On To Quechee VT

We left Burlington around 9:15 am and drove through beautiful Vermont countryside on our way to Quechee, Vermont.

After a short drive, we arrived at KOA Quechee/Pine Valley around 11:30.

Our sites were not as close together, but were nice pull-in sites.

We got set up in our sites, ate some lunch and then headed out to do a little exploring of the area.  We decided to drive to Sugarbush Farms that was just a few miles away.  While the color changes of the leaves is running late, we are seeing more and more of the colorful reds, yellows and oranges of the leaves along with a scarecrow here and there!  :)

Sugarbush Farms is a multi-purpose farm including producing maple syrup from their sugar maple trees.

We walked into the tasting room at the back of the house first were we sampled cheese...

...and four grades of maple syrup.

I never thought I liked maple syrup but the lightest grade was so good.  All we needed was a big hot biscuit and some butter to go along with the maple syrup.  :)

Sugarbush Farms does not make the cheese but takes their milk to a cooperative farm creamery that produces the cheese.  After getting their cheese, they smoke it, age it, and/or flavor it and then package it for purchase.

We sampled several ages of cheddar cheese as well as some smoked cheese, jalapeno cheese and onion flavored cheese.  In addition to all the different cheeses, we sampled jams, jellies, dips, sauces, and just about anything else they had out to sample.  We love Vermont!  :)

After making our purchases, we walked outside and find a bench where we could sit and enjoy the beautiful countryside.

Next, we went to the sugar house...

...where the sap is collected from the trees.

and then made into maple syrup with this big contraption that almost looks like a big still.

After leaving the sugar house, we walked along a path in the woods...

...that showed us how the maple syrup is collected through a series of tubes.

It's much easier (and faster) collecting the sap by connecting all the lines and draining to the sugar house than picking up pale after pale from all the trees and then carrying the pales down to the sugar house through deep snow.

We could see on this big sugar maple where it had been tapped previously.

Look at how those leaves are changing!

After we finished our walk through the woods, we drove through the countryside a little further.

The trees in this yard looked like they had been topped with cherry juice!  :)

We also drove through the town of Woodstock and will probably visit that again tomorrow.  We had another beautiful day of exploring Vermont.

After we got back to the campground and had eaten supper, we got back together to play cards.  Last night, the guys won a game of SkipBo but the girls won a game of Pinochle.  Tonight, the girls won both Pinochle and SkipBo.

Hey guys!  Maybe you need to put your lucky blue gloves back on again!  :)