This morning I drove to the nearby town of Barre, the location of ‘Rock of Ages‘: a massive granite quarry. As the granite is taken out of the mine in huge blocks, the quarry wall looks like a blocks box. The granite mined at the quarry was mainly used for tombstones and memorials, and they also produced precission cut blocks for measuring equipment (for example at NASA).

Me and a dozen elderly people (probably gathering ideas for their near future?) were driven to the Quarry in an old schoolbus

The men working in the quarry are hauled up in cranes. I’m not entirely sure what the purpose is of the ladders, but I would assume for emergency purposes.

On top of the quarry is the Rock of Ages’ granite factory, which basically is a massive headstone factory as their core bussiness is headstones and mausoleums. But they also produce granite surface plates for precision equipment (their largest is in use by NASA) and granite press rolls for the paper industry.

From Barre I drove to Waterbury, the location of the Ben & Jerry factory. In 1977, lifelong, ex-hippie friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from the Pennsylvania State University. On May 5, 1978, with a $12,000 investment the pair opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont. The parlor quickly became popular in the local community because of their innovative flavors, made from fresh Vermont milk and cream and “large portions of whatever ingredients they felt tasted good on the day of making!”. In 1979, they marked their anniversary by holding the first-ever free cone day, now a nationwide annual celebration. They combined ice cream making with social activism.

And… we got to try some Triple Caramel Chunk at the end of the tour In 2000 Unilever aquired Ben & Jerry’s on the same day they also bought Slim-fast, so calory wise that evens out very well

After Ben & Jerry’s I drove to Burlington to find a motel. Unfortunately due to a car show in town the prices went sky high, so I skipped Burlington to search for a cheaper motel. Making some photographs along the way.

I finally stayed at a nice motel in Middlebury.

After having spent the night in a Motel in New Hampshire, I crossed the border en route to Burlington. As short drive into Vermont I encountered Maple Grove Farms factory and for a dollar you can do a guided tour.

Maple Grove Farm originates from 1915 and began as a cottage industry by two local women, Helen Gray and Ethel McLaren, who made maple candy using pure maple syrup and cream that were produced on their farm. Today, we have grown into one of the largest packers of pure maple syrup and a top specialty salad dressing brand in the US. And they still make and hand pack the maple candies (below).

I was actually expecting to see the processing of maple sap into maple syrup, but apparantly the syrup is being produced at the maple farms in the area (vermont, canada, etc). What I did not know was that harvesting the maple sap is a purely seasonal bussiness. As the maple tree begins its new growth each spring, the sap which stays frozen during winter, begins to thaw. Once the sap starts to flow within the trunk of the tree, usually in February or March, the owner of the “sugarbush” (grove of sugar maple trees) can capture the sap.

After the sap is collected, it is boiled in a sugarhouse. Sap is highly perishable and must be boiled at once to make fine syrup. The sap is heated in an “evaporator”, which causes large amounts of water to be driven off as steam, leaving syrup. Most evaporators consist of a long firebox (known as the arch) for a wood fire or an oil burner underneath and have shallow, partitioned pans above the heat.

It is this boiling process that produces the great maple flavor. Just the right amount of cooking time is crucial! Too much cooking will cause the sugars to start to caramelize, the syrup will darken and a lower-grade syrup is produced; or even worse, it can boil over and scorch, ruining the entire batch!

Maple syrup is graded into 3 categories and grade A is the best syrup. Biochemically, real maple syrup is mostly sucrose, with a small portion of glucose and fructose. A tablespoon of maple syrup contains 50 calories, 29 grams of carbohydrates, a negligible amount of sodium and no protein, fat, or cholesterol.

Outside the maple factory I had a chat with a fiddler who regularly visited Belgium. He advised me to drive around on the dirt roads as there was a lot of nice scenery to see. And he gave me some ideas of what to see and do in Vermont.

I stayed for the night in Berlin, which is just outside Montpelier, the small capital of Vermont.

A couple of days ago I ordered an Adidas Duffel Bag with footlocker (such an annoying chain of sports stores), the shop I swore never to buy anything from. But I really need a Duffel Bag because my things don’t fit in my backpack anymore, and they were the only one to sell a classic Adidas bag for a mere $ 25,-. So I sold my soul to Satan and ordered the red (a bit feminine color but the other colors were sold out) duffel bag with them. Today I got the shipping notifaction that it was on it’s way to Colin & Amy. Just in time

At least I can bring my stuff with me (British Air allows 2 checked bags of 23 kg on flights from the US to Europe) and I have a bag I can use for short trips… or sports….

This morning I did some more celebrity tourism as I went to see Stephen King’s house on 47 W Broadway in Bangor. Lonely Planet said it was on Broadway, which is a totally different street, so it took me some time to find it Add the location to your TomTom:

And the house of a best seller horror novelist isn’t complete without a spiderweb gate with bats on top

Quite a big house, I wonder where his study is… I guess the house holds a large library:

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I wonder what story he is working on now?

More pumpkins…

Camden Port

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde, Maine

Yesterday the weather was not that great, all cloudy and rainy, so I spent more of the time in the car driving to Lubec. The Easternmost town in the USA. After having spent the night the day started really foggy.

Every 20 seconds the fog horn sounded. Too bad it wasn’t clear weather though.

Driving down the coastal route the weather finally cleared up a bit. The coast is really rugged and covered with islands, landtongs, harbors and many old fishertowns. And you may encounter some abondoned old rotten fishing trawlers

On the way I suddenly spotted a fox on the road. When I stopped it hid in the shrubbery so I turned off my engine and stayed quiet. After a while it showed itself again and, as soon as it heard my shutter click, it ran off again onto a dirt road. It didn’t seem that scared as it didn’t ran off very far, so I started my car and followed him. As the wind was in my favour, I could sneak up on him and take a good shot of about 3 meters away (clickable). Really cool to see the fox up close!

It’s pumpkin season again, so you see a lot of pumpkin stands next to the road and as decoration on houses and fences. Makes me want to make some pumpkin soup

Tremont Wharf, another nice lobster fisherman port.

Port in a storm bookstore, Portside, Bernard (Maine).

The bookstore was covered in colorful wooden buoys.

Other than passing the town with one of the most rediculous names I have ever heard (Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha! and I am not joking!) I really do not have much to say for today as I have spent all day in the car, driving to the North East to New Brunswick. I am now in a Motel in Saint Leonard and on the other side of the border, in Maine, is a town called Van Buren. Must be of Dutch origin