Yesterday by the time we finished our touring we were singing, "Country Roads, Take Me Home." I'm not real sure I can re-trace all we did but will try and you'll have to get the rest in the book.
Oh, Yes, today we get to read our interview and see our picture in the Vermont Standard. I sure hope they print a lot of them because in Blowing Rock, NC we didn't leave many for the public to buy.
Kuralt mentioned so many small towns in the area and we are doing our best to visit some of them. Everyone told us to have breakfast at the Country Store in Barnard, their slogan, "the most food you'll ever eat on a paper plate" or something like that. It's true. Everything homemade, so good, and the pancakes did have to go on a separate plate. We didn't eat again until suppertime.
Then to Chelsea to find the grave marker of the famous Justin Morgan horse. Don't even ask. Kuralt does mention this in the book, or we would not have ridden as many country roads as we did in an attempt to get a picture. Thanks goodness, UPS is everywhere. And he would have to know we took a wrong turn out of this little road, because he said, "follow me, I'm going almost there. We never saw him again so we knew we took the left when we should have taken the right. Back through Chelsea and thank goodness a man was out mowing and re-directed us back through Chelsea( so if you want to know anything about the town, ask, because we went through it 4 times.) My suggestion would be to give lookers bigger signs to read with clearer directions. Anyway, riding around looking, our comments were about Fletcher Schell and what in the world is he thinking and laughing about up in heaven, us riding around looking for a horse grave when I didn't even go to the barn to see our horses. A good laugh for us!
Janie and I decided that we couldn't be bashful, timid or even reluctant to ask or venture forward if we saw an opportunity to speak to someone or find out about a particular place. Well, on the way to find the grave, we came to a fork in the road, and looking at our little drawing given by the UPS man(he was so very nice and we do hope he isn't somewhere on a dirt road waiting for us) and remembering the advice given by the man mowing the grass, did we make this right or the next right. Sitting in the middle of the fork in the road a car appears, and the man driving sorta looks at us and almost makes his turn, but hesitates, then backs up so he can speak to us. He noticed our Alabama car tag and had to see what two old ladies were doing in that place. We began talking, he was so nice, from Huntsville Alabama himself, owns a house up the road, and he said, " why don't you stop by and meet my wife Carol", so we did. We pull up in the driveway, get out of the car and start calling, "Carol, Carol. She answers and comes to the door and invites us in. This was just another one of our little crazies we enjoyed, but what a way to meet people. These wonderful people are Ron and Carol Juergens.
Guess this was "horse day" because in the little picturesque town of Strafford, which everyone told us we must see, we saw horses and riders and stopped at the Huntington Farm, owned by Anne Kitchel, and watched a trainer take a beautiful horse through her paces. Green pastureland, barns, fences, tractors, trailers, a big operation. We walked through the stables and were told there were 30 foals in the barn. Young girls grooming and walking and tending the horses reminded me of our days when all our children rode and participated in horse events, and really how time-consuming and tedious it can be. Debbie was the head trainer, and Molly was one of the groomers. The farm is for sale, just in case any of our readers are interested..
We were so close to Hanover, Vermont and Dartmouth University we had to continue in that direction and see the campus. It was raining and we couldn't do anything but ride around and look, but it is a beautiful campus, Ivy-League, and all that stuff. I did wish my Auburn tag was on my car so I could show off, but I didn't have it. Never leave home without it. I've always heard "good" about this university.
We did finally find our way home, it was raining quite heavily by now, and we were worn out, so a stop at the Pizza Chef, which would only be our second meal today, relieved us of having to get home and think about preparing something.
We can truly say we have ridden the country roads of Vermont because we went many miles and saw so much, and, thanks Lord for safety and care as we indulge ourselves in the things we want to do. We are blessed!
It doesn't get dark until after 9:00 p.m. here so I was ready for bed hours before dark came. We have several things scheduled for tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment