Highways, Quarries and Memorials

We are now in Marshfield, VT., well, almost. Actually we are at the edge of Groton Forest at the Groton Forest Road Campground. This campground is a PA at the rate of $9.00 per night - unlimited! Wish I could find more of them!



The drive here was really pretty. It seemed like one oohh or ahhh after another. This picture was taken while driving on I-91 north.



We visited the Rock of Ages quarry yesterday. Really neat. The quarry is 600 feet deep although it didn't look that deep until you spotted someone working in the quarry - they looked so small. This company mines (I guess that would be the right word) granite. From this quarry they get the white granite, but they have other quarries that have pink, brown, blue, black, etc. Some of the mining is done for industry, but most of it is done for Rock of Ages Memorials. There is a plant on site where you can observe memorials being made from the granite. Amazingly, most of the artwork on their memorials is done by hand and it was interesting watching one in progress. The following picture shows one of the craftsmen working on a memorial.



Here are some pictures of the quarry. In the first picture if you look close you can see stairs going up the quarry wall. These are for an emergency escape. There are people on the ledge in the second picture - can you see them?



Any one for a yellow taxi - oops I mean cage? This is the way the workers get into and out of the quarry - scary!




We then drove to Hope cemetery in Barre, VT. Talk about some bizarre memorials! Here are pictures of a couple of them.

This is my favorite - together forever...






These are all Rock of Ages memorials. If you can think it, they can do it, but don't wait to late to plan yours. Maybe we'll have a fifth wheel for ours - LOL!

Today we went to the Cabot Creamery - their most widely know product is Cabot cheese. If you are ever in the area don't miss it - very interesting plus you can sample almost every kind of cheese they make. You can also purchase most any of their products by the each or bulk. They also ship for you.

From there we drove to St. Johnsbury to the Maple Grove Farms manufacturing plant. We were very disappointed. The tour was short and noisy. We saw maple syrup being bottled then went to the area where the maple candy is made, but they had already gone home for the day - it was 1 p.m. The museum was a bigger disappointment - nothing to it! We then went to the gift shop where we were told we could sample the four grades of maple syrup and the candy. Wrong! There was a counter where you were supposed to be able to sample, but no one there. I asked one of the workers about the candy samples and her reply was "someone will get to it". Never happened - we left.

There was another maple sugarhouse that we heard about at the campground so we decided to go there. It is the Bragg Farm Sugarhouse and Gift Shop in E. Montpelier. Very nice place to visit. They show a film of how the sap is tapped from the tree and then how it is turned into syrup - forty gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup! You can sample the four grades of maple syrup so you know which you prefer before making a purchase. Very friendly folks here - will answer questions without hesitation. There is also a soft serve ice cream counter that has maple and chocolate. I would usually go for the chocolate but - the maple was yummmy good!!!

On our way back to the campground we passed two interesting buildings. A barn with a lot of "things" on the outside - see the picture.


This house was different because of the window - I've never seen a window installed this direction - have you?



Tomorrow we bid farewell to Vermont and say hello to New Hampshire. We are staying in Lancaster, NH for five nights. One of the top items on our to do list while there is to ride the Cog Railway to the top of Mt. Washington. I checked the weather there (Mt. Washington) and the highs for the next week are in the 50's - time for a sweat shirt. Bye for now......