Background: Bill is a college classmate with whom I lost touch over the last 10 years and during the sabbatical we were communicating via e-mail and he has been following the blog. During our brazen youth when we had some quickness and before we had the $$$ to buy fancy bikes we were fixtures on the fieldhouse hoop courts. In addition to his deft touch with a jumper Bill is also one of the funniest people I know with some facial expressions that one needs to see to believe.
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| The road to Bill's house |
During my sabbatical I have become accustomed to using the GPS even though it stifles continuing development of my hippocampus. In the case of finding Bill's house it did get me in to the vicinity but while working my way to the house I followed a dirt road deeper and deeper in to the forest. The only thing missing was a boy playing a banjo.
Needless to say the GPS told me I had arrived and the only thing I could see was forest so I backtracked a bit, found a cell signal, texted Bill, and he told me to keep driving down the dirt road.
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| Bill and Julie's house up on the hill |
After arriving Bill gave me the nickel tour of his house, barn, acres of forest, and of course what he uses to manage the forest.....an excavator. To my disappointment he would not let me drive it.
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| Ingrid, Bill, and Avery |
After the tour it was happy hour so we broke out some beverages and chatted for a while to catch up after the decade gap. Bill, like me, has given up hoops in favor of cycling in addition to his passion for skiing and windsurfing. We talked riding, family, old college pals, and his success in the pulp and paper industry. For any of my readers following the blog Bill has had a hand in the development of U.S. currency for the last 23 years. Interestingly, Bill is the only guy I know that knew he wanted to be in the paper industry when in high school and he is one of 4 paper engineers in his family.
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| Bill and Avery prepping Pizza |
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| Ingrid and Avery winding Down for the night |
In a previous post I mentioned the shock to my body from the humidity when I left the Rockies and no exception here so Bill offered me the basement to sleep and I jumped at the chance. Well.............this opened the door for daughters Avery and Ingrid to sleep in the basement as well so I ended up with roommates for the night. The Rule was NO SNORING!!
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| Bill climbing like Lance in '99--sans helmet |
Bill scoped out an 85 mile route with two long climbs through the Berkshires, in to Vermont, and back home. We knew the heat would be brutal so we decided to stop a lot to stay hydrated.
We were on the bikes before 8am but it was already 80 and change and we were sweating profusely. The ride to the top of Mt. Greylock of about 10 miles was a steep as my climbs in Colorado but the lower altitude gave me a reprieve. At the summit there was no humidity and with the breeze we were almost cold!
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| Mt. Greylock Summit |
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| Not Mount Evans but a tough climb anyway |
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| The view from Mount Graylock |
Our ride took us through Williamstown (home of Williams College), then to Bennington, VT (home of Bennington College), where we had lunch, more fluids, and up the last long climb of the day of 8 miles and less grade than Greylock. For the first time since the wreck I was actually riding well. My body is beginning to recover and even though my hand hurt on bumpy roads and my back was a little stiff it was nice to be able to pedal efficiently.
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| When was the last time you saw one of these? |
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| Feeling the heat after the second climb--about 95+ degrees |
JOCMO: 85 miles in godawful heat with the legendary Bill Westervelt banter and commentary on people, objects, cars, and almost everything else along the way. Priceless!
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