The Northern Trek Goes to Conclusion

We arrived in Baltimore this evening, deciding to eat at the hotel.  We've done a lot of traveling and it will be good to get home tomorrow.  Since our trip to Block Island, we've maneuvered around the Northeast through seven states to reach here.  In the days after Block Island we spent one day doing little in Bristol, except seeing half Brit-half Yank flags hung in honor of a British automobile parade on Hope Street--the site of the oldest, possibly, and biggest, possibly, Fourth of July parades in the country.  We also lunched with our friend Elaine at one her favorite places in Warren, Rhode Island, Eli's Kitchen, where we had an eclectic menu before us.  John chose a Cuban panini, and Ben had a portobello mushroom and goat cheese panini.  Both lived up to Elaine's superb recommendation.  Then on Friday we headed headed north for a weekend in Dorset, Vermont.

Our travels took us through Worcester, Massachusetts, where we found a very suitable coffee shop-cum-bakery in an old textile factory in the Canal District.   The Birchtree Bread Company did a very good coffee for Ben and the pastries, which John avoided, just oozed "eat me!"  The textile factory, probably close to 200 years old, has little charm, but lots of interest.  Thousands of people worked in them and now they are being turned into offices, condos, and yes, bakeries.  

From there we headed across Massachusetts to the Connecticut River and headed north in to Vermont.  We stopped for lunch at the Putney Co-Op, just north of Brattleboro for a meal that John found organic but rather boring.  Not much of a spice in the organic salami of the Italian sub he had.   We found coffee later in the afternoon at a crossroads named Rawsonville, where Ben learned the history of the barista--she was an equestrienne and horse trainer partnered with an animator.  They lived in New Zealand while he animated parts of the Lords of the Rings trilogy. They gave this up to settle in Vermont with their children to roast coffee and open a coffee shop.  He also continues to do freelance animation.

At last we arrived in Dorset, a lovely, quaint Vermont village with grassy greens, a village center and an old church that had a carillon.  Just a magnificent little place for our friends Joe and Howard to settle in their maison secondaire.  Their home was built in 1860 but completely redone in the 1990s.  It sits on the bank of a stream where waters on one side drain south to the Atlantic and on the north side drain to the St. Lawrence in Canada.  A home on a continental divide.   We enjoyed meals at home from the caterers in Manchester of chicken, various Chinese dim sums, salmon and fresh local asparagus from the farmers market.  We spent very pleasant times discussing food, preparation, locavore eating and organic farming.

We left there on Sunday for Connecticut and a night with John's brother and family and friends at his friend's home at the beach on Long Island Sound.  Much fun and conversation. Then a ride south today.  

All in all a good two weeks!






Next to Oregon after visits from England and then from Australia!