Our Vermont Travelog

Our Vermont Travelogue

September 18-25, 2018

Before we even began our trip David and I agreed that nothing could go wrong. We would be happy and enjoy it all. And we did. We had a great trip.

9/18 (Tuesday night)

We flew into Burlington, via Chicago, and stayed overnight at the GGT Tibet Inn, Shelburne. It sounded more interesting on the internet than it was in person. But it was comfortable. Styled after a suite, but really just a motel room with a couch, fridge, and microwave.

9/19

We enjoyed a very good breakfast at Denny’s. Their parking lot was so tight that most of the vehicles were not parked correctly. We headed for East Fairfield (north) to see President Chester Arthur’s recreated birth home. His father had been a pastor. The museum was closed. We went to the Town Hall to see the display they had there. Stopped at the cafe next door for coffee. David bought a maple covered cinnamon bun. At the Town Hall we talked to a very fun gal from the Clerk’s office. She sent us to Smuggler’s Notch (east). We didn’t actually make it all the way there, because we thought we must have passed it, before we turned around. We stopped at Big Spring which was just a small steady stream; tiny falls from which I filled up my water bottle. Stopped by the water mill and took pictures. Stopped briefly in Franklinville and then returned to Shelburne.

     Then we went to the Shelburne Museum. It was 4:00pm and they close at 5:00pm. We visited the Ticonderoga Steamboat. The museum is a very large park with over 30 buildings, a memorial home to the founder, a covered bridge, and 20 gardens. We’ll return tomorrow.

     We found a less expensive motel (Northstar) and went to dinner at Pauline’s, which is a more gourmet dining. Then we returned to the motel for the night.

9/20

 We went in search of breakfast; we thought we were going to have breakfast at Dakin Farms, but it turned out it wasn’t the farm but a store annex. So I did an internet check for gluten-free breakfast. We ended up at Pingate Cafe & Eatery in Burlington. Here we found a waterfall beside the building. This was mainly a vegan restaurant but the girl who ran it said most, but not all, their food was gf. The style, David said, 1960s hippies; they played 1960s music and sold maple infused cannibis (CBD – no we didn’t buy any). We drove on some interesting and tight streets to get there, but I think this we were approaching Burlington’s downtown.

      After breakfast we were going to go to the Shelburne Falls but I missed our exit by 20 miles, so when we got turned around we went straight to the Museum. Huge place 45 acres. It was about 11:30am when we got there and we left at 4:34pm. We tried again to go see the Falls. There was construction on the way there and construction on the critical bridge. This was where the business district became the residential district. From the stream we could see as we drove over I’m guessing it wasn’t much of a Falls at this time of the year.

     The day started out cloudy but was sunny by the end of the day.

9/21

The rain we expected yesterday has arrived. We don’t know if we should leave the motel or not. We did. We had breakfast at Denny’s then headed south. When we left our motel the rain had stopped temporarily. While we ate it started again. We were three nights in Shelburne.

  1) Our trip south went through Vergennes. We saw a monument so I wanted to stop and see it. Then I wanted to see the opera house/town hall and the falls. We also tried to see the library but it was closed. It has a stained glass domed ceiling.

 

2) Before getting to Crown Point we passed an important site established by DAR: General John Strong’s home. He was important to the Revolutionary War and in the Statehood of Vermont, among some of what he had done. (They even put it on the roadmap.)

DAR also had a “forest” across the street. I wouldn’t call it a forest or a wood, unless it was a left-angled forest, because a short move down the road showed nothing much behind the fence except a trail of trees that went for about a mile off to the left with a bit of a curl. Couldn’t tell how deep the wood was. In Edmonds (my childhood home in Washington) there are several woods, not forests, that seemed thicker than this DAR forest.

  3) Our third adventure today was to Crown Point. My map said it was Vermont, but it was actually New York. It’s counterpart is Chimney Point, Vermont. In the 1600s & 1700s that area had been called New France. We went over the bridge to get to Crown Point. We don’t know what happened to the 1929 bridge but in 2011 it was replaced to look (almost) exactly as the original but with more modern updates and safety measures. [The French and Indian War (1688–1763, 4 conflicts) comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756–63. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_War and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_Wars A portion of the war was fought here on Lake Champlain.] I have a brochure regarding the lighthouse to read later. This is the narrowest part of Lake Champlain.

  4) From Crown Point we were going to Bridport (not misspelled) but our map did not lead us there. Some of the directions were missing & some were backing up on themselves. With the help of the GPS pointed to Ripton we came across Bridport. Basically just 2 roads: one north-south & the other crossing it east-west. But beautiful old buildings.

  5) Our son-in-law, Mike, had suggested we put Middlebury on our itinerary. He was excited that they have a University and a waterfall in their downtown. We didn’t have to look for Middlebury, it was right on our path. We had lunch and found their Falls. Lots of old churches that I would have loved to look in but David didn’t so I didn’t look.

Speaking of waterfalls, so far we have looked for 3, found 3, but did not find one we were looking for and did find one for which we weren’t looking.

  6) Our next stop was Ripton to find (poet) Robert Frost. We didn’t find any sign or memorial/ monument to him. Someone later told us that we should have looked in Middlebury or East Middlebury, but it turns out this was also wrong. Frost had a family vacation retreat in Ripton, we just didn’t find it.

  7) Hubbardton Battlefield State Historical Site. Usually there is a fee to see it, but it was 4:45pm when we got there and we were invited to enjoy the site. When we got back to the house (a lovely house with a marvelous view of the mountainous area, but built for the historic site and never lived in). The curator offered to let us see the 15 minute film he and his son made during one of the Revolutionary War battle recreations. This is the only place where the Revolutionary War was fought in Vermont, and it was a very important battle to our winning the War.

  8) We traveled to Bennington to spend the night. At the Hampton Inn they wanted $220 and said there wasn’t much in town to choose from. Best Western wanted $185 after my member discount. We settled at Knotty Pine for $138. I forgot to ask them about AAA discount. But they do have a fuller continental breakfast.

Most of our drive today was along Lake Champlain.

9/22 – day started out cloudy then became sunny and warm

The Knotty Pine gave us the first of our area maps with highlights marked on it, very helpful, and a tour book. The map showed us where to find Robert Frost’s home and Norman Rockwell’s home & art museum.

  1-3) Our first stop was at the Bennington Monument; awesome view. David took lots of photos

here. From there we headed back north again (not far) to Shaftsbury to see Robert Frost’s Stone House. There was even an unpublished poem in the wall display. Then further north to Arlington. I stopped when I saw the Dorothy Canfield Fisher marker, which was fortunate because the woman who worked for the bookstore in the building invited me in to see “house”, the living and meeting rooms. The “house” was a donation to the town for meetings and other community functions. The historic Fisher was supposed to be at the Shelburne Museum, but she wasn’t there when we were there (or we just didn’t see it). The woman who showed me the rooms also told me which direction we wanted to go; she had hailed me from the information board, which wasn’t very informative.

  4-6) Our next stop was Norman Rockwell’s home. We could only see it from the outside. Then we went to the Sugar Shack for the Rockwell Display. The unique part of this display was each art work was combined with comments from the local models and from Rockwell. Also an old 15 minute movie about his art life. The Sugar Shack also processes Maple Syrup and we ordered two gallons double-dark (used to be called Grade B) to be shipped and maple ice cream (Maple Creemees).

  7) 3:00pm as we were leaving Arlington we stopped for lunch at Snow’s Arlington Dairy Bar; headed for Brattleboro.

  8-9) Our route went through Willmington which is basically a one-lane each direction through the mountains and full of houses, B&Bs, inns and businesses. I think it must be very busy for winter sports. David didn’t find a ski-resort near it. We found West Brattleboro and were stymied as to the town and motel. But we were fortunate to find people to help with directions. We found a motel, the Black Mountain Inn, then we went looking for Rudyard Kipling’s house. We went past the address three times but we didn’t find it. There is a marker in town but I wanted to find the house. Surprisingly, it’s not listed under their cultural resources. [Naulakha, also known as the Rudyard Kipling House, is a historic Shingle Style house on Kipling Road in Dummerston, Vermont, a few miles outside Brattleboro. Wikipedia] We looked again for both the next morning. It turns out that the house is managed by the Landmark Trust as an Inn; you need overnight reservations to see it. I believe we did see the outside on Just So Stories Lane, Kipling Road. In Dummerston (Brattleboro) Kipling wrote Captains Courageous, the Jungle Books and a book of poetry that included Gunga Din and Mandalay.

9/23 – woke up to fog which quickly burned off

  1) Looked again for Naulakha and for the marker. The marker was supposed to be only 1/10th of a mile from our motel. When we didn’t find them we continued out of town to Plymouth Notch.

 

2) Plymouth Notch is where President Calvin Coolidge was born and raised. The whole town has been purchased by his son and daughter and donated to the State as a living-working monument. The restaurant there had gluten-free bread and muffin. I had the muffin.

  3) There was no problem finding covered bridges. There were many on our travel path. (We were able to change some of our travel plans because of this.)

  4) We arrived in Woodstock and didn’t stop except to read the marker. It would be a great place to spend a day (2 nights) if we ever come back to Vermont. On the Hwy 4 as we approached the town there was a restaurant and a motel; they were marked “Eat Woodstock” and “Sleep Woodstock.” We came across a covered bridge which we drove over on the way there and a red one after we left on Highways 4 & 12.

   5) White River Junction and Hartford are both, along with some others, villages within the Town of Hartford (see map and the notes on the train schedule I brought home). The woman working there was very friendly and answered what questions she could about the railroad station. We came here because there was supposed to be a railroad museum but it and the historical train ride closed four years ago. They did still have an engine and the only remaining wooden caboose on display.

  6) Our purpose in going to Strafford was to see a historic State Legislator’s home, Justin Smith Morrill. It must be nice to be so successful at business that you can afford to retire after seven years and then build an estate home and lands, and finally, to leave retirement to go into politics for the next 44 years. There were interpretive boards all around to lead you from one feature to the next. He had a brilliant mind.

  7) Since Montpelier, Vermont’s capital, was on the way back to Shelburne we decided to stop there for the night and visit it tomorrow. We found our motel and dinner in Berlin, which we had passed before getting off the freeway, backtracking. We got our motel room. It was not as nice as last night’s and more expensive. Then we went to find dinner. We got turned around twice before finding Applebees.

9/24

Cold and clouds started this day; by about 1:00pm finally the sun burnt off the clouds and the temperature became sweater temp, but I didn’t want to get out my sweater so kept my jacket. The days up to yesterday had been cloudy.

      We headed out to look at Montpelier and enjoyed a nice tour of their capital building.

      Then we decided to find the Vermont Maritime Museum (LCMM). You go through Vergennes to

get there. We had lunch just down the road then toured the museum starting with the curator at the replica ship. He was quite informative. The GPS got us there but couldn’t get us out to find the Lake Champlain Patio so we just headed back to Shelburne.

     On our way back, on Hwy 7, 13 miles south of Shelburne, in Ferrisburgh, we saw Dakin Farm (the real one).

     Also, this is where Vermont Teddy Bear is. I’d forgotten about them and there they were on our road. We didn’t stop because we passed the sign too late and I didn’t want to turn around. I even saw a city bus headed for it.

     The Northstar motel gave us the same discounted price they gave us the other two nights. (They had vacancies and wanted to be full.) We were quite tired so we didn’t even go out to dinner. It’s probably also the reason I didn’t do either of the two turn arounds (Dakin Farm & VTB).

9/25 – Tuesday morning

The GPS took us through the back roads to get to the airport, a lovely drive. We passed an overlook, I should have turned back. It looked over Lake Champlain.

Our flight was very bumpy. Finally, home again! We are tired and glad.

We went to see the vibrant Fall colors but they are late in coming this year. I wanted to see history and we saw a lot of that, and missed just as much. Some of the places we missed that David would have liked to see were the Stratford Inn in the Newhart TV show and the town where White Christmas 1961 was shot.

According to Hertz we drove exactly 500 miles (they didn’t measure 10^ths of a mile).

Pine tree that looked soft and fuzzy = Eastern White Pine. I found a blue pine.

We ate outdoors twice: once was dinner at the Top of the Hill Grill (9/21) and the other was lunch at Snow’s Arlington Dairy Bar (9/22).

Animals we’ve seen on this trip: 2 baby deer, a farm of geese, a camel, ducks & chickens loose, wild turkeys twice, a baby pheasant (or quail, not close enough to tell), about four varieties of cows, lots of squirrel, a few chipmunks, 1 eagle, many hawks, horses, goats, sheep. I looked for moose, especially since there were a several signs that said “Moose crossing”; but didn’t see any.

David took 418 photos, I took 8 & one video.

http://www.theshiresofvermont.com/brochures.html

http://accd.vermont.gov/historic-preservation/roadside-markers or http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=9cd074cf-33c7-4e49-8c79-0cde5f9c39a6&gid=3