One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to get away from the tourist locations and just wander the back roads and out of the way places, just to see what I can see. This trip was no different as I think I spent the majority of my time driving back roads, certainly twice as much time as I did on any main highways. You really just don't get to see much from the highways.
About mid-way through my trip, I was driving one of those roads when I came across yet another barn that I thought was very cool looking. I got out of my car and took a few photos of it from the main road as I didn't want to walk onto private property ... and just as I was starting to get back into the car the owner of the house came out and got into his truck to leave. I could see him looking at me and at first, I thought he was going to ask what I was up to, but he started to head off in the other direction until he saw me start the car up. I saw him stop and begin to back up to where I was parked and now figured I was going to get all kinds of questions about who I was and what I was I doing there with my camera since I was well out in the middle of nowhere and parked in front of his house.
Turns out he was just a very nice guy that saw my plates were from out of state and he was backing up to see if I was lost and if he could help point me in the right direction. When I told him I had just stopped to take photos of his barn and that I hoped that he didn't mind, he shut his truck off and was more than happy to tell me the story of his barn and about the area around there. He then pointed to this huge Sugar Maple tree that was in front of his house, and asked me if I'd noticed it, and then proceeded to tell me how it was one of the largest Sugar Maples in Vermont. Kind of like a proud father, he told me about the history of the tree, how many times it had lost huge branches in storms, and how now there was another tree that has just passed it as the biggest Sugar Maple in the state.
I guess someone from the state would come out every year and measure his tree and compare it to the other one and depending on the year, the number of branches lost to storms or tree rot, the two trees would leap-frog each other for the distinction of being the largest Sugar Maple in the state. I think we sat there talking for just over 30 minutes and then he said he really should get to running his errands. I asked if he would mind if I walked onto his property to take a few more photos and he told me to please feel free to go up there as far as I wanted.
I guess I'm writing about this for two reasons. One is that I just saw an article a week or so ago, that the owner had to have the tree cut down due to it just having too much rot and it had become too weak to safely leave standing, and it made me feel kind of lucky that I'd taken that side-trip that day and actually seen the tree and talked to the owner about it just a few months before he had to have cut down. It was just a fluke that I even heard the story about the tree as I wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been a really nice guy and struck up a conversation.
The other reason I'm writing this is to say that sometimes the best part of these trips isn't really what you get to see or do, but it's the cool people you meet and stories you hear when you take the time to chat with the locals. I've met so many nice people in my travels just from striking up random conversations either while I'm taking photos, or just wandering the back roads and alleys to experience something other than the list of must-see places you can find everywhere online.
I've always had the best times on my trips when I'm not standing in front of a tourist attraction with a huge crowd of other people jockeying for a look at something. I mean, honestly, those places can just be too peopley for me at times.
Get out and wander... get lost for a while off the beaten path and who knows what stories you may hear or things you might see.
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