Montpelier

This morning we took our time getting moving, we decided that today we would just take it easy - don't get me wrong we had a lot we wanted to do but we weren't going to worry about it if everything didn't get done. Around 8:00am we went down for breakfast and decided what we wanted to do first. After some coffee and food we headed out. Most of our day was going to be spent in Montpelier and we had things to do in Barre and Waterbury if time permited. First thing we did was visit two parks very close to each other to find a few letterboxes. In the first park (North Branch) we found one box on a little trail - it was quick and easy. Then we moved on to the second park (Hubbard) where we found three boxes - which were also quick and easy. At this park we took some time and visited Hubbard Park Tower. We climbed the 50 or so stairs to the top and had some great views of the surrounding area. From these park we headed to Green Mount Cemetery. This was a beautiful cemetery - full of hills and great headstones. Blessings of Joy placed a series of letterboxes here called Makin' Memories Cemetery Adventure Series. We spent a good hour and a half following her clues as she took us on a tour of the cemetery while we found letterboxes. I thoroughly enjoyed this little adventure.

After our little cemetery adventure we decided to drive the short distance to Barre. As we arrived in Barre we decided to grab some lunch, we ate at a local diner and just relaxed. After eating we headed to Rock of Ages. This is a granite quarry. We went to the Visitor's Center and found out what they had to offer. They did guided tours of the quarry and then there was a self guided tour of the Manufacturing Plant. We first went on the guided tour. A bus took us to the quarry and the guide told us some history of the place. This year they are celebrating their 125th year. The quarry we visited is about 600 feet deep and I don't remember how wide it is - but it was huge. Someone on the tour asked the guide if they would run out of granite anytime soon. He said studies have been done using sound waves and that the granite is 2 miles wide, 5 miles long and 10 miles deep - they can continue to mine the granite for about another 4500 years. One block of granite (and I can't remember the size - something like 5' x 5' x 40') takes six weeks to remove from the quarry. It was an amazing tour. After the bus returned to the Visitor's Center we walked to the Manufacturing Plant and watched them work on different pieces - mostly headstones and then went to see the granite bowling alley (at sometime they were asked to create these but it never really took off - they have the prototype outside the Plant). We bowled a couple of balls each (rubber bowling balls and plastic pins) and had a good laugh. There was also a letterbox hidden on the grounds so before leaving we searched and found the box. After stamping in we headed to Hope Cemetery in Barre where they have these incredible headstones. It is such an unusual place it is even on Roadside America. It is more like an outdoor museum for granite artwork than a cemetery - we really enjoyed driving around this place.

Now it was time to head back to Montpelier, we decided not to go to Waterbury. Once back Thomas went to the hotel and read for a while and I walked around and took pictures and found a letterbox hidden in town. It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed taking pictures and sightseeing. After this we decided to head to a bike trail to find a series of letterboxes. The trail wasn't very long, we may have walked about a mile and a half to two miles round trip. We found three out of five boxes - one said it was unavailable and the other one was hidden in a spot I didn't want to go to so we opted to just not look for it. We returned to the hotel and had a quick dinner in the hotel's restaurant and then returned to the room to get things ready for our drive back to New Hampshire tomorrow. All in all it was a great day.