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Published: July 26th 2015
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Longest covered bridgeFriday
We had breakfast at the hotel (it was included – well 4 were, we had to pay for 1). We then left to head on our day’s journey. We had to pass back thru Darmouth College on our way out. We crossed the river and arrived in Vermont. Oh yea, I’m down to 7 states now (but that was yesterday). We saw the longest wooden bridge in Windsor (Cornish WIndsor Road Bridge). Crossing that bridge we arrive back in NH. We continue onward and saw a sign for “Fort at Number 4” so we went to see. It is an early 1700s recreation of the northern most fort at Charleston NH and it was at plantation #4 so that is how it got its name.
Along the way we googled more facts. Barns are red because the farmers added rust to the varnish. The rust protected the wood from insects. After a bit we took the bridge back across the river and were now back in Vermont. We wanted to get gas and make a pit stop so I pulled into a gas station. Susan stated, let’s go a little further as we are almost in Bellow Falls.
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The sister in a chair So I pull out. We go 1 BLOCK and there is the sign for Bellow Falls. We turn around and go back and die laughing the whole time. As I walk in to go to the restroom, I see it’s also a Dunkin Donut so I decide with the having to come back and the DD, that is was the place to buy our next lotto ticket. I get back to the car and gas it and Susan and Pam come out. We decide to add another crossing of the border and a quick drive while mom and Sally were finishing up. Susan ran in and told them we would be gone just a minute. We found the falls but this is a stupid town as there is nowhere to view the falls except from a busy road with trees all on it. You could barely see it. We even drove around more after getting mom and Sally and there is no way to see the falls – stupid town we agreed. (of course it will be our favorite town if we win the lotto).
We continued on down the road and saw several country farms with solar panels.
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Mom at the 100 mile view It was an interesting site. As we turned off onto Hwy 9, we saw the Creamery Covered Bridge which is open only to pedestrians. We got out and took pictures. Our next stop was Hogback Mountain VT. There was a shop where we bought cheese and syrup but it also had a 100 mile view. There was this giant chair that Susan, Pam and I jumped into and got our picture taken.
Later down the road we saw another really big chair in Bennington Vt. I took the time to call Patty2 back. I had talked with her this morning and told her we would be coming thru Albany and I was going to try to catch up with her for just a minutes. Well by now I knew we were just stopping at crazy things and I would not be able to give her any kind of time frame so I called to say sorry. She agreed. I told her were stopping at everything and that at the moment we were stopped in front of a big chair.
We get back on the road and I say, look at that, it looks like the Washington monument. We
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lighthouse on the river try to find it and in the process find a “haunted” inn and the covered bridge museum. We finally find the monument and it is a Revolutionary War monument for the Bennington Vt war battle. The mosquitos ate us alive and we hopped back into the car. In the town we see a lot of painted moose. We joke about calling them meese (like goose and geese). It seems each city paints something different in this area. We saw painted chairs in one place (like the one we sat in), moose in this town and cougars in another town.
We see our first Welcome to a state sign as we entered New York. I guess the other states didn’t want us visiting. Shortly after, we pass the Big Moose Deli and it had a lot of ceramic animals around and on top of it but they were all painted like cows. It looked funny. We also drove thru Wilmington (not sure if that was VT or NY). It was an old town too, just not as big as my Wilmington.
We arrive into Albany in our first major rain storm of the trip (well thunderstorm). We see from
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another covered bridge the road this very old cathedral like building. It turns out this is the capital building. We drove up by it and tried to take pictures in the rain. As we tried to get to the capital, we see what I describe is a scene out of “Star Trek Next Generation”. It was this bowl shaped building with 5 spaced towers behind it. I continued on driving until we hit the rest area.
At that time I was looking something up on my phone via trip advisor and discovered the app. If you are traveling, download this app. It will tell you things to do around where you are. The first thing I see is the Crossroads Brewing Company in Athens, 4 miles off the route. Off we went and on the way saw the Athens & Hudson River lighthouse in middle of the river protecting the boats from an island. The brewery had shirts and we got Kendall one for her job. We see the signs for the a Rip Van Winkle Bridge so we decide to head over and just drive down Hwy 9 along the river. I continued to use my app to point out things
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haunted Inn and discover places to visit. We saw the Catskill Mountains along the drive. We arrive in Rhinebeck NY and Susan sees a sign for the oldest Inn in American. (Beekman Arms Inn and Tavern 1766) I jump out and take a picture then we decide to eat there. Susan and I toured parts of the Inn and talked to a few people at a class reunion there. The food was great and it was a “New England” dinner. Turns out this is Hillary Clinton’s favorite restaurant in the area.
On the way to the hotel, we passed by another Vanderbilt house but we could not see it well because the drive was closed but we were able to pull into Bellefield (FDR’s home) and there were deer running across front yard. We also passed by the Culinary Institute of America outside of Poughkeepsie. NY
I checked into the hotel and the front desk managers were great. After telling them about our “New England” holiday, they gave me 5 free certificates for breakfast.
By the end of the day we had crossed back and forth between VT and NH 4 times, mom and Sally did it 3 times.
;-)
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