Mill town

We are at the Elks lodge in Burlington, Vermont (map). Our arrival in Vermont yesterday afternoon brings Odyssey's state tally to 43 (plus the District of Columbia), the first increment of that total in several years.

We had a nice drive here yesterday through increasing amounts of fall color. We hit Lake Champlain in the quaint town of Rouses Point, New York. I ended up spending a couple of weekends there in my misspent youth as a rail fan (or do they call them trainspotters now?) -- it is the northernmost U.S. stop on the Delaware & Hudson's Adirondack. The town seems hardly changed, albeit perhaps a bit more touristy. I could find no sign of the B&B at which I stayed some three-plus decades ago.

Also changed since my last visit is a modern highway bridge to Alburgh, Vermont, which carries US-2. As we crossed the bridge we had a nice view of the scant remains of Fort Montgomery, most of which was demolished during the Great Depression by a WPA project to build the original highway bridge here. From Alburgh we worked our way down the islands -- North Hero and Grand Isle -- following US-2 all the way into Burlington.

The lodge here has four 30-amp hookups, $15 per night, which allowed us to get our batteries topped up, and also let us run our electric heaters most of the night; it was once again in the 40s. Shortly after we arrived, we pulled the scooters out, and we rode to South Burlington last night for a tasty dinner at the historic Lake View House. It was a cold, wet ride, and we bundled up in our foul weather gear.

Things were different this morning as we woke to a nice sunny day; and although it was a bit brisk, it was perfect riding weather. We rode down to the waterfront area and zipped around downtown, stopping for an hour or so at the Church Street pedestrian mall. By this time it had warmed up enough that we were able to enjoy an al fresco lunch on the mall at Three Tomatoes. After lunch we swung by the city park campground, just a mile or so from the lodge here. It is a beautiful park, right on the lake, but there is an 11' gatehouse at the entrance, so it is off limits to Odyssey.

This afternoon we will head back north towards the border, and east into New Hampshire, which will be state 44.

Photo by redjar, used under a Creative Commons license.