A Night in the Rain and Green Mountain Coffee

After leaving Mount Washington and passing through Bretton Woods, we went through Franconia Notch and down the Kancamagus Highway, where we began looking for a campsite.  

Franconia Notch 

Narrow, dark roads, with lots of overhanging trees. We drove into the I. Jigger Johnson Campground, where I thought we should stay, just because of the name.  

Instead, we went to the Passaconaway River Campground.  These are National Forest Campgrounds, the only camping available, and they don't offer much in the way of amenities.  This campground had 33 sites, and we were the only ones there.  

Our campsite had this large log in the back, and down below it was the river.  And there were lots of MOSQUITOES! 

It started to rain, really hard, and I had visions of the river flowing over this log and floating us away! 
I know John got up in the middle of the night and looked out the window with the flashlight to see if the water was coming  No wonder we were the only ones in the campground.   And wouldn't they sent someone around to warn us if there was danger of flooding? 

Tuesday, June 11, Day 50

In the morning, I went to look at the river, and it looked exactly as it did the night before.  How can that be?   I'll bet there was some flash flooding after we left!

In the meantime, John got out his measuring tape to take a good measure of the truck and camper because we are going to take a ferry and there seem to be restrictions, and/or charges for vehicles of a certain length and width.

As we drove through Vermont, we were looking for Waterbury.  This is home to the Green Mountain Coffee company.

They have a processing plant here, as well as a visitors center, which is housed in an old train depot.

Do you know the Green Mountain Coffee Company?  Known for its Fair Trade Agreements, and environmental and labor policies with respect to the coffee plantations?

Well, how about the brands they own:   Green Mountain Coffee, Barista Prima, Tully's, Keurig Brewers,  Newman's Own Organics, Caribou, Timothy's, Snapple, Celestial Seasonings Tea, Bigelows Tea, Coffee People, Emeril's,  (Big Easy Bold and Jazzed Up Decaf) The Original Donut Shop, The Donut House Collection, Eight O'Clock Coffee, Diedrish Coffee, and Wolfgang Puck Coffee (Jamaica Me Crazy)

They have operations all over the world, and this is their headquarters.  I have to tell you that roasting coffee beans smelled to me like the roasting chocolate beans when I went to Hershey's Pennsylvania a long time ago.  I can still smell that smell!

You may be surprised to learn that the headquarters for Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is also in Waterbury Vt.  We went passed it, but didn't go in.  You can only do so much.!?

As we drove on, we saw many old barns like this one.

And an original covered bridge.  Beautiful!  Note that it is still raining!