Burlington, VT

And so it begins…

My last few days were spent bringing the RV all around Southern Maine, getting the final fixes and checks done so that we could be sure that it is as ready as it will ever be. After that it was all about making sure that Megs and I were ready to go… And we were, very excited to finally be going as you could imagine, but it is still a bit of a scary prospect. I think that after the first week or so we’ll have the hang of everything and will then just cruise along, but for now, we’re just making it up as we go along…

Before we officially got on our way though, we made a trip to Londonderry, NH for the wedding of our fake cousin Tim. All of those family friends I spoke of last week in the post about Here’s to Good Friends, well, to make things easier for all us kids, it was decided that everyone would be fake aunts, uncles, and cousins. So the wedding was a wonderful affair. The weather was absolutely perfect, and a great time was had by all, dancing, carousing, and catching up with all the old friends. I made my pitch to them about getting Here’s To Good Friends going again next year, we’ll see what happens…

So since we were in Southern New Hampshire, Megs and I decided that we might as well make it our official starting point for our trip around the country!!! And at about 10:30 or so this morning, our great adventure had begun! Yay!! So so excited!

After about 20 to 30 grueling minutes of driving, and one wrong turn, we reached the first destination of our journey, Walmart. Just a brief warning, dear reader… You are going to read the word Walmart approximately 10,000 times over the next 3 months or so. Bare with me, I am as upset about it as you. But it is a necessary evil as Walmart allows RVs to park for free, overnight in their parking lots, nationwide… And for folks like us on extreme budgets, that is pretty darn sweet. And as an added bonus, we have learned that this is also the case in Cracker Barrel parking lots. So that could be a welcome change of pace from time to time…

But back to the adventure!!! After about 3 trips into Walmart, we determined that it was probably time to leave. Our destination for the day, Burlington, VT. Our mission, to find every scary, winding, rough back road that we could between Manchester, NH and there. Let me tell you, we exceeded all expectations. Not only that, but this was to be Megs first experience driving the RV… Fun for the whole family!

Megs performed admirably in her first stint of driving, taking us through the back country of New Hampshire and across the border to the sleepy small town of Grafton, VT. Now I must explain that Megs has this book that contains what it proclaims to be the 1000 places in the US and Canada that you should see before you pass on. Kinda cool. So we decide we should check out the validity of this claim on the first day of travelling. And the first bucket lists place to cross our path? Grafton, VT of course. A small town full of character, as well as an Old Tavern still taking guests, a functioning Blacksmith, and a Cheese company specializing in Grafton’s very own brand of chedder. We arrived in Grafton to find that all of this was correct, there was even a Museum of Mining and Minerals… What really threw us however, was that the town did not seem to be inhabited by anyone.

It was kinda creepy actually. We made a loop walking around the village, and the only other people we saw were small groups of other tourists doing the same as us, exploring and snapping some pictures. When one group finished taking pictures on the town bridge over the brook, another group filled in behind them. But it was strange, like we were visiting an amusement park when everyone who worked there happened to have the same day off…

And so the tourists literally ran amok! This one guy in particular cruised around the town in his little convertible like he owned the place. I first noticed him in has Florida plates, driving his car in a complete circle around the main intersection of the village, snapping photos of everything in sight. Then I saw him again, in the Village General Store, taking pictures of literally the entire store like he was casing the joint or something. Minutes later, he followed Megs and I down to the town bridge, parking his car basically in the middle of the road. He jumped out, camera in hand, and apparently had instantly decided that we should be best friends. I tried my best to take a few pictures of the scene around me, all the while deflecting his conversation attempts. Megs spent most of those minutes desperately trying to not stare at his beautifully shaped mullet.

Finally our new bff jumped back in his car and spend off, but before doing so, he felt compelled to drop this nugget of knowledge on us… “I didn’t know what to expect of this place, it could be all devil worshippers living here!! I just woke up this morning, put my figure down on the map, and it said Grafton, VT. So here I am!” Wow… I mean. Wow. I was speechless for at least the next ten minutes as we made our hasty getaway back to the safety of the RV.

So there you have it. Grafton, VT. One of the thousand places to see before you die. This book is really batting a thousand so far…

It did, however, redeem itself by suggesting that we should travel up Vermont along route 100 instead of taking the highway. Vermont is really gorgeous. We drove through a bunch of really nice little towns, Megs marked a few of them on her map for posterity. At one point we passed a town called Hancock, which of course had a lumber mill, as one of the local southern Maine lumber places is called Hancock Lumber. So we found this humerous. We also stopped at a little overlook there and checked out the brook that we had been following. The sign said that the surrounding undergrowth protected the water for humans and wildlife. So I of course decided I should try my hand at fishing…

Would have been even better if I still had the beard… Shortly after that we passed an awesome waterfall along the road, pulled over for a better look as well. A giddy older couple again decided instantly that we should be best friends and regaled us about all the changes that the site had incurred over the 20 years they had been visiting there. Mind you this is at a random waterfall just off a main route, that barely has a walkway over too it. The sign at the entrance says it all…

But the waterfall was really nice so I gave them the benefit of the doubt…

We then made our way through the Vermont wilderness to Burlington, VT. Not arriving til about 7pm since we got a late start, we decided to just relax for the night and get ourselves more organized in the ole RV. We gotta figure out a good nickname for this thing…

So it is to be our first night in a Walmart parking lot… We’ll see how it goes. The plan for tomorrow looks to be the morning in Burlington and then to head around Lake Champlain to check out Lake Placid, NY. As always, comments and suggestions of things to see along our way are always welcome!

Til next time!!