Moved and finishing, hopefully, maybe continuing?

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We <3 Vermont!

Tuesday was the greatest day!

We headed up to Sugarhill to the mind blowing Polly’s Pancake Parlor.  We waited a half hour for a seat (on a Tuesday morning no less) but we didn’t care in the slightest.  There were 3 generations working there, the cutest little lady (she was Polly’s daughter) was serving coffee, her daughter & son were our waitress and host and their son was in the kitchen helping to cook.  You could mix n’ match by the pancake! We awarded the gingerbread and coconut buttermilk the yummiest.

  Finally we hit Vermont! We love it!  All the leaves have changed here and the views are breathtaking.

We stopped in St. Johnsbury to The Dog Chapel, built by artist Steven Huneck.  We didn’t really know what to expect, but it wasn’t that we’d be unloading so many tears that early in the morning.  In the chapel people who’ve lost pets can pay tribute by posting notes or pictures of their furry friends.  Drew left a sweet note for his Snoopy. 

Everything in the chapel including the stained glass windows were made by the artist.  He put so much beautiful work into the project.  Visitors had brought their doggies to run around in a fun play park he had built up the hill too!  

In the Natural History Museum in St. Johnsbury we found the bug art museum!  There were 9 pieces in the collection and the artist used thousands of beatles/moths/etc. per piece!  It was pretty neat and looked incredibly time consuming.  My eyes would probably "bug out" if I attempted it..... ha...no? That was really forced wasn't it?

bug art all up close-like:

The Bread and Puppet Museum in Glover has been my favorite stop so far I think.  Since 1977, it’s been run by a political art commune that builds the puppets for theater productions they have on site in the summertimes.  A huge old barn houses pretty much all of the puppets that have been used since they began, they don’t provide much upkeep to the puppets and for the most part just let them decay naturally.  I can’t think of any words to describe how amazing this place was, completely speechless.  Some of the puppets were over 20 feet high!  We took so many pictures, but I just narrowed it down to a couple since there’s no way you could imagine this place unless you’ve seen it anyway.

Across the street is the communes’ art bus.  It’s full of art produced by the commune in support of it's "cheap art movement" and having some to keep is based entirely on an honor system.  You take what you want and leave the money in a box by the door. 

Ah I just loved it! I love Vermont!

We made it to the Ben & Jerry’s factory just as they were pulling down the gates.  They were nice enough to let us in for some yummies before they closed.  We wandered up to the flavour graveyard (so cute and clever!) while we snacked and then on to camp life in Stowe. 

Fire-eat-sleep!  Did I mention that we love Vermont?!

P.S.  Laurie if you're reading I yelled hi out the window to your fam for you today!

P.P.S.  Did anyone just watch Jim and Pam get married on The Office?? Amazing! Perfect!

DAY #5: Good news for people who love good news!

Today we mostly played Pass the Pigs at Dunkin’ Donuts and held our breath for 7 hours while Allison went into surgery.  

The outcome…it wasn’t the transmission!  Thank you thank you!  It was, however, the front right wheel bearing that was only one or two turns from popping right off and what seemed like a hundred other things that needed a little love.  We didn’t care, we were freeeeee!

We decided for Allison’s sake to cut out Mt. Washington, also in order to get the hell out of New Hampshire a little bit sooner.  We’ll be back someday to try again.  We did end up taking the Kacamangus highway through the white mountains and it was so beautiful.  I think it was NH saying sorry for all the trouble.  Forgiven!

It started to rain before we got to a campsite so we stayed in a motel in Lincoln.  It was a cute place, the owner was from Quebec and the bed came with one of these:

!!!!

We watched Halloweentown (love it!) and had a drab looking picnic with leftovers  and pieces of things we’d collected along the way.  Maybe it was because we were so hungry at this point, but that mac n’ cheese was the best of  my life!

DAY #4: Broke down cars... hearts and bones still intact.

Today we woke up refreshed , ready to forgive New Hampshire for all the misunderstandings yesterday and get out of this weird town we were in (another outlet village).  The rain had stopped, the sun was out and we were going to climb Mount Washington!   I thought I’d dress for the occasion and donned my Bear Hug in New Hampshire sweater and my America hair bows.  Nothing could stand in our way!

Nothing except dear Allison (that’s our car, she was a dental Hygenist in her other life).  It was like "pulling teeth going up hills" (har har).   Her steering wheel was grinding, her gear shift wouldn’t change to 2^nd or 1^st and she rattled and jerked at us when we accelerated.  No! No! No! It was Sunday of course, so no mechanics were available.  All would could think was transmission transmission anything but the transmission.  Another night in this town ugh, help!  We decided to stay just outside of town in a place called Weirs Beach. 

At this point I want to apologize to the Hamptons for calling it a creepy seaside town out of season.   Weir’s Beach definitely wins the prize.  On either side of the road it was stacked with tacky amusement parks (which we love!) but they were all closed (no love.) and we were a little sad, though trying to be optimistic.

One great thing about the town was we found The World’s Largest Classic Arcade and Museum which we had in fact been looking for!  The documentary The King of Kong was actually filmed here.  I think we managed to forget our troubles for a few hours while we played Pinball and Skee Ball.

We ate at this crazy tacky nightclub that was still opened called Paradise something or other… They  had a huge screen that had incredible 40’s music videos playing on it and dance lessons from 4-8, my mum probably would have liked those things.  Nobody showed for dancing so we just watched the instructors dance with each other while we ate.  The food was the worst I’ve had in a long time.

Drew's face says "I'm trying really hard to make the best of things, but lemme outta here!"

We stayed at a campground and were the only people there, the owners miniature poodle called Sugar attacked us upon entry.  They were a super cute elderly couple but they actually told us they didn’t like it here and wished they were in Florida.  We thought we’d have a nice fire and relax with some cheap beer ($4.75 for a tallboy 6-pack!) except the firewood they sold us was soaked and we settled for lighting an emergency candle and eating gummy bears.

Speaking of bears, I managed to get it in my head that we were going to be eaten by them last night.  I was a nervous wreck, every time I heard a noise I held my breath for what felt like hours.  

The rest of the night we formed a plan of action for the next day.  Locate the nearest post office, mail our things home then buy ourselves a plane/bus ticket home.  A much more ideal scenario would be, take our car to the mechanic, he says "No way ! It's nothing to do with the transmission.  I can fix that in a few hours and for way less than a couple thousand dollars!" and then we fly free again like little birds....

We're just trying to be realistic here.  We'll update when we figure this biz out.

Cross your fingers we don't go bust! 

Love you all!!

DAY #3: Rained out in New Hampshire.

Good morning!  Our tent view, where we slept like babies!

The plan was to stick around for the early morning fishing derby but it started to rain almost as soon as we woke up and breakfast was on our minds.  There was rumor of an amazing restaurant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire so our tummies took us there.

The Friendly Toast! Yum, it was absolutely incredible and the decor was so neato.  Everything was seriously vintage.  There were gigantic spaceships with mannequin boys inside hanging from the ceiling and old lamps at all the tables.  The walls were floor to ceiling with random tacky vintage pictures, nothing matched.  Basically it looked like  how our house will inevitably end up in 20 years if I don't control myself, except the food at the restaurant was way better than anything we could produce.

bathroom:

Next we took the coastal route through New Hampshire in search of a giant pirate in Hampton.  Drew was driving and I spent the first 15 or so minutes saying "wow so pretty, big houses, this is what I always thought the Hamptons would look like."  Eventually it hit me, good lord I'm a moron Hampton...looks like the Hamptons...it was The Hamptons.  The rest of that route was spent slowing down every time we saw a car pull in a driveway and impersonating Matthew McConaughey.  For some reason Drew was really sweet on finding Tobey MacGuire?

This is us being rich and famous in the Hamptons and not caring about much else.

It took us pretty much forever to find this guy.  The Hamptons (actually New Hampshire in general) has some really poor signage going on.  Also, Hamptons in the fall = creepy deserted seaside town.  By now it was raining a bunch and we were failing miserably at getting this picture until a fun fellow in a UPS truck that looked like a shriner car pulled up and helped us out.  My hair is not having fun here.  ARRRRR!

The rain let up so we could make the hike through the woods to America's Stonehenge in North Salem.  It was way cool but way eerie and I was pretty happy to do the hike, peek around for a little and scram.   Drew coaxed me into the "Oracle Chamber" for a picture but I felt pretty rude and now maybe like we were cursed for that....more on that later.

We came across this on the way back down.  It looked like some sort of ceremony had taken place.  Maybe for the Equinox?

We got nothing but lost in New Hampshire today.  This "Really Big Porch Rocker"  (that's right it isn't the world's largest) was way on a back road in a town called Milford.

At this point the rains were torrential but we pushed through in the dark to Laconia.  We were a little stressed because it was so hard to see, but we put on a couple Mitch Hedberg albums and laughed almost till our heads fell off.  Except they didn't, then we'd be in real trouble.  We looked for a cheap motel but the only one we could find I was convinced Psycho was based on. We settled for a really crap overpriced Super 8 and went to a fun diner for rootbeer floats and mac n' cheese.  I got a hot dog (I don't eat meat), took two bites and felt sad. So I just ate everything else in front of me!

Back at the hotel we fell asleep watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  No joke...it was Drew's first time seeing it.  I think that calls for the term wack!

DAY #2 - "Cities are on grids you know!"

Today the first destination was to be Stephen King's house.  One thing we've realized about the US is how absolutely confusing it is that the streets and towns all share the same name or some form of it.  In this instance we spent over an hour going west down Broadway when really we wanted to be on the street called West Broadway!   Lucky for us it was a really pretty drive that led us to this unexpected treasure, a giant baseball hat, it was meant to be!

Since we were at a loss as to where his house could be, Drew convinced me we should stop at Bett's bookstore.  The owner of this place probably knows more about Stephen King than he does.  The place was wall to wall with Stephen King and there was a cute puppy named Sammy.  The man was super friendly and told us nice things like "Steve is renovating the house next door to be his office" and "If the silver Mercedes is home, that means he is too!"  I liked him alot. With his directions we found the house in about 2 minutes.

His house was mostly just a big house except for the bats that were on the gateposts! His mercedes was there too!

Next was the lumberjack king himself Mr. Paul Bunyan.  He's Drew's fashion idol and they were actually dressed the same today!

Skowhegan was next for the Worlds Tallest Indian aka The BFI.  Politically correct they are not here in Maine.   The back roads leading here were stunning, I think Drew was pretty in love with them too.

Augusta held our next treasure.  Back at the Stephen King shop we had bought Pet Semetary as a book on tape and that occupied us pretty good on the ride down.  Rumor had it that the Big Boyz Worker Statue was in a sketchy part of town but it wasn't so bad, maybe a little creepy though.  We found him in an abandoned car yard.  He looked so lonely, I was glad we told him hi.

Freeport was ours next.   We took a drive down to the Desert of Maine and in the main lobby peeked at it through a window.  It looked amazing but the lady at the desk wasn't very friendly and we thought it best that we save ourselves the admission price since it was starting to get late and we still weren't sleeping bag owners.  We are the best at camping!  

On to  the outlets...as soon as we got there we wanted out. After seeing so much beautiful scenery so far this place just seemed toxic and nobody would smile at us.  We stopped at L.L. Bean to check prices (expensive!) and appreciate the big boot.  We knew it was time to hightail it out of there when we saw a beautiful old public library that had been turned into an Abercrombie & Fitch. So sad.

Yarmouth is home to one of the best map stores in the US called Delorme and also "Eartha - The World's Largest Rotating Globe".  She was monstrous !  We couldn't get her full bod in a picture.  

Sleeping bags were finally found and we pulled into Bayley's Campground around 7.  Just as the sun went down.  The campground was so much fun! It was decorated for Halloween all through the woods and there was a fishing derby in the morning.  There were 2 heated pools and jacuzzi's, trolley trains and an arcade.  Drew assured me this wasn't what all campgrounds were like.  We had some pizza and pumpkin beer (so-so, the Propeller pumpkin at home is much tastier) and sat by the fire until we started to fade.

DAY #1: fishermen, blueberries, lighthouses, big babies

Already a day behind schedule, but no matter.  I think the extra day was much needed as we weren't even packed.  The real day of departure was also slow going (mostly my fault).  Away we goooo (went)!

New Brunswick was pretty uneventful, Drew isn't allowed to drive there so he slept most of the way.  It was kind of nice for me actually.  This leg of the trip (NB/Maine) has a lot of nostalgia tied to it, so I just quietly reminisced to myself, memories of train wreck vacations, holed up in motel rooms eating baloney sandwiches and watching television.  18 years later for some reason I find these memories pretty special as terrible as they come across.  My sister would know what I meant.

We hit the border and the guards were incredibly friendly!  I kind of felt like they were big goofballs like us, in our big goofball New England movie someone on the outside must be filming.  We drove through crooning "america america" and I was so excited I think Drew wanted to throw me in the trunk.

First stop Eastport!  Drew with almost no effort found the "USA's Easternmost Goofy Muffler Man statue"  

That was easy!  Drew and I decided that instead of seeing the hundreds of lighthouses in Maine we'd each pick one we really wanted to see, mine was The Quoddy Head Lighthouse.  It looks like a barber's pole and wouldn't be out of place in a Tim Burton film.  It was beautiful! Also a little eerie the rocks in front were pretty Lemony Snicket looking but that's the feeling I was hoping to get from it.  Much to my disappointment the gift shop was closed (if you've travelled with me you know how I love a gift shop) and I got the feeling this would be a reaccuring theme on the trip.

We stopped for yummy home made mustard at Ray's mustard farm since Drew was starving and I wasn't letting him eat until we saw the World's Largest Blueberry in Columbia Falls!  It was getting dark and the place looked closed for the season but we snuck through the chains and peeked around. It was a huge blue dome but not necessarily a full blueberry.  No matter it still was fantastic and featured a pie man who looked like he would probably bake us in one if we stuck around.  

We ate at Friendly's (gross I know) mainly because as a child it was the only fun thing my sister and I got to do on vacation.  Not on this one though!  It was pretty disgusting, and we were the youngest people there by about 40 years. 

 At this point we were exhausted and headed northwest to Bangor.  Since we're wimps we sprung for a motel room there.  On our first night! ugh!  Tomorrow camping for real!

Our bodies were calling us out after eating that food and we hit the pillows pretty hard.  zzzzzzzzzz