Very Victorian

It was an extremely full and eventful day. And it has grown far too late to properly recount it. With a good breakfast provided by my host of last night, I set out around 8, headed in the opposite direction I needed to go. I had missed the center of the city in coming to where my host lived, and decided I wanted to check out the downtown, Brown, and the State House. There's a wicked steep little hill to get up to Brown, but it was well worth the climb. After getting my fill of what I felt I could afford to take time for, around 9 I started heading the right way again. I didn't have far to go, under 60 miles, so the detour was easily afforded.

It looked like it could rain all day. It didn't. But thanks to the storm from last night, and a bike trail with heavy tree cover, I still got my bike and gear soaked and muddy from the puddle splash. But still, it was nice to be on trail for a good period of the day. Of course, the trail came to an abrupt end eventually, a little before reaching Connecticut, as many rail trails do. It picked up again, but no longer paved, and being as it was a muddy mess, I diverted onto the highway instead. It wasn't bad shoulder and not too heavy of traffic. Though there were bigger, and steeper hills to contend with than I had expected.

I arrived at my host's around 3. She had warm spaghetti waiting for me, as well as a beer. She flooded me with stories about the town of Windham and its history, its thread  mill that made it boom, the depression when it left, the high number of Victorian houses in the town, how her mother started a 4th of July boom box parade (music played through  boom box with no actual band and where anyone can participate and make a float), and on. She told me about how there was an annual event just last week where Victorian homes were opened to the public for display, and that before putting her fancy dishes away, one of her friends was hosting a dinner party and we were invited. I showered, got my laundry going, and got Bree decently cleaned with a hose and a lot of paper towels, and relubricated, just in time to get picked up and go over there.

It was an amazing evening of seeing and experiencing an incredible house, eating great food in fancier fashion that I ever have before, learning history, talking politics of local and national flavor as well as district drawing and gerrymandering with someone responsible for doing so, discussing steam punk (and what music compliments the genre), posing for pictures, telling about my tour, and just generally having a good time. My host remarked about how you never know what you'll end up experiencing when you get hosted and that I likely didn't expect to be doing this tonight. She was right. It's amazing and wonderful what random places you find yourself when you travel and open yourself to things. But now, much too late, I drift to sleep. Longer day, in the rain, coming up bright and early.