Day 3: Vermont

My home state, I know I’m biased, but this really is a beautiful state.  From North Conway I headed North West to Newport Vermont.  2 Stories from my youth about Newport.  When I was very young maybe 6 or 7, I went to Newport with my Dad and a friend of his to view a house my Dad was thinking of buying and fixing up to sell.  On the way home, his friend Holly Ward, was driving this big old Pontiac of Dad’s.  One of the straights on Route 100, Holly turned to me, sitting in the middle, and said "have you ever gone 100 mph?"  I was impressed and I think that is the last time I went 100 mph in a car.  2^nd story was 1976, my Dad as part of his work asked me to find a friend to drive 2 paintings from a museum in Springfield VT to a Museum near Newport, which is on the Canadian border.  I had not turned 16 yet, so I went along shotgun, with my friend Marty driving.  When we reached the museum on the border, we got a little lost and parked to look at the map.  Turns out we had parked on the Canadian side of the highway, and were held by two RMCP’s, and questioned separately about what we were doing trying to sneak into Canada. Fortunately, we told the same story and were free to go.

From Newport I went to North Troy to see the end of the Long Trail, the first long distance hiking trail in the US, the Appalachian trail was later modeled after.  From there I headed to Craftsbury Common where they have a famous Nordic center and cross-country ski race. The long trail and the Cross-Country ski race are two things I probably will not do, but now I have been there.

On the way to Burlington for the night, I drove right by my oldest friend’s house in Stowe.  I have known David since we were 5.  He fed me lunch and a Heady Topper. The beer must have given me the courage to get a road trip haircut. I won’t be seeing anybody I know for a long time, so I got a cut with a razor for the first time. Last time my hair was this short, I was 6 months old.

Song of the Day: Crazy Parade, Grace Potter. (Grace went to the same high school as I did, many years later, and this song is about a hike in my hometown)

Podcast: Over the Road – today the history of trucking with Finn Murphy. Finn wrote a book The Long Haul about being a trucker in the moving business, really good book I read a few years ago.

Book on Tape: The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough, today about America coming together to help out the people of Johnstown to recover from the flood.

Beer of the Day: Heady Topper, The Alchemist

Total Miles 260