Friday, August 17, 2012

Massachusetts to Sam's house

Hello all you homo sapiens sapiens,
   I (Matt) am coming to you live from Sam Kerstetter's couch here in Northampton Massachusetts. Now you may be asking how we got here. O let me tell you a tale. The last time we left you we were in Manchester Vermont at the battenkill bike shop. Amy and Robin returned from their bike ride at 10pm just as they said they would. We got inside and passed out right away. 
   Our morning started with coffee, bagels with cream cheese and fruit salad. It was delicious and the bagels were actually toasted which is a delicacy for us. This breakfast was cooked up for us by Amy and Robin. They were extremely gracious and made their home our home. 
   After breakfast we packed up our stuff and headed on our day out of the Green Mountains and into Massachusetts. Our day started nice and leisure with lots of other bikers going the other way into Manchester. After a quick ride we were in Bennington and took a left and started climbing a mountain out of the Green Mountains. The climb was not as steep or as long as some of the other ones we have done but it was still a "good pull." 
   I (Matt) took the lead and crushed the climb in just under an hour while Nate and Joey took the leisure route and finished just 10 minutes after me. We then biked around the top of the mountains for a while before coming back down. We then got a bit lost and had to ask for some directions but we did not get very far out of our way. Before we knew it we were in Massachusetts and stopped for a quick pick.   Massachusetts for the rest of the day was all down hill until we got to the place we were going to stay. 
   Their road was straight up a mountain and was a great way to end one of the hardest days we have had. The place we ended up staying was Katywil community ecovillage. This ecovillage is headed by Bill Cole. We found him on warmshowers but turns out that Bill had no idea that he was even on warmshowers. Even though he had no idea he had no qualm with letting us stay at his house and feeding us pizza, an organic salad and some beers. We hung out with Bill and his friends and had a great time before hitting the hay and getting ready for a short day into Northampton. 
   The morning started with coffee and fresh baked blueberry scones. The blueberries were picked fresh on the farm. 
   We got our stuff together and headed down to one of the other houses where Charles showed us his house and all the energy saving things that he built into it. Before stopping at Charles house we were stopped by some of the other members who we talked to and took some pictures with. After leaving Charles house we hit up a fresh spring that he told us about and got some water. 
   Our ride was pretty easy taking us only 40 miles to Northampton. Once here we got to Sam's house and after a bit of catching up we went on a ride to "go for a dip" in some refreshing water. We went to Sam's friends house and she made us up a snack that ended up being a whole meal. We had tomotoes, cucumber, cheese, bread and chocolate milk. All that in sandwiches except the milk. It was great and then we went up to the river to jump in the water. 
   It was very cold but not as cold as slide rock. After gettin wet we got into a pretty good 2 on 2 basketball game with Nate and Sam beating me and Joey. With another quick dip in the water we set back off for Sam's house to have a few beers and get some dinner. We had pork tenderloin and corn on the cob. Way too good!! 
   Then Nate's friend Alex from Fond du Lac just happened to be in the area so he met up with us. Well now I'm tired and ready for bed so to all a good night. Remember to tell your friends to donate and just so you know we have climbed over 100,000 feet over our trip and we are two more biking days from the ocean!!!!!!

DONATE HERE!!!




 The Rain Cyclists with Hudson the dog, Amy and Robin
 Goodbye Green Mountains
 They will be comin round the mountain when they come
 Joey no longer has those shoes
 Nate enjoying the cool river
 Lake in Vermont, they have them too
 Massachusetts I think we're here
 Bill and Gale with the raincyclists
 Ecovillage house with their mountain in the background
 TURKEYS! GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!
 Look at that CORN. Over 6 feet tall
 Sam lookin great no doubt
 Homemade salsa from Sam's mom
And a closeup of some cherries

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