The 10 Capital, 1000 Mile Spectacular!!!

State house, Montpelier VT

When considering the trip I was thinking that I'd be pretty pleased with myself once I made it into double figures with State capitals. Yesterday I achieved that by reaching Montpelier VT. Around the same time I also passed the 1000 mile mark. For any Daily Mail readers that's 192000 double decker buses, 15304 football pitches, or going from Land's End to John O'Groats and making it over half way back again.

Got to say, I like Montpelier. It's a very small place, but seems to have a lot of life there. It seems to be a place that draws people into the centre of town as opposed to many other places in the States where anything of value or interest is custom built outside of town leaving the centre a bit desolate. They also have a quality pub - The Three Penny Taproom which I can confirm sells many excellent beers and I'm sure sells many many more that I didn't try. I also have to thank the good people at Econolodge for the following exchange:

Me: Hi, how much for a room for the evening?

Econolodge: $69 plus tax.

Me: Is there any way that can go lower?

Econolodge: I can do $65, plus tax.

Econolodge: $60 plus tax?

Me: Yeah that sounds good.

Econolodge: OK, I need some ID blah blah blah. What brings you to Montpelier?

Me: I'm trying to cycle to as many State capitals as I can and this is number 10.

Econolodge: On  a bike? A bicycle? Wow! No charge for your room. You can stay as our guest, and I'll see if we can get you some publicity in the paper.

As I said, I like Montpelier, and Vermont as a whole. It kind of feels like a mix of New Hampshire, the way you're pressed into the forest, and Maine with it's mountains and general atmosphere of vastness. When you can see anything from the road all you see is forest disappearing into the distance, up the mountains in the midground and then up the mountains in the background. And today I was following the Mad River along the edge of the Green Mountain National Forest which is just incredible.

Mad River, Vermont

Tonight I'm at a bed and breakfast, kind of in the middle of nowhere, but they had a massive sign promising the best breakfast in Vermont and it was raining and I was knackered so a good place to stop. Had a really nice evening eating with the family who live here and another cheap night as they can't do breakfast for us. Works for me though.