Lightning and Thunder and Rain, OH MY!

My father once said, and has said many times since then, "never turn down a free meal!" We took his words to heart when a very friendly couple offered up the guest appartment at their house in Worcester, Vermont. Pat and Chris RULE! We just finished a fantastic home cooked meal and have a warm bed to sleep in for the weekend.

This comes with such a warm heart after our last night in a thunder storm in Stowe. Much to our luck our roommate Taylor's "naked- NO rain dance" worked and we were rain free all day for our ride. Because of it we were able to get a great ride in from Georgia to Stowe. We road about 20 miles longer than we thought we were going to, crossing over Smuggler's Notch which was beautiful! The climate was just like a rainforest. HOT and humid with a dense tree layer, waterfalls on the left and bird sounds everywhere! Way cool. We road into Stowe and had some awesome pizza and local beer at Pie Casso and road to our campsite with happy bellys and sore legs.

Not more than 20 minutes after the tent was pitched did the rain come down! All the rain that Taylor had warded off all day long decided to dump (all at once) on us and our little tent. Along with it come some of the biggest, brightest lightning that I have ever seen and thunder not far behind! It got big enough that nither of us felt safe and we headed to the laundry room for shelter! After an hour or so we made our way back to the tent, but it was a restless sleep full of "one one thousand, two one thousands" as we counted the distance from lightning to thunder.

Luckily, we did survive and promptly called Pat who welcomed us to her home and requested our presence for dinner! Who am I to turn down a free meal?! We road a short day today to Pat and Chris's house making a very important stop at the Ben and Jerry's Factory where we not only sampled ice cream, but also learned that the creators couldn't handle college, but got perfect scores on the ice cream maker test!

So here we are tonight in a warm home, safe from the rain outside. The pic is from Pat's computer... those MACS are so cool. Ya, Uncle Peter I said it :) Tomorrow a hike and Sunday back on the road! We are almost 2 weeks into our biking adventure and figure we have about 2 more weeks to go.

Scott and I are still friends :) and are celebrating the fact that out first date was a year ago today... good thing we're still friends!

Here's to lots more fun!
Lauren
P.S. Check out Flickr.com for more pics!

pictures

go to flickr.com and search: cheesedinosaurs

Happy Trails!

Here we are in Middlebury, Vermont on our way today to Burlington. We crossed the border yesterday and put in our biggest day of 75 miles! Vermont is beautiful with big green fields, red barns with silos, and all the red, orange and yellow leaves you could ask for.

We climbed the Middlebury gap this morning and were greeted with a friendly hiker who ran across the road to offer us local apples and Oreo cookies! Got to love the locals :) Onward north just a few miles and Scott broke one of the clips of a bag... I'm not the only one, although I have broken all 4 of mine off (one twice). I would like to blame it on the bags, but maybe I have packing issues :) We also had our first flat tire here in Middlebury, it had to happen sooner or later!
The riding is still beautiful and it is very exciting to make progress on our maps. Weather is great; warm and sunny during the day, cold at night (I'm getting used to it). I do have to point out that local folk we talk to all have a common conversation topic... the good weather. "Nice day for a ride" "It's a great day for it" "lovely weather we're having" "can you believe that sky" Well, yes I can believe the sky, it looks just normal as can be to the So Cal girl! We can't decide if the weather right now is abnormal, fleeting, or just fantastic because it's not snowing right now. I think it's all of the above really.
Here's to good weather!

Goodbye New Hampshire

And hello Vermont! Is what we will say tomorrow after out lovely day of rest as we embark on a new map and a new state!

Before we got to where we are now thought we had to to a fair bit of riding up a fair bit of hill (something Scott would say). From our camp in North Conway we headed west for the Kankamagus Pass, a 3,000 foot climb stretching over 10ish miles. On a normal day this would have been a lovely ride, something we would see at home. With all of your worldly possessions behind you the climb was less pleasant! We made it to the top and headed down for lunch. After a good sandwich we continued on to our camp in the White Mountains State Park. One more decent hill past some gorgeous views and we were there for a night of good sleep!

It took all that I had left the next day to get going so we had a long morning and a couple pots of coffee before we left for our short day to Orford where we are staying now. We went SLOW and stopped at an apple orchard/cider mill (think pumpkin patch but with apples) for a snack and headed down to Orford. Just past our campground was a sugar house where they make maple syrup. In honor of my mom, the queen of real maple syrup, we stopped for the tour and had a sample. Really, this was just the family barn where Paul the owner and creator produces maple syrup every season. It was good! Depending on the temperature when the tree is tapped determined the color and strength of the syrup... who knew! We purchased some and plan to eat it with everything from coffee to corn! E-mail them for some!

By the end of the day I couldn't go anymore, I had to concentrate very hard on pedaling just so I wouldn't fall over... I was ready for a day off. Scott, was still singing, but I have the tent so he stopped with me! We are camping on the New hampshire side of the Connecticut River which is the New Hampshire/Vermont border, and it is a great place to be on a day off.

We took a walk today into the small town of Fairlee, Vermont this morning for a cup of coffee, picked up a few postcards, and went to a grocery store for lunch and dinner. Feeling rather domestic, we did our laundry in the river and sat down to write in our journals and dig into some really HOT Vermont salsa that was really made in North Carolina. Go figure!

Tonight the plan is to roast local corn in the camp fire (some nice people donated their extra wood to us) and go to bed early for an early and a long day of riding tomorrow! My legs feel better and my mind gave the OK for more riding; so, off we go tomorrow to the Green Mountains!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods :)
Lauren

If you could smell me you might die!

As I sit here at this computer and smell myself I don't think anyone will die, but I do feel bad for the guy sitting right next to me :(
WE ARE OFFICIALLY ON A BIKE TOUR!!! It's been enough days that it's way too late to turn around and go back home, so I guess we have to keep going west! Away from the coast it has warmed up, but there's always a trade off. No cold for lots of hills! Rolling hills all day long... two of which were REALLY big today. Upon reaching the start of the second really big hill today I looked at Scott with a small look of terror (the down then BIG up of the hill reminded me of something from Six Flags) and he looked at me and said, "do you have anything better to do today?" Good point. No, I don't. Why not take my time and my legs and get up the thing. Plus, at the end was a really good ice cream.
I'm pretty stoked. We are both having fun enjoying the freedom, the trees and the company! I do feel a bit home sick, but I think it will pass... thanks for all the comments!

Love,
Lauren

Live Free or Die

We have finally made it to New Hampshire.
After riding along the Coast for a couple of days, at long last we got to turn inland and it's much warmer away from the North Atlantic. Lauren and I have come roughly 170 miles since our last update and the weather has been fantastic this is the first day that it has been Hot and it's just now jumping up into the mid-eighties.
The cell phones were out of commission until yesterday because the solar cell phone charger never has a chance to get any sun when all of the roads are nearly covered over with trees.
Our stove has run out of fuel and we're now burning Kerosene which you can buy just like diesel here, from a separate pump at the gas station.
for lunch the other day Lauren and I ate PB&J sandwiches I washed mine down with Hersheys chocolate milk which is the best pre-mixed chocolate milk ever. Immediately following lunch we ascended a big hill that we didn't need to only to turn around and go back down, a few minutes later I threw up, now Lauren won't let me have any more chocolate milk.
the next day we ate a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza which came with roughly a pound of fresh cut french fries (think In'N'Out fries but much thicker and crispier) we ate all that we could and then a bit more. Then we rode another 40 miles and fell sound asleep in a motel room.
it was our first motel of the trip and I'm not sure about it. My thought is 'If you're tired enough you'll sleep well anywhere' but Lauren counters with 'I worked hard enough to deserve this'.
She won last night.
No luck yet on internet cafe's but there's a hostel around here someplace so we'll go try that.
tomorrow we'll be going up kancamagus pass, which at under three thousand feet doesn't sound all that bad (a'la fernwood, with fully loaded panniers,) it's pretty steep and should suck more than a little.
Lauren keeps breaking the clips that attach her panniers to her rack but I'll just keep fixing them, the only downside is that one side is permanently attached, this won't be a big deal until we want to get on a train. When I was building Lauren's bike I set it up like her road bike only with the handlebars a bit higher, well they're still to far away for this type of riding so we'll be spending this afternoon riding the five miles to the nearest bike shop.
Our butts hurt but there's good ice cream all over the place here.

Maine is COLD!

Seriously? This place is REALLY cold! Well, more cold at night, the day time is quite fantastic! Today is day 3 on the bike and Scott and I have stopped in Belfast for a quick PB and J lunch (jelly courtesy of a wonderful woman named Judy who makes art out of trash and cherry jelly as well!). You should check her out at http://www.mainedifferents.com/ as she is now one of the coolest people I know... yes Mom, you're still first!
Biking so far has been great. As you know before we started on Saturday it was raining. Well, it rained, then it rained harder, then it just kept raining. I was cold, wet, and not really looking forward to being those things on a bike, but ready to get going all the same. Lucky (really lucky) for Scott and I about 10 minutes before we took off the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun found its way to us! We road to the other end of the island of Bar Harbor and camped in the very awesome Blackwoods campground.
Yesterday was the first day of real riding and it was rad! (we even saw a Maine licence plate that read RAD, which in my mind solidifies the rad day!) We road about 60 miles in wonderful blue sky, no clouds weather and made it to our sleeping area well before dark. We pitched the tent, had a lovely dinner of chili, pasta and corn and headed to the tent with some really good beer and chocolate :) We would have stayed outside, but as the sun went down the fog came in and it was, as the title of today's blog confirms, COLD!
I would like to take this moment to thank Wendy Jewsbury (sorry if I misspelled your name) for the use of her long underwear. In an effort at being a tough chick in the eyes of my boyfriend I packed little clothing just like he did... I failed to think about how COLD I get! Needless to say, the long underwear has come in major use, and I don't think I could seep at night without it!
Today we are riding west. We are in Belfast now and our goal in Newcastle. It's again a lovely day for riding, not a cloud in the sky! We have experienced our first maintenance problems though. Scott had a big gash in his back tire (fixed with a chunk of coffee bag) and one of my panniers decided to break off of the hook that keeps it on the bike! Lucky for me I am traveling with Mr. Fix-it who in not time had rigged up the bag with another screw and washer that he brought with him! Wow, he's cool!

The people here are cool, the roads suck, and the food is awesome. I think it's a good balance thus far for a great trip! Please keep thinking good thoughts, it's worked so far for the weather!
Lauren
P.S. Sorry for no pics, the library will not let me upload them :(

P.P.S. Hey friends, leave us some comments, we like hearing from you too!

Finally in Bar Harbor!

We're finally in Bar Harbor Maine three-thousand-four-hundred-ninety miles and five days later we made it here late last night.
Since our last update we drove through Ontario, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. A total of around 30 hours of driving in two days. We stopped to make dinner at a rest stop in New York and our stove attracted the attention of a couple of the rest stop employees. Kelly and Randy, who we shared a couple pots of coffee with, were pretty interesting folks and entertaining too. we drove for a while and then drove a while longer we slept at a KOA and woke up and were driving at dawn. Lauren tends to get bored of driving after around an hour and a half so I did a fair bit of the driving. We're both antsy to get on the bikes and move. Last night when we rolled into town we hooked up with Ivan Willig and went to a couple of bars and slept in his friend's backyard.
We woke in the morning to a light drizzle which has now developed into a full rain shower.
this afternoon we plan on cruising down to Mt Desert and waiting until the sun comes out tomorrow to really begin the ride proper.
Because we're bidding farewell to the car and the laptop some future updates may be sporadic.
Wheeee!!!
-Scott

On The Road Again

I just can't wait to get on the road again. The life I love is in a car with my best friend. I can't wait to get on the road again. (be sure to sing that first part)

Scott and I have gotten really good at driving the last few days. Yesterday in Chicago we even beat someone at driving... actually, he won, but we were ahead until that stop sign that we actually STOPPED at. Chicago was full of drivers looking to win driving that day. We got cut off, honked at, one guy even turned a one lane road into two just so he could get around us. Californians are not the only bad drivers!

We've been driving for the last few days straight. Nebraska, where we had an awesome steak in Omaha; Iowa where we saw the world's largest truck stop; Illinois where we met Cortney Jones and had the best pizza in Chicago at Gino's East; then we saw Indiana in the dark; and here we are this morning in Michigan! 2 more days and we should be there!

For now we're on the road again...

Day one

We packed the Car Saturday night and attempted to rise early and get on with gettin' East.
We ended up leaving a bit late but we've got all kinds of time so no problem. While we were getting going I was sneezing like mad and took an allergy pill, that pill ended up knocking me out and Lauren took over driving all the way to Las Vegas. I took over from there and we continued up through the virgin river gorge and into Utah.After a turkey sandwich lunch break we drove into a gnarly hailstorm with lightning and big wind that wanted to push the car over a lane. onward to I-70 and a real turn for the East we drove from Utah into Colorado being chased from the badlandsby a fiery sunset and welcomed to the western slope by a rainbow shooting straight up into the sky.

We drove into Fruita Co. with some intense wind, rather than drive up to the to of the Colorado National Monument we opted to camp by the lake in the valley. Rather than fight the wind with our stove we ate cheese, pretzels, and crackers for dinner with Reese's Pieces for dessert all washed down with a nice cold beer, good thing I rode ride it all off next week.
Tomorrow is monday and we're trying to sell tube bags and run some errands, including a visit to Boulder for shoes and to Golden for beers.
-Scott

Surfs UP!

Lauren and Laurel at Scott's surfing B-Day

Hi All

It's been awhile since our last post, but life has been great! For the last couple of months Scott has gotten me to try surfing, which I am now a huge fan of. We go out to Farria Beach in Ventura as much as we can. It started with Scott wanting to go surfing for his birthday and has turned into our cool new thing to do. Why ride a bike in the early morning when you can go surfing?
This is nothing new for Scott however. The guy has been hanging out on fast moving boards for as long as he can remember and surfing is no exception... He's really good! With that though he's a really good teacher too (good for me!) He makes catching waves look really easy, but I am here to tell you that it's not! While Scott can catch a wave and eat a sandwich while he's surfing, I paddle for mush and get frustrated :(
Really though I am getting a whole lot better. This past Sunday we went out in the early evening and I had a great day. I successfully made some turns and had some really long rides! Aside from the good waves it was a pretty cool day with sunsets, dolphins, and the Junker gang :)
Being that I was so excited about Sunday Scott and I went out again on Monday morning before work... NOT a good idea. Scary waves and SO MANY PEOPLE, the whole Labor Day thing. I got pummeled by a few wave and didn't catch anything. PLUS, the board smacked me in the head...

OH WELL, there's always tomorrow!