The Long Road to Vermont

After a long day of riding we achieved our goal for the end of Day 2...We're in Bennington, Vermont.

We hit the road at 8:15 this morning, heading out of Hagerstown, MD into Pennsylvania. We made fantastic time going through the mountainous east central part of the state until we ran into a few stretches of road construction that slowed us considerably. Still...by lunch time we had made it all the way to Binghamton, NY, which was just past the halfway point of the day's planned ride.

Heading north out of Harrisburg, PA, we were riding roads that neither of us had never been on before (in a car, bus, or on the bike). We were both surprised by how mountainous Pennsylvania and New York are. The mountains are not quite as high as in NC and the valleys and ranges are more well-defined. These ranges were more like what you see in the Shenandoah Valley than what we're used to in North Carolina. As a result, the interstates are still fairly straight and level so travel through these mountains is relatively easy.

Encouraged by our progress we took a very slight detour to go into Binghamton and eat at a local diner rather than one of the cookie cutter chain restaurants out by the interstate. The diner had very hearty, homestyle food. Homestyle in the rural New York sense, not in the North Carolina sense. Not that the food was exotic; T had spaghetti and meat balls, I had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. The difference was in the preparation. T's meatballs were just shy of baseball sized, while my meatloaf had Italian sausage-type seasoning and was smoothered in mushroom gravy.
We both enjoyed the food quite a bit, but there was a drawback. The hearty meal made us both want to take a nap. Unfortunately we still had a couple of hundred miles before we were done for the day.

Not far out of Binghamton we both started to hit the wall. After riding 6 hours yesterday and 5 by the time we had lunch, we were starting to have some riding fatigue. Coupleing the long hours with them being on the interstate our progress slowed considerably this afternoon. Our stops were coming every 45-60 minutes rather than 90. So...after thinking we might arrive in Vermont around 4 this afternoon we ended up arriving around 5:15.

Our room is in a motor inn in downtown Bennington, VT. We're planning to go out in a bit and find some dinner and explore the town a little bit. We'll try to include that in the next entry.

The goal for tomorrow is some leisurely riding through the towns and villages of central Vermont, ending up in Burlington, VT on the shores of Lake Champlain.

T's Terrific Thought of the Day: Stretching is important -- Who would have thought that I would be more than happy to do lunges, squats and crunches multiple times a day!!! Otherwise, I think my gluteus maximus might look like it is the other half of a motorcycle seat.

P.S. One more item checked off the scavenger hunt list.