Travel Dates: August 2-5, 2018

We invented a card game. No, it hasn’t hit national acclaim (yet!) but as its a travel based card game, we needed to do some research on east coast destinations. And that’s when I found the town of Stowe, VT. For some reason it stuck with me ever since and I knew that’s where we wanted to check Vermont off the list.

Stowe is a small town, especially compared to nearby Burlington, but as we are small town people it fit. We found a family run campground (all the state parks don’t have a electric service, and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how I feel about the humidity out here a time or two) and we ended up on a grassy knoll across from a playground. Plus they had a pool and were 10 minutes from the local mountain biking trail system. Sold.

All the adults made it out on a therapy ride (working on the road and managing kids is a full time gig) Friday and the kids had fun in the pool that afternoon. Saturday morning we went back to the trails with the kids and everyone got a ride in. These are probably the best trails we’ve found so far in the east! Lots of smooth, fun single track that it made it super fun!

“The rain held off Saturday morning just long enough to get the kids out on the trail. All the adults had a therapy ride on Friday, so it was easy to just relax and and go at a slower pace. @alyssakerickson and I hung out with the youngest two and they totally rocked these trails.

I’ve seen a huge shift in Cara’s riding since she had her lesson up at @grandtargheeresort. She’s more confident on the downhill and I can call out “ready position” and she immediately shifts into a more stable feet flat, up off the saddle stance. It’s really fun to watch!” -@currentlywandering

Now that they’d worked hard to earn it, we spent the afternoon at the Ben & Jerry’s original factory just a short 15 minutes down the road in Waterbury, VT. Went on a quick tour ($4 per adult, kids are free), ate a sample, bought a kidney’s worth of ice cream and explored the flavor graveyard.

“When in Rome…er…Vermont.

I’m not sure my kids knew Ben & Jerry’s was an ice cream brand, but of course they were in for a visit once they found out. Tour is short but interesting and naturally we sold a kidney to buy everyone an ice cream cone afterwards. 😂😆” – @currentlywandering

Leaving Stowe, we split from our friends for about a week. We were headed up to Montreal while they went farther into Vermont and New Hampshire. We decided to take the scenic route north through a place called “Smuggler’s Notch”.  In hindsight, it was probably not our wisest decision. #lessonlearned

“Pulling out of the campground in Stowe, we considered our options: the mostly freeway route that we had already seen, or a sure to be scenic route going north that we hadn’t researched very well?

We chose Adventure, perhaps unwisely. Adventure led us to tow a 27 foot Airstream up crazy tight switchbacks on a no-centerline road, through the crazy tight road squiggle between two huge rocks that likely comprises Smuggler’s Notch itself, and down the 14 percent grades on the other side.

We shouldn’t have done this, and you shouldn’t either. No pictures were captured as we barely escaped this particular Adventure. We stopped further down the hill for some Maple soft serve known as a creemee here in Vermont.
And a change of underwear.” – @telegramsam