Get on the Jane Train!: Le Tour de Vermont

A big thanks goes out to my brother Nate for putting together the second annual Tour de Vermont! Luckily, I was able to make it for a few days after missing the inaugural tour in 2007. This is something that I will definitely make it to every year that it happens! This year's participants: Bard and Adele Madsen; Nate, Amy, Beth and Sam Madsen; Josh, Jessy and Will Madsen; Jane Madsen; Annie Christensen. We hope to get the entire Madsen fam out next year.

One of the hillsides somewhere near Middleberry, VT

What a great time we had bicycling through the countryside (and there's a lot of it!) in Vermont, seeing all the beautiful fall colors. Seriously, we saw the peak of the colors. "It's like it was on fire!" And true, it was just like that. For anyone who has never been to New England in the Fall, you HAVE to put this on the list of places you'll go in your life. I really have never seen such beautiful changing colors. And we even all got "Le Tour de Vermont" shirts!

Amy and baby Sam

I've decided that once I move out of the city I'm buying a road bike. As much as I'd like one now, New York apartments just aren't really accommodating of luxuries like a bike (due to lack of space). And I might even be convinced to try clip-in pedals again, despite a few mishaps (Madsen clan, you know what I'm talking about).

Some of the biking crew - kiddies in being pulled behind the bikes, Nate, Jessy, Josh's arm, Annie and Bard

Besides bike riding, we had many other fun excursions! Adelee was a champ and drove the whole time - we could not have done it without the relief van! We had a blast playing Catch Phrase, even if we didn't play by the rules so much. The kids were so fun to be around! Cute little Beth just has a personality all her own, and knows just what she wants ("Jane, we're going to play...I'm going to tell you what to do, and you just do it." Gotta love that girl!). Will and Sam are great sports, too. And hopefully recovered from too much time in the car.

Beth and Gran (Adelee) "making a hike"

We also got to visit Shelburne Farms, right on Lake Champlaign. Because it doesn't have any heat (the metal that was once there was all given to help the war effort during WWII), it's only open in the summer. So we were lucky to make it just two days before it closed for the winter. We had a delicious breakfast (pancakes, apples, real Vermont maple syrup...mmmmm)! And took a little hike above the farm. It was the perfect ending to a fun, memorable week!