Once again we started the day with a planned route only to make changes mid-stream and have an even better time.  The day began with a final bout of showers as we packed the car, but cleared as we went along, and when we quit the sun was shining.

First stop was Crown Point, NY and Fort St. Frederic, the French’s fort guarding the entrance to Lake Champlain.  Standing guard for about 16 years, the British took it away from the French and built a bigger fort behind the French one.  The site went back and forth with us Americans for a while, but a fire in 1773 blew up the powder magazine and wrecked the joint.  Massive earth and granite stone blocks remain today marking the work of over 3,000 laborers on this point of land.  The site was shrouded in fog and it was easy to imagine a British man-o-war coming out of the mist cannons blazing.

We were traveling down the west side of the green mountains zigging southerly next when we came to the Maple Syrup Museum and store.  Whoa!  Something to sample?  Yep, do you know that Maple Syrup comes in four grades?  A tasting bar, like a wine bar, was set up and we learned about the differences in syrups from light to heavy.  With our new found knowledge, we were able to make more intelligent purchases.

Church steeples and Vermont are synonymous so it is easy to find many opportunities to photograph the more stately ones in the small towns as we passed through.  Sadly, we are also seeing churches that have no steeple anymore, but instead a flat top above the door with four small “lightning rods” at the corners.  Apparently the cost of keeping the steeple in repair is more than the congregation is willing to fund so it is taken down.

Lunch was in Dorset, VT, at the Dorset Inn, established circa 1780.  This Inn, Vermont’s oldest continuously operating, is a restaurant, tavern, and hotel with several rooms.  We dined on the sunporch with selections delightfully cooked by a chef renowned for her comfort food recipes.  After touring the inn’s public rooms with their wide plank floors, they don’t build them like that anymore.

A kitchen outlet store, J.K. Adams, came along next so we stopped.  They had just finished a culinary demonstration and book signing by Bev Shaffer, author of  “No Reservations Required” www.bevshaffer.com.  We were able to catch her and her husband as they were closing up their stuff for a chat.  Turns out they were both IBM’ers in a former life like us and took up cooking as an avocation.  Bev has written four cookbooks already and is on her fifth specializing in deserts.  We bought a couple of her books plus some other stuff.

The day was getting later so we cut off some of the mileage by taking a more direct road towards our night’s lodging.  The trees look pretty much the same regardless of the route it seems.  Anyway, our new route took us by the Vermont Country Store headquarters.  EVERYONE knows about the Vermont Country Store  so being at their Mecca was a treat.  We wandered around marveling at the stuff they sell.  Games and toys from the past, old time candies, gadgets, even a new record player from the ’50’s.  How about a new typewriter?   Singer Sewing Machine?  2-inch wide suspenders?  We had to slow down given the limited room in the car.

Our room tonight is in one of the classic older motels… 2 story wood siding, front doors, and pool in the middle style.  With the windows open we are serenaded by a gospel group in the local park.