Living in a Van Down By the River; The Vermont Edition

Dextre and I would like to move north someday. Perhaps one too many hot and sweaty circus show days in 110F heat index has lead to this dream of a cooler climate: a place with a real winter where we'll need snow shoes to go hiking. Last week we scouted out Vermont, one of the states we both agree on, and we took all five dogs along with us in the van.

The best part? *Spoiler Alert* I got to meet my favorite blogger, Liz Thames from Frugalwoods.com!

This was just too cool! 

We slept the first night at the Vermont Welcome Center in Bennington, which was awesome because it's FREE. Plus they have a gorgeous facility with a helpful staff, tons of information on the state, and delicious hot coffee for travelers.

It rained the whole first day, but we didn't let that stop us. The Manchester Dog Park was high on our list, because we wanted this vacation to be just as fun for our dogs as it was for us. Vermont is FULL of dog parks and dog friendly places if you have a hound about town...or five! Manchester itself was a cute town with lots of neat shops and a fabulous bookstore. If you ever find yourself there, definitely check out Northshire Bookstore.

Quechee Gorge

From Manchester we headed to the Quechee State Park to find our campsite and hike to the gorge. This incredible chasm was carved by glaciers 13,000 years ago. It's 165 feet deep and you can park at the the little souvenir shop and view it from the bridge on route 4. We walked to it from our campsite, that's how close we were. You can also hike up to check out the dam, which is stunning.

From here we ventured into Woodstock to see the national park and the Marsh-Billing-Rockefellar Estate. There was a cow milking demonstration, so we thought, why not? and went to that. Pretty neat. I had no idea cows could produce 7 gallons per day. WOW

The highlight of this little foray was the maple favored ice cream I got to eat at the end of the tour. Vermont has maple flavored everything, including...cotton candy! Then found another dog park for the girls. Thanks Vermont for being so full of dog parks!

My absolute favorite part of the trip was meeting Liz and her beautiful family. They invited us to their beautiful 66 acre homestead and I got to read to their two young daughters. I've been reading her blog for years and simply can't recommend it highly enough. Let me link you to some of my favorites...

Less Makeup, More Confidence: My Frugal Beauty Manifesto
That Time We Bought A Homestead
Why Be Frugal? One Word: Options
How to NOT Pursue Financial Independence

Earlier this year, Liz became a published author when her book debuted. It's really good. Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Frugal Living

And finally, if you'd like to become better with money yourself, she has a comprehensive and completely free challenge to help you on your path to frugality. I've done the challenge twice and it's both eye opening and useful. Sign up here: The Uber Frugal Month: The Ultimate Frugal Guide To Saving More Money Than You Ever Thought Possible

Homemade gifts from Liz, how exciting!?!

On our last day we drove out to Rutland to check out the town and surrounding suburbs. Realistically Rutland would be a good choice for us because it has the things we like nearby: Aldi, Crossfit, airport, hiking, skiing, etc.

I put together a fun video of our adventure, check it out below!

Thanks so much for reading. Stay tuned because as some of you may know, we adopted a puppy this week and I cannot wait to blog about her!

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