It’s Day 269 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving through twisty mountain roads, I averaged less than 40 mph as I went from the Fairlee Motel & Drive-in Theater in Fairlee VT of course to the Bethel Drive-In in Bethel VT of course.

The Bethel opened in 1954 as the Randall Drive-In, owned by Harry Hudson. Then as now, it was a small drive-in even by small-town standards with room for just 150 cars. Beginning in 1982, my reference books list the owner as “Ostenberg”, who probably bought the place in the 1970s.

A May 2006 article in The Herald of Randolph VT said Scott Corse bought the Randall “11 years ago”. His crew of teenagers were moving away, so he was looking for someone to operate the drive-in. Corse rented it to Larry and Laurie Girard later in 2006 (through at least 2008), and to Lorena Miller and family in 2012.

Adam Gerhard and Regina Franz leased the Randall from Corse in 2013. Through community appeals including a Kickstarter, which completed in June 2014, they raised enough money for a down payment on a digital projector. That season continued uneventfully, then the couple left, taking the projector with them to a drive-in in New York. They said that Corse had surprised them by not renewing their lease, but according to The Herald, Corse had told them in February 2014 that he did not want them back in 2015.

Some donors were unhappy that their contributions didn’t go towards a long-term solution for their local drive-in. That led to the civil suit filed by the state of Vermont “for making deceptive representations in connection with a fundraiser.” The defendants have maintained their innocence, saying the suit includes erroneous, unsubstantiated by any evidence, and in many cases outright false statements.

David and Tammy Tomaszewski stepped up in 2015 to take over the drive-in, renaming it the Bethel. Corse signed a “yearly renewable lease” with the Tomaszewskis, who also run the local indoor theater. They kept the Bethel going with the last movies available on 35mm film, replaced the original screen before the 2016 season, and installed another digital projector this year. There’s a great interview all about it in the Valley News.

The Bethel’s last movies of this season were on Labor Day Weekend, leaving me in the dark on this Tuesday night in late September. At least I can expect to find this drive-in alive again next spring.

The YouTube video of the day is someone’s capture of the report by WVNY (Burlington’s News Leader) about the 2014 Kickstarter campaign. You can see a clearer version on that Kickstarter page, though the bits of film in the lower corners of this video are a nice touch.

Miles Today / Total: 45 / 31459 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 169

Nearby Restaurant: The Bethel Village Sandwich Shop in the heart of town is a great place for breakfast or lunch. Since there’s that “sandwich” in the name, I figured they had to be good. I ordered the Gilead, which might have been a simple ham and swiss before adding apple maple chutney sauce. That and plenty of coffee made a good sandwich great.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The closest hotel to the Bethel is the Maple Leaf Inn in Barnard. You know the kind of Victorian-era bed and breakfast set in the middle of Vermont woods, the kind you see in postcards? This is that B&B. My room didn’t have a fridge, but it did have a wood-burning fireplace, which is much better. Breakfast was wonderful with freshly baked scones, pumpkin pancakes with true maple syrup, and everything else you would expect from that postcard.

Only in Bethel: Just east of Bethel in South Royalton is a monument to the birthplace of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. As Roadside America reports, Smith was born on the town line between Sharon and Royalton on December 23, 1805. The LDS Church owns 350 acres of landscaped forest and hilltop leading up to a memorial 52-foot-high granite pillar. Smith lived in Vermont until he was ten years old.

Next stop: Four Brothers Drive In, Amenia NY.

It’s Day 267 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Desperate for a drive-in that was showing movies on a Sunday night, I drove almost three hours almost due north from North Hoosick NY, just west of the border, to the Sunset Drive-In in Colchester VT, just east of it.

The Sunset opened as a single-screen drive-in on May 29, 1948. According to Seven Days, Vermont’s independent voice, Ernest and Dorothy Handy bought the Sunset from a developer that year and ran it until their retirement in 1979. That’s when it passed to their son, Peter Handy, who has owned it ever since.

The year after Peter took over, he added two more screens to the Sunset. It stayed at three screens until he added a fourth in 1994. Another big change came in 2013 when with the need to convert to digital projection looming, Peter built a 11-room motel facing the drive-in. I wrote about it back then when it was planned, Seven Days had an article about its unveiling. “The Starlight Inn will support the drive-in, and the two will play into each other,” Peter said. “So I think our odds of staying open now are better than ever in the face of this digital Armageddon.” WPTZ, Burlington’s News Leader, offered a slide show of how the Starlight looked.

That motel must have done the trick, because the Sunset converted all four screens to digital the next year. “It’s a labor of love,” Peter told the Lake Champlain Weekly (pdf) years earlier. “It’s not for the profit. As I said, it’s like a member of the family now.”

The YouTube video of the day comes from Stuck In Vermont, a whimsical-looking series from Seven Days.

With four screens on this Sunday night, I was surprised to find that I’d already seen all of the early movies. I picked American Assassin for a second viewing as a flick that wasn’t bad enough to avoid.

Miles Today / Total: 121 / 31331 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: American Assassin / 169

Nearby Restaurant: The Guilty Plate Diner is right across Porters Point Road from the Sunset, although I probably would have driven across town for its food. I love breakfast all day, especially when I can get a great eggs benedict like theirs for lunch.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Well of course I had to stay at the Starlight Inn on the Sunset grounds. I could see some of the screens from my room, which was immaculate and had all the modern conveniences. (After all, this hotel isn’t very old.) There was no breakfast included, but that’s a quibble since the best restaurant in town is literally across the street.

Only in Colchester: In nearby Burlington, there’s a plaque marking the first scoop shop of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. It was located in an old gas station on the corner of St. Paul and College Street and opened in May 1978.  The location is now a parking lot and the plaque is embedded in the sidewalk in front.

Next stop: Fairlee Motel & Drive-in Theater, Fairlee VT.