Windsor calls itself the birthplace of Vermont, and the claim rests on a tavern. In July 1777 delegates met in a building on the town's main street and adopted the constitution of the independent Vermont Republic, the first in North America to ban adult slavery and give the vote to men without property. The building still stands as the Old Constitution House, a modest clapboard museum, and it explains a lot about the stubborn, independent character of the state. Vermont was not part of the United States until 1791.
The Connecticut River is the town's other defining feature, and the covered bridge that crosses it to Cornish, New Hampshire, is the longest in the United States and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world, at about 450 feet. It was built in 1866 and still carries cars, although you cross it slowly on a rumbling timber deck, in a long dim tunnel of boards, with the river flashing through the gaps. For a motorcyclist, a covered bridge is a minor event: the surface is metal grating in places, so take it gently and keep off the brake.
The Connecticut River Byway follows the valley with rolling farmland on one side and the river on the other, an easy, pleasant road through small villages, white churches, barns and woodlots. It is not a technical ride; the curves are gentle, the surface is good and the speed limit is moderate, and the pleasure is in the pace. Autumn is spectacular, with maples blazing red, and spring is muddy but fresh. Mount Ascutney, an isolated granite peak, rises above the valley and has its own scenic road.
Windsor also has an industrial history, as the home of a famous armory where precision machine tools were made in the nineteenth century, now the American Precision Museum. It is a modest town of about two thousand people, with a few cafes, a bakery and a hardware store, and petrol is available in town. Claremont, in New Hampshire, about twelve kilometres away across the bridge, is larger and has more shops. Park near the main street, walk to the bridge and back, and let the afternoon go slowly.