Our
few days around
Montpelier were spent mostly dodging showers although
the
Sunday before Columbus day was sunnier and being a holiday weekend
brought out the crowds. The centre of Montpelier was quite attractive
with the gold domed State Capitol building, several traditional
Colonial style houses and a large Historical Society museum. There was a
farmers' market
on
the Saturday morning and we got the impression from the stalls and
produce for sale that there is quite an
alternative culture around here with many long bearded folk selling
candles etc. After collecting some maps and leaflets from
the Tourist Information booth and lunch
in
the popular Skinny Pancake restaurant we returned to our cabin to plan
our
itinerary for the next few days.
East Calais chapel
On the Sunday we headed west
on the freeway to Waterbury and the almost obligatory visit to the
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory, an interesting if rather whacky
place with a free sample to finish the factory tour. The
flavors
graveyard had examples of recipes that didn't make it to
the bigtime including Cool Britannia (Strawberrys and
Shortbread)! From
there we drove up to Stowe, a busy town where we spotted a crowd of
Japanese photographers with their camera gear and tripods
capturing the view of the
church in the trees. We then found a place to park at the end of the
recreational path alongside the river a couple of miles out from the
town centre. Most visitors were heading for the farmers' market with
food
and craft stalls and a lively blues band. We enjoyed a pleasant
walk along the path shared with cyclists but here they
sensibly called out "on your left" as they came up behind us
- rather more polite than our experiences when walking along some
of the shared trails in the UK.
Golden trees at Stowe
The
next day we headed south east to Groton State Forest passing through
more spectacular autumn Fall colours, although having climbed up a
steep
rocky path to the Owls Head viewpoint the outlook was rather
grey in the rain as
most of the trees on the distant hills had by now lost their leaves. We
decided to return to Mirror Lake passing
through the small towns of Marshfield and Plainsfield where the 4x4
pickup
truck seemed to be the most popular vehicle. We also passed a
couple of campgrounds which appeared to be occupied by long
term residents in large RV trailers.
Another grey
day followed so we headed for the "Granite Center of the World", Barre
(pronounced berry) and a visit to
the Rock of Ages quarry. After a look at the factory where mostly
headstones and memorials are produced these days, we took a trip
on their yellow school bus to see the quarry workings. For over 150
years massive blocks of light grey granite, up to 50 tons, have been cut
using various methods including blasting and diamond cable saws.
Luckily
they were lifting a couple of blocks out using the derrick cranes as we
arrived at the viewpoint and the guide explained how the stone was
extracted from the deep quarry over
the years, from when thousands of workers, many Italian, were
employed to just a few these days.