Vermont
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Waiting in line at Port Kent
Ferry
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Lois waiting patiently??
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Lake Champlain Ferries
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Our ferry approaching the pier
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First cars off the ferry
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Truck and trailer "squished"
on ferry
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Ferry boiler room 550 hp diesel,
14" bore x 17" stoke. Each piston weighs 1,500 lb.
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Lake Champlain Island
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Lake Champlain shoreline
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Lake Champlain sailboat
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Sailboat school
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Main factory located at Waterbury,
VT
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Vermont Green Mountains
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Mt. Mansfield Ski Life - the
mountain is 4,393 ft. high, the highest in Vermont
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Mt. Mansfield ski runs - imagine
the snow
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Fred likes clouds - looks like
cloud streets all the way to Canada
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Fred the fisherman - Lamoille
River, VT
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The fish managed to stay in the
water
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Stowe, Vt, Antique and Classic
Car Show
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Our ferry boat, the Champlain, was built in
1930 and served originally in the Chesapeake Bay area down by Baltimore. It
was moved to Lake Champlain in 1952. It was towed up the Hudson River and the
top deck of the boat had to be removed to pass some low bridges. The ferry is
148 ft. long and is powered by 2 - 550 hp. diesels. Each engine has 6 cylinders
with a 14" bore and 17" stoke. Each piston weighs 1,500 lbs. The diesels
drive 2 propellers that are each 5 1/2 ft. in diameter and turn at a slow 120
rpms. One of the other ferry boats owned by this company does weekly astonomy
classes. The ferry goes out to the middle of Lake Champlain to get away from
the city lights.
Our best trip in Vermont was to the factory where they make Ben & Jerrys
Ice Cream, just a short trip from the campsite. Ben & Jerry met in PE class
in the 7th grade. They went their separate ways and got back together in their
20's. They wanted to start a business and decided to make ice cream. They tried
several recipes and finally found the best one from a $5.00 correspondence course
they took from the University of Pennsylvania. They decided they would make
their ice cream different than others by adding cookies, candy or syrups. They
opened their first store in a deserted filling station in Burlington, VT. Quickly
they were selling everything they made and the rest is history. They built their
current factory outside Burlington about 50 miles and currently have three other
plants. In their very early days they wanted to make changes to things, not
just make money. They donate 7.5% of their profits to charities, the largest
percentage of any public company in the US. They have also made decisions to
help fight polution with their policies. They only buy milk from small dairies
where the manure from the cows is then used to fertilize the fields where they
grow the hay to feed the cows. Everything goes around in a big circle with no
waste. Oh, remember the fact that they mix things into their ice cream for most
of their flavors. One of their special machines in the plant is called the chunker.
The ice cream is partially frozen to make sure the chunks don't fall to the
bottom of the container. The chunker breaks the added item into "chunks"
and then puts a measured amount into each container. The top is put on and then
it goes to a freezer where it is frozen into its final state in 2 hours. The
plant we visited makes 190,000 pints of ice cream each day. They do provide
small samples and sell cones of whatever you want. We did go off our diet for
this visit.