Brattleboro or Bust

Sweet Potato and I hit the road for Brattleboro VT yesterday morning. R and I had to switch cars, so I drove his Dodge. I don't really understand how to use all of the gadgets on the Dodge-- the lights, windshield wipers, emergency brake-- so it was a little bit of an adventure. Also, no four-wheel drive. I almost got stuck in the snow twice, and I didn't know how to use the wiper fluid (I thought it was frozen), so I kept pulling over at gas stations to squeegee the muddy snow from the windshield. Eventually we made it.

After a failed attempt to park on a snowy hill, we found a cleared, flat parking lot downtown where we parked and set off for the shops. It was icy cold, but we were bundled and wore our snowboots. Our first stop was a gift shop/ art gallery/ cafe. I perused the glass blown baubles while Sweet Potato followed me and said things like, "But what is the point of that thing?"

"It's just beautiful," I kept answering.

We stopped at the cafe and shared a breakfast sandwich and a doughnut. It was actually SP's doughnut, and I just asked for a piece of it. The taste of it was so strange, like the Littmus Lozenge in Because of Winn Dixie. It made me feel nostalgic for something I couldn't quite name and brought tears to my eyes. That's some doughnut! I considered buying a whole doughnut for myself, but I wasn't sure I could handle it emotionally.

SP and I tromped around town stopping in at the furniture store (where we had to wear disposable shoe covers), the toy/candy store, shoe store, indoor farmer's market where a live band was performing a bit off key (even to my ill-equipped ears), a few art galleries, and one excellent bookstore.

If Brattleboro had ears, it would have book stores and coffee shops coming out of them. If R is true to his word about my (our) being able to dash off every so often to spend a weekend with The People, Brattleboro is where I want to go. I think I've even found the perfect place to stay: http://www.theartistsloft.com/.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention: There's an India Palace there, too! Seems a like a fine omen.

Sweet Potato could only take so much shopping, though. She perked up after I bought her a hat and a couple of truffles, but she was still antsy for home as she needed to complete her music project about Franz Liszt. When I pointed out that she'd been asking for mother-daughter alone time for weeks, and now she was finally getting it, she said, "We could spend our mother-daughter time at home." Bah!

Meanwhile, R and Buckaroo headed to Attleboro, MA, to meet with Grandma and Grampy for some excellent fish and chips. R said they didn't even require sauce (Buckaroo's word for ketchup). They rocked out with Raffi both directions, and Buckaroo didn't complain once. Success.