green mountain state - they weren't kidding

Hello,
I'm in Rochester, VT - our third state (yeah, so they were really thin
states, but still we've ridden in three states). Where did I leave off? On
monday evening I met Melissa at the bus station and we headed back to
Plymouth. We walked to Mike and Tyler's house (can you picture us - walking
along the railway tracks with our sleeping bags bungee corded around our
shoulders carrying one pannier plus a six pack each as a thank you, wearing
sandals and socks...mine with a hole in the toe. We're such vagabonds. One
guy actually stopped us and asked if we were running away from home.) We
spent the night at Mike, Tyler and Ben's(their other house mate) eating ice
cream...watching tv... good stuff. They are just really good guys - Mike
showed us his worm farm that he was raising for fishing, and Ben showed us
tips on fixing our bikes on the road. Now there are guys after my heart.
Seriously, instead of hearing the typical NYC pick up line of, "can I buy
you a drink, you know I'm an investment banker at Goldman Sachs..." how much
better would it be to hear, "can i buy you an ice cream, I can show you how
to fix a broken chain and show you my worm farm." (and that's not a double
entendre). Honestly. Anyway, we picked up our bikes the next morning and
Mike drove us back to the ice cream stand where we had left our bike route.
Which is quite ironic considering when Melissa called the bike shop the
morning after the accident to see how we could get into Plymouth, it was
Mike on the phone who responded with, "well, you've got two good thumbs."
This actually became our motto for western New Hampshire considering how
many times we got rides from other people.

We were met at the ice cream stand by Matthew and Noelle - the same chatty
kids from the day of the accident. The same Matthew who asked Melissa where
she was biking to and after processing the west coast response said,"you
know Melissa, you'd get there a lot faster if you took a plane." Wise, wise
Matthew. It reminded me of what a great prophet once said, "I believe the
children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way." After
drinking some home made soda and playing the very popular coloring rocks
with markers game, we headed on our way.

We encountered mountains... and more mountains. Then we slept at a camp
ground(on a mountain) and finally got to use our tent.

On Wednesday we ran into a guy who had just finished biking from Ventura
Beach, California to Maine. We sat and had lunch with him as he gave us
lots of tips of the road (luckily he put his 4 front teeth back in before we
started eating). The biggest tip was to lose some of our gear - he
travelled with only rear panniers...that's it. no sleeping bag, stove,
sleeping pad, anything. That night I started to throw away and ship home
some of my stuff - unfortunately this meant saying goodbye to the two purple
and green colored rocks from matthew. I had more problems with my front
rack and have decided that it's just a crummy rack. For the bikers on this
list - don't waste your money on the Topeak front lowrider. While we were
stopping to fix the rack a guy pulled over to offer help and a place to stay
on his 103 acres of land. He said that he had biked 9,000 miles in 3 years
and would love to help fellow bike tourers. We declined, but took his
number just in case we needed help. So as Toad (yes, he introduced himself
as "Toad, like a frog") got back into his technicolor jeep we waved goodbye
to the opportunity of sleeping on his grounds and swimming in his pond. I'm
not kidding, he offered us his pond to swim in.

Today our goal was to get to Rochester b/c there is a bike shop here. The
added bonus of there also being a library, the cutest cafe/soda shop i've
ever seen, a laundromat, and a backyard of the bike shop where we can camp
for free was a welcome surprise. The guy (his name is Doon, as in ... i
don't know, he's really nice) working on my bike agreed that I should just
attach a new rack and is doing that as i sit here typing. And, Dorothy and
Scot just walked in this library after tracking us through Plymouth and
asking around towns if they'd seen two blond bikers. I guess we're making
an impression b/c they found us.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Cheers,
leigh