October/November 2021 Vacation Day 7 · · PAGE 24.

November 1, 2021:  We have crossed part of Lake Champlain and are going south on US 2 East in Vermont.  We are leaving the third of three Champlain Islands going over to the mainland.

We have seen plenty of farmland and small towns along the way.  Now we will take an Interstate highway to get to our next fuel stop and lunch near the largest town in Vermont.  

This is our exit for fuel and lunch today.

This Mobil station is located on US 2 on the north side of the I-89 exit 16 at mile point 91 just north of Burlington, Vermont.  This is the next exit south of where we got on I-89.  I used my debit card to get the cash price. 

Just south of this exit is a Burger King fast food restaurant where we always get take out since Linda's dog Chase is with us on this vacation.  This is also where we say goodbye to US 2 temporarily as we will be using I-89 going south until we get to Montpelier, the state capital.

Leaving Burlington behind near Lake Champlain, I-89 turns into the mountains on an Easterly then Southeasterly path.  The date at the bottom of this Google Earth image is close to when we passed this way in the real world to see the fall colors in the trees.  US 2, I-89, and a railroad are following a river that has created this path through the mountains.

At this point, US 2 departs going through Montpelier and continues East through the mountains, while I-89 goes South.  We got off here to see some local sights.

We got off the interstate and started East on US 2 hoping to see some of the town of Montpelier.  Chase was starting to whimper which means he needs bladder relief.  We turned off of US 2 on the other side of the bridge seen here and crossed the river to this parking lot.  It was empty on a Sunday when we got here.  We still had a long way to go to get to our hotel tonight and got back on the road quickly.  I created this web page on December 20, 2021 and started looking around here using Google Earth to see what we missed.

US 2 has a business route very close to the parking lot where we stopped.  I drove the Google car north one block and found the Vermont State Capitol was about two blocks from the parking lot seen in the images above and below.  That parking lot is very full of government employee cars on a normal business day as seen below.  All those buildings on the right side of this image are facing the US 2 Business route and the state capitol across the street from the white building seen in this image below. Google Earth estimates the ground elevation in the parking lot at 520 feet above sea level.  Look below the word Google to see that elevation value.

This image below from Google Earth was exactly what I wanted to see on November 1, 2021 as we passed this way.


Here is an aerial view of the river basin and the major roads coming in and leaving the valley on Interstate 89.  Someone at Google created a 3D model of the state capitol building seen in this image.

Leaving Montpelier heading south on I-89 reveals this mile marker as the on ramp is merging with the southbound traffic.  Elevation here is estimated at 622 feet above sea level.

Just 6 miles ahead at mile marker 47, the elevation is 1,406 feet above sea level for a rise of about 784 feet at the top of the next ridge going south on I-89 approaching Exit 6.

There is nothing to see up on this ridge except the trees on both sides of the interstate highway.  I observed this area looking down from an aerial perspective to discover the land on the west side was lower by 100 feet elevation and the land on the east side was somewhat higher.  The placement of the highway up on this ridge preserved much of the nearby flat farmlands.

I-89 has dropped a couple of hundred feet indicating it is headed to a river valley ahead.

Here is the White River bridge where the ground elevation on the north side of the bridge is down to 547 feet above sea level as indicated by Google at the bottom of this image.

Interstate 91 will be crossing our path on I-89 where the river is the state line between Vermont and New Hampshire.  I-91 stays on the Vermont side of the river all the way down to Massachusetts and continues down through Connecticut until is finds I-95.  Our ride is down I-89 until it ends at I-93 south of Concord, the capitol of New Hampshire.

This is the last I-89 exit in Vermont as it passes I-91 and will cross the river into New Hampshire ahead.

Vacation Day 7 Continues · · Welcome to New Hampshire 

I missed seeing this state line sign when we passed this way on November 1, 2021 at 5:46 PM.

New Hampshire is still using EXIT numbers instead of MILE marker numbers.  I looked at a marker on the exit ramp to see it showing 60.6 miles to the end if I-89 where it meets I-93.

Sixty miles passed quickly as we continued south to the end of I-89 and connect to I-93 for our next interstate highway segment going to Manchester, NH.  We have another page with 21 photos and images to get us to the next change in our route going south again before turning East at Manchester, NH.  We passed by here at 6:38 PM.