybe one of the last stops on our never ending journey across the Northeast we found Ben & Jerry’s flavor graveyard. And Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream headquarters, where we ate cold ice cream in the cold pouring rain, outside, then read all the flavor titles in the graveyard. There have definitely been some that were not long for this world (for good reason).
At long last we arrived at our Airbnb in the woods near twilight – a long journey behind us. The Airbnb looked like something straight out of a horror movie waiting to happen. Beautiful, picturesque, peaceful, remote – with no one at all nearby. What could happen? We photographed sunset and made pizza with ingredients from a Trader Joe’s we found along the way.
The next day we awoke rested and curious about what local flavors might await us in town and country of our nearby rural oasis. We cruised to a Maple Syrup farm, another photo/view opportunity and attempted to get lunch out. We found the process of getting lunch to be the hardest because literally nothing Google said about places was true. Everywhere was closed, shut down, or er…not quite clearly labeled. Hence the title of this blog post – because truly, I’ve never seen Google ever so wrong about so many things.
We saw covered bridges and the State Capital. And everything looked quaint and quiet.
The population of Vermont is only 624,000 for the entire state. Its neighboring states are all over 1 million people. Where its neighbors are filled with city-like scapes and urbanity, Vermont literally holds the torch for picturesque country-side. We knew going in that there wouldn’t be much “to do” but I think we were all impressed just how pretty it was to see (with some exceptions). Like I thought that everyone in Seattle dressed like they came straight out of REI – that was before I saw Vermonters. Who look like they just crawled out of bed in some type of clothing they bought at REI. Relaxed dress took on a whole other meaning.
All in all Vermont was a lovely adventure – we got to spend some relaxing days on the porch, making dinner, and enjoying the dark of the evening with the stars shining. I enjoyed the time on my first trip with my partner after many moons apart with his job and our summer travels – and the fact that he eased right into the rhythm of our group dynamic and went with the flow. A natural traveler. A good fit for a wanderer such as myself and an added dimension. That as I write this blog post literally almost a year later, probably distracted me from my writing quite a bit – but there are many things that have done that over the last two years. At least a lot of photos were taken of the trip so from what I cannot remember now can be shown in imagery.
If we had Vermont to do again – we would just stay put in a cabin in the woods, play cards, drink coffee and tea and other beverages and enjoy sitting still – allowing the rustle of the leaves to be the only movement. Especially now that we know nothing is open.