There are a variety of things we’d stopped doing as a couple, one of which was Road Trips. Not every weekend, but many, the BH and I used to just go for a drive and see where we landed. It’s not great for the planet, sure, but it was good for us. We listened to music, laughed, talked, pointed out the windows at cows and chickens and made the respective animal noises and otherwise ensured that A Good Time Was Had By All. And one of the ways we ensured a good time was ice cream. There always had to be ice cream, preferably at a roadside stand along the way– if we came up dry there was a really good soft serve place in town that more than sufficed before we got home.
It started to peter out when we moved back to Boston, then moreso this last year or so. So on Monday, the BH suggested a road trip.
We meandered, we wandered, we let the GPS squawk without heeding it overmuch. We ended up in New Hampshire and were wending our way home when the below caught our eye. We screeched to a halt in the midst of the road and engaged in a bold U-turn, then descended on the ice cream stand like a bunch of kids after little league. (Ok. We slowed responsibly, turned into an insurance agency parking lot, turned around and parked before proceeding in a reasonable manner into the store while only elbowing three or four toddlers in the head.)
Our roadtrip was therefore successful.
Brightly painted exterior? Check. American flag? Check. That characteristic low building with an overhang above the walkup counter with pillars out front? Check.
All the sundae flavors and toppings your greedy heart can desire, plus Richardson’s (16% butterfat, yeah baby), the Ice Cream of My Youth? Check.
Commemorative t-shirts and ice cream cakes, Party Food of the Gods? Also a check.
And last but not least, a medium cup of Butter Crunch ice cream eaten outside on a sticky picnic table. I tell you, butter is jealous of this ice cream for its buttery goodness, complete with butterscotch shards.
And lo, A Good Time Was Had By All.
OMG, that looks amazing. And fun. And a bazillion times better than the road trips I ended up taking on Sunday and Tuesday. (My sister took a drive on Sunday, only to have her car break down in Great Barrington, MA. So I took an emergency trip to get her, late that afternoon. And, I drove her up on Tuesday afternoon to pick up her car after it was fixed.) We should have stopped for ice-cream, dammit!
Butterscotch shards? Be still my heart.
Jenn @ Juggling Lifes last blog post..Bloggers: They’re Just As Delightful As You Thought They’d Be
I too love a good road trip. We don’t drive around aimlessly now as often as we used to cause we feel a little neglectful of ‘missy’ in the back seat. New to 2009 is ‘are we there yet?’ Kinda hard to answer when you are going nowhere in particular. Or Haworth. Now I think about it, we can drive for miles and miles across the pennines, going around and around for hours and yet always seem to end up in Haworth. At least they have a nice steam train there. What’s that? Rain? Oh well, at least it’ll only take us ten minutes to get home…
richardsons’ is very good but out in sterling, between the wachusett reservoir and leominster is Rota Spring ice cream which has the best best NY style cheesecake flavor ice cream I’ve ever had and in the fall has pumpkin ice cream which is so good but if you want to bring it home (as opposed to eating a conde or sundae there), they only sell it in 25 gallon increments
Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed your most recent post. I think you should post more frequently, you obviously have talent for blogging!
Love the line “engaged in a bold U-turn.” Hilarious! That sounds like a really fun time and that Butter Crunch looks like heaven. ; )
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Oh my…sure fun it was! Road trips is something I miss doing with the bf and this is so inspiring!
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butterscotch icecream.
i just drooled on myself.
no…seriously.
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