Windham and the Green Mountains of "Vermont".

The music festival was in full swing so in spite of frequent showers my hosts were out late and up late. I got up and fueled up and headed out for an absolutely gorgeous day on the bike. It started misty and cloudy and cleared up in the middle of the day before threatening rail late in the ride. The storm clouds were all bluster and no bummer but I think I escaped getting wet by the luck of my timing.

 When I stopped for coffee here on my bike ride, I noticed a couple of guys that started to stop and changed their mind. This morning I stopped here again and Greg and Carl stopped in this time and we had a nice conversation along with a local woodworker named Ed whose shop I passed a few times near Windham. In chatting with them and looking at the map to plan a ride for today or tomorrow I noticed how close I would be to my friend Gerhard and so I gave him a call and I'll be staying with him now instead of at a motel in Albany for my visit to see Matt perform in his play in Stockbridge.

 I continued on to Manchester Vermont which is like an outlet mall that has taken over all the old houses in the town center with all the usual suspects that women love. It is also a ski area and just plopped down in the middle of the Green Mountains but a short hop up hiway 7 from the Berkshires. I hurried through with a short stop to apply sunscreen and switch to shades from my clear lenses of the morning. The hills are in abundance and I was well above 100 feet per mile of climbing. Though I looked often, I have yet to see a bear or a moose in Vermont.

 I just love tunnels, even this kind.

 There was water next to the road most of the day which I have grown to expect with the wet year that has been experienced by every place I have visited.

 There were lots of dirt roads on this ride and at one point I started to run short on water so I stopped in to visit Harold who I met on the road and he offered to fill one of my bottles from the spring fed hose. I took it happily but had no intention of drinking it unless things got desperate, which they fortunately did not. I'm wary of untreated water that is reported to be "good water" because I have no desire to experience giardia on this trip. The Newton's water is from a spring fed uncovered cistern complete with frogs moss and mosquitos. All the assurances that it was good enough for people for thousands of years do little to sway me, something about life expectancies improving with the advent of water treatment and refrigeration. Thanks anyway Harold. I enjoyed the conversation if not the water.

 I stopped often for cookies and water and such and enjoyed the slow relaxing pace even though the ride ended up being 97 miles and 9,200 feet of climbing. I met lots of interesting people and they all knew Amos and his family even though my ride took me far afield. Each person offered their advice about the shortest way back to Windham but that's not what I was looking for today or ever. Somewhere along the way, Dan and Trey called from the century ride that they were doing to report temperatures north of 100. I think I briefly saw the low 80s but most of the day was cool and pleasant.

 I hope they were trading up and had no room left to store these.

 After such a nice ride through the woods, there was no better way to cap it off than a nice bath in my own private waterfall. I'm sorry to all my friends back in Texas, but folks, this is LIVING! I could get used to this but I keep repeating to myself. There's no place like home in the winter.