The past two days have been a whirlwind of looking for places to rest our heads, driving through mountain rain storms and enjoying this amazing trip as we complete our last state for this leg of Adventures with Lincoln.
Seeing Red- Some may have noticed a bit of emotion shown in a recent status update about couchsurfing. Here is the reason why. We were accepted by a couchsurfer in Vermont and packed for the journey when I decided to check my e-mail one last time before we left. There on the screen was a note about wanting some room to breath after a hectic week of work and a warm wish that we find another place to rest. Though the wording was nice, there is something very uncool about canceling hosting the day of someone’s travels. I have had travelers cancel a stay and it doesn’t matter much since you are home, but a host canceling is entirely different. Your leaving people stranded, sometimes on a road they would not have traveled if you were not the final destination point. The host said she called a couple of times but there were no voice mail messages to confirm this. On the website I could leave a negative remark. I could say she canceled the day of via e-mail for a non-emergency related event, but I have decided not to. Why? Because after all this she did eventually say we could stay with her, after I contacted her voicing my concern and her poor communication. We didn’t take her up on the offer however because the situation already felt to jaded. Instead we got a hotel. We were celebrating a birthday anyway so why not splurge?
Seeing White- Our trip through New Hampshire was beautiful. We drove past homes of Robert Frost and dinned at a Shaker table with other guests in Canterbury. We skipped paying for any tours by asking the other visitors at the table what they learned during their tour. We also didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the area as we needed to cover a lot of ground in a day and Lincoln was tired. A meal was the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone (take in the lost culture and fill our bellies) . After our meal we continued north into the White Mountains. As we were approaching Franconia Notch the clouds rolled in and the rain started. This was disappointing to the locals we talked to who thought we were missing the beauty of the notch, but to us, the notch in the rain was amazing. The mountains became truly white as big billowy clouds sat themselves down in the trees. Rain made the sun reflect on the road in the most amazing ways. We went to the viewing station of Old Man of the Mountain, but it was too overcast to see anything. Later we found out we wouldn’t have anyway. This iconic legacy which is the outline of every state road symbol in New Hampshire, the image on their state coin and stamp, passed away in 2003. That is the rock formation making the profile of the man crumbled to the ground.
Seeing Green- As we crossed the boarded into Vermont the mountain range changed to the Green Mountains. The vibrancy of the green trees held up to the name. Vermont was like a mountain top Wisconsin, with dairys and red barns littered through the peaks. The scenery is uninterrupted. I don’t think I saw a single billboard in all of Vermont or New Hampshire. We had dinner at Montpelier, the capitol of the state. The town was smallest capitol we have visited yet. The Capitol’s golden dome was rivaled by the single smoke stack along the river. Still the main street had some great shops and restaurants. We felt a sense of grunge, hippiness, and emerging modernism with this town. We ate at Positive Pie and had a great time devouring an artichoke and ham pizza under a swanky fiber-optic ceiling and disco ball. When we got to Burlington, we realized why this is the largest city in Vermont. Not only does it have the university and a college like feel, it is also beautifully located along Lake Champlain, which is so crystal blue that you can hardly take your eyes off it. Definitely a place we would love to return.
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