Day 21: VERMONT

Today we drove most of the day, the highway followed the Erie Canal through New York.  Due to road construction, we got sucked into downtown Schenectady,  NY.  My advise is don't take your 25 foot trailer through downtown Schenectady!

We crossed into Vermont, headed to the Blue Benn Diner in Bennington. Thanks to Jan and Michael Stern's book, Roadfood.  And thanks to Kim!  Fun diner, friendly people, and good food besides on Route 7 since 1949!  The the best part was discovering 20+ Grandma Moses paintings, the Jane Stickle quilt, Bennington Pottery, and the history of the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington all in the Bennington Museum.  The Bennington Museum has the largest public collection of art by Grandma Moses in the country, the desk where she did much of her work, the actual schoolhouse she attended as a child in Eagle Bridge, and many personal items.  On her 90th birthday, Norman Rockwell decorated her birthday cake!  

Joy Ride

Checkered House

Jane Stickle Quilt - pieced during the Civil War, 1863

After seeing the Bennington Pottery we went down to historic Potters Yard.  We saw the potters working; one young man was putting slabs of clay in a press to create large bowls, a woman was cleaning pottery, and another was glazing.  I bought a coffee mug in the factory store.