In early August, I participated in Rooted Vermont, a 48 mile gravel bike race in northern Vermont. It was a meaningful weekend for me on several levels. First, as you may recall from a post last year, during my last organized gravel event, I bonked after 60 miles, and had to call it quits. Needless to say, I went into this race, at 48 miles and 4,000 feet of climbing, with some trepidation. But just as important, this race took place in a part of Vermont very near to where my mom retired. My mom passed away 20 years ago last month (she never knew 9/11), and we hadn’t been…

I am a devoted train spotter and counter on our many travels throughout the country, so it should come as no surprise that on my “to do list” is the desire to explore rail trails. The Ripper and I came across a good one last summer. The Katy Trail crosses the state of Missouri and is known as one of the crown jewels of the system. We noticed a sign for it while we were on our way back to Park City from the East Coast last summer, on Route 70, so we peeled off the highway and enjoyed reading the historic panels at the restored station but had no…