Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Day 2 (Monday) was bright and shiny – for an hour or so. Then some thunderstorms came in – like, serious thunder and lightning quite close. And rain. An hour or so later and it was fine again – cloudy, but no rain, thunder or lightning. The air was warm. ‘Let’s go for a ride to a nearby tavern for lunch’, said Kris. So on the bikes we went — some cycle paths, some roads with light traffic. We opted to have lunch outside, but just after the food came, it started to sprinkle, then the rain got heavier. We moved inside, chatting all the time. Meanwhile, the rain was bucketing down outside (that white wall you get with heavy rain). After we’d finished lunch, we waited a while until it looked more like a gentle shower and got on the bikes to ride back to the cottage. We knew we’d get a bit wet. It was only about 5 km. But the rain got heavier and heavier. Do you know how wet you can get riding 5 km? Yep. Very. Soaking, in fact. Like drowned rats. But we made it home and then the rain stopped and the sun shone again. At least it wasn’t cold :-). I think Vermont’s weather is like Melbourne’s — four seasons in one day; wait 10 minutes and it will change again… (and yes, we laughed a lot about our predicament)

Kris had to have the Jeep serviced yesterday too – mostly because of the annual smog check. She got the car back late in the day and we drove (with her Dad) into Burlington for a bite to eat. Burlington has parking meters that have to be used until 10pm – that was really lucky, cos when we got out of the car, we smelt something odd (sort of a burning smell), and as we waited for Kris to fill the parking meter with coins, some green fluid (anti-freeze) started pouring from the front of the car. She called the mechanics (it was nearly 8pm but they were still working!) and they sent a car trailer to pick up the Jeep and give us a loan car (like rent-a-wreck!). So the Jeep is back at the mechanics, and we have an old black Camry to drive around in tomorrow.

It’s all excitement here in Vermont!