Category Archives: Travel

Local Treasures

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carpet of leavesOur sunny foliage season was a hit; now for the private after-show for locals. As an artist friend noted with her specialized eyeballs, late foliage affords us remnants of red and gold with the twiggy lines of trees now bald mixed in. As another put it, the leaves on the ground provide a colorfully crunchy carpet before “November’s…dirt.”

Last week’s full moon (the hunter’s moon, traveling moon, or death moon, depending upon your tribe) offered us pagans good lighting for rituals wherein we place into a (lit. or fig.) caldron our wishes for our people and this krazy planet. I put into mine: clarity, love, creativity, strength.  You?

With short days, TV and radio and film become alluring alternatives to outdoor sports. If you podcast, Billy Crystal and Graham Nash crushed on Fresh Air on 10.17, as did the rerun of an April 20th Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me’s “best of” celebrity callers episode (Melinda Gates! Jeff Bridges! A surprisingly hilarious Tony Danza! The Fonz!). Colbert’s on-air wedding for a couple gypped out of their nuptials at a (closed) national monument along with Jon Stewart’s Shutstorm 2013 made the government shut-down almost worthwhile. Randolph’s revamped Playhouse Theater, a local treasure (the oldest cinema in the state), is now rocking Gravity with national treasures Bullock and Clooney.

There’s still time to squeak in a few holes at the Woodstock Inn or Montague Golf Club…fore! While the Bethel Ethels have hung up their rackets for the season, playing tennis on Bethel’s crevice-marred town courts adds an element of chance to a gentlewoman’s game for those with a taste for danger. Terrible players like me can WIN via unforeseen benevolent bounces.

Our weirdly warm foliage aside, two weather phenoms remain certain: (1) it will always be so hot on July 4th that overdressed marching band members faint—or as the boys put it, “pass out”—and (2) it will always be so cold on Halloween you cannot see the kids’ costumes. “Welcome, er, Tundra Fairy! Is that a wing poking out of your…fairy parka?”; “I see you are an Arctic Vampire, young man. Do you take your blood neat, or with iceberg cubes?” I myself hand out Snickers and warm hardboiled eggs, unsure of the effect of chemical handwarmers upon Earth’s mighty landfills.

It’s time to trade in our garden tools for musical instruments and knitting needles. Which for some reason you can take on a plane, but not a nail clipper (pretty sure I could do more damage with a saxophone). Kimball Public Library’s knitting group provides community in Randolph as do the Knitters (Knutters!) of the Round Table at the Whippletree in Woodstock. Get some laffs while banging out colorific holiday gifts.

It’s also time to eat. Which can be counteracted by memberships at VTC, killer MOVE Fitness, or at the Woodstock Inn. For fall dining, personal faves include the Harrington House, Barnard Inn, Big Fatty’s BBQ, Cockadoodle Pizza Café, and Five Olde. My gastronomic goal is both Worthy restaurants some time soon—wanna take me on a date? Ahahaha, that’s so funny. Dating: not a local treasure of the Upper Valley.

For beer I dig Burlington’s unfiltered ale, Switchback; for cocktails a nice Bloody Caesar (Bloody Mary with clam juice) using local Silo Vodka or Vermont Gold, a maple vodka. Crockpotting demands top vegetables from your farmers’ market or the Chef’s Market. And don’t put away the grill—the only time that’s no good is when it’s 20 below. Then the meat freezes on top while the bottom cooks, sort of. Don’t ask me how I know that. For dentistry: wicked old-school kindly Dr. McDonald in Woodstock. For knockout eyeglasses: Eyes on Elm; no competition for 150 miles. Pies? On the Edge Farm on Route 12. Dana wizards the fruits of the Land from apple to sour cherry.

Your monthly Useful Information is this: glucosamine makes you gassy. Your Good News for women is: there is a product for after shaving and waxing called finipil that feels like a York Peppermint Pattie; for men, the beauty industry is catering to aging male boomers with “special formulations” “just for men” (what’s in there?). Next up in the beauty aisle: eyebrow hair relaxant, for old Scottish weird curlicue eyebrow hair growers like me. I hope. Good day.

Come to Vermont…Post-Peak

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later foliageWe’ve saved a few colored leaves for you, have oxygen in ample supply, and our inns and B&Bs with fireplaces wait to cozy you up now that the full-throttle foliage traffic has passed. Our book stores are not chains and our yard sales boast the prices of yesteryear.

Learn about our human leaf forecaster here. And while Vermont’s colors may not be at peak, I can assure you that her nutters are.

White Squirrel Car Wash

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white squirrel

McLoving rural America

When a place is known for something, people name their businesses after it. So everything in town is called the [What This Place Is Known For] Laundromat, the [What This Place Is Known For] Grill, the [What This Place Is Known For] Shoe Repair. The confusion — and occasional beauty — of that is you say to your husband, “Honey, I’m going down to the White Squirrel,” and he thinks you mean the dry cleaners, when in fact you’re meeting Sheila at the bar for a quick pop.

Brevard, NC, is known for its white squirrels, reportedly escaped from a carnival in the 1940s.

Catch you at the White Squirrel.

The Beast of the East

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killington front

They use the term loosely.

…to Vermonters means Killington ~ and that means spring skiing, baby. Some Nor’Beaster events remain, including the Pond Skim and Sunrise Easter Service, so pack your gear, Bible and bikini, and head north. I don’t know what ollies, rails or grabs are, but the Beast has them in spades for shredding.

For those who detest swinging in a chair lift at 10 below in 30 mph winds, now’s the time. White carpeting! Blue ceiling! No death cookies or Pocono Pavement! The hum of the lift!

Then…silence. Silence sometimes when you’re still on the lift because they stop it for casualties. An impatient friend jumped off once, but I prefer to sit and think up new trail names with my nieces. Like:  Hell in a Handbasket, Mother-in-law, Casket, Highway to Hell, Pay the Piper, Upper Anthrax, Lower Anthrax, Undertaker, You’re Going To Hell, Ice Cream, Cupcake, and Sooperbunny.

killington back

The Fine Print

kton 3

You Are Here.

When someone wipes out so bad their gear goes flying in a 10-foot radius it’s called a Yard Sale, often held by a Kickin’ Chicken. Live the lexicon.

Catch you on Sooperbunny.

Riding the Rails with a Taste for Danger

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amtrak randolphy

Your ride’s here.

When you travel alone, weird things happen. Once, I wished to take a photo from the caboose of a moving train and the last car was closed, so the (service-oriented? crazed?) conductor took me back there solo. It became a possibility, at least in my mind, that this was a disgruntled government worker gonna throw me off. When you travel alone, problem is: no witnesses. You take your chances. I whistled a tune, looked him in the eye, and said thank you. Criminologists say this can work. Worth a shot.

amtrak her name is sal

Her name is Sal.

Good news about Amtrak: the feds have bankrolled track upgrades, shortening The Vermonter by 30 minutes with plans to add The Montrealer back in. Second, they are dumping the old engines and beater cars from the late 60s and 70s, which have amortized nicely (RIP, doors that won’t stay closed in the can!) Third, that weird, time-consuming three-point turn in Massachusetts is going away. As a friend reflected, “I have to remind myself every time that I’m not in Thailand…or Haiti.”

Because I hadn’t ridden the rails in years, I planned a big, fat, round-trip voyage from VT to NC. What a gas: the train pulling into the station! Uniformed conductors!  Union Station in DC! Quaint town of Southern Pines! Dining en train with (paper) table cloths! Looking for spies in the Café Car! Bringing that nuclear cheeseburger back to you seat!  Great good fun.

Climate control in the old cars was, not surprisingly, an issue. On one leg the sleeper car was positively brisk (Nutter One: “It’s miserable.”) On another, the coach car was boiling (Nutter Two: “We could do Hot Yoga in the aisle.”) But the service was consistently lovely, and despite some [wicked] late starts, we always arrived…on time. In the Sleeper Car, you can sit on one seat and put your legs up on the other—it even has its own toilet and microsink—or climb onto the upper bunk, prop yourself up on (multiple!) pillows, and watch the world unfold. Fabulous.

amtrak river reflection in VTYes, to the lulling chug of the train, you can watch America go by, with all her rivers, forests, factories, farms, graffiti, skylines, and sunsets as you amble around chatting up your co-travelers, read, knit, sleep—try that from behind the wheel. The Quiet Car is strictly enforced, so you can escape rowdy pinochle players and cell phone jawbaggers (not true in Business Class, but there you get free newspapers and all the soda and coffee you can guzzle, which in my case is a lot so I actually made money; you might curb intake for now because the can is definitely the old trains’ Achilles’ heel.) Unlike on a plane, if you get into trouble, you could probably hurl yourself off with some chance of survival. And with Amtrak, you can break up your trip, scheduling overnight stops at no extra ticket cost if you plan it right. On one such “layover” I had a grand time in Baltimore; on another I laughed so hard with a friend and a bottle of premium tequila in Manhattan that our pants broke.amtrak graffiti

While it wasn’t exactly balmy in North Carolina, I was glad for one last stroll down memory lane aboard the old, roomy, soon-to-be 86’d—yet nicely amortized—iron horse. Old or new, you can’t predict what will happen astride her. You could end up fingering spies or sipping beezers with a Swede with a hollow leg…you just never know. May you make such a journey yourself, complete with the lure of nutters and unknown dangers whetting your dormant taste for adventure.  All Aboard! Good day.

amtrak menus

Bon appetit!

amtrak the old engine

The 1968 engine was part of the first car.

amtrak trenton

What Trenton Makes…

Amtrak thrown

There’s more than 1 way to get thrown off Amtrak.

amtrak single sleeper

Your single sleeper.

amtrak Union Station

Union Station in DC

amtrak farewell dc

Farewell, DC!

amtrak - snow in SoPi

“Snow” in Southern Pines.

amtrak pines

Southern…pines.

Come To Vermont

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If Jesus were alive today, he’d operate a snowplow.

We have arranged a nice dumping for you. They’re pumpin’ out the white stuff as we speak. But this is just a primer.

You behind the wheel, baby.

It will go on for 2 days, then the sun will come out.  Catch you on the slopes, the trails, and in the sugar shack. BYO hooch.

“God made the LIFT to get me UP.”
(hover cursor over fotos)

Vermonters Don’t Wear Bikinis**

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Silver Lake SP in snow

*Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “S”.

As a modern Vermonter, you know that for the real snow, you’ll have to move to New York, Baltimore, or DC…Hell, even Fairfield. Welcome to the New Climate. So after a good dumping here, you’d better git out and play ~ whether that’s shoveling, snowman building, skiing, snowboarding, or shoeing.*

This is the entrance to the Silver Lake State Park. Hard to imagine that in a few months we’ll be there in our bikinis. Oh, wait…**

Snow Falling Off Cedars

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shoeing at the 3SI

The X-country trails are much wider than this snowshoe trail.

In Vermont, we make hay while the sun shines and make tracks when the snow falls. In between, we get indoorsy.

Find places for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing here and especially here. The charming Three Stallion Inn, located in cozy Randolph (the geographic center of Vermont), is where I took this photo today. The only sound was snow falling off cedars and the birds. They have a nice Valentine’s weekend package and it’s quite near I-89; use of their densely wooded, hilly, underpopulated trails is included. I recommend also the ski touring center at the Woodstock Inn, which will run you more but has a gym, indoor pool, and hot tub. It is more of a hike off the interstate, 30 minutes from Killington. There is a cool-looking concert that Saturday night in Randolph’s Chandler Music Hall, favored by musicians of all stripes including “fiddlers” Natalie MacMaster and Midori.

Sarah Will You Marry Me?

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Sarah will you marry meThis may have been, for many, the best part of a Christmasy trip to NYC. It flashed up on the information board in Grand Central Terminal, the correct name for Grand Central Station.

Not a lot of people seemed to notice. I hope Sarah did. I hope she said Yes.