clouds into the rain we found a great place to take a break and warm up over a table full of pancakes and sausage. It was a short hop to our destination of the Long Trail Brewery and the upscale tourist town nearby. We took our time winding across the states on Rt 4 a
nd the brewery surprised us when we passed it and had to turn around for it. Even in the drizzle it was a pleasant ride with amazing scenery.
Vermont is a world all it's own. Crossing the state line is like passing through the tunnel into Toon Town. The air is instantly fresher and the trees are greener. The road side streams seem clearer and lively dancing around the rocky river beds.
We left the bike in the rain and took shelter in the brewery's restaurant bar. There we ordered Lunch and 2 or three pints of my favorite beer on tap, Double Bagger. It is a rich full body dark beer that packs a punch. After raiding the souvenir counter we reluctantly returned to the rain soaked bike and back tracked to town.
There we found a string of high end hotels with no vacancies. A local directed us to a motor lodge that isn't as expensive as the $400 rooms along the common. They were right. we got the last room at The Shire Motel at a bargain in Vermont dollars of $189. The back
of the building has an awesome view of the river and woods for a little more cash but our view of the road was just fine.
The room was spacious and cozy with two big ass four poster beds to play on. The grocery store was conveniently located right across the street. Pam made a wine and cheese run to stock the fridge while I unpacked our stuff and hung our leathers up to dry. The Beemer is a dry ride in all but a serious tropical storm like the one I ran into a few years ago outside New Orleans but Touring around the town was slow enough to let us get a little damp while sightseeing.
The rain broke eventually and after a glass or three of wine we ventured out to walk the town. The night life was bustling. We settled into a pizzeria called the Brick Oven Pi Trattoria. It was a pretentious place with small tables spread out across a large room. We picked out a nice bottle of wine from the wine list and ordered our pizza. It was the first pizza joint I've ate at with $80 plus bottles of wine. We got a $25 bottle of local wine from the blue collar side of the wine list and a Fennel and Sausage pizza that was awesome!
The menu only had a short list of gourmet pizzas to chose from. All were pinky in the air fancy and sounded great. Our sausage pizza was one of the bare basic options described as being topped with San 
marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella, Vermont Smoke & Cure sweet sausage, fennel, parmesean-reggiano.
We then walked the wet streets falling into a real nice bar called Bentleys. It was full of locals with a smattering of tourists. We definitely stood out among the eccentric yet stuffy locals in our wind blown hair and leathers. Everyone hates a tourist... Upon seeing our excitement to find Long Trail on draft we were apparently deemed not worthy of a menu that every other customer was offered even though we had just ate. The bartender must have felt we couldn't afford it, hehe.
We drank a couple of rounds of the local beer like it was fine Champaign while quietly mocking the martini with a cell phone to their ear crowd. The walk back to the room was fun. We took the time to check out the local architecture and landscaping. Once back to our palace of a room we relaxed over a glass of wine before calling it a night.
The next morning I broke out the atlas, GPS and laptop to pick our next destination. I plotted a course through the Adirondacks dropping back into the real world around Albany NY.
We joked about the two Woodstocks on the ride when I commented that on my solo ride out I had passed through Woodstock NY. That's when I hatched the idea of our rolling south through the Green Mountains of Vermont and the state of New York to Woodstock on the southern border of NY state.
The new course would take us south to a hopefully dryer and warmer climate. It would also take us through areas I've never rode before so that excited me. We jumped on the famous
Rt 100 that runs north and south right up out of Massachusetts.
This is a favorite scenic drive of the area and is rated the best bike road in VT in my old dog eared HOG atlas I've been traveling with since the 80s. Then after an awesome run west on Rt 9 we slide through NY state on Rt 22 running just west of the Mass line through the western end of the Berkshire Mountains.
We took a warm up break in Hancock NY at the Gallup In hanging out with Kim the barmaid. It is an off track betting place full of old white guys with reading glasses and betting programs. Kim kept us happy with ice cold Yuenglings and local gossip. The bar was filled with "the good ol'boys" giving her a hard time but she had control of the old guys like a pro.
When we got back to the bike the GPS had recalculated our journey and turned the hour we had left when we walked into the bar into twenty minutes when we walked out. It was getting cold and we had no idea what to expect for lodging so I was cautiously happy.
That change made Pam real happy but fifteen minutes down the road the GPS sobered up and the hour came back. That made that extra ride even colder after the anticipation of a warm room near by. We mulled it over and decided we were so close to our destination of a Woodstock trifecta that we soldered through.
We rolled through the Catskill Mountains and made the outskirts of Woodstock NY right at dark. We were both past our comfort level e
ven though the heated seats were doing their best to make us comfy.
We happened across an old motel left over from the bygone days called the Red Barn. Right next door was an Italian restaurant bar and nothing else for miles but horse farms. We were the only guests of the sprawling motel and took a large room in the back building for the extra ten bucks. Over the years the place had added new buildings as the business grew. I figured that the larger rooms would mean the newest rooms.
We dropped our junk in the clean comfy retro styled room and walked next door to the restaurant with a road size appetite. The home made Lasagna was great. I don't remember what Pam had other than it was a bit to chicky for my with fancy veggies and mushrooms or something.
We settled back into the room to enjoy some wine we had picked up along the way and relaxed enjoying the magical experience the Red Barn was providing. The Motel was like a memory of the old days when times were simple and vacations meant sitting in the back seat and going wherever your parents took you.
We called it a night as the frost was settling on the bike out front. The plan come morning was we would point the bike west and start our two lane tour across Pennsylvania heading home.
Next Chapter: Woodstock New York thru the Catskills to Downsville NY