The DAR State park? What’s there to say? It was a place to stop and rest. It was our first experience with Vermont. Maybe it was the humidity and heat, but I’m pretty sure I won’t make it a destination stop in the future. Sleep was hard in the heat. Or it could have been the neighbor’s car alarm going off. Once is a mistake. Twice a learning experience. But the fifth time seemed overkill. They left before 0500 hrs so who knows what was going on.
We awoke, or more appropriately just got out of bed around 6. I made coffee and cocoa and enjoyed the little relief of humidity and heat. Today’s forecast had heat warnings. So we took off towards Middlebury, located in the foothills of the Green Mountains and home to Middlebury College, and a laundromat. A standard chore on rest day is laundry, but no such luxury near DAR State Park. After clothes were clean, we found Rosies Restaurant and had second breakfast. Very good food and service and the AC was welcomed. It was already noon and we still had 2,000’ of our 3,000’ day ahead.
Leaving Middlebury we started the climb, at times reaching over a 13% gradient. The road was narrow but the traffic kind. We reached Ripton and enjoyed a cold Powerade at the country store. Another of those old oak creaky floor, we got everything you need including your Post Office Box stores. I could still be there, but we had more to climb.
The road became more gentle and the shade welcomed. We passed through Breadloaf, an old style mountain resort get away. Then the Middlebury Mountain Campus and then Snow Bowl, the ski resort where our Indy Pass is valid. Maybe we will return…in a car.
Finally, we reached the Middlebury Gap that claimed more than 3000 feet of climbing. The sign said we had a 12% down grade and we took advantage of it all the way in to Hancock, where we met Billy Romp, our warm shower host. He never says no to a cyclists. When he says make yourself home he means it. The house is ours. After an hour or so of story telling, another cyclist appears. Steve is traveling solo on the Northern Tier. Instantly I could tell we would get along. Steve, from Houston is an inspiration. A cancer survivor he has done several tours. Billy, our host, has a family band he leads, so he leaves us three hoodlums alone while he takes off to rehearsal. He says he hears the local restaurant is good, although he never goes to restaurants. We shower and clean up as the thunder rolls. The hot humidity finally decided to break into a storm. My weather app says we have time to ride the .3 miles back to town and the storm will run its course while we eat. Seems Rhonda and Steve trust me. Google says the restaurant is open till 8 but she lied. It closed 30 minutes ago and the rain decided to cut loose. The restaurant staff don’t seem willing to make some extra and offer any left overs so we hide under the porch waiting for the storm to pass at 7:10 according to the app. There’s this other guy on the porch. Seems like he made supper before closing but stuck around to finish off his adult beverage. He takes pity on us and offers us the food he has in his car. He staggers out in the rain and brings back four cups of Dole Pineapple which we devour. He then hands us a baggy of a green leafy substance and says it’s ours if we want it. Surely he’s stoned. Who else would give away a baggy of weed. We refuse, he waddles back to his car and starts to take off. The weather app is wrong. The rain let’s up at 7:04 but we wait for Mr Pineapple to get on down the road before we leave. We are told by the unaccommodating restaurant staff that JD’s Quick Stop is open. So it’s another night of convenience store fare…frozen pizza. We brought back the pizza and some local brew to Billy’s house, made ourselves at home and visited into the night about touring, life at home and grandkids.
As Steve says, “rubbing shoulders with reality, you don’t get these experiences traveling fast along the interstate”.
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