Tues, July 11
54.2 Miles (732.4 total)
Forgot to mention - Dad got a flat yesterday. It was strange - we rode all day with no problem. Then, when we put the bikes on Becky's porch, it just went flat. And my bike has been acting weird. I think I went over a curb funny, and now pedaling feels a little clunky, not as smooth. And coasting just sounds different. I'm a little worried for the rest of the trip...
What a day. We left Becky's house dry, thankful to have slept on the porch since it rained all night. But the day quickly went downhill. First, we were looking forward to going to a local diner for breakfast and getting that authentic Vermont maple syrup... But it had "new hours" and was closed on Tuesdays. Second, started raining again. Weather app said 30% chance until 10am, and it hit us, harder than anything that came down yesterday. We took shelter under a tree and waited for the worst of it to pass. Third, the ferry we were supposed to take today was temporarily closed. The route was supposed to take us on a narrow stretch of land, surrounded by water on both sides and leading to a ferry into Burlington. But now, an easy 44 mile day became 54 with the detour. The path followed Lake Champlain tough, which was very pretty. Fourth, the wind was fighting us now. Going north, the wind helped us most of the way to Montreal. But now that we're heading south, it was fighting us. Hadn't worked that hard on a flat road in a long time. Fifth and finally, Dad got another flat, again after a break and having not moved. We went through the motions of replacing the tube, but it didn't work - he must have pinched the tube when putting the tire back on. So we had to do it all again. And with that, we made it to Burlington. We were supposed to have a host today, but with the broken ferry detour, his place was another eight miles away from where we entered the city. We booked a hotel instead and called it a day.
With all the rain yesterday, Vermont is under a state of emergency due to flooding. We've seen videos of roads being washed away in New York, and have heard many roads are now closed in Vermont or just aren't there. Even today, our campsite on our last night, Tues, July 18, cancelled our reservations because it's now closed due to flooding. We'll see what happens in these next couple days with our route...
Last thing - hard to find ice here. Other than the first gas station right over the New York border, none of the others today had ice or drink stations where we could refill our water. Plenty of hot drink stations, but no water.
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