Capital, Ben and Jerry's Factory, Cabot Cheese Factory Outlet, Smuggler's Notch Distillery Outlet, Champlain Chocolatier Outlet, Morse Maple Syrup Farm, The Moose!!!, Huge telephone

Needless to say today was exceptionally busy. We started our day off heading the toward the Vermont State Capital but after realizing we were parked right next to the visitor's center we stopped in there first to see what they had to offer. Upon entering we were immediately greeted by a man in his late 50s and an older woman in her 70s who could not have possibly been friendlier. Apparently Vermont is in a sad state (no pun intended) of affairs as the population is getting older and the young folks are moving away. We thought these exceptionally sweet conversations (along with all of the others we ended up having through the day) were all a rouse to get unsuspecting young families like ours to move to their state.

The capital was just around the corner from the Visitor's Center (Montpelier is the smallest state capital city in the U.S.) so it was a short walk. The building was fairly understated as it was made primarily of concrete blocks, however it did have a gold cupola. We got to walk in the front door and there was no security to worry about which is always refreshing. Gotta love freedom states! Unlike a majority of the capitals it did not have an open rotunda as they stated that the town fathers did not want to waste the precious space. The self-guided audio tours took us through the entire building. The decoration was elegant but simple. Walls, columns, and most of the interior was white with cream accents, with doors and banisters being dark wood. For the most part this capital was not extraordinary other than there was a civil war painting that was approximately 12' high by 16' wide. It was an impressive piece of historic art. My favorite piece was a white, marble scupture of Abraham Lincoln that Mrs. Lincoln sent to the people of Vermont in thanks for all of their condolence letters that she received after her husband passed away. A most significant piece of information was that Vermont was a country of its own for 14 years prior to becoming the 14th state of the union. Very coincidential and fascinating.

From the capital we set out to go to several places that had been recommended to us by the lady that we had met at the visitor's center. These stops included Ben and Jerry's ice cream plant, Cabot Cheese outlet, Smuggler's Notch Distilllery, Champlain Chocolatier outlet, and the Morse Maple Syrup Company. Each was delicious and seriously overpriced, but it was a fun and fairly quick view of the wares that Vermont had to offer as well as we got to see what Vermont towns look like. The two towns we had the most time in, I felt like I was in an older downtown Chico or downtown of Grass Valley or Mt. Shasta City. There were no big box stores to be seen and it seemed that most businesses were locally run. It was odd but really enlightening to see local people buying local goods and it working on a whole community level.

Leaving Montepelier and the surrounding area we began our trek toward Augusta, Maine. Along the way we were on roads that were endlessly surrounded by forests of trees interspersed with small cemeteries every few miles right on the side of the road without fences and lakes. It was impressive! The most exciting part of our ride was that I saw my very first and only MOOSE! I was SO very excited that I was slapping the side of the car yelling that I saw a moose. No one else got to see her or young him unfortunately. We spent the rest of the afternoon hoping we just might get a chance to see more.

The last event for the day was something Mike found on Roadtrippers which was the last rotary telephone. There was a small town that had rotary telephones until 1981 when the last ones were finally incorporated into the existing telephone lines. We stopped, jumped out, tool a quick pic and moved on. It was an amusing little sideshow to see!

-Carrie