Middlebury to Rochester, VT
Drove to Middlebury early in the morning. Called the group when I got there, and they asked me to come pick up their gear—I met them about 25 miles out of Middlebury and loaded their gear into my car. The group now consists of Kevin Mussett, Bill Upton, Tim Woods, Sylvia Brown, and Kamla Birusingh, a woman they met on RAGBRAI and who joined them in NY, I believe.
Drove back to Middlebury, parked down in the lots below the main street, and the group met me at a bakery/sandwich place right on their route as they entered town. All had sandwiches, and I had a cup of coffee and a moose-shaped cookie. While the others were eating, ordering, and organizing, I went next door to the folk museum/art shop and bought a few items for Jeff and the girls for Christmas stockings (couple of fish made of recycled pop cans, three pairs of earrings made of same; and a couple of other things which I cannot now remember.)
Kevin took his bike to a local bike shop, and the owner told him of a safer route over the mountains than the road past Bread Loaf, so the group will not ride up past the college. I was most keenly disappointed. This decision is akin to Kevin’s cycling all the way across country and getting to Muhall but then having the group decide to ride Rte 33 rather than Hwy 51 past his alma mater OSU. Oh well, what's a woman to do. If the alternate route is safer it's best.
Here's a little Bread Loaf History: The Bread Loaf Inn was started by Joseph Battell (Middlebury College Trustee) in the late 1860s in an old farmhouse. After his death, Battell willed the Inn and his enormous collection of mountains (over 31,000 acres) to Middlebury College. The bulk of the lands now form the heart of the Green Mountain National Forest. Middlebury College retained its ski facility, the Snow Bowl. The remodeled farm buildings have been used since 1920 for the Bread Loaf School of English, and since 1926 for its world-famous Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Many famous writers have taught at both the school and the conference, including Robert Frost, whose cabin is nestled in the nearby woods. Jeff and I both got our masters degrees at Bread Loaf in 1969, the year we married.
I would have been much more upset had I still been on my bike. As it was, I had a car, so I bucked up and drove up to Bread Loaf by myself, stopping in Ripton for a piece of sharp cheese. I also bought a watercolor painting of the Ripton General Store for an anniversary gift for Jeff. It’s hard to believe, but we married in Bread Loaf’s Blue Parlor 40 years (less 10 days) ago today. I also took in the Snow Bowl and stopped at Texas Falls for a couple of photos. One of the bridges there was being redone so I could not get to the other side of the falls. The Bread Loaf guys used to jump into the lower pool from this bridge, a very daring feat.
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| Ripton General Store on the way up to Bread Loaf School of English, a favorite place to buy a hunk of extra sharp VT cheddar from a large wheel; we'd place the cheese on our fireplace mantle until it sweated and was perfect for pre-dinner sherry and cheese crackers |
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| Bread Loaf Inn |
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| Bread Loaf Barn where we'd go to study and grab a cold drink |
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| Another view of the Bread Loaf Inn; this building served as a dormitory and also housed the dining room |
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| Larch with a view of Bread Loaf Mountain |
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| Texas Falls |
Almost got into it with Kevin again when he asked me to sag the group the following day, waiting at intervals and supplying them with water, snacks etc. like a couple of his friends had done earlier in the ride. I’d volunteered to carry their gear over the mountains so that they could ride unencumbered, not to SAG the route, and really wanted to stop and see things and be a tourist myself, albeit a motorized tourist, while on my vacation in VT and NH. Of course I blurted out all this rather than handling it diplomatically, so Kevin bristled . . . but, fortunately, didn’t boil over.
We all ate dinner at the Huntington House, a restaurant across the square from the B & B we stayed in (The Pumpkin Patch
B & B). I had my sleeping bag with me and planned to sleep in the car--there's plenty of room when I put the seats down--but this idea was voted down. All slept in the same room, I on the floor on a couple of cushions I grabbed off nearby chairs. No, I was not missing this nightly arrangement at all.
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| Pumpkin Patch B & B where we all crowded into an attic room for the night |
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| Around the table at the Huntington Inn across Rochester's square from the Pumpkin Patch: Sylvia, Kevin, Tim, Kamla (new rider), and Bill |
Tim’s blog account: We met up with Susan Walker who has driven up from OK to visit her brother and sag us. She found a good sandwich shop to eat lunch in Middlebury. Afterwards, we went to the community/historical center next door to see the gift shop and the exhibit upstairs about a communality started by back-to-earthers Helen and Scott Nearing. Leaving town we took an alternate route recommended by a cyclist in the bike store. It added 7 miles but was well worth it due to fewer climbs, smoother roads, less traffic, and a safer descent.
Sylvia called to reserve a B&B and was hung up on by the rude owner. What a blessing! The next B&B that she called, the Pumpkin Patch, had a huge loft room for all 6 of us and stables for our bikes. After an amazing dinner at the Huntington House we finished out the night watching the DVD Must Love Dogs.
