Waterbury & the Ice Cream Factory — a stop on Vermont Route 100.
Waterbury is where we start, and if you've got children in the car you already know what's here: the Ben and Jerry's factory is just north of town, and the tour is exactly as good as you'd hope.
But the more interesting thing about Waterbury is what it says about modern Vermont. This is a small town that reinvented itself — it used to be dominated by a state hospital complex, and when that wound down the town turned into a food-and-drink hub: cideries, breweries, a very good farmers market, and a main street of genuinely nice places to eat. It's become the front door to this whole valley.
It also sits on the Winooski River, and it has been flooded — badly — more than once. You'll hear that theme all day today, because water is the recurring character in this landscape.
Fuel up here if you need it. Once we get south of Waitsfield the services thin out considerably, and through Granville Gulf there is nothing at all for about six miles — no houses, no gas, no signal. Vermont is small on the map and surprisingly empty on the ground.