Vermont to Switzerland
A month of extremes.
3/27 Lake Champlain, finally a chance to ride!
3/25 Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
3/17 On the road for work near Winchester, VA.
3/10 View from our room at the Ritz Carlton St. Thomas with St. John in the distance.
3/9 Sailing in the Virgin Islands.
3/8 Snorkeling with Jen in St. Thomas.
3/1 Snowshoe with Jen and Maya.
I managed to ride my February century on the last day of the month. I left the office far too late and rode another slow century around Mt. Mansfield. It was sloppy slow ride of mechanical mishaps – I lost my rear blinkie from my Carradice twice (the second time over some railroad tracks killed it), the chain sucked into the chainstays twice, I dropped the chain once, the new saddle needed several adjustments, I fell (clipped in, landing on my knee) leaving a convenience store as an SUV doing twice the speed limit bore down on me, and my computer ejected itself from my stem 2 miles from home. I chalk the drivetrain mishaps up to the salty overspray that coated the entire bike – my chain was in trouble at about mile 50 and I listened to it chirping the rest of the way home. It took me half a day to do a proper cleaning – and for good measure I pulled the bottom bracket to find it filled with water (most likely from cleanings and last falls rain rides).
The middle third of this ride was wonderful – great views as I pedaled through Johnson, Hyde Park, and Stowe – the landscape very different from January – lots of snow on the ground and in the mountains. As I left Waterbury the sun set and the runoff started freezing. The last 20 miles was misery into the wind heading back to Burlington and dodging ice on Route 2.
A fountain or spring in Stowe that has frozen over and over… this was not here last month!