Day 1 started out with a small adventure. The night before, we had ordered breakfast bagels at Myer’s Bagels to spend our United Airlines food voucher, and we banked on Lyft and Uber to get us there. But rides seemed few and far between on a Sunday morning in Burlington. The bagels themselves were tasty, and the place was clearly a local institution, with a steady stream of customers in the half hour we were there.

We checked out of our “arrival” hotel and made the five-minute walk with our luggage over to Hotel Vermont, arriving about 15 minutes ahead of the scheduled TrekTravel pick-up time. We spent that time getting to know Tracy and Bob from St. Louis and checking in with one of the TrekTravel guides, Aaron.

After a short welcome address and some safety tips, we boarded the two vans and made our way to the Wheeler Homestead in South Burlington. It was a gray, cloudy, cold day with a little bit of wind. It wasn’t easy to pick the right layers, especially since we didn’t have the right gear. We’d suspected as much while packing, but it became unmistakably obvious once we saw the ear warmers, toe covers, rain jackets, and everything else the others had brought. They were clearly more experienced at this than we were.

At the homestead we shared a simple lunch and got our first chance to meet more of our fellow riders. After changing into our riding gear, we met the guides at a pavilion where they had set up our bikes. This is where the video picks up: we were getting acquainted with our bikes and checking whether anything needed adjusting before heading out on our first ride.

The ride started at the homestead, ran alongside some fairly busy streets, and ended back at our hotel. The weather made the first half a challenge, with misty rain and a cold headwind. Once we turned back north in the afternoon, it got more enjoyable, with the wind at our backs and drier conditions.

It was Josepha’s first ride off the trails and on the road, her longest ride ever, and I believe her first time riding in the rain. She crushed it! I especially remember arriving back in Burlington: sharing narrow city streets with cars and buses, navigating pedestrians and traffic signals, and claiming the full width of the lane for left turns.

What a way to start this tour!