Jericho Parade....so glad we got to see it....and Covered Bridges

We were up and ready to go bright and early....there was no way we were going to miss this. Many years ago I happened to just be in the right place at the right time to see a parade in Blairsville, Ga.....I was expecting this to be very similar...and it did not let me down. Small town parades have their own flavor....because the towns are small they don't have access to what big cities do, so, just about anyone can be in the parade....they are very colorful and highly entertaining....the town was already very busy, with lots of cars....but we fell into some "dumb luck" and parked right down from where the parade would start. We easily found a place on the street to watch and then it started....

                                                                 A local church group and maybe the mayor

                                             Had to have the local tractors and wagons.....

                             Drill team (maybe) and the High School Band......that only played when they stopped

                                                          The local Day Care...........and some more tractors

                     The Boy Scouts...................................and never really figured out what he represented

        the local Youth Dance Club...................and adult men's Liar Liar club pushing old timey mowers..hum

                                       Now that 4-wheeler could climb through anything

The band almost had on uniforms...tops/bottoms/hats all seemed to match...but shoes, gloves.....seemed if you just showed up that was good enough.

The Fire Engine was the end......it was a show for sure

With the parade over it was time to see what was at the fair. The majority of things were under tents on tables on the church grounds. Some few folks were set-up inside the church and there were PLENTY of folks set up in their own yards along the street....taking advantage of all the traffic. As we walked around the "booths" we were noticing that this was really more of a flea market or swap meet. Most of the "goods" looked to be what had been bought and saved from yard sales....it was quite the experience. We had been told for 2 days we had to try fried dough, so we were on a quest.

However we came across this unique idea for a "dunking machine"....seems instead of you getting dunked INTO the water...it gets dunked ONTO you....unique

Not sure I've ever seen animal hides/skins and antlers sold at a fair.....hummmm

And this was the Crowned Jewel....I know, (not even in Blairsville at the Sorgum Festival), have a I seen a pregnancy test booth at a family county fair.....yep, we laughed until we cried over this one. Seems you could take that stick into the port-o-potty and they could tell you in no time.....wow, who would have ever thought it?????

These guys were pretty good and were playing in front of the small church

These folks from the town of Underhill were making bread in cast iron pots with hot coals. They would cut it up for samples and you could buy whole loaves.....it was fairly good, but we passed on buying it. 

The finished product for sale....

We spotted the sign....so we had to try it. I'm so sorry I forgot to get a picture, but think of a funnel cake without any holes. It was just a round piece of fried dough that you added syrup/cinnamon/sugar or whatever you liked to and then ate it, tearing it apart just like a funnel cake. We shared one, it was good...and we had finally had fried dough....check!! 

We did some more looking and after a bit headed for the car....Karen wanted to see Boyden Winery and we wanted to see some of the many covered bridges. 

While she did her tastings and purchasing I sat outside and watched a wedding under a big pavilion ont he winery grounds....looked lovely and they had blue skys...very lucky. After sitting a while, we got our lazy bones up and went to see some of the local covered bridges....

We had to drive to Johnson about 30min away....

The first one we came to you couldn't drive across.....but is was still neat, they had done, and were still doing construction on it. 

Next was Scribner Bridge....you could drive across this one, but we didn't. It was at the end of a dirt road, so we just stopped, took some pictures, walked across and went to the next one.

Then down the road was Cambridge Junction Bridge .....it was over a very calm stream

The last one was Bryan Covered Bridge....this sign was posted on the wall inside the bridge. There used to be a gristmill here and we could see the remains... This bridge was right at a small park so we sat at a picnic table for a while, watched kids play in the gorgeous, but probably cold water, and watched some guys fishing.

Our last evening we went to 158 Main for dinner....it was packed. We sat at the bar to eat just so we didn't have to wait for a table. The filet was awesome and Karen said her chicken was very good. Then up the mountain we went one last time. We got bags packed and some put in the car, we had to start at 4am. We made our flights home, tired but happy. It had been a wonderful vacation.....Smuggs....we'll be back!!!!

Gondola's....Trapp Family Lodge....Stowe...Ben & Jerry's....a busy day

After working 1/2 day on Friday we hit the road running....was time to drive through The Notch...and into Stowe. The Notch got its name because they literally notched the road thru the mountain...it's cut in a zig-zag fashion. It's very interesting to drive and it gets closed in the winter, but it's fun!! Once you are thru the notch you quickly come to the Stowe Mountain Resort and Ski area. We rode the Gondola to the top that connects  Mt Mansfield that's 4398 feet  to Spruce Peak....we could not have had better weather...it was gorgeous and made for a great ride up....was $25 roundtrip. Had we had more time, we would have liked to ride up and walk down, but we had many things to see and do today....maybe next time.

At the top was The Cliff House for lunch. Was much nicer than I had expected. We both had wonderful Butternut Squash soup and I had fish tacos too...they were very good.

We walked around a bit and headed down....had many more things to see.

We'd just been to the highest peak in Vermont...cool!!!

Next stop, Von Trapp Family Lodge....remember The Sound of Music....well, when the family finally made their homestead in America they landed in Stowe, Vt. Maria saw the top of this mountain and said it reminded her of Austria, so that's where they bought and built their home. You can pay to do a tour and hear the families story, it's very good. I did that the last time I was here and Karen didn't want to so I showed here around as best I could and we moved on. The family lived here, would sing and practice and farm, and would still tour as a family group.  Then people started asking if they could come hear them, so they began to see where they could turn part of their home into guest quarters and make money. So what started small, grew into a huge business. The original house burnt, and when the rebuilding happened, it was made much more into a lodge of guest rooms. 

Perhaps you can enlarge this and read the family history, this is posted right inside the lobby

This is the family cemetery ...Maria, The Captain and some of the children are buried here.

The view that Maria fell in love with.....I can see why!!!

We stopped at the restaurant/bakery that is across the street from the lodge and got a doughnut type of thing. It was round with a cream filling to die for....Austrian pastries are the best!

No trip to Stowe, Vermont is complete without a trip to Ben and Jerry's Ice Creamery.....they make it right here!!! When you first arrive you are greeted by this bus that they used in the beginning to serve and sell ice cream.....

You absolutely have to visit the Flavor Graveyard....this is for all the flavors that "didn't make it" in Corporate World....humm....I can think of some other things that might belong here!!!

Jack Daniels Ice Cream...hummmmm

That's A LOT of cream, milk and sugar.....but their ice cream is awesome!!

The Timeline is very interesting..........you can take a tour and then get a free sample of a new flavor if they are making at that time. They were not making when we were there, so we looked around, I got an amazing chocolate milkshake and off we went.

The wall of flavors....cute way to showcase them with empty pint containers.

Who knew there were so many ice cream scoops!!!!

We headed to visit the Cabot Cheese store and Champlain Chocolates. Where they make Cabot cheese was about a 1.5hr drive so we skipped that....the store was pretty amazing. Samples of every flavor cheese they make, as well as dips, popcorn....and other products. I'm sure it's lunch for some folks!!!

Champlain chocolates are not as good as Snowflake and cost lots more, so we did a very quick peak in there. The Cider House is in this area too, I had been and Karen didn't want to go, so we headed for downtown Stowe to shop. It's small and does not take long to cover. It was getting busy and being a Friday afternoon during foliage we hit some traffic, but was not too bad. I got some Christmas shopping done and we saw a wedding party walk down Main St with a bag piper....cool. Timing is everything!

It was getting late and we had no desire to drive The Notch in the dark...so we headed home.

We had decided we might eat at the restaurant at Smuggs, or one that is very close. When we got onto the floor where our unit was, for the 2nd night the condo next to us had been cooking and the foyer smelled wonderful. This time I decided to tell them they were killing us with the lovely aroma!! It was 2 couples, very nice folks, they laughed and said "thank you for the compliment". We went inside, heated up some Glogg and sat on the deck for a bit. Karen heard a knock on our door...it was our "cooking" neighbors offering us leftovers....from tonight and last night.....they just wanted 2 bowls from our unit to put some in....uhhh......SURE....wow, another free dinner...THANK YOU. We had some salad left from last night and a little bread from lunch, so we were good to go.....was nice to be able to stay in.

Tomorrow, Saturday we had to get up and out and make it to a small town parade and fair by 930a....so off to bed we went. We slept so good with the windows open and the cool air coming in.....fall is awesome.