Ira
The visitor whisking along Vermont's highways would conclude that an industry so tied to the soil and to livestock as farming would be 'well-rooted and stabilized.' As a matter of fact, fundamental as farming is, it is fickle...nothing about it is so constant as change.
Charles Edward Crane, “Let Me Show You Vermont”
Last month I navigated a jaunt from Rutland to West Rutland, Castleton, Middleton Springs, Wallingford, and Clarendon (please see previous postings.) This could have been a tidy circular trip if I hadn’t begun it in an erratic manner.Leaving Castleton, where I gave a lecture on my painting at the college, I had to make a quick decision whether to take two-lane local Route 4a east, or the high speed four-lane bypas Route 4. I chose speed, and regretted it immediately. Since our highways don't have many exits, I was forced to keep driving, and driving some more, towards Rutland.
My eyes darted yearningly across the Otter River on my right and Route 4a that runs parallel to it, as though this nondescript thoroughfare was the yellow brick road, and I just had to see up close what wonders lay along it. I was especially intrigued by a large and mysteriously shaped dairy barn that I had driven by many times on my way to the Vermont border., and never taken the time to investigate. Today I had the excuse (this blog) to explore.
So I exited the highway as soon as an off ramp appeared, and backtracked towards Castleton along Route 4a. As I drove along in the late afternoon winter sun, the wisdom of Lesson Number One, as it pertains to touring Vermont, was reaffirmed: To hell with saving time. (Lesson Number Two is buy decent snow tires.)
The dairy farm, which had an amazing curved metal roof (see the painting above) didn't disappoint, and neither did the sad but picturesque tumbledown barn further along the way, or the long blue shadows cast by the overpass as I drove into West Rutland.
I have to admit, I came close to Ira but didn't exactly drive through it, let alone get out and walk the streets of this town named for legendary "Green Mountain Boy" Ira Allen. I'll have some more exploring to do the next time I chose the two, instead of four, lane option.