Morgan Horse Farm

We had breakfast at 8:30 in Kay's dining room. As always, she set out a hearty and varied meal, but I limited myself to oatmeal, fruit and café con leche. Dining with us were some Aztec dancers, in town for the pow-wow.

We had picked up some brochures the previous day about a Morgan horse farm, and decided to go check it out. Kay warned us that it was pretty far away, but gave us a map and recommended a route anyway. It did indeed take awhile to get to the farm, not including our stop at the New England Maple Museum to use the restroom and buy a few maple products for friends.

Finally, we arrived in Weybridge and found our way to the UVM Morgan Horse Farm. What fun! The horses were beautiful, as were the facilities. We were given a full tour and history of the farm, and Dan's ears pricked up when they mentioned internships. He's never quite gotten over his experiences working with Peruvian Paseos in the mountains of New Mexico, and he spent a few hours talking about what fun it would be to become a certified horse trainer. After a couple of hours of tours and browsing, I bought myself a souvenir coffee mug and we headed back south after briefly considering, then rejecting, a notion to continue up to Burlington. Next time, perhaps.

Back in Brownsville, we decided to check out Ascutney State Park -- something we had read about while trapped in the car by the previous afternoon's rain. We drove up to the viewing area, and then decided to hike up to the summit-- about a mile. The trail was easy for the most part, with a few stretches of rock near the top. At the summit was a viewing tower, as well as some communication towers and a plaque marking the "official" top of the mountain. Driving back down the mountain a little later, we noticed a couple we had seen at the summit. The man put out his thumb as if he were hitchhiking. We thought he was kidding around, but stopped anyway. It turned out that he wasn't joking at all. He and his wife were tired from having hiked from the base of the mountain and needed a ride back to their car, three miles down steep switchbacks. So we told them to hop in, and the man, who was from one of the nearby towns, kept up a steady chatter while his Bucharest-born wife smiled and rested. It took us ten minutes to reach the road at the base of the mountain, and another five to get them back to the lot where they had left their car, so if we hadn't happened along, they would've been hiking a long time, much of it in the dark, since the sun was setting. The man seemed unconcerned about this though, even though the sun was already setting. He said he had figured things would work out, and sure enough, they did.

We got back to the B&B hungry and tired, and had some tea and snacks. Then we took a little nap until 7 when we were awakened by the sound of the TV. The Aztecs' children were watching a movie and although they were being quiet, it definitely broke the rustic mood of the place. We had no plans to hang around anyway though, so we got dressed and went out for dinner. We found a place where we could get big bowls of pasta and salad, and indulged in some pre-race carbo-loading.

Then we headed back to the inn, seeing a fox at the same place as the night before. Once home, we sat outside and watched the stars again, but no Ecuadorians came looking for directions this time.