Experiencing a change in climate, landscape, way of life and mode of travel, I crisscrossed the corn fields of Vermont to end up in the aptly called Lazy LIons Campground in the midst of nowhere, met some great guys there, learned to eat S'mores and found out where custom granite tombstones are made in a place aptly called "Forever".
Vermont Apples and Japanese Sushi
Just Another Vermont Day
Camp’s office with beautiful gardening around it.
The Wi-Fi corner. Grand Isle Campground
Hacket Orchard and Hana’s Sushi – a Vermont day
Car Troubles and Japanese Sushi
Well, this was the day I decided to take off from nature wonderings and spend some time on my computer to figure out how to deal with the car insurance.
Right next to the park’s office was an outdoor table with a set of plugs connected to an extension cord and with wi-fi accesibility. As can be seen, I and several other ladies had a great time sitting around this table, chatting and working. To make things even better, one of them was a lawyer. She helped me figure out how to proceed with the necessary paperwork for the card insurance company. They encouraged me to take pictures of the damage from several angles.
The bottom line at the time seemed to be that I needed first of all to deal directly with Hertz to get the basic incident report, and then to simultaneously call or write the insurance company. I decided to go to the nearest Hertz place in Burlington. The lawyer recommended going to the airport branch to do it. She thought it would be less crowded, and indeed, it was very reasonable. I drove there, got the form signed, still not understanding whether I needed at any point to actually fix the car or not. The only thing I was asked to do was to fill forms and papers. [Little did I know then that in the end, after I got all the necessary forms and documents, Hertz would forego filing the demand altogether…].
The saving grace for this outing, spent on beurocracy, was the Hana Japanese restaurant. I asked dear GPS lady to find me a Japanese place near the airport. She obliged and led me to one of the best culinary experiences I had on the trip. I got a great lunchbox complete with shrimp tempura, a small roll, great salad, miso soup and a watermelon desert. Atmosphere was nice as well as service.
At Hana Japanese Restaurant, Burlington, VT
Going Native in Vermont
To be totally Vermont “authentic”, I decided to find the apple-picking opportunities I heard existed on the islands. When I got back from my city venture, I therefore headed towards the Hacket Orchard and Farm on South Hero. It was a crowded place – the store and orchard were full, there was a playground for families, and a very nice lady explained how to pick the apples. I told her I picked apples for work on a Kibbutz, but the truth is she taught me something new – you had to swivel the apple around its little stem to cause as little future damage as possible to the tree… Well, live and learn. In Israel, we just picked the apples and put them in baskets hung around our shoulders. The main concern was to not throw or bang the fruit to prevent bruising.
Visitors were sent to specific marked rows (orange ribbons) in the Hacket Orchard, but were not allowed to pick from others. The apples were of the semi sour Mackintosh variety. Earlier on the way to Burlington, I stopped at a local grocery and got me two Mackintosh apples for a dollar. Here I could fill up a basket for 5$…
It was great fun. There was an East Indian couple picking apples with sari and all. We laughed together and took each other’s pictures. Finally Vermont is standing up to its apple-y reputation. I also got me some maple syrup that I took back to Israel.
Hacket Farm, South Hero
In total contrast, the next day was all about forests and nature walks.
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