Day 70 Hague, NY-Hancock, VT

click here for more photos

 Day 70 (Oct 9): Very chilly morning at Rogers Rock Campground in Ticonderoga, NY. John and I looked at the reflection in the van window, it looked like we were on the Haunted House ride at Disneyland. There was a false start for Kevin, Alan and John....they rode about 20 feet but had to turn back because Kevin had a flat tire. Kevin fixed his tire and off they went for their 48 mile ride today. Janut, Bob and I sat in the Walmart parking lot for about 2.5 hours...again...good cell phone connection to secure campgrounds and motels and to buy groceries (Janut bought a bunch of mini pies...looks like we could open our own pie shop!). Vince rode up to the van in the Walmart parking lot to say hello, and we saw his famous "bike security system" in action = Vince dries his underwear by hanging it on his handlebars...he figures no one would want to touch them or ride off with a bike that has underwear hanging from the handlebars! We crossed over the Lake Champlain Bridge leaving NY and entering Vermont. The old 1929 bridge (cost $929,627.06) closed in Jan 2010, and the new bridge (cost $80 million) opened in Nov 2011. The new bridge has five foot wide shoulders to accommodate bicycles and farm equipment. The fall colors seem to be on the tail end in Vermont (lots of trees with no leaves left). We saw the woods where the poet Robert Frost liked to walk. We arrived in Hancock, Vermont about mid-afternoon and found the guy's bikes outside of the Old Hancock Hotel (est 1788). Our camp spot was just around the corner...The Gathering Inn, right off Cemetery Rd. Alan and John are sharing a room, while Kevin, Janut, Bob and I are in the van right next to the cemetery...our view from the van is quite nice...a hill of fall colors. The Inn has chickens and ducks...they had to check out the van to see what all the commotion was about down by the cemetery. They stared at the van for a while, then decided the big stone gray thing with four wheels was not a threat and waddled about their merry way. We walked to the Old Hancock Hotel for dinner...very tasty...can't be in a hurry to eat there, but very tasty. We asked what time breakfast started...the waitress said "uh, 8am-ish?" We'll go back for breakfast at 8am-ish...hopefully we'll eat before noon!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~