Day 70: Manchester VT to Georges Mills, NH
We woke up to a hard frost that did not thaw until after 9am. Riding a bicycle in late October can be just as pleasant as riding one in June, but you only get a few hours a day to enjoy yourself. Tania left to go to work and we set off just before 10 am with 70 miles and the Green Mountains in front of us. We knew the sun would set at 6pm sharp. We would spend the day on Route 11 in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Maybe the months of riding had toughened us, or maybe we had scared ourselves with too much advance information, but the Green Mountains weren’t nearly as challenging as we expected them to be. We climbed for about five miles and the road leveled out and we were soon coasting and climbing, the hills small and manageable. We stopped in Londonderry to talk to John Wright of Taylor Farm (see separate post), then pressed on.
We were hungry by the time we reached the next town, Chester. The big disappointment of the day came when a bakery that we were counting on had closed. In the off-season in tourist areas, people often close on a whim. Just down the road 
was an old building with an interesting-looking café and two young women behind the counter. We ordered two lunch specials and two hot drinks, sat in two mismatched but interesting chairs, listened to pleasant music featuring a woman singing in a foreign tongue, and wandered around the racks of bulk nuts, vitamin supplements, and stones with words like “imagine” carved into them. Jim got into a conversation with one of the woman, who said that she was from South America, her husband was a shaman, and that every year they went to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to encourage Native Americans to re-connect their ancient memories with the legends of South American tribes, because they were all the same thousands of years ago. Then we paid up: $28.
“That was a fantastic experience,” said Jim, with no trace of irony. “We’ve been Vermonted.” Earlier he had wondered aloud how all these people made a living. The Moon Dog Café gave us our answer. They sell $14 sandwiches to people like us.
We rode over a ridge and down into Springfield, a congested mill town that fortunately had bike lanes and a bike path. 
Then we crossed the Connecticut River and entered New Hampshire, and the next thirty miles were a slog along a busy highway and a really long commercial strip that ran from well south of Claremont to well beyond Newport. Fortunately route 11 had a wide shoulder, so we never were in danger, but the noise and anxiety of heavy traffic nearby took their toll. Clouds were thickening and the light was failing when we started up the west shore of Lake Sunapee. Sara had found us a two-bedroom cabin with a kitchen, so we ate in, watched satellite TV, and plotted the last two days of the ride. Rain was predicted.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Wow, you are so close to the end of the trip! Sorry it is wet! Thinking of you all!
Catherine
October 21st, 2008 at 8:52 pm
OMG!!! Only 1-2 days to go!!!!! Emma can’t wait to see Papa Jim and Grammy Sara. Brad, Hope we get a chance to meet you. I would like to put a human to the image I have behind this blog. Good Luck tomorrow. Stay warm and hopefully dry. Rachel
October 21st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
If you continued in weather anything like we had in the Finger Lakes today that is a testimony to how much you look forward to the finish and how tough you have gotten.
We had strong winds and a chilling rain, taking the leaves down at an accelerated rate.
Be careful those last wet miles.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I feel a need to add background perspective to the $28 lunch in the hippy/healthy/trendy/earnest Moon Dog Cafe. First I embarrassed my 62 year old self with $15 in my hand and my loud proclamation “$28!!?” Back in South Dakota we once had 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, hot drinks and candy bars for $6.25. What we had in Vermont was substantially more interesting, better tasting, and better for us. Maybe worth every dollar, but the experience “priceless”.
Today we had mundane grilled chicken sandwiches at lunch. “Grilled cheese is not on the menu, but I could ask him if he’d make one for you”. How could you not have grilled cheese on the menu? But we finished the day with Hershey’s ice cream in a “dairy bar” at a general store. JK