Back to Day 6

3:30 PM Otisville, NY

We are sitting in a bar across from the Otisville Corrections Center. This is the first town in a while that’s had a bathroom, a bar, … anything. We got here through Winterton, where we turned right onto Upper Rd. At the top of Upper Rd., we came to a sign for High View, and we turned onto Old Mountain Rd. This brought us to the town of Mount Hope. Need I say more?

Actually, I do need to say more. We had a huge head wind.

We left New Paltz this morning. New Paltz has just a little of a leftover Woodstock feel, or at least that’s what I thought when I saw a shop called the Groovy Blueberry. I just love that! But we don’t shop on bikes, and we don’t stop at mile 1, so sadly, we didn’t actually go into the Groovy Blueberrry, but I hope to someday.

The next 20ish miles were through beautiful, rolling farmland. We stopped at mile 11 for our mandatory butt break.

Then we stopped at Jimmy John’s in Ulsterville and had water, Pepsi, and the best frozen pepperoni pizza EVER. Talked to a few local guys about what’s going on in the area. And this is Tank, who they say runs the town.

It got hillier outside of Ulsterville, but we saw some wonderful countryside. This farm had 6 colts with their mothers in a field.

Eventually got to Bloomingburg, stopped at a convenience store and ate ice cream in the parking lot. Next stop, Otisville.

6:30 PM

We are in Pennsylvania!!! We were aiming for Port Jervis, NY, but the guy at Jimmy John’s told us about an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet in Matamoras, PA, so we crossed the Delaware.

and here we are.

A guy at the bar here suggested an alternate route for tomorrow. So after we blog, we have to compare the ACA maps with Google maps and figure out where we are headed tomorrow. After 55 miles today, we both think a hotel or motel around mile 40 sounds nice. So we will leave you in suspense, wondering whether we will be following the Delaware in NJ or PA. What’s really cool is that there’s a place around here where you can stand in NY, NJ, and PA at the same time, but we think it’s up a hill, so we will pass on that adventure.

On to Day 8

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

Back to Day 4

A few things we noticed today…

• When you are biking southwest, you only get a sunburn on your left side.
• If the road widens to accommodate a slow truck lane, you know it’s going to be a big hill.

Today we  rode an entire map and a half of the ACA maps. All of map 18 and half of map 19. So exciting. And we crossed into NYS, which is even more exciting, because Connecticut is notorious for being the hillest state. Although today was pretty freakin’ hilly, but I think things are looking up.

Our day started with a lovely breakfast at our B&B, then we headed toward NYS. We stopped almost immediately because we had forgotten to turn on our helmets. We start every day turning on the helmets, and sometimes we have to do it again during the day. Here’s some idea of what it entails:

• Dana: Let’s turn on our helmets
• Me: OK, ready to press the buttons?
• Dana: Yes… OK, I heard a beep boop
• Me: Yup, I heard a beep boop too
• Dana: Are you sure?  That sounded more like a beep bop
• Me: Well, what color am I blinking?
• Dana: Oh no, you are double blinking blue.  Do it again.
• Me: OK…. Now I know I heard a beep boop.
• Dana: Yes, you did.  You are now blinking blue.  Can you hear me?
• Me: No.
• Dana (louder): Can you hear me now?
• Me: Nope.  Can you hear me?
• Dana: No.  What color am I blinking?
• Me: Bend over, let me see.
• Dana: Ouch, my neck doesn’t bend that way.
• Me: I think you are blinking purple.
• Dana: Purple?? Shit, that’s wrong. I’ll try again…
• Dana: OK, that was a beep boop. Can you hear me?
• Me: Nope.  Can you hear me?
• Dana: Nope… Mary had a little lamb…
• Me: If you sing I will divorce you
• Dana: Can you hear me now?
• Me: Oooh, I heard a beep…. I can hear you. Can you hear me?
• Dana: Yes, let’s go.

BTW, the product is a Cardo BK-1. And inspite of all of that, it’s really been wonderful for this trip. Probably saved our lives, since we can communicate without having to ride double file. But I still can’t answer the phone on it, and we have no idea what purple lights mean.

We weren’t sure how far we’d get today, but I was hoping for Hyde Park – about 45 miles. Dana was hoping for Poughkeepsie – about 60 miles. But we figured we’d just ride and see how we felt. Spoiler alert… we felt like crap.

Anyway, right around the NYS line, we passed the Appalachian Trail, which I thought was cool, because I am currently reading “A Walk In the Woods” by Bill Bryson, which I think is perfect for me right now. It turns out that as hard as biking is, it’s just wimp stuff compared to hiking the AT. So it’s giving me confidence – and it’s really funny.

We stopped in the first NYS town – Millerton, which had a CVS so we bought Gatorade and bug spray. Then we went to McDonald’s, where I had fries and Dana had two apple pies. We met a guy in the parking lot who is going north on our route, so he joined us for our snack. He’s about 60, in phenomenal shape, does this every year, camps out, and does 75-100 miles per day. When he asked how much we’re riding per day, Dana sheepishly replied “only 40 or so”, while pointing to me across the table with a “not my fault, she’s just a girl” expression.

I was not happy.

We continued on to Amenia, NY, where they actually have a drive-in movie theater, with a snack bar in the parking lot. So we had mocha malteds, which were totally freakin’ amazing. That was at mile 21, at which point we started yet another long hill climb, which lasted about 10 miles. Not all hill, just uphill rolling painful. But since that left us in the middle of nowhere, we agreed to continue onto Hyde Park.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we got onto Rte. 57, wich seemed appropriate for this ride.

We arrived in Hyde Park after 48 miles. Our butts are sore, our quads are sore, our backs are sore, our abs are sore. I’m assuming one problem is that, except for breakfast at 8, our entire fuel consisted of Gatorade, malteds and McDonald’s.

Sigh.

So here we are in Hyde Park, and we’d like to reach New Paltz tomorrow, but there’s supposed to be terrible rain, so we’ll see what happens. I would at least like to get to Poughkeepsie, because according to the internet, the laundromat there is nicer than the one here. Priorities!

The good news is that we ONLY have 400 hilly miles left! Yippee!

On to Day 6