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So we're heading in the direction of Vermont. A little bit of back tracking. That's ok. No big deal. This is still the first day. I remember the driver offered us bananas. Always eat free food, never know what's gonna happen next. Did we ever drink water? I don't think so. Coffee. Milk.

I think we ended up on the outskirts of Brattleboro. About a two hour drive. It was kind of late to be walking the streets of semi-rural Vermont, but we spotted a motel with its neon signs all lit up. It's hard to believe now but back then many, many places only rented rooms to married couples. Also, all we had as ID were our birth certificates. We didn't have drivers licenses either. No pictures on them anyway. What am I talking about? You didn't have to show ID in 1972. So LBJ went in with some of the $35 and came out with a key. I was hiding behind some bushes.

I don't know if this was it, but it might have been.

We wanted to get out of there early, before anyone saw that I was in there too. Didn't want to cough up any more money. I guess LBJ had to say it was just him. 

I had been to Vermont before with my older sister. She was twenty years older and her daughters were more like cousins to me than nieces. We went up in the summer to a ski lodge owned by an old army buddy of my brother-in-law. Like "White Christmas" but it was the Korean War. It was closed to the public in the summer so my nieces and I got a lot of exploring done. We went for walks off the property and found the most beautiful area. There was a forest with white birch trees filled with huge green ferns. So dense. The ferns were so thick they almost made the air look green. To make it even more beautiful, there were large boulders of white marble. I fell in love. Beyond that magic, there was an old wagon trail through there. So old that trees had taken root in the center. Where the wheels had dug in were going to take a lot more years to blow away. I could only imagine... in my mind I was hoping it was an old route that The Green Mountain Boys had taken.

The ferns were much denser. The trees were white.

 

I don't remember every driver that picked us up, but I remember the next one. The nicest lady ever. If you had seen us out on the road you would have known we weren't out to hurt anyone. Just a couple of people out there on an adventure. People? I'm being modest. We stood out in the crowd. 😊

 

Couldn't find any photos of marble boulders in nature. Probably all part of countertops across the country now. 😢

I forget the reason she was driving from Brattleboro to her home in Portland, Maine. She didn't tell us and we didn't ask. We didn't care of course and no need to be nosy. Nobody asked us digging questions either. Everyone was enjoying the ride. Maybe not everyone, but in general definitely more relaxed.

 

Nobody I know. But it looks like the part of Portland we were in.

 

We pulled into her neighborhood. It wasn't really like part of the city. It was outlying. Full of old houses converted to apartments. I remember it was a white house and her apartment was cute. Everything was old but in perfect order. Knick knacks. Pillows. She was lonely. Give her a nice name, I forget it. We stayed in her place all day and we talked about what there was to find out there. She made us sandwiches and tea in fancy cups. The conversations went on. She brought out some marijuana in the evening and we laughed about things. I think she had it saved for a special occasion. She was very excited about what laid out before us.

She got the living room floor comfortable for us and we slept. In the morning we heard her crying as she hung up the phone. She was practically sobbing. We felt so bad. "What happened?" "I was fired. They fired me." We had learned the night before that she was a librarian. Not sure which one for sure, but it was downtown. They fired her for not going into work the day before. When we were there. 😟 Oh no. She told us not to feel bad. She really didn't want to go into work. We wanted to do something for her but she wanted us to get on the road... because that's what she wanted to do. More than once we ran into people that wanted to do the same thing. We're early in the trip here for sure, though. She made us a couple of sandwiches and insisted we take her sleeping bag. She really insisted. It was a mummy sleeping bag and only one of us could fit at a time. They'll be stories about that bag. She was so kind, I hope things turned out for her.

Old library in Portland, Maine.