Today was the shortest day of my trip ... but it really starts at about 3 a.m. when the skies opened.

To say that it was raining heavily would be an understatement. I thought I was back in India during the monsoon. It was hitting the ground with such such a force that a spray was coming up under the fly of my tent and waking me up. There was a lot of water flowing down my campsite since the ground was so saturated. Of course that meant that it was soon flowing through my tent but at least I was on my thermarest mat so I was somewhat protected.

For some reason one of my pegs came loose so I had to battle the elements to put it back in again. Not fun in the dark in the middle of the night! The sound was so loud that I had trouble sleeping, in spite of my ear plugs and it was after 4 when I dozed off again.

In the morning it was still raining hard so I decided to try and wait it out. This is often the best course of action since the rain will either (a) stop, (b) lessen, (c) stay the same or (d) get worse. Well, you can guess what happened: (d). I read my book and dozed but by lunchtime I had decided that in spite of the rain I would take a run to Brattleboro which was about 25 km away.

My tent was soaked and dirty. My sleeping bag was wet. My sleeping mat was waterlogged. Finding somewhere to dry them out--as well as myself--was critical. I packed everything up and headed off up the hill. It took about 10 seconds and I was drenched, but at least it wasn't really cold as that would have made it unbearable.

The traffic was heavy so they contributed to my discomfort by splashing me as I cycled along. It was not safe to go too far onto the shoulder as there were frequent breaks and potholes which were obscured by the water. It was kind of a balancing act with my cocking an ear to the traffic and moving off to the side for as brief a period as possible.

At the top of the mountain there was a restaurant which advertised "100 miles views". Not today. 100 m was more like it. In spite of the weather there was quite a few patrons at the restaurant, and others like it. I was surprised since the locals had told me that this was the worste summer in years, and in the running for the worste summer ever. In June it rained 28 of the 30 days! I'd believe it.

The ride down the hill was a bit scary and I did my best to keep my speed down. The traffic was relatively heavy with quite a few trucks and those dangerous RV's. I had visions of someone with misted windows and poor wipers hitting me. At Marlboro I saw a grocery store so I stopped and sloshed inside. The woman behind the counter commented on how wet I was as I left a puddle in the floor. The joys of cycle touring was my response. I had an excellent brunch of a pizza base with sun dried tomatoes and feta cheese. Yum. They had lots of Vermont items on display, and I was drawn to the maple syrup. I resolved that I must buy some before I leave the state.

Eventually, it was out into the storm again and on to Brattleboro. Fortunately, it was largely downhill since my gears were acting up something severe. The rain and grit seemed to have done something to them. When I finally got to town I was relieved to see a bicycle shop so I slushed in and asked if they could look at my bike and then took it into the mechanic.

Tim was very good and showed me that my chain and cassette were shot. I had asked them at the last bike shop about this and they said it was OK. Tim said that everyone has a different definition of when something needs to be replaced and he was a proponent of preventative maintenance. Fortunately, he had the necessary parts so he replaced them and made the necessary adjustments. As elsewhere on this trip, I was so very fortunate that my problems arose when I was near a shop.

They advised me to stay in the Latchis hotel which was just down the road. Fortunately, they had a room and after checking in I had a long, hot bath to warm up. Then it was time to dry my gear so my tent was washed in the tub and hung to dry over the rail. I made quite a mess but at least there was a surplus of towels for cleaning up.

I went to the local laundry and dried my sleeping bag while also doing a load of laundry. While these were under way I wandered about the town. It was the ideal place to spend a rainy day as their was a surplus of bookshops and I'm a great one for wandering around them.

Eventually I returned to the laundry and chatted with the manager. She told me that this part of Vermont was full of crime and drugs due to its proximity to Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Pity, but that explained all the people I saw hanging around. I commented that I was taken with north Vermont which I had visited a few times and she acknowledged that it was much different up there.

After dropping off my laundry at the hotel I had an excellent dinner at a Lebanese restaurant and then wandered the town--it had stopped raining--before returning to the hotel to make some calls, answer my e-mails, and update my journal.