8-13 - Burlington, VT to Stowe VT - Day 59
 

The theme for today is: "Traffic jam at the Ben and Jerry's Factory"

The ride today was scheduled to be pretty short, only 48 miles,  but the amount of climbing was over 2500 feet.  That of course means a lot of short steep hills.

We were kinda late leaving breakfast at 7:45.  As we traveled out of town, we came upon a labyrinth and Erika and I just had to stop to investigate.  I figured that it would be some kind of hedge type maze that you were intended to find your way out. It was located in the rear yard of a church and was used more in a meditative manner.  I don't really understand it, but following the circular path of low laying bricks is supposed to allow you to get more in touch with your thoughts and feelings.  It's based in ancient religious traditions.

http://www.geomancy.org/labyrinths/index.html

We left the labyrinth at 9AM and set a new trip record, only 7 miles by 9AM!  No problem we'll catch up with the rest of the group.

The weather was not what I was expecting for New England.  It was sunny, warm and hazy.  The interesting building for today had to be the round church at the 25 mile mark.  It's a completely round church that was built many years ago and refurbished recently.

At 10:45 we reached the town of Richmond. The first thing we saw was the Old Round Church.  We stopped for a couple of minutes to look around.  It was built in 1812 and was recently restored. We were told last night to stop at the bakery called the "Daily Bread".  As we pulled up, many of the rest of the riders had been there for a while.  I stopped and had coffee and scones.

The picnic stop only a couple miles further down the road at mile 39.  I'm not sure how hot the temperature was, but I'm sure that it was hotter than the low 80's. As always the lunch was great and we spent time chatting before getting on the road to Ben and Jerry's.

The Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory was located 8 miles outside of Stowe, our destination for tonight. The factory has become a Mecca for ice cream lovers.  The factory has a tour and a gift shop.  By the time we got there we would have to wait for an hour for the next tour, we decided to visit the gift shop and leave.

By the time we got to the campground, it was 88 degrees and 2PM.  I went into the town of Stowe to check it out and have a milk shake.