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Saturday, October 27, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Mechanisms to Counter Boredom
Like Scott said we got in the car that morning and just started driving. The car was a very happy place to be... warm blowing air, a thick sturdy roof and all the heated seat you could ask for! We had a few days to kill, and by few days I mean 7 before the bike festival in Durango, CO this weekend, so we decided to head down to Washington, D.C. to hang with a few of our friends.
It's here that I should mention that directions are a vital and crucial tool to travel. With that said, we had great directions from a friend of our friend Nick's who made the same drive countless times. Directions like' "just head towards Baltimore" worked flawlessly, and with no trouble we arrived at I-495 right in the heart of D.C. The problem is that the 495 works in a circle. The smart thing in our minds would be to use clockwise and counterclockwise as opposed to north and south, but OH WELL, no such luck. We changed direction givers and that's where the confusion began. We were going clockwise and Julie thought we were going counterclockwise. We got LOST. And not the OK lost you can get out of, but the "screw it I don't want to go to D.C. anymore" and "I have no ideas where you are" kind of lost. It was bad. Finally, after a repeated car tour of the city we got to Julie's house!
We had a fun night on the town with Julie and Nick who didn't know each other, but lived a mile away! Look at us bringing friends together :) The next day I went for a run and keeping with the theme I got lost :) Are you surprised? I'm not! After my 20 minute run that turned into and hour Scott and I headed in the city to fill our tourist quota for the day. We walked through the Mall and went to the Air and Space Museum where we learned all about air planes, rockets, space and anything else you can think of that is above ground! We walked to the Washington Memorial and to the new Vietnam Memorial. We ended the day with a street vendor hot dog and pretzel, really, what could be better!
Later that evening we hooked up with my dear friend Laura who cooked us dinner and gave us a warm floor to sleep on! We watched a show on synchronized swimming (very interesting) and played a few rousing games of JENGA! Pooped form a day of getting lost, learning and pushing blocks with our fingers we crashed out for the night and slept likes rocks!
The next day, this would be Monday we headed out of D.C. and ALL the way to Milwaukee, WI where my Aunt Anne and Uncle Tom live. That's a LONG drive which we took turns driving through. Here I need to clear a few things up. I have been give a very hard time ALL my life for falling asleep in the car. Not when I'm driving, but you put me in a passenger seat and I'm out in 15 minutes! NPR makes matters worse. The radio comes on and I'm out in a flash! So, on my turn of driving I decided I would suck it up and drive for as long as I could and then drive a bit longer. By my 3rd hour of driving Scott and wiggling, groaning, and complaining about how bored he was. "Go to sleep. It always works for me" I said, but he didn't. Instead he started pulling out his toe hairs with a pair of pliers! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! OUCH! Personally, I think sleeping is a much smarter potion to counter boredom! So, don't give me a hard time about falling asleep, I'm just keeping myself occupied!
In Milwaukee we were treated to a full fridge and an AWESOME bed in their new house! (they haven't moved in yet) WAY COOL, thanks Aunt Anne! We road our bikes to the Miller Brewery where we had a tour of the factory and soaked up our free samples :) Let me tell you it was MILLER TIME! Aunt Anne took us on a tour of Milwaukee and we had some awesome Chinese food! A highlight for me was when Uncle Tom let me drive his new Mercedes SL coupe. I'm not going to lie, I was scared, but not wanting to pass up the opportunity to tell my dad I got to dive a cool car I got behind the wheel and navigated us home. Tom must have been a bit let down by my cautious driving because when we got back to the house he asked Scott to drive too. I'm not sure what the drive went like, but Scott came back in with a huge grin on his face, and Tom looked a bit pale... sorry Uncle Tom! I'm sure it was a more exciting ride though!
Two days of driving, a HUGE storm, and a cheep hotel room later Scott and I are back at the Rockies! SO CLOSE TO HOME. We're back in Evergreen with the WONDERFUL Wendy and Al and will make our way to Durango tomorrow. IF all goes according to plan we'll be back on Monday!
See you soon!
L
It's here that I should mention that directions are a vital and crucial tool to travel. With that said, we had great directions from a friend of our friend Nick's who made the same drive countless times. Directions like' "just head towards Baltimore" worked flawlessly, and with no trouble we arrived at I-495 right in the heart of D.C. The problem is that the 495 works in a circle. The smart thing in our minds would be to use clockwise and counterclockwise as opposed to north and south, but OH WELL, no such luck. We changed direction givers and that's where the confusion began. We were going clockwise and Julie thought we were going counterclockwise. We got LOST. And not the OK lost you can get out of, but the "screw it I don't want to go to D.C. anymore" and "I have no ideas where you are" kind of lost. It was bad. Finally, after a repeated car tour of the city we got to Julie's house!
We had a fun night on the town with Julie and Nick who didn't know each other, but lived a mile away! Look at us bringing friends together :) The next day I went for a run and keeping with the theme I got lost :) Are you surprised? I'm not! After my 20 minute run that turned into and hour Scott and I headed in the city to fill our tourist quota for the day. We walked through the Mall and went to the Air and Space Museum where we learned all about air planes, rockets, space and anything else you can think of that is above ground! We walked to the Washington Memorial and to the new Vietnam Memorial. We ended the day with a street vendor hot dog and pretzel, really, what could be better!
Later that evening we hooked up with my dear friend Laura who cooked us dinner and gave us a warm floor to sleep on! We watched a show on synchronized swimming (very interesting) and played a few rousing games of JENGA! Pooped form a day of getting lost, learning and pushing blocks with our fingers we crashed out for the night and slept likes rocks!
The next day, this would be Monday we headed out of D.C. and ALL the way to Milwaukee, WI where my Aunt Anne and Uncle Tom live. That's a LONG drive which we took turns driving through. Here I need to clear a few things up. I have been give a very hard time ALL my life for falling asleep in the car. Not when I'm driving, but you put me in a passenger seat and I'm out in 15 minutes! NPR makes matters worse. The radio comes on and I'm out in a flash! So, on my turn of driving I decided I would suck it up and drive for as long as I could and then drive a bit longer. By my 3rd hour of driving Scott and wiggling, groaning, and complaining about how bored he was. "Go to sleep. It always works for me" I said, but he didn't. Instead he started pulling out his toe hairs with a pair of pliers! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! OUCH! Personally, I think sleeping is a much smarter potion to counter boredom! So, don't give me a hard time about falling asleep, I'm just keeping myself occupied!
In Milwaukee we were treated to a full fridge and an AWESOME bed in their new house! (they haven't moved in yet) WAY COOL, thanks Aunt Anne! We road our bikes to the Miller Brewery where we had a tour of the factory and soaked up our free samples :) Let me tell you it was MILLER TIME! Aunt Anne took us on a tour of Milwaukee and we had some awesome Chinese food! A highlight for me was when Uncle Tom let me drive his new Mercedes SL coupe. I'm not going to lie, I was scared, but not wanting to pass up the opportunity to tell my dad I got to dive a cool car I got behind the wheel and navigated us home. Tom must have been a bit let down by my cautious driving because when we got back to the house he asked Scott to drive too. I'm not sure what the drive went like, but Scott came back in with a huge grin on his face, and Tom looked a bit pale... sorry Uncle Tom! I'm sure it was a more exciting ride though!
Two days of driving, a HUGE storm, and a cheep hotel room later Scott and I are back at the Rockies! SO CLOSE TO HOME. We're back in Evergreen with the WONDERFUL Wendy and Al and will make our way to Durango tomorrow. IF all goes according to plan we'll be back on Monday!
See you soon!
L
Homard Bound
WOW since the last post we have been all over the place (we're now in Nebraska)
We successfully made the ride back to Bar harbor in good time and high spirits. And we have been traveling by car for a while now.
Leaving Bath we were hungry for some lobsters as we had been thinking about it all day long, after stopping for the night in a cheap motel in Belfast we headed down the street for the Traditional food of tourists, it was intense. We started with a lobster roll and a salad and moved on the the main creature. They were pretty big and we even had the woman at the next table oogling our seabugs. it's a pretty fun animal to eat and definately won't let you divorce yourself from the fact that you're eating an entire animal, even if it is a bug.
Riding on the following day brought us all the way back to Bar Harbor by mid-afternoon ( a distance that took over two days to ride the fist time. Either we're stronger or we're ready to go home.
Arriving back to the car meant new clothing and a dry place to be, even when it rains, FANTASTIC!!
The following day we bid Ivan farewell and rocketed off down the highway. we didn't do very well and only made it to Freeport by nightfall. there's a campground just outside of town and after getting lost for a while in the dark, rain-slicked country roads we made a lucky wrong turn.
Just as we got to the campground it started to DUMP the rain was falling like gravity was going out of style. And almost as soon as we had the rain fly zipped up it started to come down harder still. and then the lightning came on us. as we counted the seconds between lightning and thunder it ranged from 4 to 8 seconds and then dropped until there was no discernible time gap between FLASH and BANG that lasted until early morning and we packed up our wet tent and sleeping bags and drove on in the immense comfort of the modern Automobile.
To Be continued...
We successfully made the ride back to Bar harbor in good time and high spirits. And we have been traveling by car for a while now.
Leaving Bath we were hungry for some lobsters as we had been thinking about it all day long, after stopping for the night in a cheap motel in Belfast we headed down the street for the Traditional food of tourists, it was intense. We started with a lobster roll and a salad and moved on the the main creature. They were pretty big and we even had the woman at the next table oogling our seabugs. it's a pretty fun animal to eat and definately won't let you divorce yourself from the fact that you're eating an entire animal, even if it is a bug.
Riding on the following day brought us all the way back to Bar Harbor by mid-afternoon ( a distance that took over two days to ride the fist time. Either we're stronger or we're ready to go home.
Arriving back to the car meant new clothing and a dry place to be, even when it rains, FANTASTIC!!
The following day we bid Ivan farewell and rocketed off down the highway. we didn't do very well and only made it to Freeport by nightfall. there's a campground just outside of town and after getting lost for a while in the dark, rain-slicked country roads we made a lucky wrong turn.
Just as we got to the campground it started to DUMP the rain was falling like gravity was going out of style. And almost as soon as we had the rain fly zipped up it started to come down harder still. and then the lightning came on us. as we counted the seconds between lightning and thunder it ranged from 4 to 8 seconds and then dropped until there was no discernible time gap between FLASH and BANG that lasted until early morning and we packed up our wet tent and sleeping bags and drove on in the immense comfort of the modern Automobile.
To Be continued...
Monday, October 8, 2007
Smells Like Pot and Lobster...
... We must be in Maine!
What a week we've had on the road. Last post and we were taking a day off in Middleburry, VT. Well, that was a good day indeed which ended with a young woman our age inviting us to camp on her front lawn and have dinner with her INSIDE! Of course we agreed and set off to her house with dinner items in our packs, but couldn't get there before the sun went down (15 miles away) so we ended up sleeping in a lovely field that belonged to this guy's mom... we asked first!
The next morning we were off to find a ferry that would take us to NEW YORK, Ticonderoga to be exact where we started our journey to Saratoga Springs. We road about 60 miles that day and ended up in a "summer resort" GHOST town on Lake George, NY. We ended up sleeping in the state campground which had already closed down, but was very nice all the same. I must say though it was a bit creepy at night being the only 2 people to fill 170 camp sites!
The next day off to Saratoga Springs where we saw the Serotta factory (sweet bikes)
www.serotta.com shortly after that we found out that bikes were NOT allowed from the Amtrack in Saratoga Springs and James who we were going to stay with had actually moved to Boston in the last week... RIGHT.
We spent the night in Saratoga Springs and road the next day to Schecnetay, NY and hopped our train to Boston from there. It was less of a hop and more of a sit and wait, but eventually we got on a train and got to Boston where James and Jessica greeted us with welcome arms and a warm floor to sleep on. What a guy!
We spent the next day around Boston. Hung out, walked around, drank Boston beer and ate some clam chowder; we even saw the Old North Church. Mom, it was cool the second time around too :) The goal was to eat some good food and see some old stuff... we did both!
After two nights with the hospitality of James and Jessica we road through the streets of Boston out to Cambridge. Not a pleasant ride. I'm not a fan of the city riding and definitely not a fan of the cabs! We hopped back on the Amtrack to Dover, NH where we hung out at the annual Apple Fest and keep riding into Maine. Ah Maine, with it's cold nights and rainy days, I love Maine. Well maybe love is the wrong word, but it is on the way back to the car so I can't complain!
Today was day 2 back in Maine and we made it to Bath. It rained last night, it rained today and by the time we got into Bath we were ready to be off the bikes but 5 or so miles from a camp site. We stopped at a bike shop called Bath Cycle and Ski where I found out my parents bought my bike trainer as a Christmas gift for me a few years ago (it was an on line purchase). I only knew it because of the sticker that came along with the trainer which I have held onto for 3 years thinking of somewhere cool to put it! HOW WEIRED IS THAT!
The people in the shop were SO cool, and let us stay INSIDE for tonight because it is SO COLD outside. Check them out bikeman.com Wendy, your long underwear can't even help me now! So here we are today Oct. 8th. We have 2 more days of riding and then we're back in Bar Harbor! WOO HOO.
I can't wait to sleep on my pillow again!
Lauren
What a week we've had on the road. Last post and we were taking a day off in Middleburry, VT. Well, that was a good day indeed which ended with a young woman our age inviting us to camp on her front lawn and have dinner with her INSIDE! Of course we agreed and set off to her house with dinner items in our packs, but couldn't get there before the sun went down (15 miles away) so we ended up sleeping in a lovely field that belonged to this guy's mom... we asked first!
The next morning we were off to find a ferry that would take us to NEW YORK, Ticonderoga to be exact where we started our journey to Saratoga Springs. We road about 60 miles that day and ended up in a "summer resort" GHOST town on Lake George, NY. We ended up sleeping in the state campground which had already closed down, but was very nice all the same. I must say though it was a bit creepy at night being the only 2 people to fill 170 camp sites!
The next day off to Saratoga Springs where we saw the Serotta factory (sweet bikes)
www.serotta.com shortly after that we found out that bikes were NOT allowed from the Amtrack in Saratoga Springs and James who we were going to stay with had actually moved to Boston in the last week... RIGHT.
We spent the night in Saratoga Springs and road the next day to Schecnetay, NY and hopped our train to Boston from there. It was less of a hop and more of a sit and wait, but eventually we got on a train and got to Boston where James and Jessica greeted us with welcome arms and a warm floor to sleep on. What a guy!
We spent the next day around Boston. Hung out, walked around, drank Boston beer and ate some clam chowder; we even saw the Old North Church. Mom, it was cool the second time around too :) The goal was to eat some good food and see some old stuff... we did both!
After two nights with the hospitality of James and Jessica we road through the streets of Boston out to Cambridge. Not a pleasant ride. I'm not a fan of the city riding and definitely not a fan of the cabs! We hopped back on the Amtrack to Dover, NH where we hung out at the annual Apple Fest and keep riding into Maine. Ah Maine, with it's cold nights and rainy days, I love Maine. Well maybe love is the wrong word, but it is on the way back to the car so I can't complain!
Today was day 2 back in Maine and we made it to Bath. It rained last night, it rained today and by the time we got into Bath we were ready to be off the bikes but 5 or so miles from a camp site. We stopped at a bike shop called Bath Cycle and Ski where I found out my parents bought my bike trainer as a Christmas gift for me a few years ago (it was an on line purchase). I only knew it because of the sticker that came along with the trainer which I have held onto for 3 years thinking of somewhere cool to put it! HOW WEIRED IS THAT!
The people in the shop were SO cool, and let us stay INSIDE for tonight because it is SO COLD outside. Check them out bikeman.com Wendy, your long underwear can't even help me now! So here we are today Oct. 8th. We have 2 more days of riding and then we're back in Bar Harbor! WOO HOO.
I can't wait to sleep on my pillow again!
Lauren
Monday, October 1, 2007
Lauren said it herself this morning "sleeping in a bed for three consecutive nights may have spoiled me." It is nice to have a big room to wander around in and a bathroom only feet from the bed but we still have quite a ways to go on this trip. I think she's right, sleeping in a bed 150% the size of our tent has been pretty rad. but we have a long way to go yet including Saratoga Springs, Boston, Cape Cod, riding back up the coast to Bar harbor, and a 3,000 mile drive back to the Eastern edge of the Pacific continent.
Our stay with Pat and Chris was great, hey are some of the most receptive and welcoming hosts, I have ever stumbled into. and it's all thanks to Lauren's uncanny ability to make friends with people while passing in the street.
We spent a day with them and helped their son make som cider to sell at the farmer's market, It's incredible how far removed it is from being a sterile process and how much better it tastes right from the mill than it does from the market.
in the afternoon we rode our bikes to the Putnam wilds trailhead, and parked them in Doug's yard. The trail here is really neat and winds through a fairly dense forest with leaf litter covering everything, passing the occasional waterfall and ammeliorate swimming hole we found ourselves on a class 2 scramble up the granite ridge to the top of Worcester Mountain. The views from here were incredible ranging from the views of Stowe valley and Mt. Mansfield to the north, the White mountains almost 50 miles to the east, and looking nearly due South the very ridge of the green mountains which are all still just beginning to change color.
As we were making our descent it was glaringly obvious that much of the strength which we posessed two weeks ago has been converted into cycling specific muscles. This is a real drag because I'm really looking forward to 'Cross season right when we get back and the slam bang action of it will really hurt, but at the same time I'll be able to go for a run with Lauren and maybe even keep up!
Yesterday we left Pat and Chris and rode hard all day despite a tardy departure we still rode about 85 miles and had our highest average speed yet (14.8mph) the hearty tailwind and lack of major climbs certainly helped at the end of our day we at some length found a motel that wasn't too expensive and crashed hard.
We're taking today to laze around and get fat on french pastries and sample brews from the Otter Creek Brewing Co.
Tomorrow we head for Saratoga Springs, New york and the home of the finest bikes in the world, that ride may take a day or two, or maybe, with fresh legs after a day off we'll hammer it out before lunch.
Carne Asada sounds so good, I have mexican food on my mind, there are no mexican restaurants here. But lots of pubs, oh well!
-Scott
Our stay with Pat and Chris was great, hey are some of the most receptive and welcoming hosts, I have ever stumbled into. and it's all thanks to Lauren's uncanny ability to make friends with people while passing in the street.
We spent a day with them and helped their son make som cider to sell at the farmer's market, It's incredible how far removed it is from being a sterile process and how much better it tastes right from the mill than it does from the market.
in the afternoon we rode our bikes to the Putnam wilds trailhead, and parked them in Doug's yard. The trail here is really neat and winds through a fairly dense forest with leaf litter covering everything, passing the occasional waterfall and ammeliorate swimming hole we found ourselves on a class 2 scramble up the granite ridge to the top of Worcester Mountain. The views from here were incredible ranging from the views of Stowe valley and Mt. Mansfield to the north, the White mountains almost 50 miles to the east, and looking nearly due South the very ridge of the green mountains which are all still just beginning to change color.
As we were making our descent it was glaringly obvious that much of the strength which we posessed two weeks ago has been converted into cycling specific muscles. This is a real drag because I'm really looking forward to 'Cross season right when we get back and the slam bang action of it will really hurt, but at the same time I'll be able to go for a run with Lauren and maybe even keep up!
Yesterday we left Pat and Chris and rode hard all day despite a tardy departure we still rode about 85 miles and had our highest average speed yet (14.8mph) the hearty tailwind and lack of major climbs certainly helped at the end of our day we at some length found a motel that wasn't too expensive and crashed hard.
We're taking today to laze around and get fat on french pastries and sample brews from the Otter Creek Brewing Co.
Tomorrow we head for Saratoga Springs, New york and the home of the finest bikes in the world, that ride may take a day or two, or maybe, with fresh legs after a day off we'll hammer it out before lunch.
Carne Asada sounds so good, I have mexican food on my mind, there are no mexican restaurants here. But lots of pubs, oh well!
-Scott
We Put the "R" in Riding
We had an awesome time in Worcester with Pat, Chris and Sam- awesome folks! On Saturday we woke up and helped Sam make cider for the farmer's market (tastes so good right out of an apple!) There's not much too it, but it is definitely some work. Sam went and scoured local trees (which are everywhere) for apples and then you mash them up and press them down all with your hands and a small apple press. (We got our upper body workout for the month!) Then Scott and I took a hike up to Worcester Peak where we had lunch and hung out for a bit. We could see everything including the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the house we were staying at! Although it was only 2.5 miles to the top, it was a gnarly 2.5 miles! Lots of granite rock to get over and lots of straight up! It took us about an hour to get to the top and longer to get down (I like up better). 
It was so nice to sleep in a bed with a pillow for 2 nights, I must say it was hard to say goodbye on Sunday morning! We left late in the morning at almost 11 after chatting and picture taking :) We started riding with an incredible tail wind and rocked our first 30 miles in less than 2 hours (that's pretty good with 30 pounds on board) We stopped for a quick bite and realized we had about 40 more miles to East Middlebury so back on the road we went still with wind on our backs. When we made a left into Richmond our tail wind left, but Scott and I keep pushing a good pace, amazing what 2 weeks of straight riding and a day off the bike can do! We stopped again in Bristol about 12 miles away from our goal destination for some water and a candy corn sugar rush (my favorite kind) and I realized that I was REALLY sore. We decided to suck it up though and get all the way to Middlebury and crash in a hotel. Apparently Scott was liking the idea of a real pillow too! So we booked it into Middlebury before dark to find that hotel rooms were $150.00! "It's peak foliage season"
Seriously!?
We road a bit out of town, now in the dark, and found an in our budget motel and crashed for the night after putting in our biggest day of riding to date at 85 miles!
So here we are today in Midlebury again, our Vermont loop completed, taking a day off of movement (streaching and walking excluded). we'll rest it up and head to state #4, New York tomorrow! We think it will be 2 days of riding because we take a ferry accross Lake Champlain and who knows how long it will take. Frome the ferry who knows, we have to get there first!
Thanks for reading :) Lauren
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