Monday, 28 August 2006

South Alburg to South Starksboro (Vermont)

It was grey and gloomy in the morning but the howling gale had dwindled to a southerly breeze. The days suddenly seem much shorter, but hopefully it just seems worse than it really is because of the weather and being shaded by the trees.

It was a relief to be able to get moving again. I think I would have had to set off today whatever the weather. I am back to cycling in miles again rather than kilometres which, although I always mentally convert between the two, somehow seems harder as the numbers click up slower. It's also harder to mentally visualize or estimate a mile.

Alburg is on an isthmus that projects down into Lake Champlain, and State Route 2 heads south through a series of islands connected by bridges before crossing east onto the mainland again just above Burlington. There were plenty of views of the lake from the road; the angry white horses were gone but there were still dark grey all around the horizon and a light drizzle was falling.

I stopped in North Hero at the Hero's Welcome Cafe for a tea while the sun made an effort to break through the clouds. I wasn't the only person to have been marooned yesterday, a family on a canoeing trip were eagerly buying food in the store having been marooned on an island in the lake until this morning. According to the newspapers there had been some other rescues on Lake Champlain too.

In spite of the clouds it was quite a warm day, and I pedalled on hoping to find somewhere for breakfast... there's never a Diner around when you want one. Instead I just snacked along the way until I got to Essex Junction where I stopped at a pizza place for lunch and had a lasagne - a very big lasagne as it turned out. I was almost too full to pedal any further. While I was eating I was chatting to someone about my travels and he was asking if I'd met any nice people and I said, yes, lots. He said "Good, just because..." and at this point paused to look over both shoulders to see if anyone was listening, "...just because we have a jackass president doesn't mean we're all bad. Less than half of us voted for him." I guess the checking over the shoulder indicates that too much Homeland Security leads to too much homeland insecurity.

I guess I can forgive you for voting him in once, but twice? Okay the first time was election fraud, but what happened the second time. Maybe John Kerry didn't come across so good, but look what he was up against! He can't have been THAT BAD. Not that we can talk, we've voted lap-dog Bliar in three times. He had us all fooled - I thought we were voting for a socialist, he was in the Labour Party after all, even if it was re-branded 'New Labour'. That label is badly soiled; I think it should be changed to 'Tory-Lite'

And how did we know he'd hitch our flimsy caravan to the back of George's behemoth steamroller on their [im]moral crusade and put us all in jeopardy. I certainly didn't vote for him last time around. I think if you're religious you should be barred from positions of public power - the ultimate separation of church and state - as it demonstrates a clear lack of critical or analytical thinking. (Is expressing such an opinion cause for deportation?)

The day was getting very warm and muggy as I followed the 2A south; it was getting hillier the further south I went. It became so warm that I was drenched in sweat at the slightest effort of cycling, and guzzling water at every opportunity. It gets quite unpleasant when you sweat out a lot of salt as it eventually becomes concentrated and everything feels greasy as a result. By the time I reached the junction with the SR 17 it was about 5 pm and I was hoping to find a campsite. From the junction the road was all uphill to South Starksboro and Jerusalem. The Maple Hill Farm campsite was rustic and basic but fine for my needs - a warm shower and somewhere grassy to pitch the tent. ($20, showers free)

There was not a breath of wind now and as the sun was setting at 7:30 condensation was already starting to form on the tent as the temperature dropped.

Distance: 70.2 miles
Cycling time: 6:18
Total distance: 4327.5 miles