Whoops – long time no post. The quick news is that I’ve met up with Sarah and Megan here in Burlington, and we’re about to go pick up Megan’s bike and head north to Canada.
Let’s see…since the last post, I ran into another couple of tourists riding the entire Northern Tier route (Seattle to Bar Harbor) on a tandem bike. (You can see April and Andy’s blog at http://aprilandhoneychild.blogspot.com) I shared a site with them in Old Forge, NY, which is a crazy tourist town complete with amusement park. The town was kind of a surprise after riding through some really remote roads in the Adirondacks – the kind of place where it seems you could actually pull off something like in The Village. Anyway, while we were doing laundry, April was waiting for Andy to come back with quarters – I joked he was fighting off a bear. Turns out, it wasn’t a joke. When he went back to our campsite, there was a bear eating all our food. Usually I’m pretty careful about that sort of thing, but for some reason I figured the campsites proximity to water slides and arcades would somehow ward the bears away. So, the bear ripped a giant hole in my pannier and ate pasta sauce, bread, and tapioca pudding for dessert. I realized I never thanked Andy for chasing the bear off and cleaning up the pasta sauce mess….so, thanks Andy!
After that, it was pretty much just riding through the beautiful Adirondacks in awesome weather. I did a lot of free camping off in the woods (taking extra care to hang my food). Took a great ferry ride across Lake Champlain into Burlington.
Unfortunately, Megan’s bike was delayed shipping a day, so we had to spend an extra day in Burlington waiting for it. Luckily, my band mate Wendy has a sister in Burlington, and we were able to stay with her. Karen and Grayson were awesome hosts, really everything a bike tourist could want: Soft bed, warm shower, clean laundry, live right off the bike path, and gave awesome tips on where to get tasty food! They really went all-out for us at the last minute. Thanks so much you guys – it was great!
Okay, so we’re about to head off to the bike shop to get Megan’s bike and enjoy our last morning in Burlington (a pretty sweet town if you ever come though). Then, back on the road for us. I’m glad the solo portion of the trip is over – it’s really just not as much fun by yourself. I’ll try to update the blog more often, and will definitely post if either Sarah or Megan meet some awful fate.