We got up the Saturday before Memorial Day with a craving. Curtis’s BBQ. Unfortunately it was already kind of late in the morning, and Curtis and his giant pig (more later) is located a little over 2 hours away in Vermont, so we decided we would get up a little earlier on Sunday and make a day of it. On Sunday we got up and headed out by about 9. We planned on being there for lunch and maybe hitting a couple of breweries in Vermont as we are now on a quest to visit each of the 18 breweries on the Vermont Brewery Trail. The quickest and most direct route to Curtis’s in Putney, VT is roughly a third on interstates and the rest on slower going, scenic roads, just the way we like. We headed down 495 to Route 2 which we took west. We decided to make a couple of pit stops on the way.
The first stop was in Gardner, MA, which is also known as “Chair City” and “The Furniture Capital of New England”, for its long history of furniture making. In the early 20th century there were over 20 chair factories in this small city which today has a population of just about 20,000 people. We stopped here because of something we saw in a book, “Weird MA”. The chair is not the world’s largest, it isn’t even close, but it is pretty impressive at over 20 feet tall and 3000 pounds.
After leaving Gardner, we headed further west on Route 2, which is quite scenic. Instead of going all the way to I-91 in central MA, we headed north on some back roads and picked up I-91 just south of the Vermont state line. Interstates in Vermont have no traffic, which we like, plus they are quite scenic. We imagine this is what interstate highways were once like, speeding along checking out the sights with very little traffic to get in the way and stress you out. We stopped at the first rest area in Vermont to use the bathroom and find a couple of geocaches which were hidden there. They had a pretty cool walkway set up with antique farm equipment set up along the path. On one of these old pieces of equipment was a geocache hidden in plain sight. Even though we had an idea what we were looking for, it took us a good 15 minutes to find it. And it was hidden pretty much in plain sight. Since we are working on another project, the Vermont 251 club (visit all 251 towns in Vermont), we picked up some brochures for the next time we are in the area.
We left the rest area and headed up I-91 for another 20 minutes or so to Curtis’s BBQ, just north of Brattleboro. We have been coming to see Curtis for a long time, we estimate close to 15 years. Curtis, the owner of Curtis’s BBQ, is a BBQ oasis in a land otherwise lacking in real BBQ. It is right off of the interstate next to a gas station called Rod’s which we think was definitely a Mobil in its past life. Curtis has been operating out of a blue school bus since 1965. He probably parked the bus there back in the 60’s and it appears that he hasn’t moved it since. He used to be open 6 or 7 days a week but as he has gotten older he has cut it back to just 4 days a week in the summer. We usually head up there at least twice a year. The “facilities” are pretty basic. You walk up to the school bus window, look at the menu which hasn’t changed much in years (except for the prices) and place your order. Within minutes your order is ready at the next window of the bus. Over on the side, Curtis cooks the BBQ ribs and chicken all day long, slow roasting it over the fire until it is fall off the bone delicious. He has a pet pot belly pig, or at least the pig is as big as a pot belly, he might just overeat. The pig sleeps pretty much all the time next to him on the ground. You take your food over to one of the many picnic tables. All seating is outdoors but there is an outdoor pavilion you can sit under if it is raining. Bathrooms are outhouses and you can wash your hands in a large cold water sink behind the bus when you are done eating. No alcohol is served but you could BYOB if you wanted to. People eating there seem to come from all walks of life but the bikers seem to like it the most. We got our half rack of ribs, a second rib plate which came with sides of potato salad and cole slaw, an order of baked beans and a piece of corn on the cob. We skipped on the candied yams and collard greens because last time we were just too full. We had brought a cooler with us but in our haste to get out of the house that morning, we only put a couple of bottles of water in it. We were disappointed to open it up and not find cold beers because they would have gone down nicely with the ribs. After washing up, we headed back on the road with a destination of a small bakery about a half hour away called Baba A Louis, in Chester, VT.
Naturally we took mostly back roads to get there, but as with most places in Vermont, you can’t easily get there from here, so back roads were really the only option. We went there for what we feel they are famous for, sticky buns. They have lots of other baked products including homemade bread but we wanted the sticky buns, which never disappoint.
After leaving Baba A Louis we headed for Bridgewater, VT, which is in the central part of the state, where the Long Trail Brewery is located. Again, we had to take mostly back roads which are lots of fun and scenic. Along the way we passed by a great deal of destruction from last year’s Hurricane Irene. During the hurricane nearly every stream and river in Vermont flooded and you could still see many signs of the devastation as we drove. We passed once house which unfortunately sat at the bottom of a large landslide. While the house still stood, it was clearly uninhabitable, as it had been knocked right off of its foundation.
After seeing such sad sights, we were happy to arrive at the Long Trail Brewery to drown our sorrows. We took the self guided tour which amounted to a glassed in platform on a catwalk above the brewery. Since it was Sunday there was no production but we did see some signs explaining the brewing process. We do not recommend the tour. The beer was good though. We didn’t drink much since we still had a good deal of driving to do. Jackie had a pint and Chris had the six beer sampler (6 small beers). We got another stamp in our passport and headed out.
We had planned on heading to the Harpoon Brewery, which was located east of us back on the VT/NH border. Since it was kind of early still we decided to take a side trip up to the top of Mt. Ascutney. The mountain, while not really all that tall (a little over 3000 feet high) is a monadnock, which is essentially a mountain that looks higher than it really is. A monadnock is an isolated rock, hill, or mountain that rises abruptly from the surrounding plain. Since it is higher than pretty much everything around it and it is usually the only mountain in the area, it usually looks taller than it really is. Mt. Ascutney has a steep road which you can drive to within about ¾ mile of the top. We drove up and then walked the remaining part to the summit, where there is a fire tower offering up a 360 degree view, which late in the day was quite impressive. Since we hadn’t planned on coming up the mountain, we were ill prepared with our footwear, so we took our time, spending about an hour and a half total walking to and from the car. While the trip up in the car was uneventful and the views were amazing, the trip down the mountain was not something our truck wants to repeat. We had the truck in its lowest gear the whole way down and despite this, we pretty much rode the brakes. Once we got to the bottom the truck was crying. We smelled burning brakes and transmission for the next few minutes until we got moving quickly again.
After leaving, we headed for the Harpoon Brewery, which was only about 10 minutes away. We highly doubted that it would still be open given that it was now after 7 on a Sunday night. We were right. At least now we have a reason to return. So we left the brewery and spotted a hot air balloon in the sky as we were leaving. We jumped back on I-91 for the an exit or two north, then jumped on I-89 back into New Hampshire and back home. The trip home from the brewery was just about two hours, again, with very little traffic until we got closer to Massachusetts. We aren’t sure if we hit any new towns in Vermont but we had a great time and we were able to hit one new brewery.
