It's only about a 1 hour ride from Keene to Mike's parents' home in North Springfield Vermont, and it was fun to wind our way through the countryside on familiar roads.
We crossed the Connecticut River, the border between New Hampshire and Vermont, and then rode close by the river, catching quick views of the water and distant mountains through the trees.
We enjoyed three home-cooked meals with Mike's parents: lunch, dinner and breakfast before we left this morning. I was excited to enjoy local tomatoes and peaches because it's so difficult to find fresh fruit and vegetables while we're traveling.
Today we rode about 1 hour from North Springfield to Manchester, VT where we lived for 9 years before we moved to Arizona 5 years ago. The BMW's odometer rolled over to 7000 miles this morning, and we've traveled about 4700 miles so far in the past 3 weeks. We rode past Bromley ski area where our sons learned to ski and snowboard and where both worked in the summers for a few years.
Manchester sits in a valley between the Taconic and Green Mountains and we were reminded how much this small town of about 4500 people relies on tourism by the traffic jams as we wound our way through town.
I was so excited to see our youngest son, Nate! We haven't seen him in a few months, and spent some time with him today on our way south to Bennington.
As we rode along Vermont Route 7A south from Manchester to Bennington, I thought about all the times I've been on this road. When we first moved to Vermont 27 years ago, we lived in Arlington which is about mid-way between Manchester and Bennington. This area was home to Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys, and played a major role in the Revolutionary War. Arlington was the first capital of Vermont for a few years, and the painter Norman Rockwell, famous for covers for the Saturday Evening Post, lived here for part of his adult life. It's easy to take the gorgeous wooded mountain scenery for granted when you live here, and I was reminded again of Vermont's special beauty.
We're staying in Bennington for three days to attend a friends' wedding and catch up with other friends. This is Bennington Battle Day weekend, commemorating the 1777 Battle of Bennington during the Revolutionary War. I'll run in the local 5k tomorrow, and we may catch part of the other festivities this weekend. We'll continue our motorcycle trip west in 5 days, looking forward to more states and adventures. Here is the route for our Vermont travels
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