Sunday, July 13, 2014

An Australian's Vermont Adventure

This Spring, I received a call to pick up a passenger in downtown Montpelier.
I arrived to find a woman in her mid-20s who was obviously not from our area as when she spoke I instantly recognized her Australian accent. 

A number of years ago I had the opportunity to travel and work in Australia.  My girlfriend and I went there primarily to experience & work on sheep and cattle stations, as the Australian's call farms.  Beyond this great opportunity for learning and seeing a completely different landscape, while traveling through Sydney I had the chance to reconnect with a distant cousin and her family.

My passenger’s name was Lauren.  Her speech was familiar and pleasing to my ear, bringing to mind my time in her country.  Lauren explained that her visit to our town was only for a few hours. She wanted to see covered bridges, Morse farm and the area in general

We headed off to Cox Brook Road in Northfield Falls, the only local destination for multiple covered bridges that I know about.  During our trip I learned that she was in the United States to give a talk at Harvard University in her field of study, international relations between Korea and Japan. She has a PhD in this discipline.

Lauren thoroughly enjoyed our visit to all four of the bridges.  She had a big camera and took many pictures through the windows of the cab!  I took some of her with her camera to share when she got home.  She repeatedly remarked at the beauty of our area, the lushness of the vegetation and the interesting terrain. 



She further explained that during her trip to United States she only had one day in which to go do some exploring. At home she had read about Montpelier in the New York Times. On this day she had boarded a Greyhound bus in Boston at 7:30 AM, arriving in front of our City Hall around 11AM. 

Back in Montpelier I showed her the State house and various buildings in downtown before making a detour up Cliff Street to the scenic overlook.  We went out to Morse farm where she learned about sugarin'.  We drove down some dirt roads and checked out old barns and the beautiful church in East Montpelier center.

Lauren loved our town and the area in general.  During this tour, it became her plan to return with her mother and spend a week or two in Vermont. She explained that in Australia Vermont is well known as a great destination when traveling in the United States.

I got her back downtown in time to explore the bookstores. At 2:30 PM Lauren was on the Greyhound bus headed back to Boston. Her total time in Montpelier was 3 1/2 hours!

It’s amazing how many interesting people I get to meet while driving the Cow Cab.





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