The Entirety of Vermont

My VT home: a sheep farm! Used for breeding, wool, and sometimes meat.

I'm coming to understand exactly how much less populated the United States is than I had been lead to believe by living between DC and Boston almost my whole life. It isn't "the northeast" that's populated; it's just DC to Boston. Yeah, I had been through much of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York before, but I guess I thought my middle-of-nowhere snow ski mountains, water ski lakes, and fencing tournament colleges were the exceptions, not the norms.

Stats taken from a glance at Wikipedia, [population densities] = people per square mile
World population: 7.5 billion people
World population density (excluding Antarctica's land): 145
If ranked as a country, the EU would be the 95th most densely populated at 116, roughly even with France.
United States: 86 (182nd among countries, in the neighborhood of Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Latvia)
New Jersey: 1210
New York City: 28052
Manila, Phillippines: 107562
Northeast megalopolis density: 931
The Northeast megalopolis has 17% of the US population on < 2% of its land.

Why do I bring these stats up? To stress how rural the whole of America is. If you lived in areas like I have, you may not appreciate it.

Burlington waterfront, New York across the lake

Downtown Burlington

Outside of the Ben & Jerry's Factory, tours available within

Sarah hard at work doing stuff that I cannot

My Tufts friend and teammate Sarah hosted me for a few days after I left Boston. She gave me an authentic taste of Vermont. It tastes... maple-y. I had probably the best baked beans ever here, thanks to the infused maple. And some Ben & Jerry's, straight from the source. And then we made my favorite pastry ever, the kouign amann. Who'm I kidding? Those are too tricky for me, Sarah did almost all the work. I don't know a rolling pin from a muffin tray. Our batch turned out amazing. (Did you know real maple sugar costs $1/oz.?) The recipe recommended practicing with "easy" croissants before moving up to kouign amann, but screw that, Sarah crushed it. I did some hiking, toured Burlington and the state house in Montpelier. And that constitutes just about everything in the state. Driving the principle highway, you just see trees. And trees and trees and mountains and trees. Only 8000 people live in the capital. Looking ahead, I'm in for more of the same through Maine.

The Vermont State House was remarkable for a few reasons. It has:
0) ZERO security - no metal detector like every other state house, nothing. Has nobody ever harassed these statesmen?
1) one side of it buried into a hill, with some walking trails
2) two beautiful rows of tulips
3) three pedestrian entrances

Check those crispy maple layers!

Proud of these layers. But honestly Sarah deserves all of the credit.

The only state house I've seen which is stuck into a hill, as opposed to having four open sides.

House of Reps

Senate, from the peanut gallery

Good ol' Honest Abe

Trail up to the Camel's Hump peak gets very steep and rocky near the top

Still snow up here? My boots are NOT suited for snow.

Beautiful views at the top - Burlington airport in the distance

Complete 360° panorama from atop Camel's Hump, 2nd highest point in VT. NY and NH are visible

Up Next
Gonna drive and really see what I feel like doing when I get there. I was disappointed to learn that Acadia has no backcountry camping. Too small I guess. And it's like $20 to enter. When I would just be doing some hiking at most, is it worthwhile? I suppose. I don't think Acadia should be something I miss.

Instead of camping there, I may take a night in the White Mountains. But I'm not sure there either. None of the trails to camp sites particularly excite me right now, so I may save my camping for Canada. I've already staked some out around the Bay of Fundy.

Regardless of where I camp, I'm heading to Augusta, ME, for a quick look, then I'll move on to the major cities in eastern Canada, from Halifax to Toronto, then through Niagara Falls and back home. I don't think I'll post while in Canada, so hang tight until I'm back in Jersey. I haven't forgotten I owe you a political post. I just need the time. I've been saving it for so long now though that it will be disappointing no matter what I write. Don't expect me to solve our problems!

My actual sketch of the first 6 weeks in Europe

Here is my sketch of my Eurotrip: Stockholm → Copenhagen → Amsterdam → Brussels → Berlin → Warsaw → Greece (Athens, Santorini, Crete, Sparta) → Italy (Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice) → Paris → southern Germany → Switzerland → Slovakia (→ Mongolia?)

Rookies

I've thrown out the idea of China/Japan/Korea. Best saved for a future trip I think. But Mongolia is still in the air because I doubt I'll find anybody who wants to go there with me in the future, so I should hit it now.

Root Beer
Rookies (Burlington, VT) - Did not like this one at all. Medicinal is the only word for it. Gave me the feeling of a mint stuck in the back of my throat. Maybe they should have used maple! 1/10

On Repeat
Listened to quite a few of the Sam Harris podcasts again after my Brown friends put me in the mood for him. But I have one song for you.
My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
Dismissed as an emo band for a long time, I now like a couple of their songs. I really like this one. Truly anthemic.

Farmer Bob ushering a ram back into his pen. Geraldine the Donkey is disappointed in the attempted escapee.