Miles logged: 2,038
One sweet stop
After our evening with friends of the human and crustacean kind, we were back on the road. Our trip was winding down. At this point we had driven almost 2,000 miles and Rebecca and I could feel the road getting to us. Our spirits endured with the excitement and the beauty of our next destination.
Heading even farther north to Vermont through middle New Hampshire was peaceful. Gently rolling hills and the rising sun made for a pleasant morning cruise. Trees budded with the arrival of spring. We drove through small towns dotted with houses on hillsides; the church steeple as the prominent town edifice. The hills of New Hampshire quickly became the northern ranges of the Appalachian Mountains. I often had to keep myself from staring at the patches of snow still lingering on the highest peaks. It’s not that I wanted to stop, it’s because I was driving. Vermont blew me away. I had no she was so beautiful. Vermont is a yuppie-free Colorado, similar mountains, but without the condos.
The Green Mountain state is not famous for much. Google famous Vermonters and you get Calvin Coolidge, John Deere and some hockey player, among others. Vermont is landlocked in the Northeast; not exactly prime real estate. But one thing they do have is cattle, fabulous, happy, and, of course, delicious cows. Happy cows do not come from California. They all moved to Vermont. These marvelous, grass-fed beasts produce some of the best milk and cream available. This cows’ gift makes some damn good ice cream.
In 1977, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield decided to quit their day jobs and do something more fun. So they completed a five-dollar ice cream making correspondents course from Penn State University. With $12,000 start-up money, they renovated a gas station in the college town of Burlington, VT to open Ben and Jerry’s Homemade. Pioneering innovative flavors like Cherry Garcia and New York Super Fudge Chunk, Ben and Jerry’s quickly caught on. From earning a little more then $4 million in 1984 to being purchased for $326 million in 2000. Ben and Jerry’s always felt a social responsibility for their community and environment. The company pledges a percentage of the year’s profits to charity and utilizes environmentally friendly packaging and shipping methods. Today, Ben and Jerry have s
tepped back from the spotlight but their namesake lives on to be enjoyed all over the world one pint at a time.
The factory tour at the Ben & Jerry’s Waterbury facility has become Vermont’s most popular tourist attraction. Every year ice cream diehards, like us, make the pilgrimage to Vermont to see the birth of their favorite ice cream. The dairy barn-style ice cream factory sits nestled in the beautiful Vermont landscape outside Waterbury. Milling about the campus you get a feel for company. Simple style and bright colors are welcoming and clean. A couple hippies started the company and one definitely gets that feeling. I mean who else would quit their day jobs to make ice cream? You can buy just about anything tie-dye with the B&J’s logo on it in the gift shop next to, guess what, the ice cream store. Other than these areas, there is little to see and do until the tour starts.
We paid our $3 each for the tour and we began with the standard introductory video. We then proceeded to the mezzanine, a glass viewing area above the production floor. In this area photography is prohibited, fearing that a tour guest is a spy from Haagen-Dazs. “Old Slugworth would give his false teeth for fifteen minutes in this room,” says Mr. Wonka. Sadly to say, ice cream production was at a stand still on the date of our visit. The oopaloompas had the day off. After the disappointing view of production, it was time for the tasting, everyone’s favorite part of the tour. Tour goers then crammed into an orange room to receive their oversized paper ketchup receptacle of oatmeal cookie dough ice cream. After a few bites and licks of my sample, a silent Q and A portion of the tour, it ended. I exited a little bummed, I must say. The tour wasn’t very informative, we didn’t get to see ice cream being made and our tour guide was on such a sugar high, you could hardly understand him. The tour was a bit on the lacking side.
After the disappointing tour we bought some overpriced bigger samples from the scoop shop. We snapped pictures and meandered through the flavor graveyard for discontinued ice cream. After snapping a few more pictures, it was time to go. We came. We saw. We sampled. The state’s largest tourist attraction certainly left something to be desired. At least I left with the aftertaste of some really good ice cream.
