Traveling Roadmantics: Lake Champlain - Where Have You Been since Grade School?

I love seeing these old farms!

We passed through Montpelier, the smallest of the state capitols at 7800 people. Hey, isn't that the size of Wasilla?

We are looking for the ferry crossing on Lake Champlain. Remember Lake Champlain from your history classes? And you haven't heard of it since, right?

There it is, off in the distance. There is a low cloud bank and the lake, between those two stands of trees.

It wasn't exactly well marked.

This is the road to the ferry.

We were still in rural territory, and hard to imagine that a lake the size of Champlain is just over the horizon.

And then there we were, at the ferry!

It had just pulled away, so we had to wait. That's it in the middle with the white pickup at the back.

This gave us a chance to read some of the signs and brush up on our history! Its 125 miles long, about 14 miles wide, and is up to 400 feet deep. It runs between Vermont and New York, and up into Quebec, Canada.

It was named after the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who "discovered" it in 1609. It played an important role in commercial and military happenings, because of passage between the Saint Lawrence and Hudson Valleys. It was easier to travel by water than by wagon over muddy roads. Fort Ticonderoga is on Lake Champlain, and a battle fought there during the Revolutionary War gave the Americans an advantage (Benedict Arnold was there.) It also played a part in the War of 1812, when a battle fought here during the last stages of the war in 1814 gave the Americans an advantage and prevented the British from negotiating control over the Great Lakes or any territory in the New England States.

Like so many places, its importance was quickly replaced by the railroad.

The camper came in at just 27 feet, and stayed between the yellow measuring lines, for a low ferry cost.
There are three ferry crossings on the lake, and we were glad we could go on this one, to avoid driving around the bottom of the lake.

And in no time, we were at the opposite bank.

So we are back now in New York, upper state New York, still raining, and we are watching the rivers continue to rise.

We had a discussion about how different each of the states feel. And we wonder if we would have that perception if we didn't see signs telling us what state we were in. Nevertheless, this looks more like New York than Vermont!

Now we are entering the Green Mountains. Remember Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys?
And John says this is where James Fennimore Cooper's books were based. Remember The Last of the Mohicans? The Deerslayer? The Pioneers? And one John remembers The Leather Stocking Tales. These were all written in the early 1800's.