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Published: September 7th 2012
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Our very first campsite. Gorgeous. After leaving camp, the gang decided to spend a couple days in Boston for a little R & R. We saw some old peeps (Zach Gray- whoop!) and some new ones (Ethan Monge), before embarking on our camping journey road trip extravaganza. P.S. Our car, which was supposed to have an empty backseat and a roof rack that contained all of our camping gear, was one of the hottest messes of a car I’ve ever encountered. We mailed some boxes home to alleviate some of the crapola filling the backseat, but Lordy if it wasn’t the most crowded car I’ve seen in a hot minute.
Anyhoo, Monday morning, we drove the Silver Bullet out of the city and into the countryside of northern Vermont. Rob wanted to see a friend from the camp from whence he came, and we found a campsite about 45 minutes north of Burlington. The site was right on the water, looking over the Adirondacks. Cindy in the office was the sweetest. I guess it’s the end of camping season because the site was pretty much empty except for some RVs, so she told us to just set up camp wherever we wanted. This is where
the struggle began.
Clearly, the gang isn’t well-versed in camping. We bought a 6-person pop-up easy squeezy tent, which we failed to perform a dry run in order to avoid failing our first time attempting to set it up. Since the wind was coming in, and we had no idea where to set up camp, I’d say calling it a “struggle” was an understatement. We managed to get the tent up in less than a minute, but we couldn’t find the stakes, and the wind was blowing the tent all over. Plus, there were giggles, which made it hard for anyone to make a decision about what to do next. We attempted to roll back up the tent to put in the car so we could go buy some stakes and a tarp and a rain fly, but a six person tent is more difficult to put in its original container than expected.
After a few minutes, some lovely gentlemen decided to come and help us out. One of them had an axe (and apparently, tiny feet, according to Mr. Rob), so we thought since he had weaponry, we better just listen to his advice. Before helping us, however, they told us that they had been watching us and how ridiculous we looked trying to set up camp. They helped us pick a better spot, found our stakes, and gave us some advice on where to buy firewood and apple cider donuts. Even though Rob clearly could have set up our camp site on his own, the advice was nice. Oh, at this point Abigail’s lymph nodes are the size of baseballs. She got sick in Boston, and it just kept getting worse on our travels. So sad.
After everything was set up, we finally got it together to buy some firewood and relax in the rain by the fire. Guess what is difficult for us? Building a fire. At least this time no one could see our struggle. We just had a lack of kindling (and lighter fluid), so we had to use an entire school notebook of Abigail’s to get it going. I believe that we just ate snacks for dinner and then slept to the sounds of rain falling upon the tent. Lovely.
The next day, Abigail woke up early to try to find a doctor. While she was gone, Rob and I took a walk up the road to find an abundance of items he lost the day before. He had showered and left his towel, glasses, contact case, and dirty clothes atop the car. I ran into town to grab some dranks, and we figured his stuff all flew off the top of the car in the process. Whoopsies.
B’Gail returned without finding a doctor, but since we wanted to get our day going, we thought we could mayhaps find a doctor in Burlington, so we packed up the car and headed into town. She had been gone for like 2 hours earlier that day, and came back still sick. Guess what? No doctors in Vermont, but an abundance of brew pubs and cheese.
Downtown Burlington is a really cool little college town with lots of little shops and restaurants. We walked around for a bit before eating at a local brewery/restaurant. Everything was super cheap- including beer for $2 (and gluten free selections- win!) and delicious black bean soup and sandwiches. Rob ate a ploughman’s lunch of a variety of different breads and cheeses. Outstanding. We walked around for a bit after lunch, but when we saw some police cars racing to the scene of some crime that had happened in an office building, we booked it. Next stop: Ben and Jerry’s factory.
We rolled into the factory and paid a whopping $4 for a tour. It was like being in “Unwrapped,” but in real life. We read all about the history of B&J and heard super lame jokes from our tour guide, Anthony. That day, they were making Rum Raisin ice cream. Not my fave, but we got to sample cookies with cream. YUM-O. Clearly, I was at the front of the sample line so I got more than one. After the factory, we headed to Wal-Mart for some additional camping supplies (including a popcorn maker!) and headed back to camp. Here it comes: Miracle of the trip #1:
Upon arriving back at camp, Rob and I decided to go for a run on the farm-y roads near the campsite. We had run the day before, just up the road and past a scary barking dog (whilst singing some Forrest Gump soundtrack songs from his long run- it was the same). This day, we decided to run a little further than the last time, so I picked a random driveway at the top of the hill as our turn-around point. Boom! We got to the driveway and guess what was there? All of Rob’s stuff that he had lost the day before. Everything was intact, even his teeny contacts case. The only thing missing was a baller Tybee Island t-shirt. What are the odds? THEN, Abigail came driving up the road returning from her firewood collection journey, so we could put all of Rob’s junk in the car and not have to carry it back for the second half of our run. MIRACLE!
Later that night, we sent Rob out to pick up his friend, Jake from a local summer camp. We ate canned soup heated on the fire while we waited for his return. It was perfect cold at night and the night view of the lake was spectacular. All shimmery and whatnot. We just hung by the fire a’drinkin’ and listening to Tim McGraw. Abi and Rob drove Jake home around midnight and I crashed.
OK, the next morning Abi and I woke up early, so we drove to the little market to get some breakfast and coffee. We noticed that it was the first day of kindergarten at a local school, and it was so so cute watching all the little guys going into the building with their bears and whatnot. We got our supplies but on the way back, I got pulled over in the school zone for speeding. Officer Dearborne was pretty serious face in his giant hat, but he let me off with a warning: “I guess it’s the first day of school… so uh… we’re supposed to make sure no one’s speeding through here when there are children present…” But it was really nice of him to not charge me with a ticket.
After packing up the car when we got back to the campsite, we said our goodbyes to Cindy, took some pics by the view of the lake (still sparkling!) and headed out of Vermont (with a belly full of cheddar).
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