Dates visited: 4/7/2023 & 6/21/2023

This rest area is the Welcome Center located five miles north of the Massachusetts border on I-91. We stopped here twice so far, for bathroom breaks and to let Mandy and Lexi get out of the car for a bit. It's one of the better rest areas I've visited. There's a lot of tourist info inside the very nice building, but of course dogs are not allowed inside. We did take photos outside the building both times. The pictures from June in the sunshine are much better than our first visit in April. This was a nice break on our way to our next adventure.

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Date visited: 5/31/2023

We wrapped up the month of May by visiting our 8th different state of the month. Here in Vermont, we visited this undeveloped State Park, meaning it has no facilities. There is a 1.3 mile trail that loops around about 90% of the pond. You have to walk on the barely paved road to complete the loop. I say "barely paved", because it is just that. It's paved, but it's old and there is a layer of gravel on top of it. I had to drive about one and a half miles on this road to reach the park. The trail itself is well marked and maintained, with wooden boards or bridges over most of the muddy areas. There are lots of ups and downs, and a few rocky places. There isn't much access to the actual pond, but we found a couple places where we could stop and take some pictures. There is a dam at one end of the trail, but it was real hard to get a good picture of it. The sun was directly above it, and I had no real way to take the photo without awful glare. There was no cell phone service here at all. Keep that in mind if you visit. As I mentioned, the trail is well marked, but if you use a GPS enabled map on a phone, you'll need to have an off-line map (at least with AT&T). On the on-road portion we passed a rock that had a plaque attached to it that read, "Philip Franklin 1707-1797. Ancestor of Hon Calvin Coolidge's mother. Served as private in Capt. David Stowell's Company, Vermont Militia 1777. Settled near this Junction of the old Country road". I have questions about this.... he was an ancestor of Calvin Coolidge's Mother....wouldn't that make him an ancestor of Calvin Coolidge? Also, he lived to be 90 years old. That's a big deal in the 1700's, but he was a member the militia in 1777, when he was 70 years old? Wow!

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