I wish it were .......... Springtime in Vermont

July 12 – 14, 2006
New England has some of the most scenic country in North America and as we ventured into New Hampshire the trees were taller and the mountains were higher. We were so pleased that the day was overcast with the sun peeping out every so often. It kept it so much cooler.

A New Hampshire license plate on the vehicle ahead was an enigma with its gloomy motto “Live Free or Die” with a picture of a moose and the letters CH - is that a quote from Charlton Heston? If someone can enlighten us, please do.

In March on our return from California, we purchased and had installed a satellite dish at Camping World in Portland, Oregon. The ceiling control came loose within the first half a dozen uses but because we were travelling through Canada, we couldn’t get it fixed. The first Camping World near our path was in Chichester, NH and we made an appointment with them to get the repair done. As is usual with Camping World, they permitted us to stay overnight prior to our appointment. A lovely quiet spot near the trees and while there, the heavens opened up with hail and torrential rain most of the night. We heard the next day that a tornado had touched down and caused major damage in Exeter, only about thirty miles away from us. Surely, that’s an anomaly in New England.

We ventured out for dinner that night having noticed a ‘Weathervane’ just down the road. They are a chain of seafood restaurants and are famous for their ‘lobsters 2 for $29.95’ or on Thursdays ‘2 for $19.95’ and I can vouch for the quality of them. Yummy!

I’m very attracted to the idyllic little towns of New Hampshire but even moreso the ones in Vermont – the New England architecture with gables, shutters, weathervanes and cupolas – the landscaping with perennial gardens, houses nestled in the trees, flower baskets and white picket fences. The countryside is staggeringly beautiful but we expected northern New Hampshire and the White Mountains to be a remote ‘out in the wild’ sort of area. Not so! It was riddled with tourist attractions – water slides, gondola rides, mini golf, train rides, spas, golf courses, factory outlets, kiddie hangouts named ‘Story Land’ or Story Book’, crafts, antiques & collectibles, Xmas shops and Fernie’s favourite – ice cream parlours. There was a surfeit of inviting inns and taverns with names such as Sunnybrook, Tanglewood, Vintage, Cranberry, Nutmeg, Colonial, Yankee – my favourite, the Cabernet Inn painted a rich deep Cabernet red. Only in America!

Covered bridges pop up all over the place lending an aura of days gone by and reminding me of pictures by Currier & Ives. The Berkshires, a rural territory of mountains, babbling brooks and tall trees, that runs north/south through western Vermont, Massachusetts and into Connecticut is an upscale region full of mansions, theatres, art galleries and all the accoutrements of the very rich. The towns like Bennington, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, Lenox are fascinating places to stroll around and browse. We had rambled through this area slowly about fifteen years ago and it hasn’t changed much – it’s one of those regions where progress should hide its head. The lush foliage growing unyieldingly is like a tropical forest and vines clutch tightly and roam onto the overhead wires making green tunnels in the roadways. The greenery grows so swiftly that it obscures traffic signs and the road crews don’t seem able to keep up to it.

Massachusetts has had a spring of extreme rainy weather and it’s continued into the summer. We encountered many bridges that had been washed out and Bailey Bridges in their place while road crews hustled to build new ones. The weather has been off and on - sunny, hot and humid or overcast, hot and humid or raining, hot and humid. Our choice if we had one would be overcast, hot and humid because at least we can get around. Travelling in an RV with a dog in the extreme heat is not pleasant. We can’t leave him in the motorhome while we go somewhere to beat the heat or he’d fry. Even in a campsite where the electricity would run our air-conditioning, with the brownouts common in the east, we’d worry too much. We’ve taken to rubbing him down with an artificial ice block and he loves it, even rolls over so we can rub it over his tummy.

We’re finding it really difficult coping with the extreme humidity and the overabundance of mosquitoes and New England is generally not RV friendly. We intended to spend a few days at one of the myriad of lakes in New Hampshire but we would have been afraid to venture outside and an absolutely ridiculous rule applies in the State Parks, which makes me really angry “No pets”. . Rest areas have big signs “Live Parking only – vehicles must not be left.” What few campgrounds exist are totally booked up. Walmarts are scarce and when they exist, they’re too small to accommodate RVs. However, we did find one in Pittsfield, Massachusetts with a huge vacant auxiliary lot – Perfect!