STOWE, VERMONT

They were having Oktoberfest this weekend at Waterfront Park in Burlington. We decided to head out of Burlington and hope to miss the crowd.  We had heard that Stowe, Vermont was a great little town to visit. So, we headed there yesterday.

First stop was going to be at the Green Mountain Coffee manufacturing plant.  When we arrived, we thought there is no way that they manufacture all that coffee in this place.  Sure enough, it was just one of their coffee shops.  It started in this shop, but they quickly outgrew it and bought a BIG coffee manufacturing plant. They did have a couple of kiosks that walked you through a self-guided tour of how they got started and a coffee tasting bar set up. But, the weather was nice and they had tables outside and they had, well, coffee!  Let me make a special shout out right here.  I love PUMPKIN stuff.  Everyone knows that this is the time of year where pumpkin comes out of hiding. Usually coffee houses serve pumpkin syrups in their coffees and those are full of sugar.  I'm not eating sugar right now. So, I can't order any pumpkin drinks. Green Mountain has pumpkin flavored coffee grounds.  So, I got pumpkin coffee with steamed cream and got my pumpkin fix for the day! Way to go Green Mountain!

Stowe was having a street festival and had closed several streets and had vendors set up. There were about 25 vendors. We walked through and at the end of the street, Shaw General Store was waiting for us to visit.  We had a couple of people tell us not to miss this store.  For the life of me, I'm not sure why. Usually general stores have souvenirs and unusual items and local items.  This store, not so much.

We decided to leave town and drive to a state park or state forest area and have a picnic lunch. We ended up on some back roads that weren't paved, but there were BEAUTIFUL homes on these roads.  We also saw a couple of covered bridges.  One of the covered bridges was totally unexpected.  The other one we had read about. 

Located in Stowe Vermont, Gold Brook Bridge is not your ordinary covered bridge. This bridge is also known as "Emily's Bridge,"  due to the fact that it is haunted by a ghost named Emily. There are many stories of how Emily died on the bridge. One story is that she was supposed to elope with a lover who was meeting her at the bridge, and when he didn't show, she hung herself from the rafters. Another version of this Vermont legend also starts as a love story. Emily met a man who stole her heart, and the couple made plans to marry. The fateful day arrived, and Emily went to the church in her beautiful red wedding dress ready to give herself to the gentleman in holy wedlock. The groom never arrived, and the jilted bride took the family wagon in a frenzy of anger and sorrow. She was merciless on the horses, and whipped them until they were traveling at an incredible pace, planning perhaps to confront the faithless groom. As she approached the bridge, she failed to negotiate the turn right before the bridge and drove the horses and carriage over the bank and onto the rocky brook below. Both the horses and Emily were killed in the accident. There is no written historical evidence that Emily ever existed, however. The first mention of the bridge being haunted by someone named "Emily" came after 1968 when a high school student wrote a paper on the subject claiming that while he/she was using a Ouija board on the bridge, an entity presented itself named Emily. Other people using Ouija boards have reported that an entity has identified itself as Emily and said that she was killed on the bridge by her finance's mother.

Many people who have visited the bridge have experienced disturbing paranormal activity.  People have reported scratch marks appearing on vehicles that were parked on the bridge and being touched or scratched by Emily's ghost.  Often strange noises are heard on the bridge, such as footsteps, ropes tightening, and a girl screaming. Many  have also reported seeing a white apparition around the area of Emily's Bridge. People that have parked their vehicle on the haunted bridge say they tend to hear banging noises from Emily hitting the vehicle on the outside, or a dragging sound across the tops of their cars. The most distinct paranormal events tend to take place between the hours of 12 AM and 3:30 AM.

Emily's bridge

After lunch, we decided to drive over to the Von Trapp Family Lodge.  Funny, the whole time we were there, I kept wanting to start singing, Do a deer, a female deer and The hills are alive with the sound of music. The Trapp family was largely fictionalized in The Sound of Music, which was based loosely on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp. Baron Georg von Trapp and his wife Maria left Austria shortly after its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and settled with their family in Vermont in 1942.  After the Baron's death in 1947, the family expanded and operated their home as a 27-room ski lodge. It was destroyed by fire on December 20, 1980, forcing 45 people to flee in their nightclothes, including Baroness von Trapp. The body of a guest was found later in the rubble. A new Austrian-style lodge with 93 rooms was opened in 1983.

Maria von Trapp died in 1987 and 32 family members shared ownership of the lodge. Johannes von Trapp instigated a merger to eliminate the interests of other family members in 1994. Family members were displeased by the terms of the merger and fought back with legal proceedings about the amount to be paid to them in exchange for their shares, and the controversy went to the Supreme Court of Vermont. Johannes, his son Sam, and his daughter Kristina are the only owners now.

They offer a history tour, which I didn't know until after we had visited.  It is usually led by Kristina and it tells of the real history of the family as compared to the movie. One bus tour arrived before we got there and another one arrived while we were there.  It got VERY crowded and so we decided it was time to move on.

After our visit, we decided it was time for dessert.  No trip to Stowe, VT is complete without visiting Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  Unfortunately, since it was a Saturday, there were tons of people. We didn't get to take the tour, but everyone else in our party got some ice cream.  We took some pics and then it was time to head back.  Great weather, great sights to see.