The Distracted Wanderer

Perhaps I should more appropriately title this post "The Stuff Around the Inn That I Stayed At" as today's pictures are going to be from two places just up and down Darling Hill Road from The Wildflower Inn . Wednesday, March 3rd, dawned - but just barely!  The sun was trying mightily to shine over the mountains that could be seen from the back door of my room but alas, it wasn't really having much luck. I wasn't doing such a good job of rising and shining myself either as I awoke with a slightly upset stomach and had a couple of Pepto Bismol tablets for breakfast rather than going over to the farmhouse for a nice breakfast of pancakes and fresh Vermont maple syrup.  I still had the local covered bridges to scope out as well as a couple of other stops I wanted to make along the way home so I convinced myself that minor intestinal trouble wasn't going to keep me from getting some pictures as I managed to get myself checked out and on the road around 9:30 o

Three more of Vermont's very pretty red covered bridges are up for this post as I continued my journey from Stowe to the small Village of Northfield located west of Montpelier.  Northfield has the second highest amount of covered bridges in the state with five bridges but as it was starting to get to be late afternoon and I wanted to get back to Lyndonville before dark, I opted to just photograph three of the five covered bridges being that three of them are all within a quarter mile of each other on the same road that passes over the winding Cox Brook, a tributary of the Dog River. The first of these, the Northfield Falls Bridge aka the Station Bridge, was built in 1872 in the Town lattice truss style, a style that was widely used on many early timber bridges and later in building construction. It is the longest bridge in Northfield at 137 feet long - more than twice as long as any of the others. The Upper and Lower Cox bridges were built soon after the Northfield Falls bri

Now, where were we? Oh yes! After scaring up all the pictures I needed at Emily's Bridge, I consulted the handy-dandy tourist map that the clerk had given me in Stowe, reprogrammed the GPS, and made my way down some of the muddiest roads ever in search of my next covered bridge - the Red Bridge in Morristown just a touch north of Stowe. Also known as the Sterling Bridge, the appropriately named Red Bridge was built in 1896 and is a combination of Kingpost and Queenpost Truss. The bridge is 63’-4” long, 13’-9” wide, and spans Sterling Brook on Cole Brook Road. As you can see, Cole Brook is quite a ways down! As you can also see, there was mud aplenty not just on the road in front of the bridge but inside the bridge itself - The thing I liked best about this bridge - other than that it was the first red one that I found along my journey! - was the rusted flower decoration above the portal.  I wish I knew how long it had been there but alas, there was no telling. May I

Meanwhile, back in Vermont ... after leaving Marshfield and the Martin Bridge behind I continued west on Route 2 until I found myself arriving in Vermont's Capital City - Montpelier.  I had to admit that I was rather surprised at how small of a Capital City it is but that really made it that much more quaint; come to find out it's the smallest Capital City in the United States with a population of under 9,000! It was easy to spot the State House as I drove into town so I decided a quick stop to take some pictures was in order - much to the dismay of my GPS which was trying mightily to get me to Stowe!  Oh, recalculate and deal with it, woman!  Keeping my eye on the golden dome, it was easy to get to the State House and even easier to find a place to park as the street in front seemed totally abandoned.  Was it a Vermont holiday or something?!?  Not that that was a problem, mind you, as it gave me the chance to take a picture with absolutely no distractions in it like pesky

Tuesday, March 2nd, dawned bright if not sunny and after sleeping quite well I awoke refreshed and ready to take on the day. The first order of business was breakfast (included with my room) at the farm house where the chef was celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday with "green eggs and ham" - poached eggs on top of an English muffin with Candian bacon and a Vermont cheddar cheese sauce that was tinged sorta-kinda green.  Trust me, it was delicious even though the color may not be all that appealing! Breakfast was served by Mandy, a personable young lady, who had been working the front desk the evening before when I checked in.  Out of all the staff members I met, I'd have to say that Mandy was my favorite as she was very helpful, very nice, and very personable - a true delight.  She asked me what I had planned for the day and I told her that I was heading towards Stowe in search of covered bridges to take pictures of; in particular I was looking for Emily's Bridge - V