I was in my country for one year because my visa expired. Again completed All the visa procedures are going to America once again. This time we are going to the state of Vermont. Vermont is a state in the northeastern United States known for its natural scenery. Primarily forested and rich in mountain ranges. Not only is it a major producer of Maple syrup, but it’s also a popular destination for skiing and snowboarding.
Vermont is part of a large area called New England. New England is located in the northeastern corner of the USA. The region covers the six US states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region “New England”. The name was officially granted on November 3, 1620. Vermont is also known as the Green Mountain State.
Kochi to Abu Dhabi then New York and finally to Vermont is a long journey. Traveling with two small children and a lot of luggage was not comfortable at all. As it is an office transfer, you can stay in the hotel for up to one month. So we reached the hotel around midnight. Fell asleep due to jet lag and exhaustion. My first sight of Vermont was when I opened the curtains in the morning and looked outside. Love, at first sight, seemed to be true for the first time. The beautiful maple trees in the car park have started to change color. You can also see mountain ranges in the distance. I am totally excited. I wake up Ram and told him “look outside, see what a beautiful sight, take a quick shower, and get ready for the drive.”
Ram stare at me and said, see if there is any shop nearby to walk to, for buying drinking water and essential food items. That’s when I remembered that we didn’t come for a tour, we came from our country. You have to start from scratch – need to look a house to live, and also need to buy some essentials like rice, nuts, milk, water, soap, etc. to cook at the hotel for the time being. Looking outside at the maple tree and the mountain ranges, I watered.
The next day, Ram started going to the office, me and the children’s started walking outside the hotel. It is an hour’s drive from the hotel to the office. As soon as he reached the office, Ram called and said it was a beautiful drive, beautiful mountain ranges, and maple trees everywhere. I have never taken such a beautiful drive in America.
Things are very difficult in cities like Vermont without a car, so he promised to buy a car that week. He was sent some links to me for selecting a car. So bought a used car within a week.
Next Saturday is our first Vermont road trip – to see the beautiful fall season colors. I have never seen such a beautiful road trip/ fall colors in my life. There are many colors everywhere you look as there are mountain ranges around. Red orange and yellow. When viewed from a distance, it looks like a flame rising into the sky. You can see those colors even if you close your eyes. We don’t need to take a trip to find Vermont’s biggest specialty colors. Everywhere we look we see color. Once we see autumn in Vermont, we will not be satisfied anywhere in America. Because there is no other place to match Vermont. We stayed in the hotel for a month. Only using a cooker, I adjusted to manage to cook rice, khichdi for kids, and chicken curry.
As it was an extended stay, there was a facility to cook in the hotel room. When he comes out of office in the evening, Ram says that the whole hotel smells of your sambar and chicken curry. You can smell the Indian cooking even from the next panchayat. So we can easily imagine such a situation in a hotel. Luckily they didn’t tell us to get off.
Much of Vermont is rural, unlike other places we’ve lived in America. We stayed in Montpelier, the capital city of Vermont. There are no apartments there. Only houses to live in, and that too very old houses. So it was challenging to get a house. If you want to go to an Indian shop, you have to travel at least an hour and a half. Why even the nearest pizza shop is 10 miles away.
For one year only, we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty and rural beauty of Vermont. One of the pleasures of living in small villages is different. Even though I stayed for a year, the place gave me so many fond memories and there is no other place that is so deeply etched in my mind. I wish to settle somewhere in the future with rural beauty, deserts, and mountain ranges like this. Vermont is my favorite state in America.
Traveler – Anu Kampurath
Photos Credit – Anu Kampurath
