I had a great “as the crow flies” drive through Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut the other day and I thought I’d share some of the photos here. 

No, there are no scenic pictures.  If I had stopped to snap a photo of all the scenic views I’d still be there.  Scenic is a given in the northeast when you live in Florida.  That’s what makes an “as the crow flies” trip such a delight.

There’s not really an “as the crow flies” setting on my GPS.  It’s called “Shortest Distance.”  The other setting is “Fastest Time.”

My trip last weekend is a good example of both.  I was headed, with granddaughter Margeaux, to remote Chittenden Brook Campsite in the Green Mountains of central Vermont near Rochester. Whatever bug she had that kept her from traveling up with her family the day before was clearing up and I was delivering her there for the remainder of a family camping weekend.  I hung around for lunch and dinner and stayed overnight—in a hotel!

The trip up from Hartford was a rocket run. With the GPS on “Fastest Time” we followed I-91 and I-89 and made it in three hours flat.  The ride back to Connecticut the following day was on the “Shortest Distance” setting and took me seven hours, including a leisurely lunch stop, lots of dirt roads, and NO four-lane highways.

Even on the “Shortest Distance” setting my GPS tries to keep me on wide, paved roads with lines down the middle, but I often ignore the directions and turn onto upaved or narrower byways.  It soon catches on and will adjust the route accordingly.  I always know I am headed in sort of the right direction and the ETA light always lets me know when I can expect to get there.  It’s all part of the fun.

That and the stuff you see along the way:

This guy’s been on the road for a long time.  He reminded me of that farmer I spotted five years ago in Rhode Island, so I’ve tossed in a photo of him too.

This Memorial Day Parade in Dover, Vermont, slowed me down a bit.  Fortunately there was a parking spot right up close so I didn’t have to walk far to get to it.  There was a color guard and marching band up front, followed by a pickup truck with a bubble machine, a jeep with some local dignitaries and a line of fire engines. 

Offbeat road signs always attract me.  Don’t know what a popple is, but I want to avoid any and all dungeons.  I think I traveled all of Wade Inn Road and saw neither a swimming hole nor a hotel.  Popple, by the way, is an old Northeastern and Midwestern term for poplar trees and also trees and bushes in general.  Dungeon of course, refers to dank and dark.  And out of it we get a name for a road heavily covered in trees and bushes, sort of a tunnel, as this passage probably was at one time long ago.

When you have a house overlooking a nice valley you want to take advantage of the view, as this one certainly does, with its weird assortment of decks and balconies:

And finally, a couple of my favorites: old gas stations.  One of them is now a pot shop in Rutland, Vermont, and what’s left of the other is along Windham Road outside Wilmington, Vermont.  I’ve added these to my collection of course.