August 28 Day 58 Rutland (Poutney)VT to Quechee (Woodstock) VT 42 Miles 2065 Climbing

We got to be a part of Rogers's morning photo. He said he didn't have a photo of a morning start. 

We have looked for moose since the west coast. I guess they don't read the signs.

We climbed 12 miles to get to this spot. It wasn't a difficult climb, but very scenic.

Here are the ski slopes of Killington mountain

I didn't realize there was an actual pass. After the pass it was down hill to Woodstock and beyond.

Mike set up a stop at the pass. It was early so he was there to make sure everyone was ok.

There were several of these hay bale bears along the road.

This almost reminds me of the rivers we followed in Oregon. There are some sumac along the river that are starting to turn a bit in red colors.

This barn turned home was also promoting cycling in Vermont.

The river has so many twist and turns we just roll along with it.

Wow! I haven't seen any chickens till today. These were some fat happy ones.

So I had this great idea to get a photo of Jim riding out of the covered bridge. He's there you just have to look for him.

In the town of Woodstock they had these beautiful flower baskets on the lamp post into town.

This is the Quechee Gorge made by the Ottauquechee River. From the bridge it is 165 feet to the bottom. The bridge was built in 1911.

 Ah, Mr. Jimmy enjoying the day.

Here are the Hoyt boys at dinner. 

Rains came up the valley with thunder and lightening. We finally had to move from the balcony, we started getting chilly and wet. Fortunately we had just finished our dinner and we shared a desert  inside. Tomorrow we will head  into New Hampshire. The. States sure are small on this side of the country. Only 3 more days, amazing!

August 27 Day 57 Saratoga Springs NY to Rutland(Poutney) VT 75 miles 3218 climbing

It started raining around 5:00 yesterday afternoon. We woke up to very cloudy skies but there is no rain in the forecast.  We are headed to Vermont today. The hills are getting more abundant too! 

We've seen a lot of American flags displayed in different ways. This one was nice.

This is part of the Saranac river. The rains have sent a lot of downed trees through this area.

I have no idea what this little building is used for. It was along side the road. Thought it was cute.

Here is Pete on his recumbent and the fellow in the next picture is his younger brother Scott, who came to ride with us for the day. It was fun having him along.

This is the early home of Susan B. Anthony. She lived here from 1832 to 1839. Most of know her from the $2.00 coin that was issued in 1979 thru 1981 then again in 1999. For those who don't know or remember, she was an American Civil Rights Leader who was pivotal in the movement for women's civil rights.

Barn for the day, I think it isn't a fixer upper.

Since we were on a secondary road there was not a welcome to Vermont sign. This sign was the first one we saw to let us know that we were in Vermont. There were workers on the road and when we stopped to take this picture, they yelled out  "Welcome to Vermont!"

There were quite a few roads that looked like this at the top of their climbs,

This was a busy little building. The Texaco sign made me smile.

The landscape is changing again, lots of hills out there.

These falls were beside a mill along the road.

Everyone is finally in and hanging out at the trailer. This has become a social event each evening. From hanging out till everyone is in, to gathering later to see what everyone is up to for the evening

This evening several of us went into town and went to the Palms Resturant. The Palms was opened by 

Giuseppe and Giovannina Sabatason on Palm Sunday in 1933. They eventually turned it over to their sons. In 1949 they had the honor of serving the first pizza in Vermont. Primo went to New York to learn how to make pizza. Another interesting first is the Resturant was the first to have a TV in 1950. All this rich history and really good food. What a nice way to enjoy the evening. Tomorrow we have a short day. It will have some great climbing. Should be fun!

August 26 Day 56 REST DAY Saratoga Springs NY

On rest day we spend a lot of time getting things cleaned up and ready for, are you ready our last 5 days of this awesome journey. We rode  hard packed bike trails for two days. The bikes were real dusty and drive trains were dry. Laundry to do and pups to wash. Here is Jim and his brother, Mike who is supervising Jim. Can you believe that.

I don't know how this happened. Here is Mike wearing Pete's helmet which has a brim on it. That is Pete's recumbent in the photo as well.

After we got all of our chores done. We went off to the horse races at the famous Saratoga Race Track. There is every kind of way to watch the races. There is a huge picnic table area where people bring their stuff in to watch the races. This Is a photo of that area. Under the canopy are screens where you can see the races. Everywhere there are places where you can place your bets.

The grand stands have different tiers. The top Is where a dress code is enforced and nice dining. That is where the fancy people go. We went to the second tier. Once in the Resturant and we sat down, That was our table till we closed our tab. We could come and go as we pleased.

There are all kinds of walk ways. The one below is where they bring the horses to the jockeys. The jockeys have their own saddles and they put them on, saddle up and ride out onto the track. All this time people are watching and using whatever techniques to figure out which horse to bet on. It was fascinating to walk around and watch people study and commiserate with each other on how to place their bets. When we sat down at the table Jim asked the waitress which horses are the best to bet on. She was great, she said if she knew that she would not have been waiting tables there for 37 years.

Spent about 3 hours there and decided we had donated enough money to the track. Paul was the only one who walked out of there ahead. Only $12.00 but he was ahead of the rest of us. As we were leaving I overheard a lady telling her young son she was going to go and "vote" for one of the horses.Back  at the hotel a few last minute things to do like EAT! The next 5 days will not have long mileage. What it lacks in distance it will make up in hills. We start the rest of this trip with 3100 miles.

August 25 Day 55 Little Falls NY to Saratoga Springs NY 72 miles 3200 climbing

It's a beautiful morning, a little chill in the air. Today is a short day around 70 miles. We ride to Saratoga 

Springs and will have a rest day tomorrow. Then on to Portland Maine.

So my fascination with claw machines lets me get this big overstuffed mustash. We couldn't wait for Nevin to show up outside. We knew he would have mustash envy.

When we headed out of town we crossed this bridge and saw Little Falls from a different perspective.

A bright sunny day awaited us.

As we climbed out of town we saw fog ahead.

This was totally unexpected we could see the sun trying to break through. But it would take a while.

The fog only got thicker.

This little pony wasn't sure what to make of us. He kept peeking at us from different angles.

Down out of the fog all of a sudden we had a bright clear day.  Came up on this Amish Buggy. I was impressed that they had two horses pulling. They were really fast.

From the back we saw these two young boys looking out.

This was a busy Sunday morning. Here come another buggy the other direction.

We had seen several older cars on the road, found this fellow working on his model T. We saw him hand crank it to start it.

This fellow was with the others. They were on their way to a car show in a neighboring town.

We rode by this shrine for the couple on the plaque in the photo below.

Barn for the day. Really liked the pond in front of the barn.

We eventually made it in to Saratoga Springs. We had different options to get into town. Patrick, who is Nevin's friend joined us last week. He has an app on his phone that we used to get us to our hotel without any issues. Others got more creative and went a whole lot of different directions to get there.

We became Patrick and the pacesetters for the day. We had a wonderful dinner at a place called Masteros.

Nevin decided since Jm and I wouldn't take this big bone to the pups that he might as well chew on it for a bit. What a great day this was. Everyone had their own adventure and we are truly ready for a rest day. 11 days straight for us was quite a bit, with all of them being high mileage days.