Isabel and I have now each visited 42 of these 50 states (we were together for all of them except Texas and Florida). The states we haven’t hit so far are: Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kentucky. If we’re feeling ambitious, we could knock out three to five of those states on our December trip. I never had a goal visiting all 50 states before, but now I totally do. Looks like we could do it pretty easily now. Wonder what we’ll shoot for next?

On a somewhat unrelated note… after traveling thousands of miles and seeing the most fascinating things this country has to offer, I’m left with one burning question: New Jersey, what’s your deal? Do you really not trust me? Are you worried that I’m not smart enough to handle the complex operation that is pumping gas? Is this task really so complex that you must leave it up to a professional? Twice I have nearly run out of gas to make it over the state line so I can fill my own gas tank. Maybe I’m a little crazy, but I like to be in charge of my own petrol. Besides, I have no idea what tipping etiquette is for those guys and that’s enough to make me break out into a sweat. End rant, start log:

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Yep, that’s a 31-feet-tall, 3,700 pound Paul Bunyan statue, the base of which contains a sealed time capsule from 1959, slated to be opened in 2084. Pretty impressive and also pretty… spooky, right? I mean, if that thing lived in your neighborhood, you’d probably be inspired to write, say, horror novels. Kind of like Stephen King! Here’s his house around the corner from our “Maine” man (ha!) Paul:

I’ve actually never read one of Stephen King’s books (though I do enjoy his column in Entertainment Weekly), and Brian hasn’t either, but we wanted to see his awesome spooky gate with bats and three-headed dragon-monsters on it. Also, he has an Obama/Biden sign in his yard. Nice!

After that, we headed to Scarborough, Maine, where Brian said there was a roadside attraction, but he decided to keep it a secret from me to surprise me. The surprise attraction was at Len Libby’s Candies and it was (drum roll)…

A life-size moose sculpture made of chocolate! Killer combo, Len Libby’s Candies! You’ll notice that, as a bonus, there are also some life-size chocolate bear cubs scattered about the scene.

After that, we bade farewell to Maine and went back into New Hampshire:

New Hampshire, I’m sure you have a lot to offer, but I’m afraid this trip wasn’t about you. We just passed through a tiny piece of N.H. before getting back into Massachusetts!

In Massachusetts, we ended up in Boston’s evening rush hour, which was exactly as fun as it sounds, so I won’t talk about that. We had planned a couple of other stops in Mass., but timing and the cold and the traffic and whatnot foiled us, so we only visited one place on our list: Jordan’s Furniture in Reading. I can’t believe I didn’t already know about this place. Their website looks very innocent; do not be fooled. It’s a local furniture store chain in the Boston area, and each store has a different crazy theme complete with crazy stuff in it. The store we chose to visit, for example, includes an indoor trapeze school and “Beantown,” a Jelly Belly store and series of Jelly Belly mosaic–covered sculptures of iconic Boston buildings and scenes. There’s also a giant Jelly Belly banana split on top of an ice cream stand inside. I mean, I really don’t know what to tell you about it. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it was there!

Okay! Moving on, we then went to Rhode Island!

Our primary destination in Rhode Island was the Hasbro headquarters, which boasts a giant Mr. Potato Head:

After that, we headed out to Connecticut:

We’re now in for the night and are most likely going to make our way home tomorrow, with a few exciting stops as always!

It was very interesting and informative, and I can’t wait to get home to make some more cheese. It’s the kind of thing I had no idea a person could do in her home, so it’s just very exciting to get involved with it. The workshops have gotten insanely popular since the convergence of publicity from AVM and the ever-growing natural/sustainable/local/etc food movement made Ricki a celebrity, so we had an extremely full house today; the classes sell out right away, so if you want to take one, sign up ASAP (or give me some time to practice and I will teach you!).

This workshop and the expo in Boston were our main reasons for taking this New England trip so soon after our cross-country adventure, so technically we’re done now, but we figured we may as well keep the party going. So instead of heading back to D.C., we went to Vermont!

I have deep abiding love for Vermont, so even though it is sooooo cold (help!), I am thrilled to be up here. We have some very exciting stuff planned for tomorrow; check back for a full report!

We always enjoy Expo East, the giant natural products trade show on the east coast (held in Boston this year, obviously). One of my favorite giveaways this year was this sticker, modeled here for you by Brian on his Carter t-shirt:

Best sighting of the convention was a group of young women in traditional dress (of the Amish or Mennonite variety) wearing these stickers. Awesome.

Anyway, after leaving Boston today, we drove out to the DeCordova Museum, home to the amazing sculpture park that includes this piece (our favorite of the day):

We enjoyed lots of beautiful fall foliage on our way out to western Mass., which was fun:

We met up with some friends out here and ever-so-briefly went apple picking (in our case, this was more accurately just apple purchasing followed by orchard walking), then we headed to picturesque Shelburne Falls, home of the ancient glacier potholes:

Good times!

Can someone tell me what this plant is?

We saw it all day along the road; I’m just interested.