Wednesday, eCopy and on to VT

I didn't get up very early. I was meeting Chip Whitman and Vicky Malis at eCopy in Nashua at 1pm. An English customer of ours, Hub Software, have written a connector between the eCopy document scanning software and ACT! and SageCRM. We offer that product in the USA as ConnectR1 so it was good to finally meet the executives that we will work with. ConnectR1 allows any person scanning or copying a document to attach it to a contact in ACT! and then to book a task for that contact's account manager - all right at the copier, a very useful time-saver.

Nashua is heavily forested and a very clean sort of place. I wondered lost for a few miles until a helpful petrol station chap put me on the right way. Go east to go west he said. That'll work...

I wanted to get as far across Vermont as possible that afternoon as I was due to visit the Hole In The Woods camp at Lake Luzerne New York the next day. As I progressed across the Green Mountains on Hwy 9 it grew wetter and colder by the minute. I wore my waterproof frogtogs and a neck-warmer but I was FROZEN with a capital F. I clung to the bars in a frigid hunch until Bennington. The friendly lady at the cute white-picket fenced motel told me that it had snowed two days before! I was not surprised. Finding the heating and rigging a makeshift glove drier I jumped in a hot shower to see if the lumps of frozen beef on the end of my arms still had those dangly little bits that hit keys on a pooter...

En route I saw historical towns and buildings and the famous covered bridges that made me wish for weeks of free time and 50 cameras on the bike. The lakes come up to the road on either side (an American specialty that is remarkably beautiful) and these hills are very nearly mountains (after Switzerland I am difficult to please in the mountain department). The forests are so dense and beautiful because they are made up of a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees with the white trunks of the beloved paper birch set against this rich green backdrop. My fascination on the arctic ride was how people made their way here and built farms and homes and towns in the 1700's!!! Those were tough people and it kept me riding as I felt such a wimp in their shadow. As I rode on I saw a sign for a lake to the right and ducked down the road. A hastily eaten sandwich at this reservoir built in 1950 kept me fueled and fired up. Another fascination was the English names for the towns. I doubt there is a village, town or city in England that doesn't have an equivalent in New England. Which may go some way to explaining the name New England...