Day 9 - Barnard, VT to Boston

Distance travelled today: 155 miles by road

We had a great night and had plenty of rest. The kingside bed at the Inn was very comfortable and the sheets very soft! There was slightly more noise from the other guests last night, the Inn does have quite thin walls, and some of the guests had quite loud voices too!

We planned to leave at 11am when the checkout was, so we went down for lunch at 8:30am, and then git ready afterwards.

Breakfast; chocolate muffin (top left), banana and lemon syrup (top right) and egg puff with chicken sausage and scone (below)

Today Nancy said we were starting with desert which was a freshly baked chocolate muffin. Then for the fruit course we had sliced banana with a lemon syrup. And finally we had an egg puff, chicken sausage and plain scone.

We set off pretty much dead on eleven. Nancy and Mike gave as a fond a farewell as we chatted to them for about 20 minutes before we left. We purchased a couple of keepsakes and also asked for her scone recipe so I can try it when we get home. The weather was a bit warmer, although we still found our bottle of water and cup of coffee that was left in the car had totally frozen! We drove down the road to Barnard just to see what was there. Nancy had mentioned to us that we could walk there, but it was so cold that we just went straight back after our walk yesterday. We picked up a couple of postcards, but there wasn't really much there except for a frozen lake!

Pictures from Barnard. Bridge (top left), high street (top right) and general store (bottom)

I had been stressing about what petrol to put in the car. I forgot to ask when we picked up the car, and there was no sticker on the tank to indicate what to put in like you would usually get. I had rung the rental company to check, and also the driver’s manual, but I just wanted to be 100% sure.

So we pulled up to the first gas station we saw. This was a bit of a learning experience, apparently you can’t fill up then pay at the booth, you need to prepay, which involved a comical scene with the attendant as he was explaining this to me and asking how much I wanted, and I was saying how I had no idea how much I neede to prepay. Anyway, it turns out you can get refunded after filling up. I suppose it’s to stop people stealing petrol. So I pre-paid $30, but in the end the car only took $21 worth of fuel.

Amazingly, when I started the car, a warning light came on, although I only noticed once I pulled away. We stopped immediately and consulted the handbook. It turned out it was the tyre low pressure light. We inspected the tyres thoroughly and couldn’t see anything wrong. We stopped at the next garage, there was air, but not a pressure metre. We decided to keep going, based on the fact the temperature was so last night that might affect to reading.

Low pressure warning light

Mike had suggested we checked out a local glass blowing factory, which was on the way back so we decided to find to break the journey up. We had a little difficulty finding it, but were glad we took the extra time to find it as it was really fascinating.

There was a river which had cut a gorge out of the valley that we drove down, and this factory was located on the river, at a waterfall. We parked up and headed in (still nervous about whether we would return to flat tyres!). The shop was amazing with loads of fantastic glasswear, I wish we could have bought loads of it, but 1) it was expensive and 2) there was no way we’d ever get any of it home.

Selection of Christmas ornaments on offer

So we had a little browse, and then went downstairs to the factory section. There was a furnace down there so it was nice and warm. There were two guys there making a wine glass. Unfortunately it was more moulding than blowing but still interesting to watch.

Glass blowing furnace (top left), balcony (top right) and bridge over gorge (below)

We then went out a side door and were amazed to find a viewing platform for quite a large waterfall at the back of the building. It was as impressive as you can imagine, but the extra factor was that half of the waterfall was frozen, including some of the river, which created this really unique effect.

Partly frozen waterfall (top), moulds (middle left), hydro-electric terminal (middle right) and frozen river (below)

We stood and watched it for a while, before deciding it was time to head back on the road. We got back to the car, still with 4 fully inflated tyres so set about going home. It was only going to take about 2 hours to get back, with the soundtrack of Utopia FM of course.

The journey was pretty quiet again, although once we got to Manchester and then Boston, the traffic was pretty heavy. We negotiated it with no problem this time though. We had to stop to check the tyres again, this time we went to a Liqour and Wine outlet which was entertaining to see the cheap the booze was!

Vodka at $26 dollars for 1.75 litres!

We got back to Jo and Mike’s pretty much bang on 4pm as planned. We had asked Jo if she would kindy let us have dinner with them, so we spent a bit of tie watching Mike, Sophia and Dylan putting this complicated Lego robot together. We chatted to Jo whilst she made us dinner. They were very friendly and made us feel very welcome.

After dinner, the kids went to bed and we stayed up for a bit catching up before going to bed ourselves.

Day 8 - Barnard, VT

Distance travelled today: 22 miles

After all the travelling from yesterday, today was a really good day as we were just able to relax, not worry about anything and just enjoy our surroundings.

Wintery view from our window in the morning. Looking over the front of the Inn

The best thing about the Inn as that breakfast is included and it's not just any breakfast, Nancy provides a special three course home cooked breakfast. It starts at 8:30am which is a nice time, not too early.We came down and got a nice seat by the window. By now the weather had clouded over and it was still very cold, so it had actually begun to snow very gently, Kathryn calls it Movie-snow.

Breakfast room

Mike bought us coffee to start with and the first course was a cinnamon spice scone. We had warmed maple leaf syrup to go with it and it was just so delicious. The second course was a fruit course with pineapple and raspberry (no photo!) and finally we had some polish pancakes with blueberries filling, and maple cured bacon. This was a great start to the day.

3 course breakfast. Cinnamon scone (top left), mug of coffee (top right) and polish pancakes (below)

We got ready, and decided to go down and explore the local town of Woodstock, that we had briefly driven through on our way to Barnard. The roads were very quiet, and we found the town green that had lots of parking around it that didn't require any parallel parking! There was a coin operated metre for the parking which I hadn't seen before.

Parking meter 

Town green in Woostock

We walked around the green and down the high street to find somewhere to go for lunch. We popped into the post office to get some stamps, and went into a bar/café on the corner. It was still really cold, but the sun was briefly coming out. We had chilli and nachos which was delicious, with melted cheese on top. This was perfect to warm us up.

View from bridge over river in middle of Woodstock 

Post office (left) and High Street (right) in Woodstock

Bentley's Restaurant exterior (left) and delicious, warming Chilli (right)

Once we were finished, we headed across the road to a general store that had loads of interesting things. It was 120 years old apparently, it had loads of different sections with everything you could imagine. We bought a few souvenirs as gifts to bring back. I'm not sure why I didn't take a photos. There was a noticeboard just alongside it.

Noticeboard with time on left dial and temperature on right dial

By the time we got back to the car, the meter had just about expired. We drove to a nearby Farmers' Market and had another browse, but didn’t buy anything this time. We got back to the Inn about 2pm. I had asked Nancy in the morning about whether there were any trails we could walk. As they had their own dog, called Beckett, Nancy said she’d be walking her this afternoon and we could join her.

View of front of the Inn

It was really cold, but once we were walking it wasn’t too bad, just my toes that I couldn’t feel! There are snowmobile trails all around the area that cross into nearby states and so we walked along one into the woods. Nancy said they are groomed in winter, but without the snow, it was quite difficult to see where they were so it was good to have a guide. Nancy told us about themselves and how to came to run the inn. It was a lovely walk as the sun was out now, and Beckett was running around having a great time. She was really careful that me and Kathryn didn’t stray too far from the pack. Unfortunately due to the amount of trees there wasn’t really much of a view for us to look at, even though we walked to the local high point. We just turned around and came straight back.

View of snowmobile trial we were walking along, Beckett and Nancy can be seen on the right!

View of woods

When we got back we had a hot drink to warm ourselves up. We had a couple hours to wait before our reservation and the restaurant so we just relaxed in our room. We went to eat at 5pm, this time we both had the burger which I have to admit may have been the best burger I’ve ever eaten. We had this lovely woman serving us this time that was really interesting to hear about where we came from and our journey.

Front of Barnard Inn/Max's Tavern (Above). Specials board (lower left) and delicious hamburger (lower right)

It was now really cold, and the car park outside the Tavern was totally frozen over, but amazingly the car was still ok to drive. I took a quick photo as we left, but you really didn't want to stay outside for too long. When we got back, we did pretty much the same thing as the previous evening. Kathryn found this programme called Tanked on Animal Planet, which is a bit like pimp my ride but with fish tanks that was really interesting to watch.

Day 7 - Boston to Barnard, VT

Distance travelled today: 154 miles

So it probably goes without saying that I didn’t sleep very well after the trauma of the previous evening. Thankfully, we’ve been so lucky with the weather that today has turned out to be another beautiful day. The past few days have been very cold (around freezing, or as the Americans say “frigid”), but very sunny. Goodness knows how I would have coped with driving had it been raining as well.

We decided to make a few changes to our plans. We should have taken the car back to Boston on Monday, but the weather forecast is not good and I’d rather go back on Sunday afternoon during the day when it should be a bit quieter. Therefore, we have decided to take the car back a day early on the Sunday, and stay an extra night in Boston.

Sunny start outside Jo and Mike's house

After a bit of a lie in and getting ready, we left for Vermont about lunchtime. Jo had suggested we stopped at an outlet store about one hour into the journey. This worked really well as it gave me just a short drive to get my confidence back, and something to look forward too that I knew I’d only be driving for another 15 minutes, 10 minutes etc. When we pulled up I was feeling a lot better.

Road trip! 

The reason we stopped at this outlet was that it was in New Hampshire, which actually has 0% sales tax (equivalent of VAT). We actually didn’t spend any money except on a cheese and tuna toastie and a scarf for me that was $30. The second leg of the journal was pretty long. 112 miles that took about 2 hours.

On the exit, there was a starbucks that we stopped for a coffee before setting off again. On this second half of the journey, the driving was pretty easy. I’d figured out that the 3^rd lane from the left is the safest, usually if 4 lanes appear, it means the right-hand one will be leaving, so I was avoiding that. We were also successfully making our ways through the tolls without incident.

Roads in Vermont, much quieter than those around Boston

We were heading to Woodstock in Vermont, once we passed Manchester, it was about 60 miles, which we virtually had the road to ourselves.  We found this radio station called Utopia that was a non-stop mix of 80s, 90s and 00s dance music which was actually quite good for driving.

Soundtrack provided by Utopia, as we couldn't connect Kathryn's iPhone

The people who run the Inn we were staying at had sent us detailed instructions of how to find them so that made it very easy. After we pulled off the interstate, it did take about another 30 minutes to find them, although it only involved 2 roads, they seemed to go on forever! The roads were windy, and very cracked surfaces presumably by the cold winters. Thankfully we pulled up just as the sun was setting.

It was a bit odd at first as I’d done the planning for this part of the trip, and as we’d been looking at it online, and reading the reviews, it was a bit weird to actually be there in person. We went straight in as it was very cold outside.

Nancy and Mike gave us a warm welcome us and helped us to our room. The Inn was fantastic and with a really nice interior. There were three downstairs rooms available for the guests to use; a library with computer, boardgames, dvds and books, a sitting room and finally the breakfast room which had various hot drinks that you could help yourself to at any time. There was also freshly baked cookies waiting in the hallway too for the new arrivals!

Pictures of the room and wine, flowers and cookies too!

We had driven passed a resturant that was no more than 500m down the road, we asked Nancy and Mike to make a reservation for us.  We had about an hour just to rest and get comfortable and then we left for our evening meal. We were going to walk, but they suggested we drive, which was a good thing as it was really cold. Probably at least below freezing.

The restaurant was really quite and we were seated straight away.  Everything looked good on the menu, I eventually opted for a Yankee Stew which was a large piece of beef on some mash potatoes and vegetables. I had a beef stew as it was cold and it was just the perfect thing to warm me up. There was a big chunk of meat and it was just falling apart on the fork!

 

Max's tavern, quite empty as you can see!

The food was really good, Kathryn had a burger with bacon and cheese. Unforatuenly there was roasted garlic on the vegetables! But I did my best to pick the bits off.

We were fnished about 7pm and headed back to our room. It was so cold by now, even just getting in the car and driving for 5 minutes was enough to chill right through your clothes. The inn was really quiet and we just watched some TV in bed. There was also a wood fireplace in our room so I lit that to warm us up a bit. It was really good and the wood burned well without making the room smell at all!

Nice warm fireplace!

As you can tell, I'm am still catching up. Although today I set up Wi-Fi at Smiti's apartment so we should be caught up fairly soon!