Vermont Travel Notes

Rare REO railbus (REO was a truck manufacturer that eventually added automobile manufacturing using the last name of its founder, Ransom E. Olds: Oldsmobile.

Railroad buffs should head over to White River Junction VT for the 16th Annual Glory Days of Railroad Festival this Saturday, September 6, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Rain or Shine)

Adult admission is just $3 but excursion train ride is extra.

The VT Chamber of Commerce has twice (five years ago and last year) named the event a Top 10 Fall Event.

In addition to the railroad equipment displays and excursion train rides, there will be food, music, antique car show, and crafts.

This event is produced by the New England Transportation Museum located in the White River Junction Amtrak station. It has displays available year around if you can't make it to Glory Days.

When you are in the area, I recommend visiting two of my all time favorite towns: Hanover NH, home of Ivy League Dartmouth College, and Woodstock VT. It's my opinion that Woodstock is one of the prettiest villages in New England. There is a lot to see and do there including the Marsh Billings Rockefeller Park and Billings Farm and Museum, a very good place to take the kids too.



(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

And naturally it's in Vermont, world center of tiny towns and villages located in the middle of nowhere.

I have John Hughes to thank for placing this photo on his wonderful Megapickles website. I cropped the sign photo from a much larger photo of a nice looking field in Podunk so click on the link to see a better image.

I have written about his website several times previously because it one of my favorites and is superbly well done I think - a new photograph every day! To see a wonderful series of pastoral Vermont photos, check this month's photos. One great Vermont photograph after another.

Google Maps says there are Podunks in CT, PA, and two in MI. Two! Whoever heard of two towns in the same state with the same name?

Vermont's Podunk is located in the southern part of the state so if you are going to be in the Brattleboro, Bennington, Manchester area, you can take a nice drive in the country to see it. Don't forget to take your camera so you can have bragging rights that you have been everywhere including Podunk.

And finally, there is a website called ePodunk that I have used a few times to do some research. It has good statistics and other information on most every town and city in the US including our beloved Podunk VT.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor (except the photo above by John Hughes,Megapickles )

Stowe's Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont at about 4400 feet

Stowe Resort has a good email newsletter they send out weekly and the latest issue has a very nice photo I thought I would include here. The Inside Line focuses on news about Stowe Resort but there's always a lot going on year around which usually makes for interesting reading.

I cropped and reduced the photo to get it to fit in this blog but you can click on the newsletter link above to see it better. If the photo is different when you view the page, just click your browser's reload button. It may be removed in the future to make way for other photos.

The building shown on the mountain is the Cliff House restaurant which is serving lunch this time of year but not dinner (with the exception of once a month special dinners).

I assume the photo was taken from the Toll Road which runs all the way to the top of the mountain. It's a trip I recommend often to our guests. The drive takes about 20 minutes and is well worth the $23 toll per car (no bicycles or motorcycles are allowed but you can walk it if you want). You can see rates on all Stowe's summer activities here.

The view from the top of the mountain is magnificent of course. There is a ranger station at the top and I suggest asking the ranger for directions to "Frenchman's Pile" a pile of rocks where you have a 360 degree view. You can easily see Burlington and Lake Champlain below, the Adirondack mountains of New York to the west, Vermont's Worcester Mountain Range to the east, and on clear days, the White Mountains of New Hampshire farther to the East.

The toll road will probably be closed all day this Sunday for the Race to the Top of Vermont, a foot and bicycle race.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

The Vermont State Fair, the state's second largest fair, is getting started this weekend for a week long run while the Champlain County Fair, the state's largest fair, will be finishing Monday.

The state fair, now is its 163rd year, is in Rutland and the Champlain fair is in Essex Junction. Directions for both events are on their web sites.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

One of the exhibitors at the Craft Fair will be Baby's Breath Quilts, a Barre VT quilt maker.

The Mad River Craft Fair is being held this weekend at Kenyon's Field in Waitsfield VT. I've been to the fair several times and always enjoyed seeing the wide variety of great crafts and artwork on display. We've bought a few items over the years, most notably some great Alpaca sweaters for the grand kids. It's a fun event to attend with very good food, a wide variety of crafts and excellent live music (a swing band on Sunday!). I recommend it highly and can almost guarantee you will find something you just have to buy. It's that good.

If you have children in tow, don't hesitate to go. They have plenty of activities geared toward the younger set to keep them entertained. In the meantime, you can stroll and browse pottery, wood crafts, paintings, jewelery (lots of jewelery), unique clothing, baskets, toys, furniture, and much more produced by area artisans.

This show has been going on for 30 years and features more than 100 of the region's top crafts people and artists. The show is put on by the Valley Players, a long time Waitsfield theater group. It is open Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Three demonstrations are given each day. I think I will try to get to the 1:00 Saturday demonstration by Michelle Wildflower (great name!) who is listed as an "alchemist." I don't know what that is but I want to find out.

The event is a fund raiser for a local theater group called The Valley Players.

By the way, that group is presenting some unique ten minute plays with the Vermont Playwrights this same weekend.

$3 admission, under 12 free. See you there!

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

I've been poking around the Waymarking.com website from time to time and enjoying what I have found. There are more than 1700 entries on 70 pages in the Waymarking Vermont category.

I'm not sure what order everything is presented in. The Vermont listings start with covered bridges for no apparent reason so I suspect all the entries are posted in order that they are received. There is a good search function on the site so it should be easy for you to narrow your search.

"Secret Waterfalls"

The screen shot above shows a listing for "local secret" the Old City Falls waterfalls that sounds very inviting and larger than most of the falls in Vermont (first step of 25 feet and a second step of 20 feet). It is located near Stafford VT.

We have what I would guess are a million waterfalls here but most of them are not large. I suppose most of them are a "secret " to folks from out of state but all are certainly well known to locals. Quite often they are part of popular local swimming holes too. Ask around wherever you are and most Vermont locals will be happy to share the information and give you directions.

If you don't want your children (or yourself for that matter) to see some of the locals swimming "in the buff," just ask what the usual practice is too. Most of the time, everyone will have on swimming gear but occasionally you will find a swimming hole, often a more remote one, where there is a greater chance to see people in their birthday suits. Don't get excited about this prospect. If you have not experienced it, you will quickly learn that the vast majority of people look a lot better with their clothes on.

(c) 2008 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn