It's a 1 festival, 2 national historic sites, 1 state park and 11 covered bridges kind of day

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 10, 2022

We could have easily stayed in this part of western New Hampshire/eastern Vermont for a week! But we're on a bit of a tight schedule. Besides, we couldn't find a good campground or Boondockers Welcome in this area. So we made an 82-mile loop drive that took us to some great sites in the area all in one day. Beware: this fast sight-seeing is not recommended for the faint of heart. So we're going to zip right through most of our stops with little narrative. We spent the night before in the Walmart parking lot in Lebanon, New Hampshire. We left the motor home parked at Walmart while we drove the pickup to Blow-me-down Covered Bridge, about ten miles away. This is #23 on New Hampshire's list of bridges, but our first (of many) for the day.

Covered bridges are the inland version of lighthouses for us. They take us down little narrow roads to see places we would never get to see without the destination of a bridge.

Three miles later we arrived at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. They open at 9:00, and we arrived at 8:50. We watched the film and learned that Augustus Saint-Gaudens has sculpted some of the most famous brass sculptures in America. 

Born in Ireland and trained in Europe, Saint-Gaudens emigrated to the United States. He was commissioned to create these larger-than-life sculptures, that retained some incredible details.

The Admiral Farragut sculpture was his first big commission piece. The original can be seen in Madison Square Park in New York City. It is his most important piece personally. When he received the money for its completion, his beloved's father gave his blessings for their marriage since it appeared that this artist could really support his daughter.

Besides super-sized sculptures, he also designed tiny coins. He made the prototypes for the twenty dollar gold coin that was minted in the United States from 1907 to 1933.

The sculpture of Diana was made for the top of the tower at Madison Square Garden. The 18-foot version of this statue made the new building the tallest in New York City at the time--just 13 feet taller than the second highest. Mark is censoring the Diana sculpture, to keep the blog's G-rating.

This site continues to be a place for art in progress. The national historic site hosts "artists-in-residence" that work on projects while visitors watch. This artist is re-creating the detailed paintings on a sled, carefully matching colors and styles from the 1800s.

We also took the first house tour of the day. This is where the artist and his wife lived in the summers starting in 1885.

The furnishings reflected their travels around the world. They hosted many gatherings here, as the area around Cornish, New Hampshire, became known as the Cornish Art Colony.

It was here that Saint-Gaudens would  come to live his final years, dying here in 1907.

As we left the national historic site, we had to stop to take a picture of the largest honey locust tree in the United States right outside the house. We love pictures of big trees!

#2 Covered Bridge - Blacksmith Shop Bridge 

This bridge was down an over-grown path with a sign that warned "enter at your own risk." This would be our only bridge of the day that was no longer open to vehicle traffic.

But since we didn't have to worry about cars, we could take our time enjoying the inside of this bridge.

#3 Covered Bridge - Dingleton Hill Bridge

#4 Covered Bridge - The Cornish-Windsor Bridge

Built in 1896, this bridge is the longest wooden bridge in the United States. It used to be a toll bridge, but is now free to cross. Spanning the Connecticut River, this is the border between New Hampshire and Vermont.

As we drove the pickup across, we tried to go walking speed to avoid the two dollar fine.

Just like that, we were in the new state of Vermont. But we were still counting bridges!

#5 Covered Bridge - Bowers Bridge

#6 Covered Bridge - Best Bridge

We're not sure how this bridge was named, but we're not sure it is actually the best bridge in Vermont.

It would obviously be faster to stay on the highway, but just imagine all the bridge sightings we would miss. Most of these bridges only carry one lane of traffic, and the gravel roads in this part of Vermont are only one lane wide as well.

#7 Covered Bridge - Downer (Upper Falls) Bridge

After driving through the bridge, we parked and walked down to the creek below. This bridge was made famous from its role in the Chevy Chase movie, "Funny Farm."

We see that the maple trees beside the water are still connected with the plastic tubing from gathering last spring's sap.

While we still haven't seen a moose in our tour of New England, we can tell you that the wild turkey population seems to be doing well. These tom turkeys are all puffed up, and strutting their tail feathers.

It's interesting that the hens are looking the other way, completely ignoring their advances.

We are always looking for local festivals, and we stopped in at the Vermont Golden Honey Festival in Proctorsville. We watched a hive of bees and bought some honey from the local bee keepers.

The food trucks at the festival seemed like a good place to eat lunch since it was now noon. We had a couple slices of a apple, cheese, and honey pizza.

Now that we've made our one festival stop, we were driving through other little villages. We really enjoyed some fun architecture and New England charm this day.

#8 Covered Bridge - Lincoln Bridge

#9 Covered Bridge - Middle Bridge (in the town of Woodstock, Vermont)

This is a newer covered bridge with a separate walkway for pedestrians. It's in the center of Woodstock, Vermont, and makes for a picturesque setting for downtown.

As we started to drive over the bridge, we found that we were photo-bombing a wedding photo. We could see the entire wedding party silhouetted at the end of Middle Bridge.

#2 National Historic Site - Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Site

This is a confusing site, with a confusing name. It was named after the three families that lived in the house on this property.

The last family was Mary and Laurance Rockefeller, and the house was left as it was furnished when they donated it to the national park service.

This is the only property of the national park service that focuses on the history of conservation of land. It was always owned by rich caretakers who could afford to use the latest dairy farming practices, and could also preserve the trees of the surrounding forest. Walking trails are available through the woods, but we are on a tight schedule today. The confusing part of this stop is that we parked at the Billings Farm parking lot, which includes the dairy farm. But it would cost $17 per person to see the farm, while the adjacent national park property is free to tour. On our limited time and money budget, we opted only for the free section with its interesting fall flower gardens.

#10 Covered Bridge - Taftsville Bridge

It made an interesting red reflection on the Otttauqueechee River.

#11 Covered Bridge - Queechee Bridge

If you look carefully, you can see a person standing on a cement platform under the bridge. People were jumping off that platform into the Queechee River far below.

It was an interesting stop at Queechee Park, where we could see the falls when we looked the other direction.

#1 State Park - Queechee Gorge State Park

Because it was on the list as the prettiest place in Vermont, we just had to stop at this park. We made the quarter-mile walk to the bridge, high over the gorge carved by the Queechee River. We have wandered into more of God's wonders! Again, we could have taken the half-mile steep trail down to the river, but it was already 3:30.

We could have taken several days making this drive through some of the most beautiful parts of western New Hampshire and eastern Vermont. It seems like we have been hurrying past nice hikes all day. But the motor home is still parked at Walmart, and we still have to make the drive to our camping spot for tonight. So we drove the pickup back to Lebanon, New Jersey to finish our loop. We have wandered into many of God's wonders today! It was a one festival, two national historic sites, one state park, and eleven covered bridges kind of day!