The Roadtrip

View from the Molly Stark trail on Rt. 9 in Vermont

It was my husband’s birthday this week and he decided a roadtrip was what he wanted to do.

We used to do these often in the heat of summer decades ago when we didn’t have animals and gas was much cheaper. We’d load up a cooler with healthy goodies and drinks, select lots of music we called moldies, from the early 60’s into the mid 70’s, and head out for the mountains where it was cooler.

My 18 year old maps

This was almost always into Vermont, to the state forest. I was navigator and read the maps and I was not allowed to send him down dotty line roads.

So starting on Tuesday he started loading his phone with lots and lots of moldies. It is mostly rock ‘n roll and a few popular songs. I think he said he had 23 hours worth on there.

Then he spent Wednesday trying to decide just where he wanted to go. We seldom went into New Hampshire because their taxes are only on real estate, so people do not keep their places up well, by and large. Sort of depressing…

Originally he thought he’d eventually end up in Manchester VT and go to the Orvis store for a tour of their shop. But they only do the tours at 10 AM and that was too early. So he scratched that.

He thought, seeing as it had been decades, maybe we’d run up along the Connecticut River on the New Hampshire side to the Maxfield Parrish highway, Rt 12A. Maxfield Parrish (https://www.wikiart.org/en/maxfield-parrish) is one of my favorite artists. So I thought it would be cool to travel the highway. If it was too icky, we’d cross into Vermont and head into the forest. So we settled on that.

My husband’s goodies. He’s a junk food junkie…but he did get cheeses, bananas and potato chips

My goodies: chocolate! Water, fruit, salad, popcorn and salmon/cream cheese dip and crackers

We left just after 8AM and our first stops were to our local market and store for goodies for the cooler.

Once we got that sorted out and were on the road, we got the music playing.

We had to avoid Rt. 91 as there was paving happening, so we went up Rt. 5, through Montague, over the Connecticut River into Africa. We went through Turners Falls and back over the Connecticut into North America. Then up through Gill to stop at a farm store we used to visit weekly, Upinngil Farm (https://upinngil.com/).

This unpainted wall is new. There’s a cold room for produce behind it. It was inspired by our cold room that they had seen in 2012.

Their family had grown to 3 boys, the newest 2 months old. It was nice seeing the farm again and having a short visit.

Back on the road and over the Connecticut again into Africa. We picked up Rt. 10 and followed that to Rt. 63 in Northfield. We’ve seen this license plate shed for decades, but this is the first time we got a photo of it. It’s in Hinsdale, NH on Rt. 63.

As soon as we could we got off the main roads and took little roads alongside the river. In West Chesterfield we started seeing this plantation of trees that ran for miles. We stopped at a house and asked the owner about them.

Apparently a person from Massachusetts planted 40,000 black walnut trees along this stretch of river as an investment. He expects to harvest them in about 20 years. We never did get a photo, too busy looking…

Looking across the Connecticut to VT

Looking north up the Connecticut at Cornish NH

The Cornish NH – Windsor VT bridge

The obligatory covered bridge photo…

Job inspector on the job….

We stopped to get a cheap fresh water rod for my husband. He’d had an ultra-lite he’d built decades ago but it had disappeared over the years. He’s been a custom deepsea rod builder for nearly 30 years (http://www.turnerscustomrods.com/) and was not sure he’d really get back into fresh water fishing. He didn’t want to spend a lot on a rod and he found this one for $15.99. Most of the rods he builds go for $300 - $500 each.

We crossed over to Vermont from West Lebanon NH because he wanted to explore the northern parts of the state forest.

We picked up Rt. 4 and that brought us to the Quechee Gorge.

Quechee Gorge looking north

That is one deep gorge, says she who has never seen the Grand Canyon. It went so straight down it induced vertigo there for a minute or so…

We soon found out why we had not explored the northern part of the forest. It doesn’t have any roads that go anywhere. Or they turn into dotty lines. So we ended up skirting the forest on roads that went somewhere.

We did get lost on a road that ended when the map said it didn’t. Even his gps would not work, so we backtracked until we knew where we were.

In a field in Vermont

We saw a truly spectacular barn, 5 stories high, very old but well kept. We weren’t able to stop for a photo. The above barn came along much later, so it will have to do.

Mostly we spent all too much time on Rt 100 or 100A and not enough on small roads. And nowhere near enough on dirt roads, our favorites.

By 4 PM we were pretty much done with riding, so we set out for Brattleboro and the Chelsea Royal diner for supper. He had Philly cheese steaks and French fries and coleslaw and I had Maryland crabcakes, grilled asparagus, and coleslaw. Yum!

It was a lovely day, not hot, just low 80’s. Lots of sun and blue sky. We saw a lot of hay down or newly cleared hayfields. Chowed down on excellent munchies and listened to old music we loved. Put 295 miles on the car and got me off the farm for a whole day.

And in 50 minutes, we were back home at the farm with chores to do….

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