A Granite Day

On Saturday, we visited the town of Graniteville again. This is an old granite quarry which is now filled with water. It's actually quite pretty, but very dangerous because of the depth and the hidden granite in it.

We visited the Rock of Ages museum in Graniteville which is near Barre. We learned a lot about granite. Rock of Ages is an old company which quarries granite for headstones, monuments, memorials, temples and buildings. This little monument memorializes a Civil War battle and the heroism of a Vermont regiment which produced two Medal of Honor winners. It was dedicated yesterday by the governor and will be moved to the site of the actual battle as a reminder of the bravery of the Vermont regiment. The museum was fascinating. The granite most commonly used here is Barre Grey which we love. The museum employee was very helpful and told us that they will be able to quarry from this site for the next 4600 years!

This is a grout pile--grout in Scottish (we're told) means waste. This is literally a mountain of waste granite. There are several of these in Graniteville and they co-exist happily with the citizenry. Scottish and Italian immigrants manned the quarries of Barre. On our way out of Graniteville, we visited Thunder Road a big race track. There are many stock cars around--derelict and otherwise and you see them in driveways especially in Graniteville. We were surprised at the size of it--it's not very big. There was a big race there the first Saturday this month which attracted notables from all over the country. We couldn't really get close enough to take a picture.

After we left Graniteville, we dressed for our meeting in Essex Junction and headed out on a fairly sunny day. Our plan was to explore the largest town in Vermont, Burlington, and its big attraction Lake Champlain and take lots of pictures. We were thwarted yet again by rain and people. Burlington is the home of the University of Vermont (UVM) and it was graduation weekend as well as some kind of celebration on the Lake so there were people everywhere! Just as we reached the outskirts of Burlington, it started to pour--a real cloudburst and gullywasher which, incidentally, lasted until well after we got home at ten that night. Since we were in our Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes and only had one umbrella and no coats, we didn't venture out of the car.

We retreated to the mall area of Williston a few miles away where, for half a second, the rain stopped. I'd been wanting to go to the huge The Christmas Shop since our last visit so we did. We have a new motto--whatever you buy you have to be able to take home in the car with you. Did you know that there is not one Christmas item in The Christmas Shop? Not one! It's a little like a Big Lots store. We did find a nice little quilt shop where I bought a yard of fabric. We had a nice meal and still had two hours until our meeting and no desire to shop and the rain was still horrible! So we did the only sensible thing we could--went to the church, parked, took a nap and talked. Our meeting was absolutely one of the best meetings I've ever attended. The ride home was almost frightening--it was raining, dark and no white lines on the roads. More adventure in Vermont!