Vermont
I’m in Vermont and it’s the best time to be here. For me, because I can’t find a room, it’s the worst time.
That about summarizes the opening.
The Numbers
I did a spreadsheet. I’m not proud of it but I’m also not apologizing for it. Here’s what hotel rooms in Vermont cost on the first Saturday in October, peak foliage weekend:
Green Mountain Suites in South Burlington: $769. Fairfield Inn in Waterbury: $802. The Inn at Burlington: $968. A Comfort Inn with a 7.8 rating on Expedia: $703. A Quality Inn with a 5.8 rating: $505. A Hilton Garden Inn: $793.
For context, those same rooms during the off-season run somewhere between $118 and $184 a night. So the math on foliage weekend is roughly four to five times the January rate for the same bed in the same building. Vermont has decided its October is worth something. The market has agreed.
What I eventually found, through HotelTonight at the last minute, was a room in Manchester that was large enough to fit another room inside it. I’ll take it.
The lesson, for anyone planning this trip: either book an Airbnb centrally located in the state well in advance, or stay just across the border in New Hampshire — where prices ran about half of Vermont’s — and do day trips in for the color. I’ll try that approach next time.
What I Did and Didn’t Capture
The maple syrup farm was genuinely interesting and I have no footage of it whatsoever. The camera apparently took the afternoon off. What I can tell you is that maple syrup in its natural form is healthier than most people realize, or at least that’s what the person trying to sell me more syrup said with considerable conviction. The tour was good. You’ll have to trust me.
I drove through Montpelier, the state capital, which has a gold dome that glows on a gray October afternoon in a way that feels slightly improbable for a city of eight thousand people. Vermont has fewer than 650,000 residents total. In fall, four million people show up. More covered bridges than any other state. Maple syrup. Postcard villages with names that sound invented. When the leaves turn here, the whole state becomes the front porch of New England and everyone wants a chair.
Stowe traffic was bad enough to double as rush hour in Boston. I kept driving.
Butler, Pennsylvania
I was pulling into Manchester when the radio caught my attention. A rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — the same town where the first attempt had happened — a year later, completing what had been interrupted. I’m from Butler. Born there. I have relatives who were at the rally. They’d been texting me pictures.
I sat in the car in the parking lot and listened for a while without going anywhere.
I try not to turn these videos into political commentary. I’m genuinely not trying to do that here. But when you’re traveling through quiet New England towns in October and something is happening in the town you grew up in that carries that much weight, you stop and you feel it. The country was a month out from the election. History was doing something strange and I was parked in Vermont watching it through my phone.
My uncle and aunt and cousin were in that crowd. I was praying it went well and stayed safe. That’s where I was that evening.
I went to Mulligans for dinner afterward. Had a non-alcoholic beer. The fire pit outside the hotel was going when I got back. Vermont is beautiful. The timing was complicated.
On the Studio
One more thing before we close Vermont out. I’ve been doing these voiceovers from a small studio I built at home — blue note wall, a little texture from a lighting instrument with a pattern gobo, backlight from a warm source for some edge. I’m a lighting designer by trade, so the setup is probably more considered than it needed to be. But it works, and the teleprompter with the foot pedal is genuinely useful for someone who has a documented tendency to ramble.
The cat disapproves of the whole arrangement. She meows during takes. This is her way of contributing.
