dy thinking about going camping in Marin within a couple of weeks of getting home...!) I spent a week crossing upstate New York - could have done it a couple of days faster, but there were several delaying factors. One thing was that it rained every day from last Saturday until Thursday. I managed to take shelter one wet morning in the gazebo of the Erie Canal park where I had camped, and had my breakfast under there while it poured outside, which was actually pretty fun.
I managed to stop once at a historical site, in Seneca Falls, where they held the first national women's rights convention to launch the movement to win the vote for women. The whole canalway is a series of historic sites across the state, but I found it hard to break the momentum of riding to visit many of them - especially with a bum knee, and in the rain. I'm planning to do a lot more of that as I head into Boston, so if anyone has ideas for things I should see - let me know!
I also took a day out to visit my Danko & Kukuk relations-by-marriage in Ithaca, which was very exciting and satisfying, and then a day near Syracuse camping with Jon, who came from Minnesota on his motorcycle.
For the past few days we've been riding off on our different bikes each morning, then meeting up in the evening - after my 50 miles and his 350 (riding in the Adirondacks or to Vermont). It was a good week to get tendinitis, or whatever it was - given the short mileage, relatively flat terrain, and rest days built in. My leg is feeling a lot better and I've got that antsy, I-want-to-be-riding feeling - which is a great way to tackle the Berkshires into western Massachusetts, then down into Northampton, where I'm heading tomorrow (Tuesday).
I loved being around the Erie canal, despite abandoning its bike path (which was mostly mud, had many gaps where you had to be on the road anyhow, and was was confusing to navigate). Many of the old locks have parks around them, including some where you can camp out - which were especially pretty early in the morning.
Once the rain stopped I really liked riding on the country roads that make up most of the cross-state Bike Route 5. Besides the nice roads, though, I have found upstate New York to be economically depressed, fairly grim, and the culture not very friendly... and despite the great bike route, I have seen very few people on bikes in the past week - until today, in Albany.
I had yet another series of I'm So Lucky moments related to a sliced tire - it held over two days of riding on it (with an under-inflated tube) and then blew out while I was in a bike shop, of all things, pumping up the tire! So now I have a new rear tire that is very spiffy, and continue to be grateful for all of that.
Here in Albany I'm staying with a friend who gave me the idea back in April that I could skip the mountains and ride across the flat part of the state to see her - yay, Deborah! (Not to mention all the salad, corn on the cob, and tomatoes from the garden...)
And now I'm almost done. I will be in Boston by this Friday, incredibly - well, the whole trip is still hard for me to believe, so reaching my destination will only be the culimination of the incredible. Then I head to St Paul for a little vacation, and finally I'll be home on September 11th. I'm starting to get a little homesick, in a good way - though I think I've turned a little feral, and I'm not sure what it's going to be like being indoors so much everyday.
And here are some pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/NewYork#
Wow !! Can't believe the trip is nearly over !! Thanks for the Seneca Falls post card.
ReplyDeleteFerral is right! I wonder how you're going to adjust to being in the city and not riding so much....vicky
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