Day 3 Fall Foliage trip 2017
Today we started earlier. Luggage needed to be available to be loaded in the trailer at 7:15,
We had another excellent breakfast at 7:30am. After a short discussion of the changes in the route because of construction – we headed out for Vergennes where we are having lunch on our own.
On our way we stopped by a huge waterfall and took pictures in an oversized chair.
At 9:30 we stopped at a horse farm run by the University of Vermont for Morgan horses. We had a tour of the grounds and an education in how versatile Morgan Horses are and how they got started.
Some of the roads we rode today we also rode on on Sunday on our first day. But they looked different going the other way. There were some stunning vistas looking west towards Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks in New York.
I broke a chain about 10 miles from lunch and Leigh and Barb fixed it up quickly at Lunch time. We had lunch at the Three Squares Restaurant in Vergennes and then we were ready for our afternoon ride.
3 of us took a longer route and ended up doing about 43 miles. Others took a shorter route and ended up with just over 30 miles. As part of the afternoon delights we all stopped at an apple orchard and sampled some apple cider doughnuts and some had some apples and others had fresh squeezed apple juice. We also got to see the way they pressed the apples for cider – it was a technique I had never seen before. They ran the apples through a blender or something that created an apple mash and then wrapped it in a cloth wrapper with multiple levels and then squeezed that. After they were done squeezing the remaining pulp was very dry. They said they used the pulp for compost.
The Inn at Shelburne Farms is about 1000 acres of land next to Lake Champlain with views of the Adirondacks. It was originally created by the Vanderbilt’s and was eventually donated to the State of VT and is now an educational non-profit. We got a tour and talk of some of the history and longer term plans for the property.
We had another wonderful dinner in a private dinning room in the mansion.
We all have rooms in the “Big” house some with views of the lake. It is a very memorable location.
The sunset view from the house was stunning.
Tomorrow we have modified the route some what so will report tomorrow what we actually do. Some people are staying later and touring more of the grounds and then driving to join the rest of the group at lunch. We will all ride for a while and then sag to Stow Mountain Resort
Stay tuned!