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Published: September 23rd 2023
Palmer House Resort 1
Our motel-like rooms. We leave Jackson today and guess what……..it’s pouring down again, although, to be fair, most of the rain that we’ve had on this trip (since we left Boston) has been while we have been on the road and so far, hasn’t stopped us doing what we planned to do. But would that change today, I wonder?!
Today we leave New Hampshire and head 200 miles south west to Vermont, known as the 'Green Mountain State', (although the official motto is 'Freedom and Unity', similar to that of New Hampshire, but actually adopted long before that of NH). As you have probably guessed the name 'Vermont' is actually derived from the French for 'Green Mountain', and it is those mountains that we are heading for today. Vermont is bordered by New Hampshire to the east, New York State to the west, Massachusetts to the south and like New Hampshire, the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. It is a similar size to New Hampshire, but with only half the population and we were off to Manchester, one of the main towns in the state, but with a permanent population of only a little over 4,000.
We said our fond
Palmer House Resort 2
Some of the extensive grounds….. farewells to Nestlenook and set off south, although hadn't gone far before we realised it must be 'bin day', as we got stuck behind a slow moving garbage truck. Good news though, half way up a hill the truck was turning off left, so we shouldn't be delayed too long. However, rather than wait, our garbage truck driver clearly felt he owned the road and went straight across in front of another huge truck careering down the hill, in the pouring rain!! We sat helpless, praying that the truck coming down the hill didn't hit the brakes which would have probably seen us all wiped out, but no, they missed each other by what seemed like inches and Steve & I breathed a massive sigh of relief; fortunately, Mandy and Lily were blissfully unaware!
A little later, we had our second incident of the day and I have to say, a pure co-incidence that it was me driving both times!! For those of you who have previously driven in the US, you may well be familiar with the way they handle a lot of temporary roadworks, by using a person at each end of the works with a 'stop/go'
sign pole, as opposed to actual temporary traffic lights, a much better system, in my opinion. Plenty of advance notice is usually given of any upcoming roadworks, but whilst my eyes had seen this particular advance warning sign, my brain hadn't really registered it, mainly because we were busy trying to name all 50 American States between us; 'little things', as they say! The next thing I remember is careering towards this poor bloke, (with his stop/go sign thrust in front of him like some protective shield of invincibility from a superhero comic) and with Steve yelling 'STOP'!!! I'm pleased to say that the BMW's brakes worked perfectly, as we stopped well short of the workman (although close enough to see the look of horror on the poor chap's face) and without a second glance, he calmly twisted his pole and beckoned us on our way! AND, what's more........we never managed to name all 50 states, missing out Minnesota, Delaware and Indiana!
We decided that maybe it was time for us to change drivers and we pulled over in a town called Bradford (still raining by the way!), firstly to get some fuel and then to stop at a
Palmer House Resort 4
The view from our rooms. restaurant called the Hungry Bear for some coffee and cake. While we were there, Steve noticed that they sold Fiddlehead beer, a brew that he had enjoyed way back in Boston. He asked to take a couple away with us, expecting to be given a couple of bottles. As it turned out however, the Fiddlehead was on draft and instead of bottles, they presented us with two plastic cups of the beer, but with tops on to keep them secure. This was a tad unexpected at 11 in the morning, but off we went with our two beers and plonked them in the cup holders at the front if the car. We weren't going to drink them on the road, of course, but weren't quite sure how we would stand if we happened to be stopped by the State Police - would these count as open alcohol, which we knew was banned?!! Steve wasn't happen to simply waste the beer by throwing it away and so our cover story was that we both suffered from weak bladders and had used the cups in an emergency!! Taking the p*** I know, but it might have worked, although I'm pleased to say
Palmer House Resort 5
Steve and Lily by the fire pit in the grounds. that we never had to try out the plan!
We arrived in Manchester about 2.00 pm and decided to see if we could check into our accommodation, pretty much in the centre of town, called The Palmer House Resort. To be honest, we were a little disappointed when we arrived to see that the typical New England clapperboard house which features prominently on the website, is really only a building as you enter the site (not sure if it is used or not), with all the actual accommodation being in lines of ground floor motel rooms set around a very large complex. Our feeling of disappointment wasn't really enhanced that much, when the young lady checking us in, although perfectly efficient, wasn't really that communicative or interested in us paying customers. However, when we got to our rooms, they were absolutely fine, a little dated, but a good size, clean and with two comfy double beds in each room. The grounds around the accommodation were really quite pretty (although, we didn't see that much in the 'still' pouring rain). As the title of this post says, it is just like Manchester at home!
Despite the rain, we decided
Stratton Mountain 1
Nothing to do but take a seat! to explore the town, which once again although small in population terms, is actually spread over a very wide area. The local map that we had picked up showed that there were a few shopping areas dotted around (which we thought might be a good option in the rain) and whilst we visited most of these, there really wasn't anything that floated our boats, couple with the fact that some of the nicer things were hideously expensive. To be honest, I don't think we were really in the mood for wandering about in the miserable weather and so we decided to go for a meal instead at place called Ye Olde Tavern, recommended by a lady in one of the shops we did visit. The name sounds a bit crass, but it is actually a restaurant with over a two hundred year history and the food was excellent. We were back at the motel by eight and all decided that we needed an early night, bringing to an end, a wet and not especially successful day.
Day two in Manchester and whilst it had, at last, stopped raining, it was very overcast and really didn't bode very well for
Stratton Mountain 2
Wot? No cable car?! our main plans today, visiting two mountains, namely Equinox and Stratton. Our first call however was breakfast, which was complimentary at the motel; not especially great food, but perfectly OK for 'free' and having re-fuelled, we were off for the day. Mount Equinox is only about 5 miles outside of town and that was our first port of call, for another drive up a mountain. However, when we reached the visitor centre, we were met by pictures showing a complete 'white-out' up top and absolutely no point in wasting money to go up. As it happens, the weather forecast for tomorrow is clear blue skies and as the journey to our last destination is quite short, we decided that we would come back and do Equinox in the morning. But, nevertheless..............a bad start to the day.
Despite the cloudy conditions, we decided to press on to Mount Stratton, partly in the hope that conditions would improve and partly because we were due to go up in a cable car and that there would be fun in the ride anyway. Mount Stratton is principally a ski resort, about 30 miles from Manchester and on arrival, we had a bad feeling!
Covered Bridges 1
The East Arlington bridge. Very few cars about and as we walked up into the main part of the resort village, there were lots of shops and restaurants, but most of them turned out to be closed. As we got round to the cable car area, more bad news........it was only operating at weekends and guess what......it wasn't a weekend!! We grabbed a coffee and muffin from the only coffee shop that appeared to be open and with today's plans going from bad to worse, we pondered what to do next.
We thought about perhaps going to a shopping mall, but the best our host at the coffee shop could suggest was the malls back in Manchester and as I said earlier, we weren't desperately impressed with these; I was starting to become bereft of ideas! However, in the nick of time, I remembered that we weren't that far from the town of Arlington and, joy of joys, there were a couple of covered bridges that we could visit! In addition, there was a museum in Arlington devoted to the American painter Norman Rockwell, which my three amigos were keen to visit, so we had a new plan and off we went.
Covered Bridges 2
The slightly worst for wear West Arlington bridge. Covered bridge number one in East Arlington was a lovely example, with a nice warning sign at the entrance, stating that you would be fined if you drove faster than you could walk across! There was also a store close by called 'The Bonnie & Clyde Country Store' which we had a nose inside, but what it had to do with the actual 'Bonnie & Clyde' is a mystery! Covered bridge number two in West Arlington was a bit run down to be honest and I could feel that I was starting to loose 'my audience', so to try and save the day, we hotfooted it to the Norman Rockwell museum arriving in no time at all, to find that.........it was closed for the next two days!! I hoisted the white flag and surrendered and we agreed to head back to Manchester and pop into the Northshire book store (which someone had said was worth visiting) and and also the Smugglers Notch Distillery, because we definitely needed a treat.
The bookstore was, actually, a really terrific place, where you could browse for hours and well worth a visit, but with average paperback costing nearly $20, it definitely wasn't cheap!
Covered Bridges 3
The entrance to the Bonnie & Clyde Country Store. As for the distillery, that was, indeed, a real treat, although it turned out to be a shop outlet rather than the distillery itself, which was located a couple of hours north of Manchester. Smugglers Notch specialise in gin, vodka and bourbon (including some infused with maple syrup) and after tasting a 'flight' of five different concoctions (which really were very tasty), we made a few purchases and then made our way back to our motel to sit on our terrace and knock back some cans of vodka cocktails that we had also purchased!
While on the terrace, I popped along to reception to collect some ice and passed a girl sitting outside having a cigarette and who I was convinced was the girl who had checked us in the previous day! Rather than ignore her as I passed by, I mentioned that it was good to see that the weather was perking up (to which she agreed) and I also asked if her colleague was at the reception desk to fetch some ice for me, to which she calmly replied (to my complete embarrassment) that she was a guest of the hotel and didn't work there!! I decided
The Manchester Book Store 1
One of the funky statues outside the bookstore…. not to say anything else to her as I walked back again, head down, with my bucket of ice!! By the way, we were all able to have an alcoholic drink as we walking to our restaurant tonight, a place called the Thai Basil and it was a really pleasant change to have something completely different to the usual American fayre.
We move on to our final destination tomorrow and those who have bothered to read these blogs before, will recall that I usually finish each episode the night before we depart. However, I have decided to be a little different this time, because tomorrow morning (weather permitting) we are planning to go up Mount Equinox (which we had, of course, planned to do today), before we head south. The weather forecast was actually very good for the next three days and sure enough, we awoke next morning to brilliant sunshine with a few wispy clouds, perfect for what we wanted to do. We grabbed a quick breakfast, checked out and headed a few miles out of town, to the start of the Skyline Drive to the peak of Mount Equinox at 3840 feet, a mountain allegedly named by
Captain Alden Partridge who reached the peak (as part of a scientific expedition) in 1823, during the autumn equinox.
The mountain is, in fact, privately owned by an order of Franciscan monks and a toll fee is payable at the start of the 'Drive' which in our case, for a car and four passengers, was '$40, less than half the price of driving up Mount Washington! On a TV in the visitor's centre, we could see that there was still a bit of intermittent cloud cover at the very top, but the lady assured us that it wouldn't be a problem and she was absolutely right. In fact, the shadows cast by the clouds on the vistas below, simply added to the beauty. The drive up was just over 5 miles long, taking about 20 minutes and wasn't in the least bit scary and when we got to the top, the views were absolutely stunning; we were so glad that the weather was, finally, kind to us and we were able to fit in this amazing experience. At the very top is an excellent lodge and viewing gallery (together with a meditation area if you want it), all managed
and maintained by the monks. There is also a fire tower a short hike away that is apparently worth visiting/climbing, but as this particular area of the summit was still shrouded in cloud, we didn't bother. Another 'big tick' and a 'must do' if you ever get the chance.
So that now is it for this episode, but there is just time for another Countdown Conundrum for you to cogitate over, which is:
NEARLY DEVOTE And the clue is:
'But the fayre is pretty new.' / /
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