Haunted Castle, Shambolic Bookstore, Witness Tree and Regrettable Gas Station Indian Food
Haunted Castle, Shambolic Bookstore, Witness Tree and Regrettable Gas Station Indian Food
Jack be nimble Jack be quick
Sing it Charlotte:
A comment from last week’s letter aka YES THIS IS THE SPIRIT. I’ll take “Road Trip To Central Vermont for $800, Alex”:
Wilson Castle
This AMAZING recommendation from Alex launched me on a Memorial Day driveabout culminating at the beyond-weird and mostly-wonderful Wilson Castle in Proctor, VT. I could probably write 10,000 words on this joint alone but will sum it up thusly: this place is bonkers. Built in 1867, it now is propped up by the revenue from paranormal researchers who rent it out every weekend, truckloads of equipment in tow. Private tours are led by a dude who very much seems like he leads private tours of haunted castles. The blurry photo below (which I swear wasn’t blurry when I took it!) is from the most haunted room in the house, The Nightmare Room. SHE IS WATCHING.
Monroe Street Books
I’ve passed this place a dozen times and wasn’t quite sure it was ever even open, it’s one of those buildings. As soon as I walked in the dude said “I like your pants.” (I knew we would be friends.) Double WW points received after he said “feel free to use the ladder” ‘cause a million hurrahs for a bookstore where you get to use a ladder. Apparently, there’s 100,000 books here but I didn’t count. Hot tip: cookbooks are 50% off this week!
Witness Tree
I learned about “witness trees” when our UPS guy said “the witness tree on your road really freaks me out.” Apparently, when clear cutting woods they would leave one tree as a “witness”- I spot them everywhere now (and even wrote a song about them on our new record). This one outside of New Haven made me happy. Happy little witness tree. Witness:
Gas Station Indian Food
I have a theory that if you see an Indian restaurant attached to a hotel or gas station in the middle of nowhere that it’s a good bet the food is authentic and delicious because it’s probably run by people who grew up cooking and eating Indian food (and strong odds on a septuagenarian grandma in the kitchen). Unfortunately, this was not the case on Monday. Sad. Gotta take swings though!
Weird and Wonderful Hall Of Fame Even Though I’ve Never Been There - House On The Rock
I mean, look at this place. It’s totally gotta be the greatest, right? Have any of you ever been here TELL ME EVERYTHING.
Fun stuff as Burlington nightlife continues to open up- last weekend I poked my head into the new outdoor music venue from Higher Ground, Backside 405, peeped the re-opened Arts Riot and their cool new building-wide deck and watched Lee Anderson completely reimagine one of our greatest Vermont weird and wonderful institutions, Radio Bean. Godspeed, Lee, we believe in you.
The lights are coming on you guys. Hope to see you out there.
xoxo RM
I've been to House of the Rock. It felt like a descent into madness. You only glimpse the sunlight for a few minutes about halfway through the tour if you do the entire thing, a quick jaunt outside sandwiched between passing through hallways lined with model sailing ships and stumbling upon a player orchestra (think player piano, but an entire orchestra of robot people). At one point when we were walking through the doll hallway, where just hundreds of dolls sit behind glass, their gazes fixed eternally outwards, already a good two hours into our expedition, when the haunting sounds of a slightly-out-of-tune instrument wafted towards us from somewhere up ahead. It was truly horror in the most classic sense.
I know Monroe Street Books! Well, the owner! He and his wife are peaches! He's a cartoonist too! https://www.dickchodkowski.com
BTW If anyone with little kids is looking for things to do with kids while in the Red Rocks area this summer you must check out Tiny Town in Morrison. It's a mini village with a little train you can ride, open since 1915. Little people love it.