MONTREAL, AT LAST!
with over five hundred thirty (written out, it emphasizes the length of our journey, but if you'd rather, 530+) miles clocked on our odometers we rolled into town, wiped out and glistening with ethereal ooze -or maybe that was just sweat?
Mike has volunteered to catch us up:
The day after Mariel's house in New City, we traveled to Fohnstock State Park. We had to bike uphill for 5 miles after doing 38 miles that day. A ranger hooked us up with a sweet cabin that protected us from the terrible rain the next morning. After dealing with more flats in the rain the next morning and waiting for the rain to stop, we eventually left and got to spend the next night at Mariel's old college, Vassar. We slept in a lounge in a dorm and got a tour of the school. The next day we biked 50 miles while food committee biked 66 miles (Noah, David, and Bryan). We slept in a fruit farm (Smith's Farm) surrounded by ripe raspberries and peaches which we picked ourslves. It was nice to get clothes washed and we went out to dinner for Raphi's birthday at a chinese restaraunt across from the comfortable motel.
picking up where mike left off...
the children have been mutineering. apparently 6 meals, 8 snacks, and 14 desserts per day isn't enough to stave off the abyssmal hunger that is the product of these painfully long days of riding. and boy were they painful. but sunshine and friendly cows in vermont helped to subdue the saddle-sores and sun-burns. the group's navigator, who shall remain nameless, has lead us into some sticky situations... one of these being a railroad causeway that shot for miles out into the champlain lake that suddenly reached a disconnect. at their rope's end for not three minutes before some friendly french-canadian boaters boarded those teen-trekkers and ferried them across the water. swimming followed. all that was lost were anna's sunglasses and (don't ask me how) noah's shorts. What turned out to be a false alarm, our 'budget crisis' resulted in tightening our belts and working out the kinks in a flawed system of group food shopping and cooking, and the group pulled together in a new, more efficient way. blah blah blah, you just want to know wether we survived that damn Vermonster or not. The truth is, that ice cream didn't stand a chance against these kids. Mariel and I could barely get our spoons within homing range of that thing for fear of friendly fire. We gardened botanicals and pancaked at the hostel today. Tomorrow brings more adventure, back in new york the following day.
Your kids will be happy to fill you in on the details I've forgotton on this page, including all the times we nearly died. I'm sure they will tell you how horrible this experience has been and how they never want to do this sort of thing again, which is fine with me, because, frankly, I can't stand them anymore.
Love from Bryan, Mariel, Nate, Raphi, Mike, Anna, David, and Noah.
