A better day but not so great!

September 5 – I woke the first time at 6 and the second time at 7:45.  Not off to a very good start.  It took a long time to pack the rest of the fridge, pitch what we couldn’t take, pack the car, drain the tanks and get going.  Of course we had breakfast first!  We dropped the RV off and stopped at the store for another cooler and ice and finally got on the highway at 10:30.

Definitely too much gluten!

The first place on our agenda was The King Arthur Company complex in Norwich, VT.  I get their catalog and read that they had a new place with the store, the baking school and their Café all together.  It was great!  I would love to go to some baking classes there.  We visited the store and I bought a few things and checked some baking products to see if they match items I already have.  We were going to eat in their café where all the bread and pastries are baked there and you can watch the bakers work.  Bill got a slice of pizza and we each got a dessert but I said I needed to eat from the coolers so the food doesn’t go bad.  He had some vegetables and we both had fruit from the cooler.

I wanted to visit some cheese farms and we marked 3 places northwest of Norwich and

View of the White Mountains

headed out.  Well, they are located way off the beaten paths for sure.  We were on gravel, dirt roads and lanes and the car was filthy!  The first we went to on the Vermont Cheese Trail had no signs and no one answered the door and it didn’t look like they had a store, so we left.  The next one, Neighborly Farms of Vermont was open and the girl working was also the cheeseroom manager and showed us around and answered lots of questions.  They are organic and make cheese once a week and raise the cows and milk them there.  They sell 1/3 of their milk to Horizons Organic Milk that I’ve seen in stores.  I bought one package of sharp cheddar.

The next farm, Fat Toad, is a goat milk farm but they don’t do cheese they do caramel from goat milk.  They have 6-7 flavors you can try.  I got a Brewed Coffee caramel for me and Maple Caramel for Bill.  I don’t know for sure how we will use it but it won’t be hard to get rid of!  That coffee caramel is delicious!  There were 2 others in south Vermont that I hoped we would get to before the day ended but we didn’t make it.

On the Marsh Billings Farm

We headed south to visit the Marsh Billings Rockefeller NHP and located it on my phone and we lost service and never saw a sign and drove all through the woods and finally came out on a road and drove into the town to find out where we were.  We had driven about 30 minutes out of the way so we asked for road directions in case we lost service again.  So in another 30 minutes we finally got there.  They closed at 5 and we just made it in time to get my passport stamp and a couple of photos and got to ask some questions.

Bill driving through 

As we were heading to the interstate we drove through a small town, Taftsville, and there was a covered bridge on the left.  Of course we had to drive through it and get photos.  Then on the other side of the bridge Bill saw a sign for another cheese place.  Why can’t they post on their signs how far they are?  That just burns me.  We drove way back in again on small little roads and we found it, but it closed about 15 minutes before we arrived and of course no one came out to see if they could help us. 

The Vermont Country Store

Luckily for me, The Vermont Country Store was open until 7 so we jumped on the interstate and headed south to Rockingham.  I used to get their catalog but after a while if you didn’t order they stopped sending them.  That store is awesome.  They have so many things from my childhood from candy to games to lotions and just odd things that we used to use all the time that you can’t buy at a regular store.  They have the old ice bags that flatten out, liniment, toothpastes, cotton nightgowns.  The list goes on and on.  Bill enjoyed all the samples of food items they have out to try.  There was fudge, cheeses, meats, crackers, jams, syrup and more.  We had about 45 minutes in the store and we left with a small bag of goodies.  They were giving out 1# bags of dried cantaloupe and asked if we wanted one.  She said they over bought and didn’t want to let them go bad.  So we got one!

We decided to spend the night in Brattleboro, VT and it was only 30 minutes further south.  The only place we found to take Molly was a Motel 6 and with a 10% discount it was $75.  I could not believe it.  We haven’t done a lot of moteling since we got the RV but I didn’t think Motel 6 would have gotten so expensive!  Oh well, what can you do?  Once we checked in and left Molly we had dinner at Ramunto’s.  It was Italian but one part was more like a pizza place with sports on many TV’s.  We each got a small salad and split a calzone.  It was good but not enough ricotta to suit us.  It was the perfect portion though.  No leftovers, since we have any more space to put any.

Molly didn’t seem to notice we were gone.  She really likes hotel rooms.  I tried to do some catch up on the computer and Bill went to bed early.  It wasn’t the best day but a big improvement over yesterday.