Vermont

Well, we made it up to Vermont!  We decided to leave the bus at a Walmart near Albany, NY and take a “day trip” up to Vermont.  We got our first glimpse of the fall colors up here.  But they are just starting to turn due to all the warm weather.  There were dozens of tour buses cruising around the Montpelier area (everywhere was crowded and motel rates were at their peak!) – but many would leave disappointed in the lack of color.  We enjoyed it anyways.  The weather was gorgeous and we splurged on a motel (of course, we had to drive around for an hour to find one that had a vacancy, didn’t look like something from Psycho, or was way out of our “budget” (whatever that is!) – but we managed to find one that even offered a free breakfast.  We all enjoyed long showers (Jess got to take one without a 3-minute timer!).  We then trekked off to tour the largest Granite quarry in the world.  It’s called “Rock of Ages” and they specialize in manufacturing tombstones and mausoleums.  They also did the Vietnam Memorial and part of the new WWII Memorial in D.C.  They showed us the whole process – from the quarry to the transporting, to the polishing, carving, and finished product – great tour!   We then went over and had a tour of the state capital building in Montpelier.  We had a friendly tour guide who kept us laughing while giving us all kinds of wonderful history of the building and of Vermont.  After that, we drove a few miles up the road to a maple farm.  It’s not maple sugaring season (that’s in March) – but the owner showed us a slide show of the whole process and then we got to go in and sample all kinds of wonderful maple foods.  We even tried the maple soft serve ice cream and maple sugar cookies.  Finally, we took the girls to the place they’ve been waiting for…the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury.  The place was crazy with people (five tour busses at last count) – but we got our tour and our free samples!  Chris braved the line to get him and the girls each a scoop (my stomach was already done in from all the junk we’d been eating – so I just tried a bite of each of theirs.)  We took a short walk up to the cemetery for the retired flavors to see what we missed out on – (Sweet Potato Pie ice cream??? – I see why it died!)  All in all it was a good day.  

Next stop…who knows??  It’s getting a little tricky finding campgrounds that are either open (it’s getting toward the end of the camping season here) or not totally booked by all the other “leaf peepers.”    We’ll figure out our reservations tomorrow – after a good night’s rest.  Top three choices 1 – NYC, 2 – Boston, or 3- head up to Maine.  We’ll let you know!