A three-state day, although claiming anything of New York is cheating,
since we only slept there last night, and even then the town is just on
the other side of the New York-Vermont state line. But then again, the
stopping point of Nashua, New Hampshire is only two miles or so from the
New Hampshire-Massachusetts state line, so I could be quite the liar-liar
before the day's done.
|
| 6:00am |
You guessed it -- alarm. I made sure Tubby was sufficiently nudged
to go get a sunrise picture or two, and went back to sleep. |
| 6:04am |
To my alarm and surprise, Tubby was already out of bed and doing
morning stuff. |
| 6:09am |
Tubby was even ahead of me in loading his stuff into the car. |
| 6:16am |
Now I've got it. My powers of influence over Tubby are still complete.
I'd suggested, last night, that he capture the sunrise over Lake Champlain,
which is on the other side of the street from the motel. He's gone
out with a camera and a hooded sweatshirt to wait for the occasion. |
| 6:23am |
Of course, what the lad fails to realize is that sunrise is (was)
at 7:04am today, and with the clouds being what they are, well...
good luck and fat chance on seeing a sunrise. |
| 6:50am |
Given to surrender, we take a few photos of Rouses
Point, then begin the day's travels. |
| 7:12am |
Hopping the bridge, we break into Vermont
without so much as a fight. But it seems the Vermont folk are okay
catering to Canadians... distances are in both miles and kilometers
in places, and in a few spots, road signs are posted in both English
and French. |
| 7:47am |
Trekking down the highway, we found ourselves amidst drizzle, but
more delightfully, St.
Albans. |
| 8:13am |
The numerous Diet Pepsis consumed catches up with us, and we pop
into the first Vermont-based rest
stop we've seen. Let me tell you, it was a delight. There's an
attendant at an informational desk, the place is clean, dry, warm,
and welcoming. Top notch! |
| 8:41am |
We arrive in Burlington,
discover the place is a total college town, and that students are
going to class, so I'd guess today being Columbus Day doesn't play
into a day off for them. We also bumped into some creatively painted
houses around town. |
| 9:17am |
A few turns that weren't so much wrong as they were not right, we
finally get out of town. |
| 9:34am |
The second, even more delightful rest
stop visit. This one had the informational attendant, complimentary
coffee and snacks, and the rest rooms were great -- plenty of space,
motion-activated faucets in the sinks, soap that's the foamy kind
instead of the liquid, and hand dryers that actually blow enough to
do something more than encourage you to wipe your hands on your shirt. |
| 10:03am |
We jumped off the interstate to see Stowe and such; along the way,
I was impressed with the quilt
of colors adorning the hillside above the lush green meadow. |
| 10:08am |
The sights of Stowe --
but no sounds of music -- greeted us as we rolled into town. (The
Trapp Family Lodge is apparently related to the von Trapps as featured
in the musical The Sound of Music.) |
| 10:36am |
Leaving Stowe, we stopped in at Ben
& Jerry's Factory, which I was surprised to find along the
way between Stowe and the interstate. |
| 11:03am |
Montpelier is both
the state's capital city and the city we next stopped to visit in. |
| 11:29am |
Just a stone's throw away is Barre,
which isn't the capital of anything, but is a town that doesn't let
that technical hurdle stand in their way. |
| 12:47pm |
Though a gross navigational error, we ended up southbound on the
interstate instead of the highway. D'oh. |
| 12:49pm |
After consulting a map, and using a very powerful blue Bic pen,
we rearrnaged the trip. |
| 1:03pm |
We stopped into Springfield,
Vermont to engage in Tubby's on-going quest to find the town that
inspired The Simpsons creator to create
their fictional city. But given it's fictional, I've tried explaining
the meaning of the word, but he's insistent the place exists, somewhere. |
| 1:50pm |
After having a mediocre lunch, we shove off, and finished wandering
around Springfield (Vermont). |
| 2:08pm |
It couldn't be avoided, so we ended up crossing over into New
Hampshire continue the adventure. |
| 2:58pm |
Lovely lake
picture, anyone? |
| 3:25pm |
Tubby led us quite out of our way to visit Springfield,
New Hampshire, if only for us to point out that this, too, isn't
a "fictional" town. |
| 3:42pm |
An intense amount of driving along slow, winding country begins.
|
| 4:53pm |
Those winding roads eventually got us out to the interstate, and
we have arrived in Concord. |
| 5:11pm |
Venturing into the toll highway, we coughed up the 75 cents to give
it a ride. Just before the toll plaza, we saw an odd sight -- a
liquor store next to the state-funded rest stop. What the...?!?
Also neat were the "exact change" lanes, where you just
toss your three quarters (or 75 cents, or tokens) into the large steel
basket, it counts the money and gives you a green light, or... dunno
-- we got a green light. |
| 5:27pm |
Picking up speed as sun begins threatening to disappear, we hit
Manchester. |
| 5:45pm |
Finding signs rare, we end up at the airport to get a picture of
a Manchester sign, before taking an alternate highway south, avoiding
the toll roads (we were low on quarters). |
| 6:08pm |
Shadows greeted us upon arriving in Nashua. |
| 6:52pm |
After some wandering around, we hit Motel 6, checked in, and secured
room 343 easily enough. |
| 6:56pm |
Back in the car, the quest for food begins. |
| 7:24pm |
Arriving at Ruby Tuesdays -- a startling 3 minutes drive from the
motel, but a meander to get here -- we were seated and did the whole
dinner ritual. |
| 8:09pm |
Exiting, we returned to the motel's 'hood, bought gas for the car
and a couple of Diet Pepsis for me, figuring I'd be up well past midnight
writing, given the lateness of the hour already. |
| 8:17pm |
Right as rain, we're back, and I'm starting the updates now, beginning
with posting all of yesterdays stuff (late due to the lack of connections
to the internet). |
| 12:24am |
Updates done, and the biggest chunk of them posted. |
| 12:51am |
All of the pre-bed stuff is done, so I'm going to erase the "pre-"
bit of that and turn in. G'night! |
| |
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