Cruising the Mountains

We drove into Stowe this morning for a late pancake breakfast.  We ate on the patio of a place called McArthur’s.   They serve real maple syrup with the pancakes but only one pre-packaged individual serving.  Now, it is a known fact that one pancake can absorb at least a cup of syrup and since I had a stack of 3 pancakes the one package of syrup was not going to be enough.  I asked our waitress for more syrup and she told me that the first package was included with the price of the breakfast but each additional one was $1 each, or she could bring me all of the “blended” syrup I wanted at no additional cost.  I told her as long as it wasn’t “Aunt Jemima” that would be OK.  She brought the pitcher and I was able to properly soak the remainder of my pancakes.

Stowe is definitely a tourist town in the mountains, but a tastefully done town.  There is no “carnival-type” atmosphere as in many tourist towns.  In the summer, the tourist come to camp, hike, bask in the perfect weather, or just to sit and look at the scenery.  In the winter, it is a ski mecca.  We drove up Mount Mansfield (at 4393 feet it is Vermont’s tallest) and passed several very upscale resorts, ski lifts, and gondolas.

We drove back down the mountain and stopped at a cider mill, which turned out to be 10% mill and 90% gift shop.  We did get to sample the cider and it was very good.  We’ll stop by tomorrow on the way out and buy a gallon. 

Next, we stopped at the Cabot Annex and sampled cheeses.  We noticed a couple of police cars leaving as we arrived.   As we pulled into the parking lot we saw why they had probably been there.  Next to the driveway was a large rock with a car parked on it.  How it got there, I don’t know.  A small group was standing around taking pictures and I asked a woman if she knew what happened.  She told me this was not unusual.  People parked like this all the time in Vermont.  I never learned the real reason.

While we were driving we noticed the ultimate all-terrain-vehicle.  It would put any 4-wheel drive vehicle in Texas to shame.  It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee with tracks in place of the 4 wheels.  I guess they get a lot of snow up here. 

We blew off Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory for the second time in two days.  We pulled into their parking lot and walked up to the visitor center (aka “gift shop”) into a throng of people.  It would be a 35-minute wait for the next available $3 tour and the line to purchase ice cream looked like the kind you see at Disney World.  We pushed through the gift shop, which was not as big or nice as Cows Creamery in PEI, and went back to the car, drove back to the RV park, and took a nap (we like naps).  Rain is possible tonight and probable tomorrow.  It should be a great day for travel.  Rain in the mountains.  We are thinking about skipping Niagara Falls and driving more of a direct route back to Texas.  I think we are ready to get home.  Tonight we have to decide on the route so we will at least know in what direction to start.