Miles Today: 37

Miles to Date: 540

May 14, 2015 – Sunny, 70 degrees (eventually)

Like most optimists, I look at the high temperature forecast for the day and figure, oh, that’s good. I need to start looking at the morning temperature as well. It was beautiful today – sunny skies and crisp, but it was only 29 degrees when I went speeding away from D Acres at 6:30 a.m. By the time that I realized my hands were freezing, despite Goretex gloves, I was almost halfway to breakfast and decided against stopping to fish out the hand warmers in the deepest pouch of my ‘wet’ pannier. By the time I pulled up at the diner in Canaan, my fingers were numb. Lesson learned – check the morning temp and keep my hand warmers near the top of my stuff.

The next twenty miles through Enfield and Lebanon were much more pleasant. I arrived at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center by 10:30 a.m. to meet with folks from facilities and their arts program. After a great lunch that included fresh local fiddleheads and wheat berries on my salad, I spent most of the afternoon catching up on writing at a window with a great view of the inpatient pavilion I designed over twenty-five years ago. The pod form is dated, but the building still looks great.

Late afternoon I pedaled through Hanover, where the undergraduates were enjoying the day on the lawns, and crossed the bridge into Vermont.

I stopped at the Appalachian Trail maker to acknowledge that five years ago my son Andy walked across this bridge in the opposite direction on his way from Georgia to Maine. Now I am traveling west on two wheels. That trip shaped much of Andy’s life, and inspired me to be ore adventurous myself. I owe many thanks to Andy.

I spent the night at the home of Marianne and Dave Barthel, and their daughters Fiona and Ophelia. We enjoyed wonderful turkey burritos from Paul Prudhomme’s Fork in the Road Cookbook – low fat versions of his dishes that taste anything but.