Drove down to Orwell to visit the Mount Independence historical site (what else to do on Indepdence Day Weekend?). Simple route: take Rt 22A south until you hit Rt 30 at Orwell and then the site is about 6 miles from that intersection.

We planned to pickup some sandwiches along the way to eat as a picnic once we got there – we stopped at the Addison Country Store only to find that it was closed 🙁. But we got our picture at the Addison town sign and continued south on 22A, stopping at Pratt’s Store and Deli in Bridport to get our sandwiches (and our picture at the Bridport Post Office sign).

The Mount Independence historical site was quite enjoyable and interesting. There is a bldg (built in 1996) with displays and info about the site and the battle, and we saw a short movie about the history of the site. Yes, there is even a little gift shop, and I got a new cap and Barb a pine-scented sachet. We ate at one of the picnic tables near the bldg (sandwiches were very good!), but then walked for a few miles on the trails – very pleasant easy trail in the woods with lots of markers with info and some nice views.

Mt Independence is across the lake from Fort Ticonderoga, so we will have to come back to explore more!

Once we got back to 22A, we continued on 30 into the town of Orwell and got our picture by the sign in front of the town office bldg.

Of course we had to stop to get creemees on the way back – there are two places in “West” Addison that we had noted: Goodies Snack Bar and the Bridge Restaurant. We opted for Goodies and arrived to a line that moved very slowly . . . no Maple today, but Barb had chocolate and I had a chocolate/vanilla swirl cone. Not anything to write home about, but they hit the spot on this sunny afternoon (temp was about 80 degrees), and we sat and enjoyed them on shaded benches looking out onto a farm field with two MASSIVE wind turbines (which were turning slowly in the light breeze). Most folks seemed to be getting sundaes and “Frazzles”, so I can see why they must be using a very generic creemee mix.

We THOUGHT that West Addison was seperate from just Addison and looked for an “official” sign for a picture, but without any luck. We took a picture in front of the “WAG” store (WAG = West Addison General), just in case, but it seems that West Addison is really just the western part of Addison 🤷‍♂️.

We passed through more than just these three towns today, but only stopped in these three, so we will need to explore the others we drove through another day!