Bethel, Maine – Alburgh, Vermont
We followed the rushing rivers as the mountains rose up around us in Maine today. The thickets of white birch were gorgeous, as were the yellow-and-purple-flowered pastures through New Hampshire.
In St. Johnsbury, we stopped to take pictures of an old train and learned that here in 1830 Thaddeus Fairbanks invented the platform scale, and George Cary experimented with flavoring plug tobacco with maple sugar. The success of the Fairbanks Scale and maple-sugar industries are responsible for this small town’s still-thriving local economy. Here we met our person-of-interest for the day – the curator of the Train Depot Museum, who was born in Maine but lived most of her life in Hawaii, returning to Vermont only recently to care for her aging parents. We asked her if she would be returning to Hawaii, and she replied, “At first I thought I would, since folks know me there, and I would have someone to depend on, but, you know, people in America care for each other everywhere, even without the asking.”
In Vermont, we enjoyed a Chunky Monkey ice cream “lunch” at Ben and Jerry’s headquarters and visited their Flavor Graveyard.
The highlight of the day, though, was tromping around Hope Cemetery near Barre, VT, the “Granite Capital of the World,” home of the world’s largest “deep hole” granite mine, known as the Rock of Ages quarry. 10,000+ superbly-sculpted tombstones, many designed and installed prior to their owner’s demise, and all made of Barre Gray granite, pepper this well-manicured 85-acre outdoor museum.
Later, as guests at a cozy bed-and-breakfast on Lake Champlain, we savored an evening sans internet. Although George never slept here, he was president when it was built (1795).
On the Road Again 