road trip day 18: vermont

A motel has never felt so luxurious. After rolling out of bed, I was immediately thrilled that I didn't have to squeeze into a closet to go to the bathroom on a plastic bucket. I had the luxury of my own porcelain throne, in a room with a door. I will never take for granted having a bathroom with running water ever again! I proceeded to stand in the hot water for an hour and then I peeled my pruned skin out of the shower and onto the street (well I got dressed in between, but you get the picture). Conveniently, a car rental shop was a block from our motel, so Brian and I picked out the coolest looking car our $30 dollars could afford and we drove our mom-van out of the parking lot and into the wilds of Vermont. We started our drive south from Burlington, stoping at a flannel store in Shelburne, a chocolate shop in Vergennes, and a farm in Shoreham. We were following a route from our guidebook called "Leaf Peeps and Harvest Eats," and it did not disapoint. We gorged our eyes on the fall colors and then filled our stomaches with as much local Vermont food as we could get our hands on. From Shoreham we found ourselves winding East, driving our van through back country roads, crossing covered bridges and peaking at ancient cemeteries. As the miles turned into hours, we were lulled into a serene like state, high on the natural beauty of Vermont. After a while, we had to start north again towards Montpelier, the only US capital without a Mcdonalds (an impressive feat if you ask me). We stopped in Waterbury for a delicious meal at a place whose name I can't remember because it was that good (no, really it was good, we were just too hungry to pay attention to petty little details like names). Bleary eyed and slipping into a food coma, we plopped ourselves back into the van and headed to the glorious motel waiting for our return in Burlington. That night, as I tucked into the real bed and turned the TV on, I prayed that the nugget would be lost to us forever so we could go on living in Vermont.