Road Trip – day 8 (Vermont and New Hampshire)

When we got up in the morning in our odd hotel, Debi and Toren wanted to go swimming in the pool. They went down to ask about the pool and the same woman I had tried to talk to the previous night was at the desk. Debi literally said, “Is the pool open?” The woman stared at her for at least a minute, just staring, no response. The she asked, “Where is the pool?” Debi asked again, and finally the woman said, “We can open the pool. It will be open in 15 minutes.”

When we finally found the pool, it was inside, but there was a garden hose pouring water into it. It was freezing! The guy who was getting it ready was actually very nice and talkative and mentioned that they had just changed the water in the hot tub so it wasn’t quite hot yet (he didn’t say anything about the freezing cold pool). The hot tub was almost warm, but really more like “not quite cold”. They got in the “hot” tub for a couple minutes, but it didn’t last.

We then went downstairs for the free breakfast and it was, well, free. It really wasn’t that bad, but it was kind of odd with some standard items (some yogurt and bread), but some odd things too. A bunch of mugs for coffee rather than coffee cups, vegan butter, etc. It was fine, but a little different.

With breakfast and the odd hotel out of the way, we were off for more adventures. We hoped to visit two highpoints on the 12th, but a lack of foresight made that impossible. We ended up just visiting one – Vermont’s Mount Mansfield. Since there is a trip report for that hike as well, I won’t describe it in detail here other than to say that the top of the mountain was covered in clouds and it was raining and windy, so I did the hike alone.

After the highpoint, we drove the short distance to the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, VT where we went for a tour and got to try a sample of the ice cream.

From there we started toward New Hampshire so we could visit the highest point in that state, Mount Washington. We stopped in Montpelier, the smallest state capitol in the US, and had lunch in a restaurant right on the river that was very nice.

Debi and Toren after lunch on the river in Montpelier

After lunch, we realized we weren’t going to make it to the top of Mount Washington due to adverse weather, so we stopped in Gorham, New Hampshire at a hotel with an indoor pool and spent about 2 hours swimming and lounging in the hot tube before going out for dinner. I had fish and chips and clam chowder. The clam chowder was better than the fish and chips, but they were both good.