Saturday July 20, 2019

I had taken my bags off my bike to make it easier to get my bike my bike in and out of the small room at the motels so, after packing my bags in the room and taking them and the bike outside to put them on the bike, I needed to lean my bike against a wall to load it. There wasn't enough flat wall space so I leaned the pannier end against my door and the handle bars against the door of the room next door which I thought was unoccupied. As I was loading the second bag, that door opened and a fellow came out, saw my bike and said we are bike tourists too! Then we got talking about our respective tours. Tom and his brother Marty were getting ready for the final day of riding on their tour together that had gone up to Montreal starting from Burlington Vermont last week and ending in Burlington tonight.

Tom had met Marty in Burlington after Marty rode from Wisconsin. Tom had driven up to Burlington, They had ridden up to Montreal, ridden back down to Rouses Point, and they would be driving back to Front Royal where Tom lives after ridding back to Burlington tomorrow. Marty lives in Charleston, SC. I told Tom I lived in Asheville and about my back problems. He is a family care physician and after hearing my story, he said why don't you ride with us today to Burlington and tomorrow you can drive with us back to Front Royal VA and then get back to Asheville on your own. I, overcome by the serendipity of our meeting, decided not to ride into Quebec today and instead to ride with them. That turned out to be a very good decision!

Tom and Murray are both experienced riders a little over a decade younger than I am, so, for me, it was challenging to keep up with them. For the first 10 miles before we took our first snack/rest break, I averaged 13 mph. That used to be a normal pace me touring, but now it was about over 2 mph faster than my normal pace.

Keeping up with them precluded taking any images so I can only document our ride with words, It had one of the most interesting routes of my summer tour which included two ferries. The first went to a big island and the second was a long rail trail section from the other side that island going across much of Lake Champlain to Burlington - a long way! - on an embankment built for the railroad which had had some kind of drawbridge section that could be opened to let ships get through the embankment. Now that section has been replaced by a bike ferry during the riding season here. That ferry goes 250 feet and costs $5 per bike. The first ferry ride, which took 20 minutes on a big ferry for cars and trucks, cost $5.50 per bike.

That night we camped - three tents on one site - and, after setting up and cleaning up, went into town and got some food and beer that we ate at our campsite before crashing for the night. It had been quite a nice day. Lunch was at a restaurant on the island. I had an oatmeal stout beer which was quite nice and a good Asian salad.

Getting out of Burlington the next day was delayed a bit by a fender bender accident in the parking lot of a fancy bagel place in South Burlington were we stopped for a snack. That accident did in the bike rack, which we had to replace, but did not damage our bikes. The whole affair took about an hour and a half and delayed our arrival till one thirty AM.

The next day, I got to meet Tom and Marty's wives and dogs and, after a very nice breakfast/visit with them, Tom took me to the only car rental place in town and I rented a huge 7 passenger van because it was the only 'car' they had with fold down rear seats. I had planned to drive a mix of interstate and smaller roads on my way home, but that van was not suited to small roads so I routed I-66 to I-81 to I-77 to I-40 and got home before dark.

Unloading was hard on my back and today - Sunday - I'm really hurting so I'll call my medical folks tomorrow and see if I can get an appointment soon.