Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Waiting out the rain

Sleeping soundly through the night, we woke before the sun knowing a huge storm was coming through, both of us wanting to find some form of shelter. The weather report was calling for up to 3 inches of rainfall, so getting a room for the day was possible. We rode 40 minutes into the town of Poultney, VT that sits in the southern part of the state, almost touching the New York border. We cruised through the three block downtown strip as well as riding through the unique and hippy campus of Green Mountain College. Just before the 8am bell rang, students were walking barefoot through campus, coming from their college dorms and on their way to class. If only we had the ability to rewind in life. My rewind would take me to a college similar to this.

Following the crowds, we ate breakfast at a small diner that held only 4 tables and a long counter. Just as our food arrived, so did the rain. After a quick meal and back on our bikes, we rode to the information center a few blocks away to discover the only hotel in town was ten miles away and the bed and breakfast was way above our budget. We heard of a cafe new to town called The Station. It had an awning for our bikes and warmth inside. As soon as we walked in we were instantly welcomed by the young 32 year old owner named Josh. Asking if we could hang out most of the day, he gladly opened his cafe and even offered for us to throw our sleeping pads on the ground for the night after he closed up shop. Amazing generosity!

Spending so much time in the cafe catching up on emails and the blog (my apologies for the lack of recent updates......I have no excuses) and old National Geographic's, I went to the back and spent a good hour or two catching Josh up on dishes. He was running this cafe solo and pulling 14 hour days on a regular basis. Absolute dedication, but like he said, he loves what he does so it doesn't feel like work. Ryan put himself to work, fixed a framed painting on the wall, washed windows, swept, etc. It was a win win. Josh even made us a special dinner of homemade fettuccine that was delicious. He is quite the chef and baker. What luck to meet this guy!

Saturday, October 6, 2012

South through Vermont - Writing

A smooth day of riding in a valley, constantly pulling up and pushing down our Smartwool arms and legs to modulate our temperatures, we reached the top of the highest climb of the day just as the sun was setting. As we were pulling over to refuel at the top, Ryan's rear shifter cable snapped. Oh no! No cable means three gears, one gear in each of our three front rings. Reading a bicycle blog back in early 2010, Ryan somehow remembered a trick for the off chance of a cable snapping. How he can keep these tidbits in his mind is beyond me, but he did and therefore found a rather thick twig to jam in the derailleur for the ideal three gears. This trick made our downhill and flat section much more enjoyable.

We crossed our route in Rochester taken back in July, making our first true circle yet. What a difference from being at that exact spot a few months ago. Back in the July, the temperatures were so hot we could barely eat, consuming ice cream on a daily basis and relying on cones and sundaes as a main caloric intake. I remember stopping at this T in the road with high hopes of a shower to rid of the sticky sweat. Later that day we actually had two showers, one in the chilly river water 20 miles down the road and again that evening at the warmshowers home of Wally and Barbara (the people we had heard about all the way down in Southern Mexico and randomly stayed with months later). We have ridden many miles since we were last at this crossing and these few months feel like a lifetime ago, yet seem to have gone by with a blink of the eye. Time is rather irrelevant in our lives these days as we rarely have anywhere we must be, just waking with the sun and riding our bikes until we are tired. My stomach drops as I think of "have to's", realizing how important it is to appreciate every second we have left. How many times in life will we have this freedom? To travel wherever we choose without a destination or time frame? I wouldn't trade our motto of "No destination, no agenda, no timeline" for anything. I feel so relaxed and at ease just letting the day take its course.

We found a quiet camp spot down a closed walking trail just outside the town of Rochester, making for an easy ride to the same delicious place we visited for breakfast months ago. Once again we were not disappointed and oddly enough, Ryan remembered a bike shop in this small town where they happily let him in to use their tools to fix the cable. What luck to have this happen just outside of a town that we knew for sure there was a bike shop. It's all about the little things that make the greatest difference.