Maple Syrup, Jump Rope, and The Chipmunks?

After getting settled last night and taking a short rest for our backs, we headed out for dinner in downtown Bennington. We found an ad for a place with hand-cut steaks and pasta. Unfortunately, there was only one steak on the entire menu, so we opted for pasta. We decided to skip dessert and stopped by Madison Brewing Co on the way back. They had several micro brews that were excellent – and we meet a local who gave us some suggestions for scenic rides around the area. James was about 28 years old and had recently relocated to Bennington from his home in the Bronx to take a position as a mechanical engineer with a local company. We enjoyed talking with him and the bartender for about an hour before turning in for the evening.

This morning, we took another walk downtown to the Blue Benn diner for breakfast. The Blue Benn was an old railway car diner and we sat on stools at the counter, which was a little too similar to sitting on a motorcycle seat. The food was excellent with hearty portions. One surprise was that the syrup brought out for Brian's pancake was not "Vermont Maple Syrup", but regular old syrup. Brian said that he would have specified had he not thought he would look foolish for asking for maple syrup. Who knew?

We sat beside a mother and her son who were obvious regulars – the waitress asked him why his sister had not been in for breakfast this week – she has been at jump rope camp – I found this quite amusing. At the same time, B was distracted by the mini jukeboxes and the current selection playing – the Chipmunks version of Achy Breaky Heart – of course, that is now the theme song for the trip. We can now add this to our list of memorable Achy Breaky versions along with the Spanish version by the mariachi band in Puerto Vallarta.

Then, it was time to get back on the bike and take a look around Vermont. On the way out of town, we were able to mark the white rabbit off of the scavenger hunt list. We saw two white horses and a punch-buggy, but I was not able to get pictures of them. We will keep trying. The weather and roads turned out not to cooperate too well. It was overcast and threatened to rain all day. The state of Vermont appears to be in the processes of paving all major non-interstate roads at the same time. After only going about 60 miles in 2 hours, we decided to head on to Burlington and stop for the day. It still took us about 90 minutes to travel the remaining 45 miles to Burlington.

We got the last room available at the Willard Street Inn B & B. It was the smallest room on the 3rd floor, but it was just perfect. We took another break and then headed out to downtown and to see Lake Champlain. It was just a 12 minute walk (all downhill) to Church Street. There are 4 blocks of pedestrian-only traffic with shops, restaurants, and entertainment. We met a few interesting dogs – a trio of bulldog puppies with pink collars, a miniature whippet, and a very well trained Burmese Mountain Dog. This dog belonged to a couple who ate at the same outdoor cafe we did. When they got a table, they instructed the dog to sit, which he did just on the other side of the velvet rope while they ate their meal. Even when people (kids mostly) would walk up to him and want to pet him, he would look to his owners for their permission before complying. After dinner we headed over to the Vermont Brewing Co and got a sampler. To cap off the evening we headed to the waterfront of Lake Champlain to watch the sunset before taking a cab back up the hill to our room.

We'll update the pictures sometime in the next day or so. Tomorrow, we are headed to Canada.

T’s Terrific Thought of the Day: What do you do at jump rope camp? Does it take a whole week? Did I miss out on this when I was a kid?