Day 49: Brattleboro, Vermont to
Manchester, New Hampshire
August 8, 2004
Miles: 86
Our biggest day of climbing, more ups and downs, but none as high or as
long as the climbs out west. Still, the slopes were probably the
steepest of the trip--Andrew's computer hit 19 percent for a brief time.
We started out in fog in Brattleboro but that ended pretty
quickly. Soon we crossed into New Hampshire:
New England has been fun to ride through. I prefer the ample
vegetation and trees of the east to the wide open spaces of the
west. As spectacular as the Tetons were, the view was basically
unchanged for hours. Here, it changes every time you turn a
corner. During the fall color change, it must be
spectacular. If you're into that, ABB has a Fall Foliage tour that you
might like.
Here Andrew rides under a canopy of trees:
Here is one of many New England churches we rode by:
And a typical small town:
It felt good to climb some serious hills again. The toughest was
Joe English Road, the longest but not the steepest. I actually
out-sprinted Andrew near the end, or at least to the pavement marking
that suggested that we had reached the top. Unfortunately there
were a couple hundred more yards to go and we were spent. Oh well.
In the evening, we had our end of tour "banquet." The caterers
weren't ready for us at the appointed time and had trouble, like many
of the hotels and restaurants we "invaded" along the way, keeping the
steam tables stocked and our drink orders filled.
There were presentations of certificates and awards and each of us had
a chance to speak to the group, which included family and friends of
many of the riders. Bill G's Freightliner awards for carrying the
most (and least) weight the greatest distance were announced. I
won third place, behind Robert (second despite sagging for several
hundred miles due to his superior payload) and Rory. Here Bill
reads my certificate:
Daniel won the flat contest, finishing with 19. Given his start,
we were expecting more than that but I guess he got things under
control. I don't know how many others, besides myself, had no
official flats. (Andrew is still trying to find someone to agree
with him that motel flats should also count.) Josh made a "flat
crown" out of discarded innertube, here modeled by Daniel:
There were several skits. Team E and the Docs performed a dead on
parody of the staff, including a route rap by Mike and nutrition
lecture by Cov. The Piesdales put on a Star Trek themed
skit. The A Team (aka Hammer and Nails and Nailettes) made fun of
their daily races to the finish. Andrew came up with three new
verses to "America the Beautiful," which he, Judith, Patricia and I
sang.
We didn't get back to the motel until close to 10, past our normal
bedtimes. Luckily tomorrow will be a pretty easy day,
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