#23 VERMONT

My recent visit to Vermont is somewhat hazy due to a serious sugar overdose. It’s easy to over sugar yourself when you start the day with The Maple Grove Farms & Sugar House factory tour and tasting and really enjoy those free samples and comparative maple syrup tasting. Armed with a box of “seconds” maple candy we made our way to Ben & Jerry’s. The free sample on the tour was strawberry cheesecake (I never knew there could be a B&J flavor that I didn’t like!) so I compensated with a Mint Chocolate Chunk coffee. No wonder it’s all a blur!

The Vermont quarter pictured on the left was issued in 2001 and features Camel's Hump Mountain with an image of maple trees with sap buckets in the forefront. Until the 1800s when cane sugar was introduced, Americans relied on Vermont's maple sugar for its sugar supply. There’s no arguing that maple sugar is good stuff!


Still amped up on sugar and caffeine we made it to the Orvis outlet in Manchester minutes before closing time. No worries there. I was fortified and could locate the bargains I wanted in no time flat. There were some serious deals there. No, they weren’t all sweaters with puppies and kittens on them and dowdy tweeds (though they were present). I walked away with a thick cashmere sweater, a Barbour jacket & a terrific yellow wool duffle coat. John surmised the great deals on winter clothing were due to global warming but I suspect the fact it was mid-May had much more to do with it.

Inner Workings of a Maple Factory

The Magic Bus

Capitol in Montpelier

My visit to Vermont gave me the excuse to read The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

From Library Journal Review: This well-written first novel attempts to be several things: a psychological suspense thriller, a satire of collegiate mores and popular culture, and a philosophical bildungsroman. Supposedly brilliant students at a posh Vermont school (Bennington in thin disguise) are involved in two murders, one supposedly accidental and one deliberate. The book's many allusions, both literary and classical (the students are all classics majors studying with a professor described as both a genius and a deity) fail to provide the deeper resonance of such works as Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose . Ultimately, it works best as a psychological thriller.

The novel was Melanie Jones’ pick for the 50 States of Literature Series in the Columbia Spectator. It was a great book and a good travel read but I cringed at it being the selection for Vermont. Native Vermonters were not referred to in a complimentary light. Tartt wrote of them in the snobbish voice of her main characters and all of the Vermonters were presented as rather backward hicks. I can see why a college student, such as Jones, would be drawn to this tale of wealthy misfits with overtures of a Greek tragedy. This book would truly resonate with the me of 20 (OK – 25) years ago. There’s a very insightful review on The Ax for the Frozen Sea where The Secret History is compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. I didn’t come up with connection myself but completely agree. Book Club Classics! reviewed the book unfavorably and echoed many of my objections. The Secret History is the type of book that offers much to discuss and analyze, it would be a great book club selection, it just wasn’t my choice as a Vermont vehicle.

From Melanie Jones:
In The Secret History, fall brings the smell of "apples rotting on the ground," of spider webs whose dew gathers "in beads so that it glistened like white frost." Winter finds the students huddled around the common room fire, barren willows tapping their "skeleton fingers" against the pane, and martins crying in the eves while mallards sob harsh, lonely chords across a steely lake. It is little wonder that Richard is so bewitched by the town's austere beauty, and readers can expect to be, as well.

A beautiful sampling of Vermont scenery accompanied by Billie Holiday’s Moonlight In Vermont is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNAmz7kpe4

#22 NEW HAMPSHIRE

Entering New Hampshire from the east I was impressed with how wild and untamed it appeared. NH has the second highest percentage of forested land in the country, after Maine. We marveled at the White Mountains and the frequency of “Moose Crossing” signs. Mount Washington looms at 6,288 on the horizon. We westerners may scoff at such a vertically challenged peak but Mount Washington reputedly has the worst weather on earth with hurricane force winds recorded an average of every three days .

In Bill Bryson’s hilarious “A Walk in The Woods” he writes of the highest surface wind speed, an unfathomable 231 miles an hour, being recorded by Salvatore Pagliuca, a meteorologist at the summit weather observatory on Mount Washington on April 24, 1934.

“Mount Washington sometimes gets a little gusty, to put it mildly, and this was a particularly breezy day. In the previous twenty-four hours the wind speed had not fallen below 107 miles an hour, and often gusted much higher. When it came time for Pagliuca to take his afternoon readings, the wind was so strong that he tied a rope around his waist and had two colleagues take hold of the other end. As it was, the men had difficulty just getting the weather station door open and needed all of their strength to keep Pagliuca from becoming a kind of human kite. How he managed to reach his weather instruments is not known, nor are his words when he finally tumbled back in, though “Jeeeeeeeesus! Would seem an apt possibility.”

I can‘t help but wonder if there was resentment on the part of the rope holding colleagues. Their participation was not inconsiderable but their names appear nowhere in the record books. Our weather driving along Highway 2 was not so dramatic. It was rainy and dreary – perfect for spotting a moose or two I anticipated. No moose crossed our sights and no gale force winds buffeted us as we continued to Littleton, our home du jour.

Littleton, NH is a charming albeit rather decrepit former mill town. We had a superb meal at Bailiwick’s located in the basement of the Thayer’s Inn. The food and service were unimpeachable. We left satiated and were admonished to look out for moose on our return to the hotel. We’ve been looking! Apparently the moose population has exploded and the problems are widespread. The next morning armed with the “Downtown Littleton Walking Tour – featuring over 20 historic sites!” brochure we went for a walk in the drizzle and viewed them all in 20 minutes. I would definitely return to this town as a weekend getaway if only it were a bit more convenient.

Do I look like the bear on Bryson's book cover? Maybe a little?

Some other interesting New Hampshire trivia courtesy of Wikipedia and AAA:

The New Hampshire Primary, historically the first primary the American presidential election cycle, this year the third. The primary has often been decisive in shaping the national contest. (In 2008 Obama and McCain were unequivocal victors.)

Peterborough, NH is the inspiration for the town of Grover’s Corners in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town.

Bob Montana, the original artist for Archie, attended Manchester Central High School for a year, and may have based Riverdale High School in part on Central

The first free public library, started in 1822, was Dublin, NH’s Juvenile Library The first public library, supported with public funds, founded in 1833, was Peterborough Town Library was the first public library.

Each year over 250 moose are killed on NH highways. Wow! How many managed to cross the road safely? And still not one sighted by us.