A drive through the country to Vermont

Thursday 9 August 2012 – A drive through the country to Vermont

Day 118 and 42 to go

The bed is noisy. Every time we roll over it squeaks and groans. It manages to keep us awake during the night. I was surprised to hear Paul up and showering and even more surprised to find it was 8.45am already. I could have stayed in bed getting more sleep.

Once up I had a shower and got myself ready while Paul packed up our things. We wandered down for breakfast, having it interrupted by the emergency alarm. We had to meet in the lobby and wait to be given the all clear. The fireies turned up but it was a false alarm. We returned to our breakfast watching news of a bus crash that we found out later was right outside the hotel.

We returned to our room grabbed all of our bags checked out and then Paul collected the car. We put the bags in and then we were on the road making our way onto the freeway and heading North to Manchester in the state of New Hampshire about 50min away.

The roads again were clear and easy to navigate and at 11 we parked up in central Manchester. We went for a walk around the block to stretch our legs. We wandered through Cat Alley where the walls were painted with various cat inspired pictures.

We passed a beautiful old car in very good condition, before making our way back to the car and back on to the highway this time heading to Norwich in Vermont. The drive was a beautiful one. We were driving through bear country. The scenes you see on nature videos were playing out in front of us as we drove on the highway. The forest was so thick with pines and other plants you couldn’t see more than a metre in from the road. Every now and then we passed rivers that you could imagine bears wandering along looking for fish.

We were now moving through higher ground.

Once we reached Norwich we fuelled up, grabbed a subway sandwich and found a bench on a local school oval to sit, eat and watch a squirrel play on a wooden fence and jump between the branches of trees.

When we finished our lunch we walked the short main street checking out the beautiful and mostly wooden buildings. The main street wasn’t more than 1km long so it didn’t take long to explore and then we were back on the road at 1.15 this time heading on to our hotel in Stowe.

It was now starting to cloud in and sprinkle with rain every now and again, but it still remained picturesque.

We passed through the larger town of Barre and then skirted Montpellier, the capital of Vermont before finally arriving in Stowe a tourist area that I imagine would be full with people in winter chasing the ski slopes.

We pulled into the Mountaineer Inn at 3.10pm, checked in and went straight to the room. We had a balcony with a view to the river that ran behind as well as views of the pine tree covered mountains. It was very pretty.

Once we were settled in we decided to head out again. We firstly walked down to the river just to see how fast it was flowing. There wasn’t a lot of water but what was there was moving freely. It was now starting to rain and the thunder was booming overhead.

We returned to the car and drove a short distance from our hotel to Trapp Hill Road. We were heading there as on this road is the Von Trapp family chalets, guesthouses and brewery. When the Von Trapp family; made famous in the movie Sound Of Music; fled Austria they eventually made it to the US. They eventually settled here in Vermont and set up the hotel.

We stopped at the brewery where Paul tried the beer tasting plate and I had a glass of their wine. Paul wasn’t particularly fussed by the beers, but it was worth coming for the experience and seeing what has been created by the well-known family.

We then returned to the car and drove through the town-site of Stowe. It is a typical ski area with many shops catering to the skiers. We stopped at the supermarket to grab some drinks and then returned to the hotel.

We sat around in the room for a bit and ten got into our bathers and went to find the pool and spa. We were the only ones using the spa that was nice. When it got too hot we jumped in the pol to cool off. When I got out I saw an otter out on the lawn. Or first encounter with a wild American beast.

We had a quick dip in the spa again and then I went to get the camera to take some photos of the otter. I wandered onto the lawn and managed to get quite close. He wasn’t particularly fussed but darted off into the bushes once I got too close.

We returned to the room, had a shower, got dressed and then drove to “The Crop” café and brewery for dinner. It was fully booked for dinner but we were able to sit in the lounge bar and have food. So we sat up at the bar. The café was very funky and Jason the barman was great value. Paul had a beer and we ordered our dinner that we ate happily while chatting to Jason who gave us a margherita shot to enjoy and it was delicious. He then proceeded to give Paul a free pint and when that was finished it was time for us to head back to the room.

We watched some more of the Olympics while laying in bed. I finished up on the computer and then  read some of my book before it was lights out at 10pm. 

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