South Western Vermont

When we left Plattsburgh we drove onto the ferry and back to Burlington. We went straight to the Lakeside of Lake Champlain. This is the lake which is second only to the Great Lakes being 24 miles wide and 120 miles long. Burlington has a very attractive lakeside development and we enjoyed strolling along it. A free clipper then took us up to the market area in the central retail area where there was a Saturday farmers market. There wasn't much that we could buy but I did get some fresh fruit to eat on our way. From there we drove South crossing the border into Massachusetts to a small community in the Berkshire Mountains. It was beautiful countryside and our motel looked across the valley  to the forested hillside. Our host recommended the Old Forge restaurant just up the road for dinner and we rocked up at about 7pm to discover it was seething with starving people. It was the only decent restaurant in the neighbourhood and we just squeezed in the door to join the queue. As we didn't want to drive further to find an alternative we waited with the other fairly good humoured customers for the 15-20 minutes we were told to expect before we could have a table. As we got to the head of the queue and I could actually see the seating options I realised that there were very few tables for two. Most of them were for four or more. As the couple behind us seemed pleasant sorts I suggested that it they agreed  we should opt to share a table in the interests of being sooner rather than later. They quickly agreed and as the service was slow due to the crowd we passed the time very pleasantly. They were both motor cyclists though of course he rode a Harley but that provided plenty of conversarion options.
The next morning we set off quite early to explore the area starting with nearby Mount Greylock. The road was quiet and it was a long sloping approach to the top as it is the highest mountain in Massachusetts.  Just before we reached the summit we were flagged down to make sure we didn't skittle a runner. He was a very fit young man and we had just parked the car when he appeared at the finish line. There was a big reception for him and all the successive runners of a very large field. They had come from the opposite aide of the mountain which was over 3,000 feet high and run 8 miles virtually staight up. The front runners were very fit but some of the others who were obviously doing it more as a fun run looked very tired as they finally made it to the finish. On our way down the road they had come up we pased many of them still slogging it out and we were impressed at how they had managed a very steep climb. From there we drove to some of the small towns dotted through the area. We ended up at Bennington Mall where we resisted shopping but both of us did get a much needed hair cut.
When we arrived back at the motel we discovered that we didn't have any water to the room. When I phoned the manager he was very very apologetic but explained that the motel obtained their water from two springs that fill a well. It has not only been hot in that area but they have had a drought. Consequently one of the springs had dried up. They had spent the whole day cleaning the resultant muddy water out of the well and connecting it to the second supply. It took another couple of hours for the well to have sufficient water in it to supply the rooms. As he told us that this water would be highly chlorinated to ensure it was safe we deferred our showers to the morning.
That night we had pizza and salad in our motel room that we had purchased earlier at the Mall.
We didn't fancy tackling the Old Forge again.
Today we set off early because it is the Labor Day holiday and we figured the roads would get busy. It did get busy as the day went on and as it has been the whole time the temperature was up to 90F and very humid.  We drove 420 miles and then called it a day in Erie.