Sunday July 21:  Latham, New York to Brattleboro, Vermont
Distance:  79 miles
Total time:  6 hours 51 minutes
Riding time:  5 hours 44 minutes

Today was another hot and humid day as we rode through upstate New York and into Vermont.  I kept getting heat alerts on my Garmin.  It was indeed very humid and we felt it especially on the long climbs.  Today was our second highest climbing day of the entire tour - over 6,000 feet.  We started the day climbing and we climbed all day, punctuated with a couple of terminal velocity screaming yellow zonker descents.  On one descent I was going 38 miles an hour, the fastest I've ever gone on a bike.  I came around a bend and got hit by a crosswind that almost knocked me over.  I throttled back after that.

Before we left New York, Zach from Spokane had a very unfortunate incident.  Miraculously, he's ok and was able to finish the ride.  An oncoming truck crossed into his lane and aimed right at him.  Zach swerved to get out of the way and put up his hand, which knocked the guy's mirror off.  He turned around, came back, drove alongside Zach and pulled him off the bike.  When the police came they blamed Zach and ordered him to pay for the broken mirror.  Pathetic "justice" in the State of New York.  Again, Zach is ok and will finish the tour.

With that incident casting a very somber note on the day, we were delighted to leave New York and enter slightly more bike friendly Vermont.  Here's the mandatory welcome to Vermont picture.

As soon as we entered the Green Mountain State, we started seeing Vermont-y things - a VW bus covered with Bernie bumper stickers, and lots of roadside kitsch.  Here's Michael in front of a typical Vermont roadside stop.

Not long after entering Vermont, the Green Mountain State began to earn it's name.  Here we are gradually working our way uphill, with the big climb of the day looming in the distance.

I mistakenly thought the big climb was 10 miles long.  I stopped at the van for water at the six mile mark and asked Fearless Leader Jim "how much further?"  He said, "you're there."  Oh.  Well, almost.  It turned out to be a six mile climb followed by four miles of mostly up but some down.  The descent was hair-raising but fun.  I've gotten much better at managing the downhills.  I remember our first long descent in the Sierras I was terrified to go over 25 miles an hour.  Today I hit 38.7 and was over 30 most of the way down.

But I hadn't read the fine print on the route map this morning.  There was a second tough climb that closely followed the first - Hogback Mountain if you know your Vermont geography.  It was over two miles at a steep grade.  The view from the top was beautiful, and you can see Massachusetts far in the distance.  Green Mountains indeed.

After the climb we stopped for lunch in the charming town of Wilmington, at the Village Roost.  Smoothies and healthy sandwiches, as we begin to prepare for re-entry to real life.  In spite of the heat there was a nice breeze in Wilmington and we ate outside.  That's the Brits sitting beside us.

And these are the smoothies in question.

Wilmington is indeed charming but it also has its share of New England kitsch.

I think today's difficult climbs came at the right time.  Yesterday I was thinking that it was sad to see the adventure come to an end.  Today, especially in the middle of the second unexpected climb, I thought to myself ok, I'm done, let's get to the ocean and get home.  That's a good way to end.  This is what I looked like at the end of the day.

Tomorrow we leave puny Vermont and enter puny New Hampshire on the way to Manchester and our last night on the road.  It's another climbing day - probably one of the top five climbing days of the tour, but not as much elevation gain as today as we trade Green Mountains for White.  We'll cross over the 3,800 mile mark and pick up our 13th and final state.  Is that salt water I smell?  Hmm, no, it's my biking shorts.