So it turns out that in the spring in the forest in Maine, the trees get very excited about producing pollen. I woke up in the morning sneezing like crazy, and I couldn’t figure out why…until we got out of the tent and everything was dusted with this greenish yellow pollen. Every time we touched the tent, a big cloud of it would poof up. It was pretty impressive, really. It also turns out that mosquitoes really like to hang out under the fly of our tent, so when we started to pack up camp, they swarmed! Ahhhh!!! So much for brushing all that pollen off! We rolled that tent up QUICK! and hit the road.
Now, one exception to our no chain restaurant rule has been an almost daily stop at Duncan Donuts so Mike can have some coffee (thanks for the gift cards, Nick and Cheri!) Well, sometime a few states ago, Mike agreed to allow me a cup of coffee – and got me one of them coolatta things (or whatever they’re called.) They’re pretty delicious, so every once in a while he will order me one. So yeah, I’m totally back on the caffeine. Sweet! (This is where you should feel sorry for Mike because I get really hyper when I have caffeine!)
Where was I? Oh yeah. So we were heading for Vermont, where we wanted to go on a tour at Ben & Jerry’s factory, but we had quite a bit of ground to cover, so we decided to just hit the road and figure out breakfast (lunch) later. Hence the stop at DD.
We were having fun driving around Maine, so we quickly came to the decision to take our time and worry about the tour the next day. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are so pretty, we didn’t want to rush through them. We made a few stops at various farm stores – always entertaining – and just sort of meandered through the countryside taking pictures. It was fun.
Now, my friend Erin from my days in Boston at Mother Anna’s lives in Northfield, Vermont these days, so we planned to meet up with her at a brewery in Waterbury called the Alchemist. We beat her there by a little bit, which gave us time to finagle a couple of seats at the bar and try some of their beers. Let me just say, their beer is pretty delicious. They have one called ‘Shut the Hell Up’ which is a really light summery beer that goes down just a little too easy. I alternated between that and another one called ‘Wonky’ which was also delicious. If you’re ever in Vermont, I highly recommend stopping in.
Erin met us a round or two in and was a delight, as always. It was really fun to catch up with her and hear all about small town life in Vermont. We had some delicious dinner and watched the bar go from packed to the gills to quiet and empty before we sadly had to say our goodbyes.
I had found an open state campground (many of them don’t open until after Memorial Day) about 30 minutes from Waterbury called Smuggler’s Notch, so we headed in that direction. Yay for setting up camp in the middle of the night again! (Totally worth it if it meant we got to hang with Erin for a while!) Anyway, this is the part where I get us lost a bit (again).
You see, when you google Smuggler’s Notch, it very confidently places a pin along the road. I just assumed that was where the campsite was. Not so much. So, we drove up this crazy windy road that at points wound around huge boulders in such a way that there would be no way for more than one car to pass at a time – and it was a two lane road! Because of the windy road, no busses or big trucks are allowed, so the tree branches hang really low over the car. I’m both sad and happy that we were driving it in the middle of the night. Sad because it was really crazy and scary and yet still pretty (from what we could tell) and I would have liked to take pictures. Happy because we only passed two or three other cars and you could tell when one was around a bend because of their lights. I have no idea what people do during the day up there!
Of course, after we got over the hill and out of the really scary section, I realize that we actually passed the campsite back before the scary road began at all. Oops! So we turned around and did it again! For the record, it was just as scary the second time. It was pretty awesome and fun – kind of like a roller coaster without the safety harness or long lines. We got to the campsite and because it was so late, we weren’t technically supposed to be able to check in, but the ranger took pity on us and gave us a campsite. Of course, it was a walk in site, so we had to drag everything down a path through the forest. In the dark. Fun! I was really hoping to see a moose or something exciting, but no such luck. Maybe next time.
Today we’re going on that ice cream factory tour (for reals this time!) This afternoon we’re heading for Montreal, where we have a hotel room reserved, so we get a break from the tent tonight. Yay!