After a great night with friends, we departed Littleton, New
Hampshire. We toured downtown for just a bit and enjoyed the little town feel.
We got onto Route 18 N. Route 18 is a Connecticut River Byway.
Below the Gilman Dam, the Connecticut River is too shallow
for motorized boating until it spills into the vast and beautiful expanse of
Moore Reservoir. Impounded by the massive 178’ high Moore Dam, Moore Reservoir
at 3500 acres is actually New Hampshire’s fourth largest lake, and its largest
undeveloped lake.
Much of Moore Reservoir is actually Vermont waters. Moore
Dam, completed in 1957, is the largest conventional hydro station in New
England, and has a generating capacity of 192 megawatts. During the boating
season, the water levels can vary by nine or ten feet. The water level
fluctuates as power is generated. If you like fishing, you will find trout,
northern pike, land-locked salmon, pickerel, perch, and bass. Don’t be
surprised to find an osprey or a bald eagle fishing, too.
We followed the Connecticut River, for a ways, which is the
New Hampshire and Vermont border.
We traveled on Vermont State Route 18, which is a
north-south highway that runs from the New Hampshire/Vermont State Line, near Waterford,
to US Route 2, near East St Johnsbury.
In Vermont, you can visit the Northereastern Speedway. One
of the most influential tracks in the formation of the personality of Catamount
Stadium was Northeastern Speedway, located in Lower Waterford Vermont - near St
Johnsbury. It was established in 1959 and was the first organized motorized
racing track.
We drove through St Johnsbury, Vermont. It was settled by
Jonathan Arnold, a Rhode Island native. He built the first frame dwelling in
1787, on a spot at the north end of Main Street now known as Arnold Park. Allen
spent a considerable portion of his life in the effort to achieve independence
for what is now Vermont, commanding an irregular force called the Green
Mountain Boys, so named in defiance of the New York threat to drive Vermont
settlers off the fields and 'into the Green Mountains.’
Today St Johnsbury is home to Maple Groves Farms. Maple
Grove Farms of Vermont had sweet beginnings over 86 years ago when two ladies, Helen
Gray and Ethel McLaren, began perfecting maple confections on the family farm. These
delicious sweets soon had many customers far and wide. The growth led to their existing
brick plant. They are the largest packer of Pure Maple Syrup in the USA, and one
of the largest manufacturers of Maple Candies in the world. You can tour the
museum and naturally you can spend some money at the gift shop. The way this
business has grown, they have done Helen and Ethel proud!
We watched the separating process
making cheese curds and whey. I learned what whey is … Milk is made of two
proteins, casein and whey. Whey protein is formed as a by-product of cheese
making. It is a great protein. We also were able to enjoy as many samples as
you wanted of their award-winning cheddars, and plenty of other varieties. 
On our last night in Dansville, we enjoyed dinner at the Riley’s
Fish Shack with Ray, Carol, Walt, and Debbie. Ray told us it was the place to
go for shrimp, lobster, scallops and whole belly clams, along with clam strips,
haddock and oysters.
He said not to expect linen napkins, but if you don’t mind great food, plastic
silverware, paper plates and bottles of beer, Riley's Fish Shack is the place in St Johnsbury.
Pattenville, New Hampshire was a town that was bought and flooded to create Moore Dam reservoir. We boated there for years and used to tell out of staters who asked about Pattenville that on a sunny day you could still see the steeple on the Pattenville church Amazing how many boated in that cove and searched LOL
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