13 June – Pennsylvania: Wellsboro

Leaving Gettysburg and heading up towards Vermont as I passed some beautiful rivers and then found a hotel for the night in Wellsboro. Another one of those accidental finds. What a sweet little town with an awesome Chinese restaurant.

14 June – New York: 5 Fingers lakes, Cayuga Lake

Taking Colleens advice again (it pays to be in with the locals) I took a route via the 5 finger lakes in New York. What a stunning area. A combination of wine country full of vineyards (as I was riding I only tried to grape juice, but if that is anything to go by I bet the wine is good), forests, picturesque towns and of course lots of water. I went to one of the locks and met the sweetest old lady who was going fishing, walker an all. She told me that she usually caught 2 to 3 fish a day. I rode past the biggest outdoor store I have ever seen so had to stop and take a look. It was fantastic, the choices are just incredible. That is one thing I can say about the US, you are really spoiled for choice. Just going into the petrol station and trying to decide what to drink is an adventure. I love it. It is a good thing I’m travelling by bike or I’d have left that store with everything including a bunch of fishing poles…I’m not sure what I would do with them but let’s just say it was very hard to leave empty handed. I mean it solve Boats and quads…right there in the store, not a boat store but just an outdoor store.

15 June – Vermont: Killington

The reason I wanted to go to Killington is that I worked there in 1991 and wanted to visit my old stomping ground. When I finished university, I signed up for a student work program and got placed in Vermont at the Killington ski resort as a waitress. The program offered students 6-month work visas and you could choose between a summer beach resort or a ski resort, but not which ones. I think I hit the jackpot getting Killington and had an absolutely fantastic time.

Coming back to Killington was great, just riding up past the wobbly barn brought back a flood of great memories, and a tinge of nostalgia for a misspent youth. Including throwing a hissy fit because I wasn’t invited to the New years eve party until Ruth (my roommate) showed me a picture of myself…at the new years eve party…must have been a good night.  Killington has grown but not nearly as much as I thought it would and was still quite recognisable. I did realise, seeing it again, that we really did spend out time between work (at the Little Red Inn), the wobbly barn (our local hangout) and the slopes. In fact I think that was our entire existence for the ski season, except Christmas lunch. Chris and his wife, two of the long time locals, arranged for a lost souls (the foreign students who didn’t go home to families over Christmas) Christmas lunch including ice skating on the pond outside the restaurant. Fun time.

It was truly great to be back and go back in time for just a moment.

There are have definitely been a lot more slopes added over the years. One fun memory is that back in 1991, snowboarding was only just taking off and the ‘’pesky’’ snowboarders were restricted to boarding on Bear Mountain to the left. Leaving the rest of Killing to us skiers. Since I’ve become a snowboarder myself I’m damn glad things changed 😊