Travel: Vermont / New Hampshire, day 3

Day three found us slowly moving about... that French toast was good, but it takes a couple more cups of coffee to work through it to my bloodstream so I can get on with the day. Since I wasn't about to make them give me another pot "to go" and we just "happened" to be down the road from Green Mountain Coffee, we all thought it was a good idea to visit them... okay, so they were already on the agenda, but given the time of day, it totally made sense. They have some interesting business ideas and some great ethics. I will suggest "Stone-like" variations to the powers that be.

Further down the road was a visit to Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Since we had gotten a small sample of their cider while at the Grunberg Haus, we were anticipating their famous cider and apparently even more famous cider donuts. We got free samples and savored every drop. This stuff completely blows away anything I have ever (yeah, "eh-ver") had in Julian. It's $13 a gallon, and about $12 to ship it home, but I'm still considering getting some around the holidays. The donuts were good, but not as good as the cider itself (in my opinion).

From there, it was back on the road to get to our next stop, with a little side trek through Montpelier. Don't blink or you might miss the nation's smallest state capital! It was during this leg of the road trip when I developed a little used skill: something I now like to call "kung-fu photography"! Simply put, you find yourself in a situation where you know a good picture can be had if you could somehow separate yourself from whatever it is you're doing and shoot the photo, say, blindly out the window while you're concentrating on driving. Everyone in the car is saying "wow" and "look at that" and you're stuck with few options: look and risk crashing; pull over and lose time toward the next destination; handing the camera to someone else and not get "wow" photos, or put the camera in your own hand, point it where you think the "wow" is, and shoot, hoping to look at the photos later. So far, I've even started using the technique in other situations. Yes, that's a "kung-fu photo" to the right. Maybe my name for the technique is bad, but how good is your kung-fu (photography)? :)

The Cabot Creamery was next on the itinerary, so we jumped on the road once again. Like the other factories, this one has lots of stainless steel tubing and big tanks. The difference was the "cooking" troughs. They heat the milk and other ingredients in the troughs and it is mixed. When done, it is dumped out of the tough into an augered pipe that moves the cheese to the press where it is formed into a somewhat large block (or round) of cheese. Most cheese they make is supposed to be eaten before a relatively short time has passed, but some is aged for up to two years (and cave aged for much longer). We threw down some cash and picked up some cheeses for a lunch "on the road" in the White Mountains.

The White Mountains of New Hampshire are... well... green, but the Green Mountains are in Vermont, so I guess they had to come up with some name. Whatever the name, they are gorgeous! Even more spectacular was the Flume Gorge at Franconia Notch! I'm familiar with "flume" when it is used to refer to logging, but I never really thought about other uses. Now I can see where they got the name (thought I don't know which usage came first). Since we arrived late, we took the bus up to the "base station", bypassing a quarter of our hike, but driving through one of New Hampshire's oldest covered bridges (by trip's end, we had crossed four and saw two others). The hike to the flume was quick and the cantilevered walkway through the flume itself was a little dicey in spots (while watching a 5 year old), but I'd do it again without hesitation. The flume and surrounding woods were breathtaking. Aside from the falls at the top, I really liked the countless trees growing atop boulders with their roots stretching across them to the ground. It was like a forest on another world!

We had dinner that night at the Woodstock Inn Station & Brewery. As usual, I got the sampler tray of beers. (I'll have to fill in the details soon). The food, beer, drink, service, and atmosphere were all good.

Back at the hotel, that night's beverage was a 750-ml bottle of Farnum Hill Extra-Dry Cider I split with Andie. Very good cider, with some funky smells and notes. Perhaps there is some bret in thier cider.

(I'll probably update this entry with some more information, but for now... mmm... sleep)
(I'll also deal with my feelings about toll roads in a more appropriate entry... but I don't hate them quite as much as I first did.)