Pedicab Man

We had been talking about this ride for the whole trip...the day we crossed one of the Gaps in the Green Mountains. Up to this point we had been told a few hundred times that VT had hills but this was a REAL mountain crossing. The nice guys at the local bike shop gave us some good advice about which Gap to cross. The original route was the Adventure Cycling Route across Middlebury Gap but we were warned off because of poor road conditions and sent south about 10 miles to cross the 2,170 foot Brandon Gap on State Hwy 73. It turned out to be about a 6-7 mile climb with some really steep stuff on the last 3 miles. Ron and Derna shugged over the top about 20 minutes before Patty and Jim finished the climb. Then we were treated to what would be a mostly downhill 20+ miles.

Most of this part of the route was through the Green Mountain National Forrest and we were needing some grub when Ron and Derna stopped for a bathroom break. Patty and Jim kept riding down the hill to what turned out to be the only restaurant of the day. We ordered lunch and Patty started worrying about Ron and Derna. Jim figured they stopped at another place up the road that was closed and Ron was talking them into opening or at least out of a cold drink. Just as our food arrive a guy came into the restaurant and told us Ron had a fall up the road. This guy was a EMS professional, on vacation with his family and had stopped traffic with the emergency lights on his mini-van. He gave Ron a check up, bandaged the road rash and advised him to get in the mini-van for a ride to town. No way Ron Winney was going to let a 20 mile per hour fall from a racing bicycle stop him from finishing the task at hand...they kept trucking. The restaurant owner insisted I borrow his car and I drove out to check out the old road warrior who was still peddling away. We all ate lunch.

We needed that lunch because after a another mile we made a right hand turn and had to ride up a 7 mile hill but it wasn't too steep till near the top where we took another break at a country store where a bunch of folks were on sag for an AIDS charity ride. After Ron's accident Jim was nervous on the 7 mile down hill, into Woodstock, until a big guy from the AIDS ride passed Jim and the adrenalin kicked in; He beat him to town.

We're staying at the Ardmore House B&B. It would be hard to pick our 2nd favorite town in VT but Woodstock would be right in the running. Our favorite is Burlington because it has the best Cremee Place in the world...we recommend the large chocolate with waffle cone.