Granny Gear

Day 63: So. Burlington, VT to St. Johnsbury, VT--78 miles

The good news is that we reached 3,400 miles today--our estimate for how far we would travel during this trip. The bad news is that we were NOT at the Atlantic Ocean yet!

This was one of the most difficult days of riding so far. And you would think it would be easy after so many days... The Green Mountains are green, gorgeous, and they ARE mountains! When they built a lot of the towns in the 1700's in New England, they weren't thinking much about road grading for cars and especially for bicycles! So the hills are relatively short and steep--and we had a lot of them!

We started this morning from the Elcan home after a great visit and headed uphill to Rt. 2. It was sunny and humid, and we were sweating like mojos after only a few minutes! Wait! Is that alcohol we're sweating out of our pores? Why, yes it is! We drank almost like we were in college last night with my college buddies, and after 2 beers and 1/2 bottle of wine, I felt a bit sluggish this morning!

We climbed out of Burlington and then had a great 10% downhill that dumped us into the middle of the Green Mountains. There was farmland all around, and beautiful gardens everywhere. The views all around us were stunning! We had decent shoulders for most of the day, and a few places where the road was bad. The new roads in VT have beautiful 6-foot shoulders! (And P.S. Carmel, you would LOVE riding on a Bike Vermont tour--we have done it.)

Today, we saw a new kind of wildlife--a camel! It was a very odd sight right here in the middle of Vermont, and unfortunately it ran into its barn before David could get his camera out. I guess IT thought WE were unusual, not the other way around!

Our slow morning with the hills got us to Waterbury for lunch. A neat town I would like to visit again when I'm not so focused on finishing the bike ride. I had a light lunch and some iced tea, which perked me up considerably. The next 12 miles into Montpelier (VT's Capitol) were FAST--we flew! We stopped for the obligatory coffee/chai break and wished we could stay longer to explore. This would be a great area to spend a week just wandering through all the beautiful towns (and shopping).

We rode pretty fast for about 10 miles out of Monpelier, fueled by caffeine. And then the hills started. It wasn't too serious until Marshfield, which I climbed into at about 4 mph. Then we had long, steep hills all the way into Danville. Each time we thought we were at the top, yet another steep hill would appear! It was a nightmare in the heat.

But we got some of that altitude back in the last 5 miles into St. Johnsbury. Of course, once we got into town, we had to climb back up a ways, but we were able to make it to the Holiday Motel, where the manager let me use her laptop to blog! How nice of Ginny to help us out like that!