Rio Travelers: FALL COLORS AND MORE.

Friday September 18th was the official start of our Adventure Caravans 33 day " Fall Colors and More" caravan in Stowe, Vermont. We kicked off with a barbecue luncheon at the Sunset Grill in Stowe. The next day we were busy as we visited Cabot Cheese Annex as well as an apple cider mill which unfortunately was not producing yet as the apples were not cooperating. We also visited and had a demo by a glass blower. He had some of his training at the Corning Glass Museum which we will visit later in the trip. We then visited the Ben & Jerry's factory. This was the first factory after they moved from their founding location in Burlington. Although the company is now owned by Unilever, they are still on the BOD and remain actively involved.

We then had a bus trip to Montpelier, Vermont the capitol, visited the State House and a maple syrup sugar house. Also drove through a cemetery with some unusual headstones obviously created by skilled stone sculptures. The final stop was a visit to the Rock of Ages granite quarry. This was very interesting. This quarry primarily produces stone for headstones, but has various quarries around the country and world.

During some free time we also took a drive through Smugglers Notch, visited Trapp Family lodge where we ran into Mike and Jill from our Mardi Gras rally. You never no when or who you will run into. It is a small world. We also spotted one of the numerous Vermont covered bridges and an old defunct grist mill.