Aug 12 Burlington to Stowe VT

Today was the second short day in a row with only 49 miles to ride. Luggage loading was delayed by 15 minutes as the university cafeteria where breakfast was did not open until 7:00 am rather than the typical 6:30 AM. The extra 15 minutes of sleep was great and packing up the tent was easy as it was totally dry.

Ken and I lingered over coffee this morning before hitting the road.  There were a few miles of busy traffic before we were off in the country roads.  The country side of Vermont is heavily wooded with steep hills.  There were a lot of climbs of a mile or more in length and grades as steep as 10%.  The distances were short with first water at only 22 miles and picnic at 39 miles.  This put Ken and I down to picnic at 10:30 Am.

At picnic we heard the one of the riders crashed and was taken to hospital. She had attempted to do the coast to coast in 2102 but had crashed out back early in the tour. I believe it was the third week.  The rumour mill has it is a broken clavicle, but that is only rumour.  I sure hope she is ok as she is so close.

After picnic Ken and I stopped in at the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory for the tour.  Although I had done the tour in 2010 we did it together and had a bunch of laughs.  There are a ton of Moo jokes along the factory tour.  The sample ice cream was strawberry cheese cake, which was ok but not my favourite.  I think the little bits of graham cracker which is suppose to be the cheese cake crust gives it an unexpected texture.

It was only a few miles in to camp and a couple more into town so we cruised into town and had a beer and some big soft pretzels for a snack.  The soft pretzels were nice and warm and came with some tangy mustard. They were excellent.

Camp to night is in a camp ground out side of town so there is no indoor floor flopping.  Add to this the fact that the weather forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow. So it looks like 80%  of the riders have bailed out and have ridden into town and found motel rooms.  I am sure they paid a pretty penny to be in the cutesy B&B’s and historic inns which make up the town of Stowe.

Terry