Enveloped in Northeastern Wonder: Ben and Jerry go to Canada

After Leaving Burlington we continued half an hour east to Little River State Park. Shortly before we arrived at the campgrounds the rain returned which meant we had the pleasure of setting up camp in the rain after breaking camp in the rain that morning.  We must have been quite the site to behold as we huddled our umbrella cooking soup over my backpacking stove and trying to stay dry!

Site where we stayed in our tent despite the rain

The next morning we again enjoyed the pleasure of breaking camp in the rain, but were a bit more successful in keeping things dry than we had been the previous morning! 

After stuffing the sodden rainfly in the car we set forth to bring to fruition a plan that could still be implemented despite the rain. That plan was to pay a visit to the original Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory, which is still in operation.

Did you know that Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was started in Vermont by two guys named Ben and Jerry? I didn’t. I also didn’t know that they are so intentional about what goes into their product. Let’s just say that after this visit I feel like I should only ever eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

After taking a few requisite silly pictures outside in the rain we headed indoors for some additional silly pictures and a tour of the factory. The best part of the tour was unquestionably sampling a new flavor of ice cream in the “Flavo Room.”

After the tour we braved the rain again to see the factory more clearly and visit the flavor graveyard where we paid our respects to such inspired flavors as “Ethan Almond” and “Vermonty Python.”

The next stage of our journey took us north all the way to the Canadian border. Along the way we encountered color around every corner as we drove through a series of small towns in Northern Vermont. Here are a few snapshots of the region we were driving through.

When we got to this sign we knew that we had to be close to the border!

In addition to seeing all of the beautiful color along the road we specifically wanted to find the border between the United States and Canada in the town of Stanhope. Why did we want to find this border crossing you ask? Well, because, despite the official crossing nearby complete with the usual array of border patrol agents, we crossed into Canada here, right in the middle of town…

One moment we were in the United States and the next we were in Canada. It was that easy. The town of Stanhope is literally split by the US/Canadian border. We both found that to be quite entertaining.

After marveling at how simple it had been to go to Canada we headed south once more, expecting to see helicopters and DHS agents descending on us at any moment. But that didn’t happen. We successfully went to Canada, and then returned to the United States, where we would soon cross into our second new state of the trip: New Hampshire.

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