Mel & Trinity

I left Bar Harbor, Maine, on Monday 10th June headed for New York State via New Hampshire and Vermont. I rode until I was tired which that night was Gorham, New Hampshire – a small town to the north of the White Mountains. I stopped for a coffee at Burger King and decided to call it a night. It was a gorgeous ride, particularly through Vermont.

I had a peaceful evening and ordered tyres for Trinity which where being delivered to my bestie’s family in Toronto, where Trinity was going to be serviced.

When I woke up in the morning it was raining. That meant waterproofs. My first stop was Burlington, Vermont – a town on Lake Champlain – south of Montreal.

As I was 5 days behind schedule when I left Maine I made the decision to cut out Quebec City and Montreal – the consequence of ‘going off plan’. I definitely don’t regret my changes. Besides, it now gives me an excuse to go back! 😉

I really liked Burlington. It was a cute and quirky town. I walked down to the harbour and had a meat filled pancake for lunch. What I found interesting was that their hire bikes had a solar panel on the rear where the car payments are make. Cool!

Near Burlington Trinity and I hit our 40,000 mile mark, which included 36 counties and 26 USA States. Woohoo! That definitely put me in am good mood.

From Burlington I went south to Shelburne Farm. Shelburne Farm is a nonprofit education center for sustainability – a 1,400 acres (570 ha) working farm established in 1972. As I arrived there after 3pm they didn’t charge me to enter. Great, as I only had 1.5 hours before I had to hit the road.

I changed into my trainers and hit the trail towards the barn. The Farm was build by the Vanderbilt family who made their money railroads in the late 1800’s. This meant that the barn was no ordinary barn – it was pretty spectacular!

I was planning on seeing as much of the farm as I could in the time I had available but when I got to the barn they were about to milk a cow called Duster. I wanted to see that. I could not believe how much milk (2 gallons) came out of Duster and she is milked twice a day. Go Duster!

Duster’s milk was then used to feed two little calves that were in pens next to her. The staff allowed the public to feed the calves and I could not resist taking that opportunity. They were super cute!

Below is a photo of me feeding one of the calves.

It was around 4.30pm when I left Shelburne Farm, headed to Lake George to meet Becky and Ali. Becky, who I know from London, had dropped me a line to say they were staying at Lake George for a month to visit her family and that I should pop in. I was so chuffed at that. I haven’t seen them in ages!

I spent two wonderful days with Becky, Ali and Dotty (their bundle of joy). They were staying at Becky’s aunt and uncle’s (really life long family friends) lake house on George Lake, so I was gate crashing…again! 😂

Lake George is stunning! Ali and I headed out onto the water on the Wednesday morning. I first tried out the Pedalo (a bicycle on water) and then moved onto the kayak. The weather was perfect so it was a fantastic morning.

Below are some photos of our morning./

After that we popped over to Becky’s sister and then Ali and I went to pick up William and Aunt Sue for a tour around Saratoga Springs.

They took me to Yaddo (an artist sanctuary) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaddo, the horse racetrack (built in 1863 and is the 4th oldest racetrack in the USA), Saratoga Springs State Park, Congress Park and a tour around downtown Saratoga Springs.

William was the perfect tour guide with incredible knowledge of the history of the city. It probably helps that his family have had a key part to play in the history of the city. His great grandfather helped establish the Adirondack Trust (a bank) downtown and his dad (uncle Wally) sits on a number of committees, helping shape the future of the city.

That evening I had the opportunity to have dinner with the whole Allerdice family. What warm and wonderful people!

Uncle Wally told me that he’d read about me in the Saratoga Gazette. What? Really? I never saw the article so I’m still thinking it must have been someone else in the paper but I was highly amused at the thought that a Trinity and I may have made the papers.

Meet the Allerdice family, along with Becky, Ali and Dotty.

There are more photos of my time in New York State on my Facebook Page.

On the morning of my departure we (Becky, Ali, Dotty, William and I) went up Prospect Mountain before heading for a very late breakfasts (it was 11:58 when we got there) to Becky’s parents for breakfast. They were so lovely and hospitable that I felt awful that we had to dash off two hours later.

I left George Lake headed to Syracuse to stay with Kevin and Jeanne who I met in Gettysburg. I left George Lake later than anticipated, given the morning’s adventures, so I only reached Kevin and Jeanne around 7pm.

After a quick shower we popped out for dinner and then the chatting started. Kevin is definitely the chatty one, which made me smile. They remind me of my friends in Florida, Gordon and Gina. Gordon is also the chatty one in the relationship. The ladies are quieter but so strong and fascinating! I love watching the dynamics in the relationships of the people that I meet. We had such a great evening!

I had a slow start to the morning which was most welcome! Jeanne made us breakfast and we chatted before heading out to the bikes to take some photos. Jeanne had a doctors appointment so Kevin and I chatted around the bikes. I had asked him to take me for a ride on his trike, which he did. It was so much fun sitting on the back of the bike taking photos.

When we got about half way on our outing Kevin pulled over and said, ‘Okay, it’s your turn to ride’. I was a little nervous but I took the bull by the horns and rode us back to their home. The trike is far stiffer on your arms than a regular two-wheel bike. It was a lot of fun though!

Kevin and I spoke for a while before we said our good byes. Just as I was about to

leave he said, ‘I’m going to try not to cry’. All I could think was, ‘please don’t do that or you’ll get me started’.

I was feeling so blessed after meeting the Allerdice family – meeting Kevin and Jeanne was like the cherry on the cake! They stole my heart. I can’t wait to see them again.

Meet Kevin and Jeanne.

As amazing as my time was in Syracuse, Niagra Falls was calling and I listened!