First Jaunt thru Vermont: Giffords SP, Killington, VT 10/4/09

The bad news is that it rained almost all day. The good news is that it scared off most of the tourists and yes, we’re in Vermont. We left New Hampshire in dense fog, with maybe a ¼ mile visibility, looked at each other and said, “Mmm, maybe not the most ideal conditions for leaf-peeping.” However, by mid-morning the fog had lifted and we actually got some pretty spectacular views. (See today’s pic). For most of the day it felt like Thanksgiving, cool and damp, but somehow special like we were still in for a treat. We spent most of the day on highway 100, also known as the Green Mountain Highway. Along the way we saw covered bridges, miles of rolling hills bursting with color, and our first New England moose! We couldn’t believe how few other people were on the road considering it’s the weekend and the height of fall colors. It was nice having it all to ourselves. That suddenly came to an end when we entered Weston and decided to visit the Vermont Country Store. Now we know where everybody was! This quaint, old fashioned country store is stocked with every nostalgia item you can dream of, and they give out free samples of cheese, cookies, crackers, fudge, and jams, to just name a few. Geez, you’d think people were starving the way they were lapping it up! Ned and I browsed for a little while, excited to find the elusive New England soft drink, Moxie (I like it, since the aftertaste is bitter like Campari, while for Ned, the jury is still out.) We decided we’d seen enough and split for other adventures. We headed for the Sugarbush Maple and Cheese Farm, run by the same family for generations. Nothing about their operation has changed since 1946, which made it charming to see how they tap the maple trees for sap, haul it by draft horse to the boiling shed, and then boil the water out of the sap until it becomes syrup in a long wood-fired troughs. We couldn’t believe it takes from 40 to 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. No wonder maple syrup is so expensive! After Sugarbush we drove around Woodstock and thought it was a really interesting place with lots of character. Next we stopped at Long Trail Brewery, where we took a tiny self-guided tour of their process. I thought Ned should get their 6 beer sampler, but since that amounted to 24 ounces of beer, and (even though I try to) I don’t like beer, we decided instead to eat their popcorn and leave. Next we found our campground at Gifford State Park, and are heartened that we can see the full moon tonight. Maybe we’ll get some blue skies tomorrow.