Breakfast was at 9:00 in the B and B, but we were up before that and able to do morning devotions and readings on our private back porch in the cool morning air. It was quite wonderful. Breakfast itself was an informal meal in the kitchen, since there were only Mer and I and one other guest in the B and B that morning. Breakfast was a delicious French toast bake. After breakfast, we took our time packing up, and so we did not get on the road until about 11:00. We stuck to our plan of taking a slower but more scenic route through Vermont and New Hampshire, which I think added about two hours onto our day, but was worth it.

We drove the short distance to Vermont. Mer has a theory that Vermont is instantly beautiful when you enter it, and we were coming in on a road that we had never used before. The New York side was very pretty and pleasant, but we turned a corner and entered Vermont and the horizon was instantly filled with a tree-filled mountain and dense forests on either side of the road. It was instantly beautiful, and only as we entered Vermont. Mer’s theory is still correct.

We drove along, taken in by the scenery. We passed a sign for a house museum dedicated to the poet Robert Frost, so I turned around and went back. Sadly, it was closed on Monday. The house had been a house where Frost had lived for a few years, and it was in a very pretty spot. We climbed back in the car and continued on to Bennington, Vermont.

Bennington is known in Vermont as the place where the Bennington Battle Monument is located. The monument commemorates a Revolutionary War battle that took place in Bennington, and the monument is huge, coming in at over three hundred feet. Given that the monument is located on top of a hill, it can be seen for some distance. The monument is a large tower, sort of like the Washington Monument, but with a different stone exterior. Plus, according to a local ranger, the monument is constructed with free-standing blocks of stone that overlap, so that there is no mortar or cement used in the structure. Pretty cool.

Anyway, Mer and I had gone to college in Middlebury, Vermont, so we had been by the monument from time to time, but had never stopped. This time, we stopped, and walked the grounds and went up in the monument itself. Usually, I hate heights, but the observation area has thick walls and very narrow slits for windows, so I was able to stand it for a few minutes before having to head down.

After Bennington, we kept going east through Brattleboro, and we crossed over into New Hampshire. We stopped in the cute (but notso pretty as Vermont) town of Keene, New Hampshire, for a bathroom and bakery break. We then jumped on a New Hampshire highway and took it all the way to the bridge in Kittery, Maine.

We always take the coastal highways – Route 295 up to Brunswick, then onto Route 1. Route 1 is pretty, and takes us right into Rockland, where Mer’s grandfather, Carleton, lives. We got to Carleton’s place about 8:00. We greeted Carelton, unpacked, and then, after a short visit, walked downtown to a local restaurant, where we ate supper on the patio. Our timing was good because we’d just finished supper when the bugs started coming out, so we were able to eat more or less in peace. The evening air was wonderfully cool, and we walked back to the house, where we chatted with Carleton and then went to bed.