Vermont - Day 21 - Rutland

Country Village Campground, Leicester
Thursday, 21 June 2018
First Day of Summer

today's route

The meteorologist this morning said, "This is the longest day of the year - sort of - they always have 24 hours."  He went on to say that daylight today would last 15 hours and 33 minutes, and it's 183 days until winter.  That last really brightened the day for the Vermonters who think this last winter lasted too long.

Dexter's appointment was at 11:30 and I went by the vet's office early to take them his records - they sensibly wanted to know who they were dealing with before they took my word for it what kind of drugs they should be shooting into him.

The office is down a side street, about 5 blocks from downtown, in what looks like the original part of town.  Some houses are old and run-down, some have been knocked down with new fancy ones built instead, and some have been carefully maintained or refurbished.  Across the street from the office is the local baseball field with multiple signs saying no dogs allowed - I guess not everybody picks up after their dogs and the Little Leaguers didn't like stepping in it.  But there're sidewalks around the neighborhood so the dogs and I had a nice walk.

The vet wanted to do a preliminary exam of Dexter to be sure he's still in good health and my Austin vet's office knows well he doesn't care much for that sort of thing.  He's been known to growl and snap - just a warning, but an effective one.  The vet's been known to bribe him with treats.  He thought he'd do the same thing here and they were ready for him without me telling them - I guess they've seen this sort of thing before.  Dexter loves food in any form and he was pretty friendly by the time the shot was done with.

By then I had to find a place to park where we could eat lunch - Jasper being quite insistent that it was past time for food.

I didn't much want to go back to last night's campground.  Although they'd mowed all that tall grass this morning I didn't really warm up to all that non-tree/shrub expanse.  When I first got to Vermont, I found a publication called "Vermont Campground Guide" - the 2017 version but it's been working.  It lists all the public and private campgrounds in the state with a map showing about where they are.  It's been very useful, and it was useful again today.  I found a campground about 30-40 miles north of Rutland that charged the same as last night, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Of course, it takes about an hour to drive that distance, even though the road is technically a US highway - Route 7 - it runs from Bennington in the south all the way to the Canadian border and I'd already made its acquaintance when I was touring the Lake Champlain area.  It's a 2-lane road the whole way - usually with decent shoulders, though - but it curves quite a bit and runs through most of the small towns along the way, so it's slow going.

As I went north to the campground, I found some serious roadwork going on in the middle of Brandon - 2 different bits of 1-lane road - which made the drive even longer.  By the time I got there, I was glad I hadn't stopped anywhere for some sightseeing on the way.

This campground is much nicer.  Lots of trees and bushes to divide up the areas, and I'm in a section that doesn't have anybody else in mid-week.  Lots of places for the dogs to walk so it's good.