There's something very relaxing about escaping for a few days to the colors of Vermont with a group of people you've never met before. It never ceases to amaze me how we immediately feel we've known each other for years. It must be the love of cycling that does it. That along with fresh air, good food and a teasing hill or two to promote bonding. Not to mention locking the keys in the Bike Vermont van and trying to figure out how to break in! Oops -- I wasn't supposed to bring that up.....
This year, our friend from W.L. Gore came with a can of compressed air for Windstopper® demos. If she could have figured out how to bring the Gore "rain room" with her, that would have come too. After a day in the saddle, relaxing with a glass of wine and hearing about the technical intricacies of fabrics hits the spot. Following dinner, it was on to the "trunk show" -- you ask to see it, we bring it! Breakfast the next morning looked like an advertisement for Terry and Gore.
Bike Vermont hosts this tour for us every year. We ask them to go above and beyond and they always do. The food was healthy and plentiful. Our leaders, Danielle and Bill, must have been cloning themselves, because they were always on top of things. Except for that locking the keys in the van incident. Drat, there I go again. Kudos to Bill: any man who comes to dinner each night wearing a kilt has my respect.When I was a little kid, I remember going to visit friends with my parents. Inevitably, it was time to go home all too soon. My father always said, "Leave while you're still having a good time, then you'll always want to come back". Each year after this tour, those words come to mind. It's the last real "event" of the year and we come home on a real high, with plans to make the next year's tour even better.
Tailwinds,
Georgena
Georgena
