Dorset, Mount Tabor, Danby, Wallingford, Clarendon, Shrewsbury, Mount Holly, Weston, Londonderry, Landgrove, and Peru

Miles: 53

Total to Date: 197 towns and 1,270 miles.

Today has been a day of variations. It included some real ups and downs, both inside and out. I had some relatively flat riding along a river, but also a hill with a 7 percent grade for a few miles. Like many of my days, it included what felt like spirals. I keep finding myself looping around towns. I see a sign for one town pointing right, indicating it is six miles away. After riding 23 miles I actually pass through that town. Much later in the day, I see yet another sign for it, indicating it is now four miles to my left. I ended up about five miles from where I started today, but I managed to stretch it into a six-hour bike ride of more than 50 miles.

I passed through areas where there has yet to be a frost and the autumn-colored leaves are still clinging to the trees. In other areas, including where I am tonight, it is fully stick season. Temps today ranged from the low 40s to the high 50s, causing me to adjust my clothing layers all day. It was a bluebird day, and I was happy to be riding in it. Yet a muscle in one calf hurt for much of the day and I wanted to be done, feeling myself worn out and on the verge of tears. But then I met Gloria!

There are so many places I can stop each day, and I have to pass by many interesting places or I would never get very far. Vermont is full of quirky farmstands and stores, artist galleries, and breathtaking natural features. Each day I choose a few to dally at. Today it was Gloria’s Pantry, a bake shop right on the town line between Shrewsbury and Wallingford. I’m glad I listened to my instincts (or was it my stomach?) and pulled in.

For over 20 years, Gloria has made delicious baked goods (yes, delicious—I know😀) out of her home, which is the house she grew up in. Each of her wonderful pies is made with a full quart of her home-canned filling, made when the berries are in season. Besides eating one third of the raspberry-blackberry pie I bought for only twelve dollars, I was honored to share stories with Gloria. Her life story is harrowing, and her outlook on life attests to what a strong, determined woman she is. I am richer for having met her, and fuller and happier for having eaten pie. I am looking forward to at least one more third of it for breakfast.

I expected to be camping tonight, but instead I am glamping. I am at the Wild Wings ski touring center, happily cocooned in my sleeping bag on a large air mattress that Tracy, one of the owners, put out for me. There is a fire in the woodstove in a corner of this large room, which is also set up for yoga classes and ski waxing! I have access to electricity and an outhouse, and my bike is under cover. Tracy fed me a lovely dinner, and I am looking forward to pie for breakfast. Even though I am still struggling to rid myself of my inner demons, I am in a quiet, warm, cozy place with electricity to charge batteries. It is as close to heaven as I can imagine right now.