Day 3 - Dear Dairy Diary

Before we left on our trip, I knew we were kinda on our own during the day since my Aunt Mary had to work. I asked Joshua if he'd be interested in doing the Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour. The answer? An exuberant "YES!" even if it meant leaving kinda early for the two hour drive north to Waterbury.

The weather was, again, a bit gloomy and rainy.

It sure is green though. And there are a lot of mountains.
They should nickname Vermont "The Green Mountain State."
Catchy, huh?

Luckily, by the time we got to the factory, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through the clouds albeit having a tough time doing so.


Kinda random side note: All three of my aunts work at Holstein. Fact. There used to be a time when there were more cows in Vermont than there were people. Fact. They even have an annual event called Strolling of the Heifers in Brattleboro. Fact. I wish I were kidding. Cows and the dairy industry are vital to the livelihood of most Vermonters in one way or another. Practically Fact. You need more evidence? Here's a sign ABOUT COWS that was at B&J's:


What's more fun than touring an ice cream factory? Sampling the ice cream they make, duh. The flavor they were sharing on that day was Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. Cinnamon ice cream with oatmeal cookie pieces throughout = Yum.


Here's a photo of the factory in the distance, taken from the Flavor Graveyard. The big silver tank at the center of the picture holds the sugar, the first two white tanks are for milk and the last two hold cream.

Joshua hamming it up in the Flavor Graveyard over the loss of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt.

By the sounds of this ode to the UK, I'd have loved it! I'm sorry I missed out!

Peace, Love and Ice Cream

It's funny how a Holstein, like this one with Joshua, can produce the necessary liquid to make the creamy goodness that becomes ice cream.

After our tour of Ben & Jerry's, we drove through Waterbury looking for someplace that would catch our eye where we could grab some lunch. Um, but we kind of detoured through the country side. I went a little overboard with our impromptu adventure when I spied a sign for Grandpa's Homemade Applesauce. Intriguing, no?

I don't know what I expected, but when I read orchard I was thinking more than about 20 trees. I was a bit disappointed when all we saw was a wooden crate at the end of his driveway with Ball jars filled with applesauce and a note that said "$5" next to an empty jar where I guess you're supposed to leave said amount in exchange for some wholesome homemade goodness. Too bad it looked a bit suspect.

We saw this on our drive through the country. I think it's going to rain, here's the proof. I call this: Farmer's Barometer.


When we made it back into town, we didn't really see anywhere to go for lunch so we stopped back by B&J's and got some ice cream for the road. I thought we might have better luck in the capitol city, Montpelier, which is about 10-15 miles away. So, on the road again. Here are some buildings that I thought would look great in an old horror film.



Here's a photo of the Capitol Building...much smaller than the one in Texas.
We crossed the White River about half a dozen times on the way to and from Waterbury.

We saw a lot of these foreign signs for deer, moose, and bear crossings.
We never did see any more wildlife...but we know they're out there somewhere.