Day FIFTY

Crossing the mighty Hudson River

Ride for the ice cream takes on a special significance in Vermont.

Doubt you'll find "carbon fiber" anywhere in Hemmings.

With Sooner Rick and Phil atop Hog Back.

They make everything from scratch at Amy's in Brattleboro

With my good friends Henry and Helene DiCarlo.

Larry is happy that they have "smoothies" in Vermont.

Love that dirty water

My GAWD…like landing on another planet. All of a sudden everyone’s walking around with Boston Red Sox shirts and hats. The other way we could tell we were in Vermont is that the cows definitely don’t understand Lester’s accent.

So the Tour de France finished today…big deal! We’ve been riding longer and we’ve still got more to go and we’ve climbed a whole lot more than those guys. Plus we allow women. World class athletes?? No one has to chase us around with a urine cup!

Great day for the climbers and even for the non-climbers. It’s been a long time since we had to really use the climbing legs but everyone seemed to take it in stride. Nary a complaint at tonight’s route rap and there’s more to come tomorrow.

Tony busted a spoke on his rear wheel today making the bike useless. I was with him when Fran called for help and the answer was that they would send the van and drive him the six miles to the SAG where they would see about a fix. Tony then busted a blood vessel. I’m SURE he didn’t swear (very good Catholic boy!) but he’s ridden every inch so far and he wasn’t about to take accept a lift with two days left. Fortunately they came up with an alternative and sent ace mechanic Gerard (who was riding today) back to investigate. Gerard loaned Tony his wheel and then Gerard rode the van to the SAG so Tony can keep his EFI goal.

EFI stands for Every FABULOUS (or insert less family-friendly term) Inch. I’ve often referred to the way we’re going cross country as the rich man’s way versus the people who ride totally self-supported (sleeping in tents, etc). But the one thing both groups have in common is the desire to be on the bike EFI. At the beginning of our tour a number of people identified themselves as desiring to be EFI and at this point it would be difficult for those people to lose that status.

We managed to include two out of the three great Vermont “B” cities today. First it was Bennington and then it was Brattleboro. We only missed Burlington. Most of our group had no idea what to expect and I probably didn’t help their expectation by telling them that they could expect to see most Vermonters in tie-dye and that Vermont had the only sitting Socialist Senator in the U.S. Congress. Fortunately they got great impressions as we zipped into Brattleboro enjoying Bart’s ice cream and off-the-charts baked goods and sandwiches at Amy’s.

The six mile run into the city on Route 9 is one of the sweetest of the trip twisting and turning and constantly expecting a climb around every corner only to find the road gently continuing to drop away. All this with a gentle tailwind allowing 20+ effortless miles per hour the entire time.

Great surprise for me at the hotel where I met my longtime friends Henry and Helene DiCarlo who had driven 2-1/2 hours from Abington, MA to hand deliver Helene’s delicious mundle bread and chocolate chip cookies (you know, the kind with the carmelized brown sugar…mmmmm!) Robb and I only ate two and the rest will go to the first SAG tomorrow so everyone can share. H&H are the parents of my guest rider, Mardie who rode with us when we crossed over to Indiana. They’ve been following the trip and wanted to greet me when I returned to New England. We had a great visit…thank you guys!

Today’s ratings: (the higher the better or easier)

Scenery: 9

Road conditions: 7

Grunt factor: 4