December 30, 2003
...And Gone Again
From the sunny Jersey shore, we headed due north into the tree-covered mountains of Vermont. We arrived later than anticipated (5:00pm instead of 11:00am) because it's exponentially harder to get a family of four out the door than a family of three, it doesn't matter that the fourth person is 26.
Vermont, in case you've never been, is phenomenally windy and the interstate highway winds around snow-capped mountains which grow steeper as you venture northward. If you find yourself in a tiny little Kia with a temperamental rebuilt transmission staring down into glassy iced lakes and slow-moving rivers, you'll wonder if your car is going to land upside-down or right side up and congratulate yourself on choosing manual windows instead of electric (which would short out when you hit the water).
After four hours of motion sickness (added to twelve from the previous week) I was feeling somewhat giddy as we pulled into Burlington. Dave was getting annoyed with my bleary-eyed questions, "Is it always this dark in Vermont?" "Is KM some kind of weird Vermonter abbreviation for miles-per-hour?" and "What's with all the trees?"
As it turns out, it is always that dark in Vermont. (On Wednesday, a ray of sunshine broke through the otherwise constant cloud cover and everyone gravitated toward a window with open-mouthed awe. "There's fire — in the sky!?") The hotel air conditioner, inexplicably left on full-blast in December, made the room crisp and full of freon, like the inside of a meat locker. I liked it, but the deep-freeze temperature setting was vetoed by the other members of my party.
Next we stopped by Dean for America headquarters for a quick tour. Even at dinnertime during a holiday week, the office was packed with people and roaring with activity. Clay was in the midst of an urgent project, so we left him behind for dinner and shopping. There are perfectly serviceable Best Buy stores in Vermont, so I bought a new digital camera to replace the one that Trevor broke last year.
Dave, Sarah and Trevor's list of vacation activities looks like this:
skiing & sledding
swimming
Ben & Jerry's factory tour
Magic Hat brewery tour
First Night Burlington
Vermont Teddy Bear factory
Mine looks like this:
Dean for America lackey