A Rendezvous with Sneakers

I don’t know what it is about me. I know what causes bruises–but I don’t know why I bruise so much and so easily. Wham! I’ll walk into the side of a patients bed and develop a huge black and blue mark on my hip. Smack! Walk into a sign and have a bruise on my forehead. Crash! Fall off my roadbike, in my own driveway (which wasn’t my fault– it was the silly huge heart that was moved in the side of the lawn, and I thought it would be smart to check my mail on my bike still clipped in. Didn’t go down so well. Picking gravel out of your knee with tweezers is never a fun thing to do). You’re probably wondering if I’m just clumsy–that might be the case. That, or not think. After a visit to the doc yesterday morning he looked down at my knees, “What happened?”

To that I could only answer, “being me.”

Anyway, this post isn’t about my clumsiness and blessed ability to bruise easily, it’s about the rest of my first ever road trip.

Part Two: Shelbourne,  and Burlington

Church Street, downtown Burlington

After hiking up Mt Mansfield in Stowe, I headed further east to Shelbourne to spend the night. Little did I know that almost everything within walking distance to Burlington was booked, so I ended up staying about four miles south of the town, which ended up being a blessing in disguise because it was a construction disaster getting into burlington, with lots of traffic, and I would have been a mess trying to find my way around and drive anywhere.

Once I checked into the hotel, I noticed a large number of young people walking around, and Tri bikes on top of the roofs of cars. At the desk a cute young athlete came up to me and asked if I was here for the race this weekend. Apparently, the 19th and 20th were when the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championship was going on that weekend. “No, not this one…no…But I do tri’s!”

Since it was so late by the time I got there, and the muscles in my arms hurt from mountain biking, and my legs could use a rest from the climb, and there was no way in hell I was going to attempt to get back into Burlington, so I just stayed in the hotel and ate some trail mix and watched some TV. Ahh, relaxation. I cannot remember a time when I could relax.

In the morning, I took the bus into town because walking along a 2 lane “highway” for four miles did not seem appealing. I would have walked, though.  But, now I know their bus system! (The ladies at the front desk must have thought i was crazy for even contemplating walking that far).

I went to Church street, which is the main street in Burlington. It is on a hill, and if you want to go to the water and then back up is a bit of a hike! Church street reminded me of Boston for some odd reason.

Cherry Street, or as Ben and Jerry's prefer Cherry Garcia (taken next to the ben and Jerry's ice cream shop

Once downtown, I wandered the streets, up and down, taking everything in. Burlington has its own mall! And, with brands that I like! I was super stoked about that. I found my way down to the water (I guess not the conventiona way…maybe I should look at maps more). And it was beautiful. Warm, sunny, breezy….great. By the time I got down to the water, I was famished. So, I decided to stop and have food and rehydrate (it was hot out!) so I went toBreakwater Cafe and Gril. She brought me to a back table and I waited and just kept watching the small waves in the lake, and decided what next to do.

Looking out at the bay

Whenever I am close to water, I feel like I want to eat fish. Or something from the sea. I did want to treat myself to a lobster and when I asked him where the  lobster was from, he said, “Maine” and I nearly choked. “You don’t have Vermot lobster?”

“No, I’m sorry”

Saddly, I ended up, eating a salad with a crab cake. I really was looking foward to lobster.

Looks interesting

After my lunch/dinner, I walked along to the Aquarium (although I didn’t go in) and back up to main street, which lead me back to Church street. It was a really nice day, just relaxing. Once I was there, I found my way to the bus station and headed back to the hotel. On the way, I had the driver stop cause my next destination was the Magic Hat Bewery and did a tour which was pretty neat. I did come home with four pint glasses from the place as my souvenier form my trip. The inside of the artifactory is dark but with yellow  christmas tree lights all over the place–it was kind of crazy.

From there, I walked back along route 7 (busy busy) which was only  like a mile from my  hotel. (boy, it was warm out!). I kinda chilled in my hotel room (by the time I got  home it was around 7), took a long shower, and placed all the maps over my bed to  see what would happen next.!

Some lessons learnt on my trip thus far:

1) Do not use your phone as a navigation system, unless you have an app or something similar on it. Trying to look at the directions on your phone as you are driving and figuring out which way is staight is not at all helpful and worth the attempt at saving trees. If you use directions from mapquest, print them off!

2)Always make sure you are somewhat presentable before checking into hotels. And ask if they will let you have your bike in your room for safety reasons. Some do, some don’t.

3)The weathermen are never predictable.

4)Getting lost trying trying get to I89 over to whatever it is in Albany to come down from the North, during AM rushhour traffic, is never fun.

5) Two different people on two different occassions said I looked like that actress. My reply, “Jodie Foster? Yeah, everyone says that. I still don’t see it.

6)Dried cherries are not as good as craisins in the Molly trail mix.Next time, I’ll add walnuts and pecans and sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds!

7) After returning and being shocked by the number on the scale in the doctors office, I’ve decided I really need to start watching what I eat. Blah