After almost 18 months staying mostly close to home, I took a late-summer road trip to New England, staying mostly in Vermont, but also hitting New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine. Despite rainier-than-usual weather (including two passing storms, Henri and Ida), it was just the travel tonic for these times: I was mostly outside, surrounded by nature, away from crowds, in highly vaccinated states, and I didn’t have to take a plane to get there. True to my favorite pace of travel (slow), I settled in for six weeks, and let New England’s many delights reveal themselves to me gradually.