santamonica

I know this is a somewhat suggestive title and a little misleading. I drove up yesterday to pick up DS#2 from college. Tomorrow we drive home. Quick trip.

Staying at Sugarland Motel. $69 but no new towels or room makeover the second day. Pine paneling, bottle opener on bathroom doorframe. Big ugly lamp on the table between the beds. if the room had kitchen appliances they would be harvest gold. I love this place.

I just retired and DW still works. So this trip was mine.

I brought up an old metal canoe we dont use any more (since we got kayaks) on the roof of our van as a present for a nice couple who run a B&B. I wanted to clean the canoe because it had gotten all moldy. So I went to Shaws Supermarket and bought tilex and McDonalds and bought an egg McMuffin and one of those hash brown fry thingies. Quite tasty (not the tylex). Cleaned canoe. Tilex did not seem to damage van.

Visited Sheldon History Museum in Middlebury. they had an interesting exhibit on milk. Making butter, delivering milk (remember getting milk delivered?). Then I drove to Inn on the Creek. Carried canoe to creek for testing. No leaks. Will stay at inn later in summer when DS comes back to work in library.

Walked through park next to inn which has a pretty boardwalk through marsh. Decided to drive to Fort Ticanderoga, which involves a six minute ferry over a narrow part of Lake Champlain. Did so. Fort Ticonderoga closed but I got bike out of van (honestly, having a bike in your van for this kind of emergency is just too cool) and slipped around the gate and rode the bike to the fort, which was deserted except for some workers doing repairs. Nobody cared about me wandering around. Fort Ticanderoga is very pretty and changed hands a number of times amongst the French, Bitish, and United Statisians. This is something fun to do if you're in Middlebury.

Then I ate some apple and cheese from Shaws. You gotta have fiber when you travel. You can get plastic bags at the grocery here for free which is quite nice but surprising as Environmentalism is Serious Serious up here. They don't like pipelines, for example.

Then a visit to the middlebury college art center. Great exhibit on quarries (Burtynsky) and an exquisite building.

Tonight we go to Bobcat Cafe in Bristol and tomorrow we put all DS's stuff in the van and drive home.

It's been a nice quickie visit.

yestravel

There is nothing like a quickie...
Sounds like you are managing to keep yourself busy and being very productive in your retirement.

emalloy

santamonica , I LOVE your description of the Sugarland Motel, sounds like some of the places DH thinks we should stay at, and for $69, I'm in.

Ft. Ticonderoga is really interesting and in season you can go inside and see some of the artifacts from the area.

Thanks for the report and I hope you have a safe ride home.

gardendiva

Sounds like fun. Your description of the Sugarland Motel reminded me of the Ramada near Kingston, Ontario that we stayed in last fall on our way to Vermont. It looked like it had popped right out of the 1950's.

santamonica

Here are some productive links (I couldn't find links to the Sugarland Motel, but it's on rt 7 north just outside of town, across from a cool used book store):

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
http://www.onthecreekbedandbreakfast.com/
http://www.fortticonderoga.org/mobile/
http://museum.middlebury.edu/

Ackislander

Love motels like that, and they are still common in New England and Upstate NY where short season preclude expensive renovations.

HappyTrvlr

A meal at the A&W on Rt.7 would have fit perfectly with your motel room's era.

santamonica

Interesting explanation for legacy motels in New England. We'll try the A&W stand next time.

bm

Its called the Sugar House Motel (not Sugarland) which is why you couldn't find it on the web

Here it is: http://sugarhousemotel.com/

dfrostnh

What fun. I think we may have stayed here around 1996. Will have to investigate the cool used book store if we get over that way. It's too early for swimming but the local swimming hole outside Bristol is the river with a pretty little waterfall. We picnicked there to watch the kids jumping off the ledges.

You did a lot in a short amount of time!

easytraveler

Glad you didn't drink the Tylex. It doesn't go well with egg McMuffin.

Thanks for your quickie trip report! I love that part of the country, used to do some hiking there. There are all kinds of shortie hiking trails around Middlebury.

Next time, when you have more leisure, try driving all the way around Lake Champlain to the Fort.

santamonica

Oh, Sugar House Motel. Boy, the website brings the memories back like it all happened just last week. A real blast from the past. Next visit, hiking trails and the swimming hole near Bristol.

starrs

I did a double-take when I read this -
(I couldn't find links to the Sugarland Motel, but it's on rt 7 north just outside of town, across from a cool used book store)

Your description of the hotel reminded me of a place that we stayed in years ago...and it's was just outside of town, north side, across from a cool used book store.

I had to stop and think to confirm it was the Maine trip (and not VT).

Take a look -
http://www.tallwoodmotel.com/rooms.html

Close, huh?
North of Wells, Maine on Route 9, across from Douglas Harding's bookstore

(where I bought books from May Sarton's personal library a couple of weeks after she died)
http://www.amazon.com/The-House-Sea-.../dp/0393313905

TDudette

Glad to read that you are keeping busy, santa! And not drinking tilex...