montpelier is a very nice place

montpelier is so awesome, seriously. it is just a tiny little town tucked away in the middle of the great north woods. i got here yesterday and almost missd it. i was traveling east on route 2 and it was splitting, i was offered to stay on route 2 or take route 2 business, the business option didnt look like much and i figured i was close to montpelier so i stayed on the main route. i quickly realized that i was opted to go around montpelier.

the state building

so i turned around and saw the state building and a very quaint little downtown area. i parked and started walking around. the weather was gorgeous, low 60's and sunny. i walked back to the capitol and took the tour. it has been a long time since i have been in a capitol building, about two months, and gosh i just like taking those tours. the people are usually so full of information about the history of the state. and they generally arent biased to tell the story based on how the government would like it to be remembered, but sometimes you have to pick things out.

after that tour i walked through the downtown area. the first stop i came to was a fiddler sitting on a bridge spanning the winooski river. i sat near him for awhile, reading, when he broke i chatted with him about the town and asked is there was a square dance i could go to. no such luck.

i kept on, in full enjoyment, there are some really nice old buildings here and for how small the downtown is, a ton of bookstores. even a volunteer radical bookstore, called black sheep books. it wasnt opened when i first passed. i did the whole loop, walking slow, stopping frequently to enjoy the world around me or read a few pages of my book. people smiled, one lady thought she knew me and came up and said hi how are you in a way suggesting that we knew each other well. then she realized i was not who she thought. she smiled and wished me a good day.

so nice. i went into all the bookstores (5) and perused looking for some titles that i would like to have with me. eventually black sheep opened and i went in there. i talked with the volunteer for awhile, talking about black rose in portland, sharing struggles of having a volunteer run business. eventually the fiddler came in there as well and we all chatted.

it has been so long since i just had a conversation with someone, and that is really necessary to remember that i am a real person living a real life. it felt great. i wanted them to trade some of my books that i have read and no longer require for some of theirs that i havent read, but they didnt think there was a precedent for book trading and apologizingly declined my offer. i went to the library, where there was a book sale. i bought six books for $3.50. awesome.

my cat friend

then i walked over to the co-op and when i saw it i knew that i had been here before. they have such a nice co-op here. there were at least twenty varieties of apples, all local, for purchase. there were a similar amount of potatoes for sale, again all local. how awesome. i bought some things and continued walking along. i stopped on the train tracks to pet a cat for a few minues. that made me happy. i went and sat downtown and finished reading my book. rain was coming on so i started looking for a place to spend a few hours once darkness and rain came. unfortunately i didnt find a place.

there was one little cafe but it was completely packed and there was a jazz band. i wanted a bit more peace and quiet, so i sat under the eve at city hall and read for an hour, then i went back to the old truck (earlier than i wanted) and watched a movie then slept. i wasnt cold at all throughout the night, and i dont know why. i could see my breath clearly and it was cold out. maybe i had parked in such a way to have the winds broken, but i was pretty warm. i liked that. it rained all night, but when i woke up the rain decided to stop.

my plan for the morning was simple. walk to the visitors center where they offered free coffee (green mountain organic, yum) then to the library to use the internet, then to the farmers market where a historic city tour would be lead by the preservation society. the plan went off pretty well. i stopped into the farmers market to buy a pear and a carrot before starting the tour.

there were only four people on the tour and the guide was a graduate student at the university of vermont, she wasnt very well versed in monteplier history, so it was an adventure. and all of us shared little tidbits that we knew along the way. my tidbit had to do with the capitol dome, because the guide hadnt taken the capitol tour and i did the previous day. i love tours like this though, especially when they are smaller and more personal.

we learned about the architectural history of a number of the buildings and history of vermont and the city of montpelier. towards the end the rain started and we broke. but one interesting point about the tour was the way she ended it. she ended by talking about how the city of montpelier and the preservation society stopped a mcdonalds from setting up shop in the city. i already knew that montpelier was the only capitol city in the country without a mcdonalds, but i was surprised to learn how big of a deal it was at the time and how proud the people of the city are about that fact.

apparently the fight was rather epic and the citizens and city eventually won the fight by citing traffic safety, that the increased traffic at the intersection would create a safety hazard (a tactic we had attempted in the fight against mississippi lofts in north portland). afterwards i went to a local diner that only uses local products, mostly farm fresh. that was nice. i'll stay here another night and then move on to new hampshire. and then maine, my crowning jewel!