Today we rode 78.78 miles and climbed 4,990 feet. We hadn’t climbed this much since the Black Hills of South Dakota. We all carried our wind breakers or rain gear because the forecast was for scattered showers. We rode comfortably to the state line of Vermont and stopped to take another state photo, one more state down. At mile 30 we stopped at a SAG stop and refilled water bottles and ate more bananas. After this trip I don’t want to see a banana for a year. I don’t even like bananas. I only eat them because they are a good source of potassium and that helps prevent cramping.

We had generally been riding up rolling hills all day but the first real climb started at mile 38 and climbed for the next 10 miles. Steve, Danny and I were riding a bit ahead of Mary and her brother John who had joined us today on his bike. I could tell he was a strong rider so it was a bit embarrassing for him when he fell over right after the photo shoot at the state line. You have to remember that Mary has fallen three times while on this trip and each time she has been moving at speeds less than three miles per hour. John was moving about 2 _ mph when he took his spill. Danny immediately drew the conclusion that this was a hereditary trait that obviously ran in the family. Each time Mary had fallen she was behind Steve. When John fell, you guessed it, he was behind Steve. I’ll let you draw your own conclusion on this matter.

As we started the ten mile climb Dan, Steve and I were riding side by side. We all started talking about how we were going to behave ourselves today and take our time up this 10 mile climb. Steve has a very poor short term memory and in about five minutes he took off up the hill at a high rate of speed. I immediately followed him and rode his rear tire while I caught my breath. Dan remained back a ways. I decided to pass Steve and put on a burst to see how determined he was and he immediately passed me back. I had to ride hard to keep contact with him. He yelled back at me that there was no way he would let me drop him and if I passed him he would be on my tail the entire way up. I assessed the situation and figured out that this boy has some fire today. The last two days Mary and I had been dragging Steve all over the countryside because he had a cold. Well, this was a fine way for him to return the favor.

So I passed Steve one more time and tried to put some distance between him and me but failed to do so. This time he passed me back and I could not stay with him. Danny had caught up and passed me also and chased Steve up the mountain. I settled into the fact that today I would be a spectator and watch Steve and Danny battle this one out. It was a slugfest all the way up and finally Steve got the best of Danny. By the time I got to the top they were well on their way down the other side. As I descended I spotted them waiting for me on the other side of the road. I pulled over and they gave me the blow by blow description of their battle. We then proceeded down the hill because Mary and John we some ways back

Steve does not care for downhills so Danny and I took off coasting almost all the way into Brattleboro. We had to navigate through some messy construction which really chipped the paint on my bike, but arrived safely in town and had lunch at a wonderful deli. A number of cyclists sat on the lawn and ate lunch and reminisced about our time together and the bike trip in general. With our journey almost over, we are all getting a bit reflective in our thoughts.

Mary and John arrived and had some lunch and then we all proceeded into town, stopped at a bike shop and then on to the motel. Now we only have one tough day left. The count down has started. Tomorrow is the rider banquet and we had talked about printing a tee shirt for Mike and Barbara, our ride leaders, but how could we get this accomplished at such a late date?

After dinner Danny and I stopped by the front desk of the motel and asked about places that did this kind of printing. The lady gave us two places to try which I did and no one answered the phone. They both happened to be close by so Danny got his bike and rode over there. I went to my room to select and edit the pictures we wanted to print on their tee shirts. Danny called me on his cell phone and he was at Staples and they had paper there that we could print our pictures on and iron the pictures on the tee shirts. As I was talking to Danny on his cell, I walked out of my room to the front desk to see if the motel had a color printer and a computer I could use. They did so we were in business. I had the pictures edited and cropped by the time Danny got back so we proceed to the business center in the motel to use their computer and printer. We could not figure out how to reverse the image so we raced back to Staples in Mary’s mother’s car just before they closed the doors. We found out I could reverse the images on my computer with my software and so we raced back to the motel.

This all worked well, we printed the images, Danny went to my room to iron them on the tee shirts and low and behold, it worked beautifully. None of us could believe it. It really worked. It was now after 10 PM. None of us had been up this late before and tomorrow was a very challenging day. We all felt like college kids cramming for an exam. At least we slept well knowing our tee shirts would be a great surprise for Mike and Barbara.

Click here to see more pictures from today!