Salem Bound Day 7, Change of Plans, Homeward Bound

True, it was a chilly night. The furnace, even with the aforementioned stealth lowering of the temperature, kept us warm enough.

I delayed my departure for the morning walk as it was a bit cold and, with no cell coverage, I wanted to be able to share my destination with Mrs Milddogs. According to the not to scale map provided by the campground, the trailheads were pretty close to the camping area. I don’t have the premium version of AllTrails so I did not have offline maps of the trails available. Off I went. After 1.3 km of mostly uphill walking on the gravel road I arrived at the trailhead. I looked at the more detailed maps that contained more information about elevation gains and difficulty. Decision time. I chose to continue up the hill to the trail fork. Another 500 meters and a bunch of elevation gain and I called it a day. Time calculations indicated I would be out for a few more hours to do the hiking trails. The smarter people were driving up to the trailhead. I turned around and headed downhill. Did you know downhill, without obstructions is much faster! About halfway back, I failed to notice a larger rock, stepped on it and rolled my ankle. I have decided to retire my Saucony trail shoes. All falls and injuries have occurred when wearing those shoes despite the fact that I don’t wear them that often. I’ll go back to Brooks Ghost GTX despite the fact that they don’t seem to last that long.

Back at the van, where Mrs Milddogs was surprised to see me back so soon, we discussed plans for the day. There were 3 main options. Continue the plan we had (explore Highway 100 and return to campsite), explore Highway 100 and head home or just head home. We decided we wanted to explore Highway 100 as it had been 14 or so years since we had been there. We could defer the decision on going home versus back to the campground until later as we do not leave anything at the campground.

Off we went. We drove down Highway 100 and by the time we got to Stowe, it was obvious that sunny Saturday mornings are very busy in Stowe. We had a nice drive through and continued south. First stop was the cider place. We parked near the other #vanlife people right next to Watercolous by Joshy. We did not meet Joshy, just parked next to the van. Mrs Milddogs picked up some cider donuts at the fairly crowded cider place. They were good, but not as good as the ones we got at Prairies Orchard in Malone, NY (they don’t have a website and I don’t link to FaceBook).

The remaining stops should be obvious if you have been on Highway 100. Cabot Cheese and the nearby Lake Champlain Chocolates. Since Cabot Cheese does not open until 1100, we went into the chocolate store and Mrs Milddogs got a coffee and we picked up the free sample chocolate. Mrs Milddogs believes it is less yummy than Purdy’s. I found it interesting that you could not buy cheese until 1100 but the distiller that is also there would sell you a flight of booze samples at 1000. When the cheese shop opened we sampled some cheese and artisan jam / cheese pairings. This resulted in purchases to take home.

On the road to Ben & Jerry’s. Guess what, it was busy. But wait, there is more. We did not want to take the tour, just to hit the gift shop and maybe get an ice cream. We entered the tour / gift show area and bypassed the line to head to the gift shop. We were instantly halted by a friendly and enthusiastic B&J employee that attempted to explain we could not just go into the gift shop. You had to book a tour that conveniently ends in the gift shop. We could book a tour online or outside at the kiosk. She did explain it was because they do not have enough staff. Crazy. So, we left. At least we did not have to pay for parking 🙂

We decided while driving that we would head home at the end of Highway 100 and so we did. We filled in the ArriveCan app which tied us to a specific border crossing. We chose Cornwall and we took the ferry route across Lake Champlain. Ferries are cool.

Nothing eventful about the drive home. We stopped at a fruit and veg stand in northern New York. Border crossing was standard.

Some words about local travel when travelling by van. We have found, so far, that we can go pretty much anywhere we would in our car. We have always been able to find reasonable parking. Many people travel in big RVs and tow cars. I don’t see the attraction in that. I see the convenience once you have arrived and want to drive about. But it must be cheaper, and probably more convenient to just Uber it locally or use e-bikes.

This trip was one that re-enforced my serial hobbiest belief that some form of battery assisted transportation is perfect for #vanlife. On this trip, there were several cases where covering distance at greater speed than walking would have been convenient. One day there will be an e-bike that is perfect for our use cases.

It took us a bit to get back into the routine of living in the van. You forget the steps to the dance of motion in confined spaces. It’s a beautiful dance when well executed. We are still enjoying #vanlife.

We need a better camera. Zoom would be good.

Until next time!