Back to Day 5

9 AM

So yesterday Dana looked at his Run Keeper app and said “We burned 4000 calories today. That’s an entire pound!”

A pound?! One measly pound?!  I can gain a pound just driving past Kimball’s. That’s the problem with exercise – you bust your butt (in this case literally) – and you lose some tiny bit of weight. I remember someone telling me, years ago, that climbing to the 8th floor of the Wang towers burned the calories in one chocolate chip cookie.

Sigh.

It’s raining, but not too bad, so we’re going to New Paltz, where there is a motel, a bike shop, and a laundromat. The current plan is to check into the motel and sort out our stuff. Dana will ride his bike, with a very light load, to the bike shop. I will go to the laundromat, either on or off the bike, depending on distance. It looks like there is a pizza place near the motel. I’m looking forward to a wonderful, if somewhat damp, day.

We talked to Katie on the phone last night. She was thrilled that I previously blogged that she had a difficult time finding chicken in Market Basket. A friend read that and invited her for dinner. So if anyone wants to invite my kid to dinner, I think she’ll appreciate it. As it turns out, “this shopping and cooking thing is hard”.

10:45 AM

Sitting in a Dunkin’ Donuts/Nathans/Godfather’s Pizza/Blimpie/Quickie Mart in Lloyd, NY. We saw some Blimpie trash on the side of the road back in hill country, and I decided that if we saw a Blimpie, we would stop. So here we are. I was totally addicted to the Blimpie Best sub in the summer of 1974, so I just ate one. Not as good as I remember, but definitely worth a stop. Not to mention that it’s pouring rain, so coming in and drying off is nice.

We crossed the Hudson on “The Walkway Across the Hudson” – a walking/biking bridge, which was incredible even in this weather. There were a bunch of little kids walking the bridge on a school field trip, and we managed to avoid hitting them, although I almost hit a father who had no idea what “on your left” means. And a little boy chased Dana and tried to catch him. So adorable, in that Billy Levitsky way that many folks don’t fully appreciate.

Between the bridge and here, we’ve been on a rail trail – the second of our trip. What a nice reprieve! No cars, no noise. In this weather, no people. We got a little off course, but it was worth it to get more trail time, even though we missed the Historic Highland Business District. Dana is giving himself a B for navigation today, but I am being more generous. 2 pairs of glasses and rain – not a great combination. I’m giving him a A for effort.

It just stopped raining, so we have to rush onto New Paltz, since there is only a 2 hour window of non-rain today, and it seems like a good time for laundry.

4 PM

In a diner in New Paltz, eating pie. It is beautiful outside – sunny, with a cool breeze. Perfect for biking another 10 or 20 miles. Unfortunately, we committed to the motel when we thought it would rain all day. So we’re going to the movies in a bit, then dinner. Today is a down day, I know we need down days to let our bodies rest, but I am feeling guilty. Somehow a day without ass pain just doesn’t seem right. On the plus side, our motel has its own laundry room, and about that I am very happy.

I was thinking of crossing “boredom” off of our worries list, because, given my slug pace, we are not riding 50 miles by 1 o’clock everyday, then trying to kill time. That’s what Dana expected before we started, but realistically, we’re slogging into motels around 4 PM, totally wiped out, with no need of entertainment. On the plus side, this boredom thing is a bit annoying. Too much time on our hands for things like pie. I’m actually looking forward to a long, busy biking day tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, it’s gonna be another long, hilly day. About 50 miles to Port Jervis. There’s a motel and a restaurant there, so there will be something to look forward to. We made a rule that we must take a butt break every 10 miles, and a food break every 20 miles. The days will be longer (they are already quite long), but perhaps less miserable.

7:30 PM

We went to see A Million Ways to Die in the West, which got terrible reviews, but we enjoyed it. Since we got to the theater early (boredom!), we snarfed down an entire bucket of popcorn before the coming attractions. Wrong in so many ways, specifically that we both now have “genuine artificial butter flavored yellow popcorn topping” on our clean evening clothes, which will be worn for the next 3 nights.

After the movie, we had dinner at Jamaican Choice in a shopping plaza in New Paltz. Amazing jerk pork and ribs, beef patties, and Red Stripe beer. I HAD TO have 2 beers, since the guy assumed we both wanted one, and Dana doesn’t drink beer, and it’s a shame to waste.

On to Day 7