No signs of the times

Our camera seems to have made a partial recovery after its dip in the stream yesterday - at least enough to upload the photos we'd already taken.  But alas it wasn't functioning at all as we passed the most modestly named guest accommodation I've ever come across - the Ho-Hum Motel in South Burlington.  Hard by the So-So Cafe and the Nothing-Special diner (ah, if only).

Modesty may be a bit of a Vermont thing, I don't know.  Certainly there are no boastful roadside hoardings promising you the earth with this or that product or fabulous day out.  Though, as it turns out, billboards are banned altogether in Vermont, and have been since 1968.  This is largely down to a state legislator, Ted Riehle, who strongly felt that Vermont's landscape was being despoiled by signage.  So he went against the businessmen and landowners who most profited from billboards and pioneered the landmark change in state law - now much appreciated by Vermonters.  Read more about it here.  And mark, the man was a Republican - a member of a party not so much noted now for valuing the environment above commercial interests (although a longer time ago it was also the party of Theodore Roosevelt who instituted America's National Parks - the jewels in this country's environmental crown).

I loved travelling through scenery free of advertising.  I loved the look of Vermont altogether - the tree-covered mountains, the verdant pasture, the well-kempt houses in every town and village.  Of course there's beauty, natural and man-made, to be found all over this country, but as states go (at least the ones I've visited), Vermont seems particuarly well cared for and looked after.