Vermont Tour 2018 (Days 1-3)

Finally departed for the Vermont tour I've been planning since early 2016. I was originally planning to travel with my best friend and bicycle touring partner of 25 years, Pat McClintock. He had to decline that year because he was having some serious medical issues that would later take his life. We settled instead for a nice little tour from Decorah, Iowa to Lanesboro, Minnesota and back. That would prove to be Pat's last bike tour. So, this tour became the Pat McClintock memorial bike tour, and I was lucky enough to convince my oldest friend and Navy buddy Dean Mayne to join me. Pat was also along, in the form of several packets that his wife Barb assembled for the journey, to be left in apt locations and recorded on this memorial map.

We decided to leave the car at home and take advantage of Amtrak's new roll-on bike policy to do this tour via rail. Now one can simply hand the bike to an attendant in the baggage car and check it through to your destination. That meant we had to get on board in Galesburg, Illinois because there are no stations in Iowa that allow checked baggage. Seriously. And thanks to our former Governor, Terry Brandstad, who refused to allow Amtrak expansion into the state because it was an Obama administration idea, we're stuck with this third-world infrastructure. Republicans think trains are socialistic and so are hostile to Amtrak. Even more reason to shower Amtrak with money instead of starving it while subsidizing the mighty automobile industry. But I digress.

We took six trains in all: the California Zephyr, 3 hours each way between Galesburg and Chicago; the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington (19 hours); the Vermonter from D.C. to Essex Junction-Burlington, Vermont (12 ½ hours); the Vermonter from Essex Junction to Springfield, Mass (5 hours); and the Lake Shore limited from Springfield to Chicago (19 hours).

Waiting for the train in Galesburg's nicely refurbished station.

We had time for a snack and beers between trains in Chicago at the South Branch Grille. I usually don't eat at grilles, because they usually reek of meat, but we landed a patio table so no problem. The food was unmemorable. I had the session ale Founders All Day IPA, from Grand Rapids, MI; Dean had the Half Acre Daisy Cutter from Chicago. 7 bucks. Makes you appreciate the Iowa Beer Tent's prices.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale, one of my favorite beers in the whole wide world, only 6 bucks in the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago's Union Station.

Settled into our sleeper...

...for the overnight to Washington.

Not my favorite team, but we didn't go by Wrigley.

An obsolete factory Cheeto Mussolini will no doubt reopen. Probably made Conestoga wagons or some such.

Caught sight of a C&O Canal tow path keeper's house. The Capitol Limited runs parallel to the 190 mile tow path at several points from Cumberland, Maryland into D.C.

Another tow path keeper's house.The tow path runs in front, with a foot bridge crossing the canal in front of that.

Wending our way from Union Station to my wife's Aunt and Uncle's place in Bethesda, Maryland, eleven miles or so west of downtown.

The C&O Canal, where I dropped off a bit of Pat. Pat and I biked the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) and the C&O Canal Tow Path from Pittsburgh to D.C. in 2013. Here's a map of the many places Pat has been since departing our orb (well, not exactly departing). The Abner Cloud canal keeper's house is in the background.

Washington's rather third worldly Union Station.

We took the Vermonter to Burlington from Washington. They do things a little differently aboard this train. Three passenger cars have racks to vertically hang your bike. Three bikes total for each train. No checked baggage so panniers have to be carried on as well. Dean packed his bags around his bike.

My bike sans bags...

...which were stowed in the nifty Osprey duffel I purchased from REI. The small version of the duffel fits three panniers, my trunk bag, and my camp chair.

A glimpse of NYC on our way to (or from) Penn Station. The Vermonter stops at many major cities on its way to bucolic Vermont, and its terminus in St. Albans on the Canadian border.

First view of Vermont.

First Vermont beer, a Long Trail Ale from  Bridgewater Corners, VT.

First view of the hills that would challenge us in the days to come.

We had to ride 7 miles from the station in Essex Junction to Burlington proper to our Hilton Garden Inn hotel. The train was also an hour late, so we had to settle for 10 o-clock pizza and beer at Ken's. The pizza was no great shakes, but the Fiddlehead IPA, from Shelbourne, Vermont, was delish. With that comment, I think one might detect a theme that will permeate this blog, flogging the local beer. And with good reason—Vermont has more breweries per capita than any other state in the Union.