Vermont

Vermont July 31^st – August 4, 2021

Our main reason for visiting Vermont was to spend time with family. Vermont became a state in 1791 so living there was completely different than now living in Arizona which didn’t became a state until 1912!

Gary was born in Barre, Vermont, lived in Waitsfield through high school and went to the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington. His two sisters, their families and his mom still live in there.

I was raised in Burlington from age 3. I attended Burlington High School, UVM and Gary and I met in Burlington while I was still in college. My mom was born, and grew up, in Norwich, VT. My mom (a Candy Striper – hospital volunteer) met my dad (studying to be a doctor) at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH in the 1940’s. Dartmouth is across the Connecticut River from Norwich. There’s a lot of Vermont history in both our families.

I visited my mom’s grave at the large plot where many of my relatives are buried in Norwich. My grandfather (Henry H Barrett) was a photographer, at the turn of the century, for Dartmouth College. My Uncle (Richard H Barrett) was an anesthesiologist at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital. Hillside Cemetery is the place to be if you want beautiful views for eternity! : )

A list of things I love about VT, growing up, and still to this day:

• 17-1800’s Saltbox, Colonial, Cape Cod, Georgian and brick style homes
• Wild flowers and manicured gardens in many yards along fence lines
• Real maple syrup (made from the sap of Maple trees boiled down)
• The oranges and reds of the autumn leaves
• Maple Creamees (soft serve ice cream with real maple syrup)
• White Cabot sharp cheddar cheese (Cow’s don’t give orange milk! : )
• Smores (what??? You haven’t heard of Smores’? They are two graham crackers, with a piece of a chocolate bar and hot, fire toasted marshmallow between them)
• Large red cow barns and grain silos
• The Green Mountains (250 miles of forested rolling hills from the border of MA to the border of Quebec Canada)
• Thank You Ma’ams’ (the humped up road bumps man made or caused my frost heaves that these Vermont children loved when their parents would speed up over them causing us to hit our heads on the inside roof of the car!…seat belts? What were they in the early 1960’s!?)
• Green Mountain Coffee
• Lake Champlain (Champ is our equivalent to the Loch Ness Monster)
• Old style general stores
• White steepled clapboard sided churches
• Shaker style furniture
• Brown and ivory ceramic antique crocks
• Fresh veggies – corn on the cob!
• Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (I used to eat at the original store in a renovated gas station in Burlington, VT in 1977! – Wish they had options to buy their stock back then!
• Holstein cows (black and white dairy cattle)
• White picket and untreated wooden Lincoln fences
• Dark gray and black slate stone for walls, roofing shingles and patios.
• Local marble and granite for walkways and head stones
• Charging for grocery bags, so you bring your own!
• Five cents back for every can or bottle you bring to a recycle center to encourage returning them and people collect them along the roads to get the money back!

 And much more!

I do not miss:

• the 10 below 0 wind chill factor in February
• 6-10 inches of rain in a month in spring or summer
• Shoveling our 250-foot driveway after 8 -12 inches of freshly fallen snow… to name a few.

Obviously, living in Phoenix for the last 22 years has it’s draw backs…118 this past July (But it’s a dry heat!)

Gary’s niece, Kristen, has what we consider a typical Vermont farm house dinner when we visit.  All family members bring home baked bread and salads and Kristen has:

• Beef burgers from hers and her husband’s farm
• Veggies from their garden
• Huge scallions to give to each family member
• Homemade pickles
• Water in large Ball jars
• Vermont apple cider and,
• Their 9-yr. old daughter, Olivia, making us all smile with her fabulous fiddling!
• Rangeley loved meeting the family for the first time (we usually fly to VT and do not bring the dog). He loved the deep grass at the farm, cows and sheep …until he learned what an electric fence was, the hard way! Poor guy!

Gary’s mom, Earline (pronounced ur-lean) will be 91 this year. We have been visiting her more often these past couple years. She now lives in the capitol city of Montpelier, VT, an hour from Gary’s sister, Linell’s, where we stayed. We took M.O.M. as I call her (My Other Mother) out for a picnic lunch the first day at Morse Farm. It’s all our favorite place to visit each time we come to VT. We bought VT Maple Syrup to take home and after our picnic we bought Maple Creemees (mentioned above). Earline and Rangeley got along beautifully. We saw her again at Kristen’s gathering and on Tuesday Gary and I took her to Capitol Grounds for breakfast. A café’ on State Street, down the road from the large white pillared, gold domed roof capitol building.

Our four nights were spent at Linell’s, Gary’s sister’s home. Her 1800’s house is on the Brown’s River in Westford, VT and has a beautiful historic covered bridge adjacent to their property. Both Linell and their older sister, Laurie, are amazing gardeners. We enjoyed fresh salads from Linell’s garden each night and both sisters have flower gardens made for a magazine!

A summer visit to Vermont is never complete without a family gathering at the fire pit in Linell’s back yard. Gary’s nephew, Linell and Armando’s son, Mandi and his wife Samantha joined us. They are our kid’s age (early 30’s). The Smore’s fixings came out, we cracked open a few beers, sat in folding camp and Adirondack chairs and enjoyed the sound of the river, the cracking fire, the yummy roasted marshmallow and chocolate dessert, catching up on the latest family news. A perfect way to end a lovely trip to our home state.

Tomorrow we drive to Millersburg, Ohio in Holmes County, Amish Country. Our last formal, planned, stop on this summer’s cross-country road trip. We will be there four nights enjoying great homemade food with many of our Amish friends and Rangeley will enjoy yet another horse drawn buggy ride with his Amish breeders. We will journal at the end of that visit so check Roaming Rangeley after Monday August 9^th, 2021.

As Earline prefers to say, in lieu of “goodbye, “Until next time!”.

We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us!

• unknown