From a recent Truthout.org piece by Barbara Ehrenreich:
According to evolutionary psychologist Nancy Etcoff, the need for scenery is hard-wired into us. "People like to be on a hill, where they can see a landscape. And they like somewhere to go where they can not be seen themselves," she told Harvard Magazine last year. "That's a place desirable to a predator who wants to avoid becoming prey." We also like to be able to see water (for drinking), low-canopy trees (for shade) and animals (whose presence signals that a place is habitable).
With that in mind, Chris and I left New York for a week-long road trip last month. We concentrated on Vermont, but also spent time in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Places with hills, water, trees, and animals. It was a fun trip, with lots of stopping the car just to enjoy a beautiful spot for a few minutes. It was nice to spend some time away from the city, and it was heartbreaking to come back. I took a copy of Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen, and it turned out to be a great resource for this trip. The restaurant and sightseeing recommendations were really helpful.
Over the next week or so I'll be posting photos. We took hundreds, but still not as many as I would have liked because rain dogged us for most of the trip. But we made the best of it and spent the first day doing some tax-free shopping in New Hampshire. This first batch is from Vermont on the second day.
Polka Dot Diner, White River Junction.
Shop window, White River Junction.
Quechee Gorge.
Sheep. Billings Farm, Woodstock.
Girl with a Jersey cow. I never thought a cow could be beautiful, but the Jerseys really are.
Percheron horses.
More to come.
