VERMONT
We made it through Vermont and are spending the night in New Hampshire. We should make Maine tomorrow, and if we get a big enough foothold, we'll get to the Atlantic before sunset on Saturday. We are feeling ambivalent, and a little sad about the trip ending---I'm so tired, I am barely functioning. But, I'm having such a nice time, I don't want it to end so soon.
We made it to the PENGUIN movie as planned, in MIDDLEBURY. Under "ordinary circumstances", we would have found the documentary heart-warming and dear. However, our perspective is definitely slanted by our summer adventure, and when we learned that the penguins only needed to "march" 70 miles and it took them an ENTIRE WEEK to do it, we weren't very sympathetic to their plight. When the narrator, Morgan Freeman, spoke in a hushed voice about the "bad weather" the penguins were facing, we HARUMPHED at the birds. There we were, two adults sitting in the rear of the theater heckling a nature film! Those birds should try doing that on a BICYCLE! I did feel a teensy bit stirred when Morgan Freeman mentioned that the male penguins hadn't eaten in 4 months. After all, I can barely go 4 hours without eating, and I'm sure they were getting a little hungry. But even that sympathy was dampened by the fact that I had dropped all my junior mints on the floor during the previews. Plus the theater was so NON ANTARCTICA. It wasn't air conditioned.
Vermont was wonderful to us---it is definitely the best smelling state I've ridden through. The mountains are fierce, but rideable, and the scenery is of the knock-your-socks-off variety. We sat outside the general store in So. Stafford for a long time this morning, chatting with the locals. Then, at lunch we ran into some cyclists who have been married 54 years! We talked to them about the trip, and met their son who was traveling along and offering car support to them. When the gentleman heard how far we've ridden, he asked if we had gotten out of an insane asylum. But, before he left, he insisted on "touching" us. He was in awe. They recommended a nice ride, with a good blueberry patch on the roadside. I had the BEST GRILLED CHEESE sandwich EVER at Isabel's Cafe in Thetford Center. Vermont has excellent cheese!
I have been having a string of bad luck at the libraries lately---they've been closed on the days I've been in town, or had limited hours. For the first time on the ENTIRE trip, I found a library that did NOT have internet access. In Bethel, VT---and the librarian seemed uninterested in acquiring it. Today; however, my luck changed in the very small community of Piermont, where the librarian opened the library early. She welcomed us in, booted up a laptop and provided a fan. I sat with her for a long time talking about books---particularly about the challenges I've had in reading on this trip. She let me "check out" a book from her basket for an indefinite period of time, and I'll be returning it from Minnesota. Her library is immaculate, and she was interesting and encouraging. Every town would be fortunate to have a place like the Piermont Library.
My iPod continues to provide all the entertainment I need to get over the mountains and beyond. At different times, I've cued up different artists/playlists and genres. In the mountains, I always listen to rock and roll, and Kami says that she can tell when I've got a good song going, because I shoot up and over. In Canada, I listened to the Canadian girls from my collection: Sarah McLaughlin, Alanis Morrisette, kd lang, the incomparable Joni Mitchell and more. For some reason, I listened to Sinatra across the plains, and Carole King on some flats. I'll always remember a morning in Montana when it was so cold I was playing the James Taylor Christmas album! I brought along a splitter and extra headphones, and sometimes when we were camping, Kami and I both listened to interview programs that I had downloaded from NPR. I have not run out of battery charge ever, although I've come close. I'm an expert now on where to jack power, and have even been known to unplug Coke machines on remote stretches of road and sit beside my iPod while it powered up again! If only I could power up myself with such ease.
We'll ride the Kancamagus (I think I've got that spelled right now) Highway tomorrow, up and over our final mountain pass of the trip. I may not get another internet opportunity before we reach the ocean, but will update the site as soon as we get those tires wet again. The Atlantic or bust!
We made it to the PENGUIN movie as planned, in MIDDLEBURY. Under "ordinary circumstances", we would have found the documentary heart-warming and dear. However, our perspective is definitely slanted by our summer adventure, and when we learned that the penguins only needed to "march" 70 miles and it took them an ENTIRE WEEK to do it, we weren't very sympathetic to their plight. When the narrator, Morgan Freeman, spoke in a hushed voice about the "bad weather" the penguins were facing, we HARUMPHED at the birds. There we were, two adults sitting in the rear of the theater heckling a nature film! Those birds should try doing that on a BICYCLE! I did feel a teensy bit stirred when Morgan Freeman mentioned that the male penguins hadn't eaten in 4 months. After all, I can barely go 4 hours without eating, and I'm sure they were getting a little hungry. But even that sympathy was dampened by the fact that I had dropped all my junior mints on the floor during the previews. Plus the theater was so NON ANTARCTICA. It wasn't air conditioned.
Vermont was wonderful to us---it is definitely the best smelling state I've ridden through. The mountains are fierce, but rideable, and the scenery is of the knock-your-socks-off variety. We sat outside the general store in So. Stafford for a long time this morning, chatting with the locals. Then, at lunch we ran into some cyclists who have been married 54 years! We talked to them about the trip, and met their son who was traveling along and offering car support to them. When the gentleman heard how far we've ridden, he asked if we had gotten out of an insane asylum. But, before he left, he insisted on "touching" us. He was in awe. They recommended a nice ride, with a good blueberry patch on the roadside. I had the BEST GRILLED CHEESE sandwich EVER at Isabel's Cafe in Thetford Center. Vermont has excellent cheese!
I have been having a string of bad luck at the libraries lately---they've been closed on the days I've been in town, or had limited hours. For the first time on the ENTIRE trip, I found a library that did NOT have internet access. In Bethel, VT---and the librarian seemed uninterested in acquiring it. Today; however, my luck changed in the very small community of Piermont, where the librarian opened the library early. She welcomed us in, booted up a laptop and provided a fan. I sat with her for a long time talking about books---particularly about the challenges I've had in reading on this trip. She let me "check out" a book from her basket for an indefinite period of time, and I'll be returning it from Minnesota. Her library is immaculate, and she was interesting and encouraging. Every town would be fortunate to have a place like the Piermont Library.
My iPod continues to provide all the entertainment I need to get over the mountains and beyond. At different times, I've cued up different artists/playlists and genres. In the mountains, I always listen to rock and roll, and Kami says that she can tell when I've got a good song going, because I shoot up and over. In Canada, I listened to the Canadian girls from my collection: Sarah McLaughlin, Alanis Morrisette, kd lang, the incomparable Joni Mitchell and more. For some reason, I listened to Sinatra across the plains, and Carole King on some flats. I'll always remember a morning in Montana when it was so cold I was playing the James Taylor Christmas album! I brought along a splitter and extra headphones, and sometimes when we were camping, Kami and I both listened to interview programs that I had downloaded from NPR. I have not run out of battery charge ever, although I've come close. I'm an expert now on where to jack power, and have even been known to unplug Coke machines on remote stretches of road and sit beside my iPod while it powered up again! If only I could power up myself with such ease.
We'll ride the Kancamagus (I think I've got that spelled right now) Highway tomorrow, up and over our final mountain pass of the trip. I may not get another internet opportunity before we reach the ocean, but will update the site as soon as we get those tires wet again. The Atlantic or bust!
posted by Laurel @ 7:21 PM
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