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