Friday - Day 10 - September 12, 2014

        I need to put the full date down as time is beginning to slip a bit. Well space too. Where and when am I? Without my regular routines I am not as aware of days and with the constant drive and walk, drive and walk, back and forth, back and forth, I am not as aware of exactly where I am or what ground I am covering. Of course my lack of short term memory helps too.

        Yesterday morning it was cool. OK cold for packing up tents, tarps, sleeping bags etc.  I was trying to pack, get the stove going, grind my usual coffee, and organize the van all at the same time for a while and it made for some confusion for a while in my mind. That being said, or written as it were, I managed and we were ready for the road by 8:35 when the temperature was up to 11° C.

        The walk started at Highways 2 & 7 and again there was lots of traffic. On my first walk to meet Fleur-Ange and Pauline I spotted a huge white barn. To avoid getting wires in my photo I walked down into a ditch to take the photo as I was thinking of a barn series for the day. As I was coming out of the ditch onto the wide bike path I suddenly became aware of a car speeding toward me. My eyes had been down paying attention to the slope of the ditch so looking up to see a car in the bike lane was unexpected.  In the brief time that I had to think and jump back I assumed that the car had been using the bike lane to pass a slower car on the road. All the traffic was moving fairly fast so there was no excuse for that car being in the bike lane. It was the most frightening moment of the day, thank goodness!

        The route passed through two or three small villages today. (Without my map or photos from the camera, both not available as I write, I cannot remember the names.) At one of the villages, Essex Junction I think, Fleur-Ange tried to make a payment on her VISA at a TD bank that we found. She thought she could get the balance and make payment on it since it was an American TD VISA card. However, it appears that an American TD VISA card from Canada is not accessible to TD in the USA. Lesson learned and interest to be paid later I guess.

        Shortly after leaving town we found ourselves on the banks of the Winooski (sp?) river. As I look at the historic map of the route of the Deerfield raiders took, I am sure that they used the river as a path to Lake Champlain so we are as close to the original route as we can get at this time. In the background of the river, we can see the mountains again. I am looking forward to being in the mountains as we walk.

        Our present B&B is in the mountains just south of Vermont's state capital and about 40 miles from the trail. Nice to be inside as the temperature was supposed to drop to 5° C last night. Hope it warms a bit for our other 10 days of camping still to come. (Just checked, it is 3°C right now.)