One more steamy morning and temps will be pretty much back to where they should be. Who knows what normal is these days? From all the weather reports yesterday, it seems that the severe weather passing through the Midwest (MN, WI, IN, IL, MI) was heading our way and we could see it on the radar last night, but we got nothing. Not a drop! There was even some severe weather near home in FL and we got a weather warning on our phones, but there were no reports of damage in our neighborhood. Bob cooked us our usual Sunday breakfast and we got ready for the day. Today, we created our own personal tour of covered bridges in the area. We googled them and designed our route to see 4 of the covered bridges nearby. We left the campground at 10:00 and made a quick stop at the hardware store in Shelburne to return a part from yesterday's repair and were on our way. The drive took us through the lush countryside of well-kept farms and beautiful homesteads.
It was a leisurely drive through the rolling hills and shaded lanes. Most of the roads we traveled on were paved but some of the more remote roads were gravel.
The roads were lined with many orange and yellow tiger lilies in bloom. It was beautiful!
Traffic was non-existent, so we could go at a snail's pace as we took in all the scenery. Our drive was like going on a treasure hunt, where you have a map to help you locate what you're looking for, but you don't know what it looks like until you see it. Our first bridge was the Holmes Creek Bridge.
It is a single-lane bridge built in 1840.
Our next bridge, the Quinlan Covered Bridge, was on the lower part of Lewis Creek.
It was also a single-lane bridge built in 1849.
Our third bridge, the Sequin Covered Bridge, was located at the upper part of Lewis Creek and had been restored, but It was built in the same year.
This bridge sits just beyond a small falls where we encountered two people taking a refreshing morning swim.
Our final bridge, the Spade Farm Covered Bridge, was relocated to this site and used as part of the Vermont Flannel Store.
We took a slow ride back along Highway 7 and made a stop in the Dakin Farm Store.
We wanted to shop and compare the price of Vermont maple syrup. We were pleasantly surprised to discover a store filled with products from all parts of Vermont and Maine and there were lots of samples. While Bob watched a video on how maple syrup was made, I sampled my way through the syrups, jams, and jellies; sausage and cheeses, and on to the honeys and butters. Skip the HUMMUS! The store was empty when we arrived, but by the time we left, it was full of shoppers.
We walked out of there with some homemade blueberry jam and a can of lobster bisque. Oh yeah! We didn't forget to get ourselves a cup of soft-serve maple frozen yogurt for the ride home. Yum! We were only gone 2 1/2 hours on our covered bridge tour, but saw so much of the Vermont countryside and the surrounding mountains.
We passed some interesting buildings, tucked away in these small hamlets off the beaten path. We came upon the Old Brick Store (check out the clock on the side of the building) and the Farmer's Grange building.
We also passed the famous Vermont Teddy Bear Company.
It was a very enjoyable morning with time well-spent. We got back to the campground at 12:30 and sat outside with Auggie. He was intent on finding that squirrel that he discovered this morning. (This is Auggie inside the trailer watching the squirrel on the tree limb outside this morning. He sat like that for maybe 5 minutes without blinking or moving an inch.)
While we were all sitting outside, we got a couple of very short showers, but then the sun came out. The campground cleared out from all the weekenders and other travelers moving on to other places. We hung out in the shade and enjoyed the time outside. It was pretty comfortable with the temp at 86. Auggie loves to explore and was sure that there was something under or inside this tent in the site behind us. I just thought he was being nosy.
Hours later, we discovered that a bird had flown into the tent and couldn't get out. I had to knock on the door of the our neighbor's camper and tell them, so they could go rescue it. They did, and all was fine and good. After awhile we went inside so I could give Auggie a little trim. His eyebrows and beard were getting kind of long. He always sits so still for his haircuts and gets rewarded with a treat when we're done.
Dark clouds came and went for the rest of the afternoon and we got a little rain around dinnertime. Tomorrow, we traverse 149 miles across the states of Vermont and New Hampshire from west to east. Shelburne is located on the west side of Vermont and Shelburne, NH is on the eastern side of New Hampshire. Yes, I did say Shelburne. We are leaving Shelburne, VT and will be staying in Shelburne, NH. What a co-incidence! The drive will again be on secondary roads for 98% of the time, but the scenery should be great along the northern edge of the White Mountains.
