Empty VT Backroads

Oh yeah, this is why I moved back to Vermont. Nights like this, driving on empty dirt roads, watching the sun go down and listening to the peepers while warm, fragrant air rushes through the windows. It has been so long since I drove on these empty roads, hitting every gravel patch with relish, hair whipping, oldies station blasting - is there anything better? Any place nicer to be??

Tonight I helped Christine move to a super cool cabin-like house in West Bolton. We took boxes from her old apartment in the heart of Burlington and drove along the tree-lined highway (even the highways are pretty out here!) out to Richmond. Then we took turn after turn until it dawned on me that I would never find my way back without a trail of breadcrumbs. The air got fresher and cleaner the further away from the city lights we got. The mountains loomed around us and a fine humid mist clung to their green silhouettes. It felt empty and still, my troubles started to evaporate.

In VT, it takes about 15 minutes to get to the middle of nowhere. Large, rambling houses surrounded by miles of emptiness and far from the maddening crowds. They say that you spend your entire life searching for the place where you were born. Since I was brought into this world in the little town of Cooperstown in Upstate NY, it is no surprise that I would feel more comfortable in the middle of nowhere than a cement-filled city.

Our house in Cherry Valley sat atop an intimidating hill and there were no other houses for as far as the eye could see. The valley stretched out before us and hills loomed up behind us. My earliest memories are of green, wide open spaces and the rhythmic din made by insects. No doubt, I am still searching for my own private Cherry Valley. It is out there somewhere, down a long, twisted dirt road which I will need a map to find.

Until then, Burlington is a pretty ok city to spend one's days. Especially when you have a brand new barbecue grill and you are not afraid to use it. Mmmm, grilled meat...mmmm...grilled veggies, Bud Light, barbecue potato chips, cole slaw and juicy, hot cherry tomatoes...mmm...


And to further emmerse yourself in some epic landscapes, ripe with symbolism, have a look at these Thomas Cole paintings as reviewed by Professor Harrison: