Day 51 Brattleboro to Manchester.

As we gather to load and I was sending Diane a quick e-mail it was looking less than promising outside. The morning was grey, damp and the clouds were very low. This was diappointing as this area is beautiful and I was hoping to get some nice photos to show it off. After breakfast we set off across the Connecticut River and straight into New Hampshire. As we gathered at the state sign Christine came along driving one of the vans and she stopped to take group photos with all 5 of our cameras, she is a patient lady. The roads were wet and it started to drizzle soon after so the views of The Berkshires were less than dreamlike on account of no frostin' (if you don't know the James Taylor song that last part will be lost on you, sorry).
We then went up some biggish climbs and tried to keep together as it rained then stopped then rained again. The eastern seaboard was getting poor weather, nothing like the heatwave it experienced while we were in the west. Out of the little towns we were in wooded areas and the climbs were at least 10% while one of them was at least 18% (some people had 20% on their Garmin GPS) and seemed to go on for far too long. The back roads were less than well paved and the woodland now was dense, thought I heard banjo music at one point, but it could have been my knees squeaking. For just under a mile on a downhill section the road became a dirt track and I though of a comment for one of Huw's American calenders, 'You know you're a red-neck when... your main street is a dirt road.' After the first SAG at 27 miles we then climbed up Pitchers Mountain, which wasn't as bad as I had expected, but the rain was back as we went through Antrim. Went through another Bennington, then Greenfield and reached the second SAG in Francetown after 62 miles. Lovely little place.
We pressed on towards Manchester and met and passed Hetty and Piet, then bumped into Gerry who had again taken wrong turnings and done far more miles than he should have. The conversation was similar to, 'Hi Gerry, where have you come from!?
'How the hell should I know.'
'How many miles have you done?'
'Eighty-three.' (The rest of us were on totals around the 68 mile mark).
'You'll end up with another century today Gerry.'
'I do a century most days!!'
We were all in stitches and when Hetty and Piet saw him they burst out laughing as they had clearly seen him in various places during the day, sometimes going in the opposite direction!
It was raining hard before we got to Manchester so we were pretty soggy when we landed at the hotel. By now various relatives and friends of riders had turned up so there was quite a party atmosphere. I met Rick's wife and also Jay's wife, daughter and son-in-law. Delightful people and clearly proud of their 'rider.' Our group then went across the road to an Applebee's for a beer and we had to ask the waitress to turn the air-con off as we were wet and it was too cold for us. Like most things you ask for over here it was done.
Sarge and I were in a double room that was so huge that I took photos of it and later gave guided tours. We were going to hold a 5-a-side soccer tournament in there, but there weren't enough Americans who knew what soccer was.
Dinner that night was a more formal 'final' affair as tomorrow not everyone will be at dinner, some locals will go straight home. There were awards to all those who completed the trip and each rider gave a little talk on their own thoughts and experiences, some were hilarious, others too deep for my comprehension. Sarge was awarded the map that appeared every day on the board with the ever increasing line marking our route. Gerrard showed a little of the DVD he is producing that will contain many of the photos he has taken along the way, it was very good and I look forward to receiving mine. Gary had shipped over some wine from his vineyard in California, over so our table was very well off with some excellent wine, and strangely popular with other riders. Later gave Sarge a T-shirt, with a Celtic cross design, as a present and a Welsh flag. He has been a great room-mate, such a laugh. The thought of tomorrow being the last day was bitter-sweet.
Today's distance was 87.4 miles.