Oct. 29th - Vermont

We had a great drive down Highway 91 enjoying fog rolling through the mountain valleys and in between small towns.  Along the way to Leah (Morgan’s cousin) and her family’s home in Brownsville we missed an exit. Since we didn’t realize we missed it until about 15 miles past, we turned to our atlas and quickly found a new route on the side roads instead of just turning around. Our detour led us through many small towns affected by hurricane Irene a few months ago. We had heard of the damage but had no idea just how bad it had hit. There were entire trees stuck in dams. And when I say tree, I don’t mean the skinny wimpy tree seen planted in a tree farm fifteen years ago. I mean a huge hundred and fifty year old tree with deeply grooved bark that no lumberjack would even attempt to take down. Along with that there were bridges down or in disrepair, houses completely off-kilter, and the rushing rivers had pushed sediment from the bottom of the river onto roads and people's yards.

After our impromptu exploration of the region we arrived to Leah and John’s quaint house, which is situated outside of Brownsville along rolling country roads. (Luckily their house is on a small hill so the house had no damage during the hurricane but a small creek in their front yard did cause some flooding to their garage/studio.) They and their two children - Owen and Anika, their two dogs - Cody and Tessa, and their bunnies, welcomed us and soon after we were trying on Halloween costumes for a Halloween party going on that night at a friend’s house.  Soon we had our costumes picked out and headed on over to the party for delicious food, fresh pressed apple cider, Vermont beer, and good times. The party throwers showed us their very unique and awesome way of making cider that included a bicycle and a car jack(pictures below). We were amused throughout the night by their nice friends and in particular, a young boy who was marketing himself for snow removal to the local neighbors. Morgan asked him what he was saving up for. He replied "Gasoline". Morgan then said “No like a big purchase, like for yourself”. We were expecting to hear Xbox or something like that. Instead, he replies “a backhoe, so that I can remove snow from driveways quicker”.  If only I had those kind of hard working ideals… 

 

By the time we were ready to head back to Leah and John’s the snow had left a good couple inches sticking to the ground. We made it safely back through the dense snowfall and continued to chat back at their home. After Owen showed us all of his Halloween rings(one for each finger and toe) and buttons he had won at the school party, it was time for bed.