Day 3 Sacramento to Auburn, Ca. 52 miles 2400 feet of climbing

yesterday, we rode through american canyon; today we rode alongside the american river

we are getting out of sacramento at just the right time.  the forecast for today is 98 degrees.  the next two days are supposed to be 104 and 108 degrees, respectively.

today was a tale of two rides.  twenty-nine of our first thirty-two miles were along the beautiful bike paths of the american river.  the american river bike trail, formally known as the jedediah smith memorial trail stretches thirty-two miles from beal's point at folsom lake to just north of sacramento.  get this...it was originally mapped out as a transportation route by the capital city wheelmen back in the late 1800's [when they used to ride those big front-wheeled bicycles].  it was abandoned when cars came into vogue but was resurrected in the 1970's.  as i was riding along the trail, i could still see older, abandoned sections that paralleled the new pavement.  kind of like finding bits of the old route 66 alongside I-40.

no pace lines please!

this was a first.

as i entered the bike path, there were the usual markings on the road surface, instructing runners and rollerbladers as to which side of the road they should be on [and, absolutely NO skateboarding allowed!!].  but in all my years of riding on bike paths across america, i've never seen a speed limit sign before.

all creatives along the bike path, small...

should have shot this closer , but i love the warnings

as i mentioned, this was a ride in two parts.  the first section was all along the american river.  a beautiful ride through the rolling pathway along the water.  all the way up river, we passed all manner of animals.  deer and rabbits ran across the bike lanes.  ducks and other water birds were in abundance.  even the squirrels got into the act.  on two occasions, they played chicken with us, just staring us down and remaining in the middle of the path, only to bolt to one side at the very last minute.  totally unnerving for a cyclist as the last thing you want is to run over a critter.

we also rode up to folsom lake.  rode on auburn-folsom road.  never once did i see a sign for folsom prison, but i know it was around there somewhere.  johnny cash, wherever you are:  my hat's off to you.

speaking of hats:  loved that cowboy warning!

the american river, flowing southwest towards sacramento

and large

the second part of the ride today was a teaser for things to come.  the last 19 miles were mostly uphill.  not killer hills, just a slow, steady LONG climb through horse country up into the town of auburn.  auburn is called "the gateway to the sierras."  we are now in the foothills of the sierra nevadas.  tomorrow we will in it for real, with a scheduled 75-mile ride that climbs nearly 9,000 feet, ending up in truckee as we go over the donner pass.

kids say the darnedest things.

there's a father and son team [tom and tommy] from winter park, colorado doing this ride.  during the photo session just before our initial ride out on day 1, someone mentioned that, with so many gray-haired types in the crowd, they should all this the retiree ride.  at that point, tommy, tom's 15-year old son, turned to his dad and said, "geez, they are already retired?  i haven't even gotten my FIRST job yet!"

today, as we were riding up a three-mile section of the end-of-day climb, tom and tommy stopped midway up to rest a spell.  as tom looked down the hill and saw a couple of riders coming into view, he asked his son tommy if they were "part of our group?"  "no," tommy replied, "it's just a couple of old guys."  those old guys were steve [my fellow mississippi rider] and me!"

with about four miles to go before hitting our motel for the end of the ride, and having been forewarned that there weren't any great places to eat around the motel, a bunch of us took a slight detour off course and headed into old town auburn.  it was a cute town center with a number of tourist-designed shops and restaurants.  seven of us stopped at a really great breakfast/lunch place that had and veranda, suitable for eating while watching our bikes all at the same time.  as they couldn't accommodate a table for seven, we split up into two groups.  at my table were steve, meaghan [25-year old school teacher from brooklyn] and emma [22-year old from surrey, england].  as it was smack in the middle of the lunch rush, we had to wait awhile to get served.  while waiting, meaghan grabbed a stack of trivial pursuit cards in a small jar on the table and started rattling off questions to emma, steve and me.  at one point, she asked "which character from dallas has his hat in the permanent collection at the smithsonian museum?"  steve and i easily answered:  "jr ewing."  at which point, meaghan asked, "what's dallas?"  right then and there, steve and i realized that dallas was on tv before either of the two young ladies sitting across from us were born.

tommy was right.  "just a couple of old guys!"

i'm off to an early lights out tonight.  we load the vans at 5:00 am, grab a quick breakfast, and take off at first light.  they are warning us that tomorrow will be the hardest climbs of the entire trip, so we should expect it to be a very long, slow day.  wish me luck!

Day 2 Vallejo to Sacramento, California 74 miles 1100 feet of climbing

our day started out very cool and cloudy, with the same strong winds from the southwest that frustrated us at the end of yesterday's ride.  the ride quickly headed for the canyons just north of vallejo.  the road, and the town, share the same name:  american canyon.  odd name for a town.  beautiful countryside.  and a nice, long, slow, steady climb.  that first part of the ride was great, but the winds soon played havoc with my trip sheet holders.  i don't know if it

was from the moisture yesterday or the winds, but whatever the reason, the clips holding my trip sheet basically died.  if it wasn't for the headwind that blew my sheet back into my chest, i would have been lost for much of the day.  as it was, i was able to improvise, using a couple of clips from office depot and some velcro to jury rig something that held the rest of the day.

speaking of wind, i forgot to mention two things.  one that took place so often yesterday and reprised a couple of times today; the second, an observation from today's ride.

when the crosswinds are blowing as hard as they were, it whistles through my bike helmet, sounding like an oncoming freight train.  it's such a distinctive sound, i almost start looking around for the railroad tracks.

but when the wind is at my back, as it was during the middle of today's ride, i don't hear a thing.  as a headwind, it drowns out all other noises.  but from the back, all i hear is my bike.  it's actually a great diagnostic tool.  if the road is smoothly paved and if my bike is probably tuned, all i hear are my tires on the road surface.  any imperfections, any misalignments, or anything not probably tightened down, the quiet of the road calls those out immediately.  if the road surface is choppy, those same problems cry out with their respective rattling sounds.  but, as it was for the middle miles of today, all i heard was that perfection of a well-tuned bike on smooth roads.  it's so calming and so tranquil.

yes, that is the jelly belly mascot.  apparently, we rode through fairfield, california this morning, headquarters for jelly belly jelly beans.  and, yes, we rode down jelly belly lane as that was where we had our first pit stop.  it wasn't even 9:00 am and already there was a long line of children and their parents [as well as a fair number of non-children-attached couples] eagerly awaiting the morning's tour of the factory.  and, no, i wasn't on that line.  never was a big fan of jelly beans [or bertie's every flavor beans, for that matter].  okay, one thing i did learn while i was there [i only used their bathrooms, i swear i didn't go on the tour!]:  flawed jelly beans are called "belly flops" and are sold at a marked down price.  the lobby also had god-awful portraits of everyone from ronald reagan to dr. martin luther king, all done in jelly beans.  that just takes kitsch to a whole new level of weird.

the bulk of the day was spend riding through the farmlands between vallejo and sacramento in what they call military style [left, right, left right as we rode up the northeast diagonal between the two cities].  the soy and corn were all well irrigated.  the rye and alfalfa were ready for picking.  in fact, we saw a lot of cut grasses ready for baling for hay.  the pastures were filled with cattle and horses. the cows seemed particularly curious as we rode past.  i was amazed how many turned their heads for a better look at us.  riding through those pasturelands and crop fields was also so wonderfully peaceful.  when the roads were well-paved, the only sound other than my tires, or the mooing cattle, was the crackling noise from the overhead transmission lines.

once out of the farmland, we entered the city of
davis, home to uc davis, the finest school for
the study of the grape in the u.s.  what was once the
uc davis school of enology is now the robert

mondavi was a huge benefactor for this school

mondavi institute of wine -- the place where many of america's great winemakers have been trained.  it's also the place where two of the three clones of merlot that go into our t'jara wines were developed [the 3rd clone is bordelaise].

mecca for winemakers 

we ended the day riding into sacramento.  never got a chance to see the capitol building, only "old sacramento" which looks a bit like something out of an old wild west movie.  kitsch, part 2.

you've seen the tower bridge if you watch cbs' "the mentalist" which takes place here in sacramento

today ended with a quick cleaning of the bike and knocking back a couple of beers with andy kaplan, our bike mechanic.  we were trying to figure out how many calories are consumed and burned by tour de france riders.  and, as we are about to get into the heat of this ride, both past sacramento and on into nevada, this'll be the last time i rehydrate with beer post-ride.  but, the sierra nevada tasted pretty good at the end of today's ride in 90+ degree temperatures.

Day 1 San Francisco to Vallejo, California 74 miles 3300 ft of climbing

san francisco bay at daybreak

stowing our gear

i suffer from "too excited to sleep" syndrome.  always have since i was a little kid.  last night was no exception.  anxious to get started and excited about my first step towards heading across country.  so i got little sleep as i kept waking up at all hours of the morning.  when i finally got out of bed, i witnessed the beautiful start of the day out on san francisco bay.

the morning was an early start, not just because it was the first day, but also because there was one thing that we'd be doing today that is part of

the ritual of the cross country ride:  dipping the back tires of our bikes in the pacific.  as the ride ends, the front tire gets kissed by the atlantic ocean in portsmouth, new hampshire.

as is usually the case, we got a late start this first morning.  pictures to be taken, things we left in the rooms, loved ones to say goodbye to, and last-minute instructions for stowing gear, including what you can take and what vehicle will carry which of our equipment, etc.

as i mentioned yesterday, this group comes in all ages, shapes and sizes and years of experience on this kinds of rides.  it seems like a good group and, as will be born out on today's ride, the people i've met so far are just plain nice folks.

are you kidding me!!??

a little over two and a half miles into this first day's ride, we get "teased" with our first climb.  all of us have been talking about the rockies and the hills we'll have to face in colorado, so no one saw this coming.  for a little over one mile, virtually EVERYONE was climbing in his/her granny gear.  not even in the rockies.  in millbrae for god's sake!  in all my training rides up in vermont, i vowed not to use my granny gear and, here we are on day 1 and i'm already breaking out that gear!  this hill was brutal.  one of the guys with a garmin computer on his bike was calling out the percent grade increases.  it started out as an 8% but eventually grew to a 10% climb.  that's NOT the way to start the day.  [in the oh, by the way department:  today was 3300 feet of climbing in total.]

once at the top, we got smacked in the face with the fog coming in off the ocean.  while it looks great when you see it from the 101 heading into san francisco, riding through it is another matter altogether.  it's cold, it's very wet.  and, when the winds are blowing at over 20 mph [weatherman told us that this morning], it shakes the moisture off the trees which "rain" on you.  oh yeah, then there's the matter of visibility.  riding through the clouds basically means you've got about 25 feet of vision in front of you.  and when you're biking at over 30 mph on some of the downhill runs, that's not a lot of time to see something pop up in front of you.

ghosts of aids rides past.

this morning was not only the beginning of our cross country adventure.  it was the first day of the san francisco to los angeles aids ride.  as we were heading north towards san francisco, hundreds [maybe a thousand -- i didn't think that much but was challenged with that number tonight at dinner] of riders were heading south towards l.a.  at one point, i saw a guy on the opposite side of the pacific coast highway who was the spitting image of ken, "the chicken man" from aids rides past.  looked like him.  same build, same sunglasses.  same crazy costume.  i've talked about ken in the past [probably somewhere in last year's mississippi missives] and how he inspired me with his compassion and riding abilities.  hope it was him, if only to know he's still out there helping others, both on and off the road.

the foggy pacific, rough and cold

once i got off of skyline drive and crossed over a ridge, this is the sight of the pacific i witnessed.  worth the picture.  the fog was still coming in, the weather, in the low-to-mid 50's with a strong off-shore wind, was a challenge given that fact that we all dressed for an 80 degree day.

five miles down great highway, the ocean road, we pulled into the parking lot, took our bike shoes and socks off and carried our bikes the hundred yards out to the water

if i'd have thought about it, i would have left the water bottles back in the parking lot

from the beach, we headed up balboa, a mean, short, steep climb up into the city of san francisco.  being sunday morning, the streets were rather empty, so it was great to enjoy riding through the city.

much calmer an hour later.  and look!  it's sunny.

a left off of balboa and we were soon riding through the presidio, the military base right in the city [also a bad movie with sean connery, mark harmon and meg ryan].

the shot at the left is front the ride through the woods along the coastline.  gorgeous views and a beautiful ride.

once we got through the base, we rode up one last hill and there, in front of us, was the fantastic views of the golden gate bridge, the pacific and, looking back, the city of san francisco, alcatraz and everything else to the east.

san francisco from the other side of the golden gate bridge

the rest of the day was a bit of a blur.  we rode through sausalito and larkspur and san rafael.  as it's customary for us all the where the same bike jersey the first day of the ride, along the way people would either ask us if we were a bike club or where were we all heading.  the looks on peoples' faces when we told them:  "portsmouth, new hampshire" was priceless.  a couple of times, people asked if we would pose with them, just to tell their friends of the whack jobs they met on the road this afternoon.


the rest of the ride was almost uneventful.  HEAVY emphasis on the "almost."  the last leg of today's trip took us up into sonoma county and highway 37.  when local bike riders asked us where we were heading [apart from the new hampshire bit], the response we got when we answered, "highway 37" was a universal "oh geez!" people either told us we were nuts to ride along that road, or "bring extra inner tubes 'cause the road is crap and so are the shoulders." [sure enough, one of the guys i rode alongside got a flat on that stretch].

i've probably driven on highways 37 years ago when i went up into the sonoma and napa valleys from san francisco.  this is a single-lane, 55-mpg state highway that cuts right through the napa/sonoma wildlife marshlands.  the sides of the road are flanked by brackish water streams.  today, the winds were howling at over 30 mph.  at least that much.  how could i know?  once you've been hit with crosswinds that nearly knock you off your bike, as was the case today, you know. trust me, YOU KNOW!

while we were on highway 37 for seventeen of the last twenty miles, it was the last eleven miles through the marshlands that nearly did us all in.  the heavy crosswinds changed direction and came at us all in an oblique angle, fortunately not being full-fledged headwinds.  as it was, with the day wearing on, i notice fatigue setting in as my speed slowly and steadily dropped from nearly 20 mph while in a pace line with three other guys [including a local who tagged along as he'd never taken the highway 37 route to his house before] to barely 12 mph while trying my damnedest to fight through the hellacious winds.  finally, with a little over three miles to go we finally got through the marshlands and the winds as we entered vallejo.

one small, but significant piece of history from my past.  as we left the marshlands, mare island was on our right, just before exiting for vallejo.  mare island was where all the navy's war wounded from the pacific in WWII were treated.  my grandfather was a naval surgeon and was stationed there during the war.  nice to finally see where he practiced his craft.

a hot shower, a meal and a couple of bags of ice on my knees and i'm all set to get ready for tomorrow. we head in to sacremento in the morning.  fewer hills, just monday morning traffic to contend with.  and, the day after soreness.  but, as we're all experienced.  that will dissipate as we ride ourselves into better shape.

good night all.

Day 0

I've spent the past two days in Los Angeles with Samantha and Jesse, mostly with Sammy as she's out of school at the moment and Jesse doesn't get off from work until after six something each night.

welcome to la la land

We've toured Santa Monica, eaten our way through the bounty of California cooking [super healthy California cuisine at True Food Kitchen, chai lattes from a guy in a Seton Hall t-shirt on Main Street

Venice Beach, Mexican food at Border Grill in Santa Monica served up from the duo that made themselves famous on the Food Network years ago as "Two Hot Tamales;" knocked back designer pizzas at Pitfire and scarfed down some of the best pancakes -- and the most gi-normous ones at that! -- at Griddle over on Sunset in West Hollywood that I've ever tasted], seen a great

Kubrick exhibit and the "Levitating Mass" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and climbed up into the canyons just beyond Griffith Observatory, just to get close to the "Hollywood" sign.

These past two days have been great, both to see two of my kids as well as to take my mind off of the anticipation of starting the ride.  This morning, in a kind of "changing of the guard" ceremony, Jesse drove me to LAX for my flight up here to San Francisco.  He then drove to Sammy's place where he took a short nap with Sam before heading back over to LAX to pick up Lori and Halle who flew in an hour after I took off for a few days of visiting.

Getting to the check in hotel here in Burlingame, just south of San Francisco, I got a nice surprise.  Steve, one of the guys I rode with up the Mississippi last year, is on this ride.  It'll be good to see a familiar face.  Well...two, that is.  Andy, the bike mechanic from last year's Mississippi ride is also on this Cross Country adventure, so it'll be doubly good to have him again in case of any mechanical emergencies.  Andy was not only incredibly proficient with anything I or any other rider needed last year, but he's just generally an all-around nice guy, so he's good fun to be with as well.

There are, I think, 18 riders heading out tomorrow morning.  Along the way, some riders like me will drop off and other will join the ride.  At one point, there will be upwards of 25 riders during a couple of segments.

The riders are from all around the country.  At orientation tonight, I heard Seattle, Charlotte, Buffalo, Boston, Austin, Columbus, Chicago, two Duluth's and two Brooklyn's, and one Flemington, NJ mentioned.  Yeah, that's not 18, but I didn't recall the rest.  There's also a young woman from Surry, England who's here on a gap year and wanted to see the States, so she's riding across them to do it.  Also a father and son duo from Winter Park, Colorado  Some veterans of past rides.  Many newbies.  Also a much wider range of ages than last year.  Folks in their teens on up to their 60's.  And four woman in addition to two on the crew.

We're heading over the Golden Gate bridge in the morning, after the ritual dipping our back tires into the Pacific Ocean.  Then around the Bay through Sausalito, Larkspur and San Rafael until we get to Vallejo where we'll spend the first night.  Seven-two miles.  Not a bad first day.  Plus some good climbs into San Francisco proper [including up Balboa].

packing and prepping

these last few days before i head off are always filled with bits of anxiety.  i was talking about this at dinner last night with my daughter halle .  i'm in that middle gray zone between finishing up all my prep work and waiting for the ride to start.  my bike is packed and shipped and i can't do more training.  i get filled with all the "what if's" while i'm waiting.  what if i haven't trained enough.  what if i'm not ready for the hills.  what if i'm too slow for everyone else.  what if my shoulder doesn't hold up, or my left hand doesn't recover from the nerve compression, or i have another bout of saddle sores.  yes, i worry about everything.  i've done all this before and faced all those challenges before, but it doesn't stop me from worrying anew.

i'm sure that, once again, i've packed too much clothes

the past couple of days have been all about shopping lists and checking to make sure i've got everything i need for the ride.  my experience last year told me that i need to prepare for more than what the ride organizers suggest.  you never know what the weather is going to be (an icy cold lesson we learned years ago while riding across montana in the middle of august!), when you're going to get a chance to do laundry, or what other unexpected twists and turn might occur.

and, hopefully, enough tools, supplies, equipment

besides all the clothing and equipment, there's been the matter of shipping my bike and my clothes to the starting hotel in san francisco.  i'm going out ahead of the ride to spend a couple of days with jesse and samantha, my son and older daughter, out in los angeles where both now live.  as a result, i not only had to get my bike shipped ahead of time, but am also sending my ride gear ahead so i don't have to schlep it all the way to l.a. and then up again to san francisco.

the lads at sid's bike shop

so, as i'm about the head out of here, i do want to thank those who have been helping me along the way.  thanks to the guys at sid's bike shop.  once again, they were great at getting my bike prepped for the ride.  they even boxed it up and dropped it off at the ups store for me.  thanks guys.

thanks to my trainer michelle adams.  through all my complaining, she helped me overcome my knee, hamstring and shoulder challenges and got me into much better shape for this ride.  thank you michelle.

and, finally, thanks to todd edelson, my physical therapist.  according to the orthopedic surgeons, i should have had some serious shoulder surgery by now.  however, with todd's expert interventions, i've been able to stave off the surgery, at least for the time being.  and my shoulder is much stronger and has a lot more range of motion that should allow me to complete this ride.  thank you todd.

now comes the fun part.  "see you" in san francisco with a pre-ride check-in.

vermont, day 3 and reflections

my original plans, based on the forecast for balmy, 60+ degree days this weekend, called for another long ride today.  three things conspired against those plans:  the rain that was forecast to start a little after noontime; finding out that we were, indeed, renting the house for a year, so i'd need to spend a fair amount of time packing up clothes as well as ski and hiking equipment; and the fact that when i woke up this morning, there was no way i actually wanted to ride again.

"up for breakfast" in downtown manchester

but plans are plans, so i bucked the usual routine of heading into town to load up on a hearty breakfast at "up for breakfast," my favorite local morning stop for stacks of fresh blueberry pancakes.  instead, i wolfed down some toast, yogurt, orange juice and tea and was out the door.

this morning i headed south towards the village of jamaica.  actually, it's not just south of winhall/bondville on routes 30 and 100, it's also downhill from where i was.  i forgot just HOW downhill it was.  it's only about eight or so miles away, but the last three and a half miles are all down a steep 8% grade hill.  lovely going down it; a hummer coming back up.

hey!  not settled in 1761!

the poor folks in this town have had the worst luck.  if you think it was bad with our house having water from the creek/river up into our living room, consider this -- our house is on the floodplain.  so, in that once-in-a-hundred year storm called hurricane irene that hit us two years ago, we got it good.  but the river that overflowed into our living room picked up some serious speed when it went downhill into jamaica.  so much so that it took out the bridge and road going into town as well as the road leaving town.

the river in calmer times.  note the scouring up the sides of the riverbank

basically, both figuratively and literally, jamaica became an island right after hurricane irene hit vermont.  for days afterwards, the only way to get supplies and help into town was by boat.

the rebuilt bridge into town.  they're still working on the riverbed

                                   


and you'd think the folks in jamaica had had enough with super storms, but when sandy hit, yup, it knocked out the power in, of all places, jamaica.  winhall was fine, as was manchester, but poor jamaica couldn't catch a break and couldn't find its lights for days afterwards.

looking back in three days of riding up here, i have yet again come to learn things about myself and the things going on around me.  i wasn't sure i'd be strong enough to climb the hills i set out to attack this trip, but i'm more than glad i was.  that will really help me as i get into the psychology of the sierra nevada's and the rockies.

another good spot for breaky

however, just to keep my wits about me, it's nice to get slapped upside my head every once in awhile.  this morning was no exception.  there i was, feeling cocky about attacking the last mile of the 8% grade this morning.  had a nice cadence going; not rocking too much back and forth as i was settling into my climb.  feeling good.  then, out of the corner of my eye, i see a guy ride past me, easily doing nearly double my speed.  looking good with a nice, smooth rhythm about him.  and yeah, as my son jesse reminded me later this afternoon when i was telling him about my ride this morning, the guy was probably a good 20-30 years younger.  but it reminded me to take things in stride, not get too full of myself and to remember to be mindful of what's going on all around me, not just right in front of me...at all times!

being that it's springtime up here in vermont, i should have remembered that it's black fly season (as well as whatever other small, dark flying creatures are out and about this time of year).  i should have remembered because i have a bad habit of breathing through my mouth when i'm riding, not through my nose.  as such, my wide open mouth was a perfect funnel for all the insects i swallowed these past three days.  who the hell needs protein bars when you've got the live stuff on the tip of your tongue!!

dorset west road, the best leg of yesterday's ride

i want to give a quick shout-out to keith, the bartender at solo, the place where i've been eating dinner the past two nights.  keith and i got talking after my first day's ride about bike routes around manchester.  he's the one who suggested the ride through arlington and up and around dorset.  the sweetest part of this weekend's ride was the dorset west road.  smooth, freshly paved, with gorgeous homes all along the way and lilacs and tree blossoms making the smells as wonderful as the sights.  at one point, i'm cranking it up to 20+ mph, settling into a tuck on my aerobars while van halen was cranking out "panama."  for a couple of minutes, it was pure heaven :-)

hmm...ate breakfasts at the counter; ate dinners at the bar.  anyway, this is a classy place in south londonderry.

finally, i don't know what it is about my ipod, but i swear it's possessed.  and in a very good way.  first, for those who are shocked that i ride while listening to headphones, i keep the volume turned way down.  i can still hear the music or a monologue from eddie izzard or lewis black, but i keep it low enough so i can hear either a car or truck approaching from behind me as well as a fellow cyclist letting me know if she's coming up on my left.  i may be crazy, but i'm not stupid.

anyway, i don't know what it is about my ipod, but it has it's own sixth sense about my musical needs.  i always set it on shuffle when i'm going out for a long ride.  shorter rides, i'll just select a specific playlist, but longer rides i'll just let the ipod wing it.  so how does it always seem to find the right tune for the right moment?  why, when i'm battling fatigue or doubt will it play a song such as elton john's "the bridge?"  or why does it play van halen's "top of the world" just as i'm approaching the top of a major hill climb?  i kid you not, if i'm not feeling it and i need a moral boost, the next song on the ipod is never something like handel's "water music" or al green's "take me to the river" or even a comedy routine -- it's always some hard-driving tune that pumps me up (yes, including elvis costello's song by the same name) and gets my head back on straight.  it's as if my ipod is hardwired into my central nervous system.  it just knows what i need.  whatever the reason, i'm just glad it does.

next stop...san francisco.

until then, remember what you learned at last year's bondville fair:  "never suck all the juice from a tractor."

vermont training, day 2

veni. vidi. vici.  (trans.  "i came.  i saw.  i kicked its ass!")

view from near the top of the big climb looking out on equinox valley (taken on the way down!)

the big hill i came up here to climb isn't as big as it was this morning, or all the other mornings for all the years i've driven up it and wondered if i could make it up it on my bike.  today, i put that fear behind me and climbed the damned thing.  5.5 miles worth of uphill climbing.  about half way up, a park ranger was walking along the side of the road and, almost pitying me, warned me that the steepest part of yet to come.  but, i got up it.  and still had my granny gear in reserve.  didn't need it.  but i do want to thank creedence, the chili's and, especially linkin park for the musical accompaniment that helped me get up the mountain (more on that tomorrow).  i have come to learn that if i can sing while i'm riding, my lungs are working well.  by the time i got to the top, i was singing "sweet hitchhiker" along with ccr.

oddly enough, i'm not nearly as sore today as i was yesterday.  while i had two huge climbs today, the 58 miles were relatively mild compared with yesterday, especially the finishing hills up to stratton.

there's actually three more hiding in the brush

today was a great day of rolling hills and riding along the river that runs throughout the equinox valley (or, as it's called up in dorset, the "stone valley" owing to all the quarries in the area).  great sights, great smells (the lilacs are just starting to blossom up here and their special fragrance was wafting along the roadside all day long).  the sun popped in and out of the clouds and, this time, the weather that was supposed to be in the high 60's, actually was.



along the way, there were a number of
dairy farms, sheep farms and the odd llama or two.  the surprise was a shrill sound of squawking that i heard as i was approaching the covered bridge on the way to arlington.  i couldn't figure out for the life of me what it could be.  then, there on tree stump, were a dozen guinea hens.  by the time i stopped to take the picture over half had flown off across the street.  i haven't seen them since i was in africa.

this covered bridge is one of the few remaining intact throughout southern vermont.  i had to stop, not only to take the picture, but also to get close enough for you to see the sign warning of speeding fines.  gotta love a vermont sense of humor.

late in the day, i stopped to refuel at the dorset general store.  a very cute place with great fresh baked goods that i highly recommend, including stopping by to see the rest of the village.  while loading up on water and gatorade, the proprietor and alice, his baker, convinced me to try her wares.  she had just taken a batch of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.  hot, sweet, and delicious.  a nice treat.  she was disappointed that i only took one cookie.  i didn't have the heart to tell her i had my mind set on hitting the ben & jerry's ice cream stand over in manchester before attacking the route 30 hill.



okay, history fans out there, i need some help.  what the hell is the significance of the year 1761?  was there a great migration from europe, or from the south from the new york city area that year?  why were all the towns and villages around here established/incorporated/settled/chartered in that year?  okay, for incentive, i'll throw in a bottle of t'jara for the first correct answer.

yes, i know the moose didn't settle in 1761.  what the heck, i had another picture and just wanted to balance to end of this.