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Point A- Athens, Maine to Point B- Burlington, Vermont on lovely Route 2; we took so many pictures of the scenery we were driving by, someone after awhile said there was nothing better than this and we all soundly agreed.
We started the day by heading to the Farmers Market where my uncle played guitar and sang, and Jason and Lindsey, Brighton’s Farm Interns, sold organic lettuce, spinach and granola.

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After a few hours we finally tore ourselves away and on my aunt’s suggestion drove down to Burlington, Vermont on scenic route 2. What a drive! All the car windows were down and three cameras were sticking out snapping away as we passed by full headed green leaved trees and fields that went on and on reaching up towards clouds that formed any shape you could set in your mind.

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After a couple hours we set Mrs. Wellington (my GPS) to the Ben and Jerry’s Factory and pointed our nose toward the chocolate cream scent on the horizon. When we arrived we were shuttled into an eager group of tourists and were shown the giant silver vats of cream, sugar and milk and learned how the magic happens.

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At the end of the tour we were given a sample of Whirled Peace and went out to see the ice cream grave yard. We saw cunningly rhymed tombstones explaining what caused some of these iconic flavors to die.

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After Ben and Jerry’s we headed to the Burlington Earth Clock which was kind of a cross between Stonehenge and a huge sun dial. We parked by a tiny strip of beach and walked down to the water. I took my sandals off and enjoyed my first toe dip of the summer. We walked up a grassy incline to the large stone slabs set in a perfect circle and took beautiful pictures of the ocean and sail boats passing by between the stones. There was something strange in the air here though, we all noticed it right away… small floating puffs of dandelion seeds or some sort of thing which closely resembles dandelion seeds lazily drifted by on unseen currents of air and hung almost motionless like snow suspended in a photograph.


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We wandered around the clock and eventually made our way towards a local campsite to set our tents up before the night stole the light from the sky and we were left up the creek as it were. On the way into town we stopped at a small convenience store/ deli and the clerk ringing up our order struck up a conversation. Wouldn’t you know it, we happened to roll into town on the second to last day of a Jazz Festival! We’ve had some pretty great luck on this trip so far and this was just another item on the list. We quickly made our way in the direction our helpful clerk pointed and soon heard the soft sounds of jazz down the street.

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There was one group of four men under a tent on the outside porch of a nice looking restaurant and a few steps down the brick walk from them were a man and woman, the man played the sax and the woman sat beside him and sang. A small girl twirled herself and watched her skirt flutter in the breeze she made. Finally at the end of the road there was a street performer balancing on his tight rope in his socks and then on a unicycle followed by a handstand high up in the air on a metal beam. Joey took a good long video you can all look forward to and we all headed back to our campsite. I left the boys to the tent preparations and got to cooking up the buffalo meat and making a salad as soon as we arrived (thanks guys!).

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In the end it rained, but the weather graciously held out until after dinner and began at a decent hour when we were all snug in our sleeping bags sprawled out on the ground and happy to listen to the gentle pitter patter of rain drops on the nylon roofs above our heads…all snug that is until Joey talked Tom into going to the reggae festival… but that’s another story.

This is the life. Until next time America.

-Sarah




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