Not So Fast, My Friends!

Doing exactly what you want when you want to do it regardless of the future consequences, while maybe not exactly heaven in and of itself, has to be at least part of the package. The last couple of days we’ve earmarked Thursday as a day when we would ride the interstates for the better part of the day and make some serious progress toward being home. As recently as last night we were researching this plan and making preparations for it. This morning, however, we changed our minds, opting to spend one last day riding through some of New England’s hills, valleys and villages.

Originally we mapped out a back roads route to Cooperstown, NY with the intention of being there in the early afternoon, exploring the baseball hall of fame for a little while, and then perhaps even riding on past Cooperstown to ease our route for Friday and Saturday. For the sake of reference, Cooperstown is probably 2 hours closer to home than Bennington, VT which is where we stopped after the 2nd night of travel on this trip.

The route was to take us through southern New Hampshire as well as southern Vermont. There were a couple of noteworthy New England towns along this route which we had not visited; Keene, New Hampshire and Brattleboro, Vermont. So we were able to get excited about another day riding back roads in New England rather than surfing truck wash along the interstates.

Before leaving Manchester, we stopped by a drugstore to replenish a few supplies, namely toiletries and sunscreen. By the time we finished this stop, gassed up, and got going it was 10AM. The roads out of Manchester improved somewhat in the sense that our trip into Manchester the previous day was on heavily trafficked expressways. These roads, while not yet scenic, were at least more lightly traveled 2-lane roads. It was probably 30 minutes outside of the city before the ride became more like the idyllic country ride you hope to find in New England.

We arrived in Keene, NH around 11AM and decided to stop, both because I wanted to get a New Hampshire decal for my bike (this was the last town in NH along the route) and it was time for a stretch break. Downtown Keene is quite picturesque with a tree-lined main street that leads up to a town square complete with a white bandstand gazebo. We took a few pictures and browsed through a couple of shops. We ended up having to ride a few blocks away, however, for the elusive NH decal and to find T a shirt…go figure. By the time we left Keene it was close to noon.

We had decided that we would stop in Brattleboro, VT for lunch to give us an opportunity to visit that town as well. We arrived around 12:30 and rode through and around the downtown area for a little while before finding a local establishment that was open for lunch. We enjoyed a pint of the local ale and had some food while we rested for the journey ahead. It was becoming obvious to both of us that we were falling behind in our pace.

At lunch we picked up a conversation that we had started yesterday about what would make this trip better. Yesterday as we were skirting past Portland, Maine, we both thought it would be great to stop there for the night. My parents had been there a few years back and spoke very highly of it. However, Portland was only about 150 miles from where we had started the day. With time being our most valuable commodity we couldn’t afford to make so little progress in one day. In Brattleboro we began to elaborate on this conversation (yesterday we mentioned it briefly while on the bike). It’s the classic “if we won the lottery, how would we do this differently” talk. We both agreed that what we would change about this trip isn’t the accommodations, or the places we’ve visited, or the restaurants we’ve eaten at. What would be different in the “lottery” scenario is that we would only ride around 100-150 miles on travel days, allowing us to stay fresh and rested as well as spend more time in the towns we chose to stay in. By definition, we would also visit more towns.

By the time we had finished with our lunch it was nearly 1:30 and we had only completed about 85 of the day’s planned 250 miles. In short, we knew we were not making it to Cooperstown without pushing ourselves this afternoon. If we did make it there we were not going to be able to enjoy the Hall of Fame until the morning anyway. T mentioned that our route would be taking us back through Bennington, VT.

A week ago when we spent the evening and morning in Bennington we probably were not prepared to fully appreciate it. Bennington was the first New England stop on our trip and we thought it more of a staging point along the way to towns we were more excited to visit such as Burlington and Quebec City. In the week since, we have come to like it more, even in absence. Of the towns we’ve been to, Bennington, perhaps along with Keene, probably most closely matches up with the Currier and Ives picture of a small, rural New England town.

A plan started to hatch in both of our minds. Bennington was about 45 minutes past where we were eating at. While Saturday might be a longer ride if we stopped there today, we could let Future Brian and Teresa deal with that. What we both would do differently in an ideal trip would be to end a travel day after 100-150 miles of scenic riding and settle into our next destination by early in the afternoon. Here was our opportunity.

While we had already been enjoying the day’s ride, knowing that we were going to end it early in a town that we both liked made the next leg of our journey that much more fun. We zoomed around the windy mountain roads and even stopped a couple of times to take some pictures. During this trip we’ve discovered how much easier it is to take quick pictures from the back of a motorcycle. We don’t take up much room so it is easy for us to pull over onto the road shoulder, come to a stop and let T take a picture and then be on our way.

We arrived in Bennington around 2:30 this afternoon. Right now we’re resting, but we’ve already discovered that the town is having a festival this evening that will close downtown to car traffic by 6PM. We’re a short walk from this so that poses no problems to us. We’re going to be able to take a short stroll up the sidewalk, have a leisurely meal and then probably re-visit the Madison Brewing Company, which we discovered much too late during our first time through here last week.

Last Friday when we left, I’m not sure I would have taken bets on our ever returning to Bennington, VT. A week later, re-visiting this picturesque town nestled in a valley between green mountain ranges seems like a great way to bookend our trip through New England and Quebec. Maybe tomorrow we’ll swing through Cooperstown…if we feel like it.

T's Terrific Thought of the Day: Today we gave ourselves a wonderful gift - TIME. It would be wise for me to remember this lesson.