We capped off our adventure today with a cruise on Seneca Lake and a visit to both a distillery and a winery. More souvenirs! This is a pretty typical and boring tourist shot but it is a landmark in the town of Watkins Glen.
What better symbol of Vermont than a Ben & Jerry’s? While this is not the original – it was torn down long ago – this one is the flagship store in downtown Burlington. The factory is located a few miles east in Waterbury, but the store and visitor center are undergoing renovation and currently closed. We made do with this one. What flavor did we choose? New York Super Fudge Chunk – Chocolate Ice Cream with White & Dark Fudge Chunks, Pecans, Walnuts & Fudge-Covered Almonds!
Who knew there were so many kinds of flour? I guess I did, but seeing so many varieties in one place was fascinating. Kathy & I like bread, but like so many things, we like to eat it but are happy for others’ passion in baking it! But it was the first stop after we crossed into Vermont, so we stopped in, wandered around, took a few pictures and left. It was pretty busy, we didn’t have anything we wanted to take home, and knew that we would soon have other “souvenir” opportunities – in the afternoon we stopped and purchased at (a) a distillery, (b) a maple syrup and cheese farm, and (c) a maple syrup museum (who knew?).
We’re now in Vermont, but I wanted to post another photo of some of the small amounts of fall color we’ve been seeing. This is from a spot along SR 112 – before the official start of the Kancamagus Highway. We actually had (slightly) better conditions on the west side of the “Kanc” while the Highway itself was largely socked in with fog.
We only had a few miles in New Hampshire this afternoon until we arrived at our motel. So instead of lighthouses we now have covered bridges! We visit Mount Washington tomorrow, where the forecast is for 50 mph winds and a temperature of 30 with snow and ice. Yikes! 🙂
One of the “must visit” places on our recent trip through North Dakota was a place called The Enchanted Highway. The Roadside America website gives this brief overview, and you can visit the link for more details:
“Thirty miles south of the nearest major highway, the town of Regent was dying, and Gary Greff decided someone had to do something about it.
A metal sculptor and retired school teacher, Gary started the work in 1990. His master plan was to create ten giant sculptures, one every few miles along Regency-Gladstone Road, paired with picnic areas and playground equipment. All the sculptures face north, toward the oncoming traffic from the interstate. Seven have been completed.
An additional sculpture towers along I-94, essentially an artistic billboard enticing travelers to exit and head south to Regent. Geese in Flight went up in 2001, next to the Gladstone exit — and it is claimed to be the World’s Largest Outdoor Sculpture.”
Our visit occurred on one of the nastiest (relatively in North Dakota terms!) of our trip. We started off in the morning with rain and 35 degrees, went through 3-4 inches of snow at 31-32 degrees, then finally ended up in Rapid City where it had warmed to a welcome 40 degrees with light drizzle. You can see the progression of rain to snow in the photos, as the snow increased as we went south on the route.
It’s easy to see the mud that we found at all of the pulloffs, so I made good use of my “car-pod” to make the photos, only getting out of the car where I could do so without tracking through the muck.
These photos are a few of the highlights of our visit. I’ve created a separate gallery on my Adobe Portfolio page for anyone who just needs to see more of The Enchanted Highway!
One of the things that really struck me about the midwest was how far you could see without seeing anything but grass, snow fences and (sometimes) wind farms. This is just one of the many roads we traveled and happens to be in Wyoming. I could have taken many photos like this but it would be hard to tell them apart. 😉