Thursday, September 16, 2010
Pine Hollow Campground, Pownal, VT - June 28-July 1
This is the best cg we have stayed at in a long time -- also the cleanest and the cheapest. With our Good Sam discount, it was under $20/night for water & elec, which is pretty good by New England standards. We had a lovely drive up through the Berkshires in CT & MS on our way here, after crossing the wide Hudson River on a bridge with VERY narrow lanes (due to construction). The whole Berkshire area is lovely, and this valley is no exception. We are conveniently located between Bennington, VT, and Williamstown, MA, both having numerous sights to see.Mandy Kent, a friend we met on the Mensa RV egroup, lives here, and we have enjoyed meeting her in person. She has plans to go on the road full time in the next six months, and she is enjoying seeing what it's really like to be a full-timer. We have enjoyed having the benefit of our own private tour guide.
Our first day was spent seeing the famous sights of Bennington, VT. We saw the Old First Church (Congregational) and graveyard, which contains the graves of the founders of Bennington, 5 former govs of VT, and the poet Robert Frost (which has the epitaph "I had a lover's quarrel with the world"). We went to the observation deck of the Bennington Battle Monument, which was erected in 1891 to commemorate the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington (an important victory for the patriots) and is the tallest structure in VT (at 306 ft). Vermont actually has a state holiday (8/16) in honor of this victory. We saw three beautiful covered bridges and were able to drive & walk thru all of them. We visited some local shops and learned the qualities of the famous VT maple syrup and cheese. And of special interest for auto buffs is the Hemmings Motor News, which has vintage vehicles displayed at an old-fashioned full-service gas station, including a tear-drop test car with a one-person tear-drop trailer. We also tried out the local fudge shops and dined at the locally famous Blue Benn Diner, which has fantastic vegetarian selections.
The next day we went to the Bennington Museum, which houses what is believed to be the largest public collection of paintings by Grandma Moses. They also have the Grandma Moses schoolhouse (one-room) which contains a display of her personal belongings & memorabilia. The museum also displays the Bennington Flag, one of the oldest Stars & Stripes flags in existence (specially noteworthy are the outside white bars and the circular placement of the stars around the number 76). In the afternoon we went on a drive with our friend Mandy. She showed us the two covered bridges of Arlington, and then we drove along a lovely cascading stream. It was a warm day, and we were able to stop for a nice swim along the way.Our third day was spent in Williamstown, MA, just 6 miles south of where we were camped. We saw the campus of Williams College and went to the Clark Art Institute to see both their permanent collection and a special exhibit of Impressionism. Both were marvelous! In their permanent collection they have more works by Renoir (over 30) than we have ever seen in one place, plus works by Monet, Degas & Pissaro.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 9:12 PM 
