Boog's Blog

A major thunderstorm passed over last night. Severe warnings. Left the morning 10 degrees cooler, windy, and almost cloudless sky.

Rural Vermont is as empty as expected. Farms, lovely lakes and rivers, I am on the missisquoi, vertical hills on one of the main highways, and churches and more churches. Rural areas seem to always have more churches than people.

Good nature trail along the river. Explored only a bit as I don't like to leave a loaded bike.

Grey gables inn for tonights B&B. Historic Victorian with plans by Palister and Palister. 1888. Floor plans without upgrades sold by mail for 25 cents. This building is the last one remaining for the t this plan as the architects house, same plan, burned down. Run by the former manager of the Oakland coliseum. He definitely belongs in the hospitality business; he even did all my laundry!

Richford is booming or will be some, unrecognizable 18 months according to the proprietor. Lots of business from the 330 miles of maintained ski trials, biking and kayaks on the 770 mile river passage across the street.

The entire town smells like cow manure.

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A day of biking around some of the especially nice paths, dunes, landscapes outlined by the bike afficianados and map makers. Water views everywhere. Looks much better today without the rain.

Asked the Isles owner ( a very committed believer in doing good) why central America for the non profit. Lots of need stateside I said. Her response: too difficult to run a non profit here. Regulations, rules, paperwork, high expense, etc. The few dollars that can be solicited goes so much further elsewhere.

Went looking for lunch. Not so easy if one wants other than roadside convenience store deli. Had to go 8 miles out of my way to Rousse NY – a mile from Canada. T-Mobile now considers me using expensive data in Canada.

Lunch in a family diner. Of course poutine on the menu; I did not try. Friendly with many tables speaking French. So much slower than in Paris.

Back down to ransom bay South of Alburg. Lovely B&B with a good restaurant, run BT very nice folks. They explained that the restaurant, an addition about 5 years ago, does twice the revenue of the rooms. The rooms are rustic, this is a stone building.

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The first 10 miles are along a bike path and causeway which has a gap for which a ferry is required. Poor timing as I ended up waiting and waiting.

Bagels! Properly made, boiled, at wally,'s. Nice bagel,cheese Canadian bacon egg sandwich. Wally place at junction 140 and 2 south hero. Very much old style NYC bagels.

Rain started as I approached north hero. Drawbridge a good excuse to don rain gear.

The bike: big, very stable especially downhill, hard uphill as the geometry is city bike vertical. Nice front and seat shocks.

Apple orchard visit. Fresh cider, good story of the place, family home of the first settler. Hall Home place. Crisp tart Macintosh apples when picked from the trees. Visitors from NYC come to pick. Explained poor macs in stores: so poorly. Sell a lot of OCR cider, between sweet and jack.

Inn at isles tonight. Old lakeside B&B. Room almost big enough for me and my rain gear. Owner called away until evening so just left me a key. Place is run to support a charity, micro loans in central America. Very earnest.

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Passed this a few moments ago.

Preparation day. Pick up the rental bike and get it outfitted as best as it can be. Big leap this going naked so to speak. Have never toured on bikes others than ones I outfitted for the task.

Burlington, a university town situated directly on the lake is an ideal jumping off point. Access both north and south as well as to the islands in the lake; where I am headed first.

Tomorrow the riding starts.

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A walk along the sea and then a walk along the river.

Why they called this easy must be in the sense of Douglas Adams. Hilly and dangerous cliffs a la Cornwall. Naturally we did not take our sticks on this walk.

Food: none on the path for the past three days. No place to eat, take away, or shop for food.

Lovely scenery, especially around le castel and the slog over the small mountains. Similar to Cornwall, but not northern Spain, one goes up and down to spectacular beaches.

Lannion, our destination, is a small city of 20K persons. Not overly charming but functional for doing our laundry, needed to before Paris our next stop.

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The Hotel last night had some problems.

WiFi, nope. He called his son who, next weekend, would come by to take a look. Works in the bar, shrug. Shower, only in theory. The knobs to convert from a sitz-bath come off rather than start the water.

Toilet, week do close to the radiator easier to use the hall one.

Nice view though.

Inland walk, terrible directions, mid walking and then the menhir de saint uzec.

Researchers: what is the difference between a m menhir and a dolman?

http://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menhir_de_Saint-Uzec

Good walk around Île Grande and then in somewhat heavy rain limped into town. A long walk today as we took the longer version offered. Maybe too long today.

Faites Maison soupe de Poisson served with a tapanade rather than rouille.

Dessert a local speciality.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kouign-amann

Wine: Bordeaux, chateau Fredignac 2010 4 Boogs

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