– Another day that we planned to be an uneventful driving
day from New Hampshire to Montpelier, Vermont (the capital of Vermont.) What a
wonderful drive. First, the leaves are
beginning to change which, according to people who lived there, is not a good
sign. They are worried about an early,
cold, long winter. I hope their fears
are not confirmed. But, for us, it was
nice to begin to see a little color in the trees.
Our first, unplanned stop, was Dog
Mountain. We didn’t know anything about
it but saw a sign on the road and decided to ride up the side road and see what
it was about.
Well – what a stop – if
you are a dog lover. An artist, who
loves dogs, bought the 100+ acres and has turned it into a place where dogs can
come and run free, families can have “dog parties” or groups can come and have
picnics and brings their dogs to run and play.
The artist, Stephen Huneck, has his home there and has a gallery with
many of his books and art for sale.
He
also has built a chapel, dedicated to the lives of pets. The stained glass windows each feature the
profile of a dog, the pews in the chapel have ends that are dogs carved from
different types of wood, and the walls are covered with notes from pet owners
often attached to a picture of their pet.
Being a dog lover this was very wonderful. One of the quotes from the artist, states
that the Dog Chapel is the greatest accomplishment of his life. You can read more about this, and see many of
his books, at his web site:
. If there are young children in your life who
love dogs, I highly recommend his books about “Sally.” Our next stop was Lancaster, New Hampshire
which, again, had beautiful old buildings downtown.
Nearby we stopped at “The Farmer’s Daughter”
gift shop who also had some animals, including lamas. James just had to get his picture made on a
“Thomas Train” handmade engine.
Later we
came upon a “sugar shack” which is where maple syrup is made. After talking to the people in that area, we
learned this is still the way maple syrup is made. It is not in large factories, as I
expected. Small farms grow the sugar
maple trees and get the sap in the spring.
They then boil the syrup off in these sugar shacks. This is amazing.
Driving on we saw an amusement park, Santa’s
Village, which was absolutely covered up.
School still hasn’t started in this area but summer is running short and
folks are taking advantage of the last few days of summer.
As we passed the Vermont state sign, nearing
Montpelier, we talked about what a great “driving day” this has been.
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