New England revisited (I)

July 13-20th, 2006

This summer has been successful for us. George got his dissertation well written and defended on July 14th. Several days later, while at Vermont Academy, in Saxtons River, for a science conference, I was notified that my green card application was finally approved. Both happened in just one week - like people say "when it rains, it pours".

Vermont was surprisingly hot in July. We stayed in a room with no AC, no private bathroom, no telephone, no TV, no cell phone signal and no full-size bed. Only a fan was running all the time. Although quite different, it was not bad at all. No matter what, it is New England!

Early afternoon was free for conference attendees. We took a few trips to swim in West River, Saxtons River and Spofford Lake where George used to swim when he studied in NH. On Saturday night we took a drive along Route 5 to look for a gay club George visited a long time ago to the north of Brattleboro. It was not there anymore, instead, we found it has been remodeled and now is a country club. We stayed for few hours listening to a local band playing. I found it quite interesting in that it did not look too much different from a gay club, except that people there really didn't know how to dance!

There are many historic towns around that area. East of Saxtons River is a small town called Bellows Falls. Unable to find any bars in Saxtons River, we discovered a Cafe at Bellows Falls on late Tuesday night. In the Cafe, there were only a rude mid-western looking guy and a weird lady, who apparently were drinking too much. We didn't stay long. The Long Trail draft is good, I must say.

West of Saxtons River is a very old town Grafton. We took a few hiking trails - the beautiful New England hiking trails! We didn't forget, however, to buy some famous Grafton 4-year chedar cheese. Very yummy!

Covered bridge at town of Grafton