After a very long, curvy, narrow difficult drive from our Alexandria Bay, NY we arrived the small rustic campground of Smoke Rise. Thankfully our driving day was dry. We were extremely excited about this stop as we had a planned meet up with some good friends who had rented an Airbnb to join us in exploring this part of Vermont. We had a full schedule of events from a cooking class, to interesting restaurant reservations, hikes and of course as many hands of Canasta that we could fit in around all of that.
The forecast for the week was for rain, but not in the volume or duration that we experienced. Over the next few days the entire state of Vermont experienced biblical rains that caused devastating floods. The capital of Montpelier was completely washed away by this onslaught. We were lucky enough to not be located near any river or stream tributaries or Ruth would have needed pontoons.
When we woke up the first morning and saw the disaster area that was Vermont, we were faced with the reality that some main and many secondary roads leading to our planned activities were either flooded or covered in earth from landslides. Our cooking class that was located in nearby Killington was cancelled, they informed us that they were flooded from both sides and there was no way in or out.
The rain kept on coming and the water flowed downhill as it will, swelling picturesque Vermont streams into torrents that continued to creep onto roadways, into towns and fields that became temporary ponds. The news continued to be bad for Vermont and parts of New Hampshire, our planned next stop.
Luckily for us, our friend's Airbnb was spacious and only minutes away from our campground. We got together that first day and regrouped. Although our travel radius had become quite limited, we sought out some more "secondary" activities that were accessible.
No visit to Vermont would be complete without a visit to a maple syrup museum. It was small and a little hokey but we sampled maple ice cream enjoyed their display of history and artifacts. We explored the waterfront town of Burlington and visited the Shelbourne Museum when there was a break in the rain.
On a misty afternoon, we toured the Morgan Horse farm and the Wilson Castle. The Wilson Castle was very creepy upon approach. There was not a car in the grown over grass parking lot. We thought for sure that it was closed. We approached the front entry and were greeted by a very enthusiastic docent for the place. Technically, the building is considered a castle, but it had a long way to go to restore it to its former glory. The castle had an extremely interesting history and is considered to be very haunted. The visit turned out to be worth it at then end of the tour.
On our last evening with our friends, we had dinner reservations at a little French bistro in Brandon, VT, within walking distance of their place. No risk of flooding impacting this night out. The skies were darkening as we headed out. We had just sat down at the near empty restaurant on a Thursday night. Before our cocktails arrived, all of our phones were alarming that there was a tornado warning in our area. Oh, and did I mention the power was flickering on and off in the restaurant? We were all looking for an interior stairwell to dive into. It was a quick storm and after significant wind, rain and darkness, it passed and we were able to enjoy a lovely meal.
This stop also brought with it some concern over Ruth's performance and and down the hills. Mike was on top of it as always and we were able to get it checked out while were here in Vermont. Ruth is just heavy and slow, I can relate.
We had fun with our friends despite the weather, played a lot more Canasta and watched a lot more of Wimbledon than expected. But the continuing rain made our planned next stop in the Twin Mountain, NH not very practical. We cancelled that reservation and stayed in Brandon, VT for a couple extra days then booked spot in southern NH that had been out of the rain bands on our way to our first stop in Maine, Kennebunkport.
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