So I looked at the scenery, I read my magazine, And the moon rose over an open field

I had to change those lyrics a bit to reflect the fact that Dan did most of the driving on our Vermont Road Trip 2013, while I mostly read and gazed out the window.

As a recap, this is what we did.

Our route (counterclockwise)

As noted in earlier posts, we drove from:

Minnesota to Cleveland, where we saw family and
Maggie's friend Micah, and...

Cleveland to Syracuse, by way of Niagara Falls

Matt's and Lia's family cabin

We then ended up in Vermont. Once there, we stayed at Matt's and Lia's family cabin for a couple of days. We then toured the Ben and Jerry's factory on the way to stay with Matt's cousin Margi. Margi is fantastic, and generous. She offered us a bed, showers, and a freshly butchered chicken and vegetables from her land. She and her boyfriend John took Dan mountain biking on the most well-known trails in Vermont, which John basically created. I stretched my road-weary back and went for a short bike ride while they did that (and saw some frolicking deer), and then Dan dropped me off at rowing camp on Tuesday 

Ben and Jerry's

Margi's

Kitty and me

To be fair, I never would have gone to rowing camp if it hadn't been for loose banter with Kitty over a $9 beer at a Kansas City baseball game a little over a year ago. I'm glad she followed up on that little chat, and am glad that we were at camp together. It was a pretty tight schedule. We were on the water one hour after we arrived on the first day, rowed multiple times each day, watched video of ourselves, did yoga, and raced. I could go into a lot of detail about camp and what I learned, but I won't. The highlights are that I got to spend a lot of time on the water in a really beautiful place, I got really comfortable in a racing single (which is a really narrow, tippy boat) that was sized perfectly for me, and I got to clear my head of some stressful work clutter. I think I also improved my rowing form, too. I didn't find it as strenuous as others seemed to, I think due to the fact that I've been on the water a fair amount recently, and I used similar muscles a lot this summer when riding my bike. Maybe I just wasn't working hard enough.

The boat I used, beloved #3

Cold morning on Hosmer

Just one day's activities

Dan picked me up on Friday, and we drove through Montreal in rush hour, construction zone traffic. We stopped about 45 minutes shy of Toronto and got some sleep. The next day, we drove into Toronto and met our friends John and Eric for breakfast. We then drove a crazy-far distance: from Toronto to Michigan, to the U.P., and to my parents' cabin in Eagle River, Wisconsin. We rolled in late, dodging many deer, gave our dog some lovin', and crashed. The next day - Sunday - we collected ourselves somewhat leisurely and headed back to Minneapolis, using today to get reacquainted with our real lives and to catch up on laundry, mail, yard work, etc.

Mackinac Bridge, from lower to upper Michigan -
Lake Huron on the east, Lake Michigan on the west

For those of you who, like me, have never really been in Michigan, we drove through the northern part of lower Michigan on Saturday afternoon and it was amazingly beautiful and hilly. By the time we got to the U.P. of Michigan on Saturday night, it was getting dark, so we missed out on all the beautiful views as we drove along the northern portion of Lake Michigan, but what I saw looks really cool. We'll have to go back.

Let me know if you want to see my entire photo album, and I'll send you a link.

Special thanks to Matt and Lia, Terry and Mom, Kitty, Sarah and Sam, Margi, Micah, and John and Eric for all the help related to our travels. I look forward to trying to use whatever skills I learned at camp, and look forward to being reunited with my sweet bike, which got a little tune-up when we were on vacation.