Vermont in November

[soid]

 In November, Vermont smells burnt wood. The entire state; wherever we went, there was this nice smoky smell. People burn chimneys, those look romantic; not sure how much they help warming up the houses. Real chimneys calm down and relax, in a way. I'm still not sure how much modern chimneys heat up the houses. Now, at home, my clothes, my backpack all smell burnt wood. What else about Vermont? 

We went in a group of four – that is a challenging group size for my often-just-solo-standards. Driving 4 hours, New York to Plymouth, VT. Like, we stopped for a dinner at TGI Fridays – that was a mistake, surely. There was this sense that each other, separately, we could find something nicer than what we've got: we got this shitty TGI Fridays, but that was the compromise that we found. It was late after 10pm, and finding something good open was not easy. 

The next morning, I was the last to wake up, around 10:30am. B cooked me an egg, we sat and talked and drank coffee and ate snacks, and planned the day, and took pictures around our wooden house – AirBNB. We went to Killington for a hike in the afternoon. I've seen the ski lifts, but no snow yet. I almost went there in March 2020, and then I got an email saying there was the rumor of the virus, but the trip was on track, no worries. Then less than a day before the trip, I got the email saying everything was canceled; so I never went to Killington for snowboarding. Anyway, this time we went hiking to a trail with a waterfall in the end. It was pretty easy. I did not even get bored with hiking.

Then we went back to our gorgeous wooden house, cooked hotpot, had food and conversations. I wonder how many people travel in American countryside with their own hotpot, like us. The nearest hotpot was in Boston, hours away, according to Google. 

The house was the best part of the trip. Two floors, patio, bon fire, so many things to do in there. Thinking retrospectively, why did we even bother to leave the house? I don't know; we went to Woodstock – that felt like a tourist trap, but fine. A small town along the road with bougie arts & crafts stores, gladly no chain stores. The art gallery was of the type "look at all this beautiful nature and the house, and the sky," and all heavily photoshopped, printed and framed for someone who had never seen good art. Nah. Staying in our house proved to be better time spending.

In the house I figured out the fireplace. There were two knobs: one called the damper, another called the draft. The draft controlled the air flow which in turn controlled how fast the fire burned. I didn't figure out what the damper was for. The fire looked great in the living room, and the smoky wood smell felt comforting. I had doubts about the actual heat that we got from it, but who knows.

Another night we watched a movie – Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children – by Tim Burton. I got bored with that. Another night – boardgames: Ticket to Ride, and Uno. Ticket to Ride took almost three hours for four of us; that felt too long. Uno seemed easier. The rule to say "uno" when you have the last card was quite irritating though, but it is part of the fun to irritate your friends. Cheryl brought some video games on Nintendo Switch to play together, but we didn't get to those, unfortunately. I like learning what video games other people play.

Overall, I feel happy after getting away from the city and spending some time with friends in a big house cooking, playing games, hiking and watching movies.

Somehow, pictures look nicer than real life indeed.

So funny to see Vermontians shopping for hiking shoes and stuff.

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

I liked your style.

[soid]

Thanks! :)