[untilted.]

Is Vermont part of the US? I'm still not sure after my trip up there last week to see my old friend Steve-O, who was a riding, hiking, sometimes fishing buddy back in the 1900's when we lived in north FLA but now lives up in the hills of Vermont. Ostensibly, I was there to get in a little early spring backcountry skiing, and we did cover at least 2 miles of the 300 mile Catamount trail, but it was mostly about checking out VT beer and food: Long Trail (of course); McNeil's; Switchback; Bacon and cheese from down the road; and eggs from the back yard. Fresh, local, organic, artisanal, etc, etc, is the rule not the exception up there to such an extent that it would be annoying if it weren't all so damn good. Here are the backyard chickens and chickendog:

And here's Steve:

Back here in Masss, there's finally some local brew:

And winter has broken enough to allow a few nice road rides and for the whole family to get out for some rocky riding up in Leominster State Forest. Grace still fits in her iBert seat and cheers me on to take her over bigger and bigger rocks and over the "whoop-dos."

It was about a year ago that we did the Spring Tour. Here's some more inspiration to get back out on the rough roads again some day:

We ain't drunk - we're just dodging potholes

Yo - what's up TLY, VC, Puk, and BB? We've been busy buying a house.

Spring is mostly here, but it was washed in by huge rains this past weekend that took big chunks of pavement downstream. I've never seen anything like this - out on Belmont street there are places where you can see the old cobblestones that must be at least 100 years old or so. Not that I'm complaining it's 60 and sunny here and I got out for a nice ride to the east. We are fortunate that Boston's sprawl dwellers still find Worcester repulsive enough that there is a nice buffer of open spaces and quiet roads (if you know where to look) between here and where the big city's westernmost ex-urbs begin. This includes a nice quiet area over where the Tufts Vet School is.

Beyond that, there are plenty of good places to ride north and west of here. Last week, Kris and I got out for a short ride around Mt. Wachusett - only 12 miles, but some nice ups and downs plus a little dirt road ridin' and a nice view of the big wind turbines.

We checked out the White Mtns. last week and came away pleased - damn - real mountains:, big time skiin' etc:

Check out this ride: DDRR

And this too: The Watt from Pedro Show.