We all got up around 7:30 a.m. again and when I finally decided to get out of bed my nose and throat hurt, uh oh! Did I catch Amy's cold? We got ready, put on our Girl's Weekend shirts, people took showers, we started packing up our suitcases and a few of us went downstairs to see what they had for breakfast. I grabbed some toast, bacon, a potato triangle and orange juice. I ate with Mom and Mindy. Rhonda and Amy stayed upstairs, and it seemed that Amy was feeling a bit better today. When we finished, we brought a few things upstairs for them to eat, oatmeal, apples, oranges and coffee. We all continued getting our suitcases packed up and ready to go.
We made one more sweep through the room to make sure we didn't leave anything behind, got into the elevator and went to check out. We tetris'd our luggage back into Amy's Jeep and noticed a turkey running around the parking lot. The family nearby were trying to feed it extra popcorn they had in their vehicle. The turkey didn't seem to mind people. Our next leg of the trip is to drive northwest towards New Hampshire and Vermont. Places I never thought I'd ever go to.
We got on I-93 and worked our way up to the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. We chatted about various things as we breached the border into New Hampshire, the "Live Free or Die" Granite State. We spent time looking out the windows of the different colors of leaves that were still on the trees. Mindy said there were tons of pretty colors in the New England area about a week before we got there but they had a storm and most of the leaves fell.
I asked if everyone was ready for a pit stop and they all said they could use one. I looked up ahead and there was a rest area a few miles from us. I checked my geocache app and sadly, there wasn't a cache at this rest stop. I think every single rest stop that I've been to since I started geocaching (back in August 2010) has at least one cache. This was super odd to me. We saw the sign for the Springfield Rest Area and pulled over, parked and we all got out. It was a really nice rest stop and doubled as a welcome center as well. We all used the restroom, and I made jokes about peeing for the first time in New Hampshire, while we looked at the free travel literature. We hopped back into the Jeep and merged back onto the freeway.
We approached Concord and took the I-89 junction and headed northwest towards Lebanon and the state line. When we got closer, I noticed signs for Dartmouth College. It was located just north of Lebanon, in Hanover, New Hampshire. I didn't realize it was out this way. I thought it was in one of the bigger cities in New Hampshire. My brother had a friend growing up that went and graduated from Dartmouth.
We got off of the interstate just as we crossed over into Vermont over the Connecticut River. We got onto US Route 5 and headed south to Windsor. Mindy wanted to take us to a few covered bridges while we were in the area. About twenty minutes later we were in the small town of Winsor, Vermont, known as the "birthplace of Vermont." This town is where the Constitution of Vermont was adopted in 1777, thus marking the founding of the Vermont Republic, a sovereign state until 1791, when it joined the US.
We crossed the Cornish-Winsor Covered Bridge over the Connecticut River again and back into New Hampshire. We found the pullout, parked the Jeep and got out. I immediately looked for the cache, Or Pay Two Dollars Fine Covered Bridge Cache (GC6TJ08), which was an easy grab out of the guard rail. This was my first New Hampshire cache! I took a couple pictures of it and then put it back. I joined up with everyone else and admired the long and historical covered bridge. This bridge is the longest wooden covered bridge in the US and has the longest single covered span to carry automobile traffic.
We piled back into the Jeep and drove back through the bridge into Windsor. We stopped and parked on the street just in front of the old cemetery. It's crazy to think this town has been here since the Revolutionary War and George Washington. We explored the cemetery, looked at some of the old buildings nearby and admired the nice day we had once again. The weather sure has been kind to us on this trip. I checked to see if there were any more caches nearby and there weren't.
We did notice that there were two more covered bridges just north of where we were but south of where the interstate hits the state line in Hartland, Vermont. Let's go! We got back in the Jeep and followed US Route 5 up to Hartland. We stopped on the side of the road, for a few minutes, so Mindy and Mom could get a few pictures of some old rustic-looking buildings.
We drove the 5 miles to our next covered bridge, Martin's Mill Covered Bridge. It is one of two surviving 19th-century covered bridges in town. It was off of a side road away from the main highway. We found a placed to pull over. It was hard for me to get in and out, so I stayed in the Jeep while the four of them got out really quick to admire it. There was no cache here so that was another reason to stay inside. They were out there for about fifteen minutes and then all got back into the Jeep to head to the next one, which was just up the road.
Willard Twin Covered Brides is a historic covered bridge carrying Mill Street across the Ottauquechee River with a small island in the middle that connects both bridges. The western bridge was built in 2001. We pulled into the pullout and parked. We all got out and explored this unique bridge. The views of the river from there were awesome! I spent a couple minutes looking for This Is Vermont: Hartland (GC3762T) which was hidden inside of one of the many guardrails at this location. There was actually a TB inside and it was an HQ tag from Seattle. I retrieved it to move along on its journey, signed the logbook, took a picture and put it back for the next cacher.
We got back into the Jeep and drove towards our next destination, Woodstock, Vermont. We took Clay Hill Road up to where it connects with Route 4 just east of Woodstock. We drove past a lot of pretty Vermont countryside and saw a bunch of sugar shacks. The months of March and April (roughly) are when the farmers across the state harvest maple sap, boil it down, bottle it up and sell it to its consumers. We were there at the wrong time of the year to be able to experience that. In 2022, the state of Vermont produced over 2.5 million gallons of maple syrup, making it the top producer of maple syrup in the US.
We drove across Route 4 into Quechee. Mindy wanted to take us to fourth covered bridge of the day, Quechee Covered Bridge. We parked on the other side of the river and walked down the small trail to get a great view of the bridge and the small man-made waterfall in the background. The restaurant nearby reminded me of Falls Terrace in Tumwater. We got our pictures and got back in the Jeep.
We turned west onto Route 4 and saw there was a sign for another covered bridge. We pulled over in Taftsville but only Mindy, Mom and I got out. There was a cache here, but I didn't have enough time to look very well. Instead, I got a waypoint for an Adventure Lab called Covered Bridges of Vermont. I knew I wasn't going to finish that Adventure Lab, but I was okay with that. We got a few pictures the Taftsville Covered Bridge before we left.
We all got back into the Jeep and stopped at a grocery store just outside of Woodstock so Amy and Rhonda could use the restroom. Mom, Mindy and I stayed. They also bought some sodas while they were in there.
We got into Woodstock, found a place to park and started walking around the town exploring. Mom and I decided to do the Adventure Lab around town while Mindy, Amy and Rhonda did their own walking around. The Adventure Lab was called The Bells of Paul Revere and it took us to five different locations around town, three churches, a hotel and a Masonic Temple. While Paul Revere is best known for his famous Midnight Ride, in 1792, he agreed to re-cast the cracked bell from what is now known as the Old North Church in Boston. From this beginning, the Paul Revere & Sons foundry went on to cast a total of 398 bells between 1792 and 1828. Woodstock is the only town to have six of these church bells.
Mom and I definitely put some walking in. We started at the west side of town and finished in the eastern part of town. We did a waypoint at the Middle Bridge and ended up talking to some ladies from California who were here visiting their niece who was at one of the nearby colleges.
Once we were done, I looked for the No More Cryin' (GC90JKE) in the middle of town. I thought the difficulty should have been higher because it was literally right in the middle of town to where everyone could see you. Luckily, we were here when it wasn't that busy, so I had no trouble finding it.
We met up with the girls at the mercantile. We went inside and I looked around for some Vermont stickers, magnets and postcards. I didn't find too many stickers that I liked which was a bummer. I did grab some maple candy, syrup and some cookies to bring home as souvenirs. We were in there for about 45 minutes or so.
We walked across the street into the Vermont Flannel Company just to browse. We stayed in there for a long time looking at all of the different kinds, types and styles of flannel. The lady enjoyed our company since we were the only people in there the entire time, and we were from out of town. Mom asked me if she should get Dad and Doug flannel pants for Christmas. I told her if that's something she wanted to do, then to do it. She ended up getting the two pairs of flannel pants and a flannel sweater thing for herself. I didn't get anything because I had plenty of warm clothes.
We continued walking around for about another hour or so because the shops started closing up around 5 p.m. for the night, like most small towns. We all agreed that we should find some dinner before leaving Woodstock and checking into our hotel in Brownsville, just about a half hour south of where we were currently. The only place that was open was Coburn's.
We walked in and were seated right away. Rhonda and I went upstairs to use the restroom and wash our hands. That bathroom wallpaper had lips on it, and you bet I took a picture of it. I sent it to Erika because I knew she would appreciate it. I ordered a beer, a Switchback Ale from Burlington and a grilled chicken burger with fries. We ate, drank and visited the entire time we were there. Our waiter was entertaining which was a bonus.
We finished up, paid and walked back to the Jeep. We got onto Route 106 and followed it down to Brownsville, near Mt. Ascutney State Park. On the way to Brownsville, I spoke softly to Mom, who was sitting next to me in the back, that the Penguins were on TNT tonight and that simple sentence quickly turned into an inside joke. Mindy was in the front seat, and she thought I said that the penguins are in heat. We all laughed really hard and almost couldn't stop. We were seriously crying. I told everyone what I really said but there was no coming back from it. It was an inside joke forever.
We got into Brownsville and followed the GPS to Hotel Road. Mom had booked us a suite at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Mount Ascutney Resort, and it was the cheapest hotel on our entire vacation stay. Mom ran in really quickly and checked us in. She hopped back in the Jeep, and we drove to our "pod" of suites. We were in the Bennington "pod" room 2421 and we had to lug our suitcases up the stairs. We went inside and the place was probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at in my life. You could tell this hotel was for people who came and skied during the winter season.
We got settled in, picked which bed everyone was going to sleep in, and I got comfortable and ate some popcorn while I watched my hockey game on TV. Since it was on TNT, it was easy to find and watch. It was a great game until the Penguins gave up a large lead only to lose to Boston 6-5 in OT. I was so upset!
I got cleaned up, talked to Ben for a little bit, wrote some notes in my journal and we all soon went to bed. We actually went to bed before midnight this time. The bed was comfy, and I slept really well.
MA-VT-NH-ME Girl's Trip: Leaving Vermont, Lighthouses, Caching, Kennebunkport and Mindy's House (Day 7)
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