For the entire month of September, Jacob and I spent time in Michigan with our families. The visit was filled with good food, a few projects, and fitting in as many people as we could. At the end of the month, we hopped back into our bus to set out on the next leg of our road trip. We spent the next week taking our time traveling through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and finally, Maine!

Traveling From Michigan To New York

The first leg of our trip went pretty quickly. We left around mid-day to begin driving with plans to stop in western Ohio overnight. We made it to a truck stop just outside of Cleveland and had a (mostly) quiet night’s rest. Truck stops came in handy quite often on our road trip. They make for a fast and safe place to park with easy access to highways.

Following our quick stop in Ohio, we spent the entire next day driving to a dairy farm in New York, just south of the finger lakes. The drive was absolutely gorgeous with views of Lake Eerie, mountains, and some fall colors. We made it to the dairy farm around 3 pm and spent the remainder of the day petting cows, eating some delicious ice cream, and playing with the family’s dog.

We met a couple that were stopping overnight at the dairy farm on their way up to the 1000 Islands area. While there, they were planning to take a river boat tour of the many islands and learn about the area’s history. We hadn’t heard much about the area before, but remembered seeing a few pamphlets about it at a rest stop and figured we could go, too!

The Finger Lakes and Thousand Islands

After our day spent at the Dairy Farm, we drove north to Watkins Glen where we spent most of the day hiking through the state park and checking out some of the businesses in town. The state park was absolutely gorgeous, definitely a must stop if you ever find yourself in the finger lakes area!

Following our time in Watkins Glen, we enjoyed meandering the roads along Seneca Lake until we made it to the 1000 Islands Winery, just outside of Alexandria Bay, NY. It was quite a fast stopover so that we could get up early and have time to walk around Alexandria Bay before catching our 10 am boat tour. The town was cute, but the boat ride was fantastic. We learned so much about the area, got to see some very unique island homes, and had the opportunity to tour Boldt castle. If you ever make it up the the area, I absolutely recommend taking the time to see the castle. Such an interesting story!

Following our day in the Thousand Islands, we spent the remainder of the day traveling through upstate New York on our way to Vermont. We ended up stopping at a small farm about an hour from the Vermont border where a family was operating a goat, chicken, and Turkey farm. It was very cool to meet a couple that was our age operating a successful farm that they had only started three years prior.

Traveling Through Vermont and New Hampshire

We spend the next morning traveling along the Canadian border to take the bridge across Lake Champlain and over to Burlington, VT. Burlington was such an adorable city. We spent the morning walking around the riverfront and got breakfast at a cute bakery. The remainder of the day was spent looking at shops, getting ice cream, and stopping in a few of the many thrift stores in the city. We also got Tibetan food for dinner, it was delicious! That night we stayed at an herb farm a few miles south of the city where they grew and sold a variety of herbs and herbal products.

The next day has to have been one of my favorites from this whole trip. We spent the day exploring northern and central Vermont. We made our way through small towns and down country roads enjoying the fall colors and a few of the fall festivals we stumbled across. For example, we stopped at the Pumpkin Chucking Festival in Stowe, VT and at the Fall Festival in Montpelier.

After driving around the small towns we wanted to check out in Vermont, we made our way to Lebanon, NH. While here, we met some friends from college for dinner and stayed at a sheep farm overnight. This had to have been one of the most unique farms stays that we have had so far.

The couple that owned the farm were ninth generation farmers on their land! Their ancestors had been farming on the property since before the United States was a country, over 250 years. Absolutely crazy. They owned over 1,000 acres of land and were doing some really interesting projects to manage the forest land and mitigate the impacts of invasive species. They also had some really cute sheep.

Making Our Way to Maine

Following a suggestion from Steph and the farmer we had stayed with in New Hampshire, we ended up spending the following day (our last one before getting to Steph and Sammy’s house) at the Fryeburg Fair in Fryeburg, ME. This was easily the largest fair that either of us had been to and we had such a great time seeing all of the livestock, eating some homemade cannoli’s and chicken gyros, and having so much fun people watching. It’s definitely a must-see if you’re in New England in early October.

That evening, we made it to our friends house and have been enjoying our time in Maine since.

If you enjoyed this post and want to read others I have written about traveling in our bus, click here.

Also check out Steph’s recent garden posts!

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe for email updates! -Hailey