2 Lefts

A big thank you to Gary and Annemarie and the whole family for hosting us in Bedford. Rach and I began the morning with a wonderful breakfast spread that had been laid out for us. Oatmeal and strawberries and grapes and tea and brown sugar and cinnamon toast. Gary was kind enough to ride with us again and lead the way toward downtown Boston. It's great to put the map aside for a little while and just follow a local. As it just so happened, we were riding nearly exactly Gary's former bicycle commute to work. He's retired now so there was plenty of time to stop off on the Minuteman bike path to see a little history. We paused in Lexington at the "Battle Green" to see the site of the start of the Revolutionary War and a bronze statue that commemorates the American militiamen. Docents wore period costume at the visitor's center and I could have bought a tri-corner hat for 15 dollars but I passed on that one. Our next stop was at the Broadway Bicycle School for s...

A good motel gives you breakfast in the morning and the best motel provides a do-it-yourself waffle iron and a huge vat of maple syrup. The Rodeway Inn and Suites is such a motel and we both enjoyed giant waffles before setting off for the day. We rode horses for the first 15 miles. No, we rode bikes. Surprise! The first 5 miles were flat, which gave us just enough time to realize how pleasant it would be to have no hills before we resumed climbing and descending again. At a town called Crystal Lake we stopped for a break. The town has a lovely park with many picnic benches alongside a beach on the south side of the lake. Unfortunately we couldn't go in there because the good residents of the town have seen fit to erect a high chain-link fence around their park to keep the riffraff out. "Hey honey, look at this great beach!" "Quick, put a fence up before other people get in!" We were not impressed and stopped at the lake in a dewy shaded cold spot that left us...

We began the day waking up on our wooden deck. The campground at Rudd Pond is on a hill so nearly all of the camp sites feature large wooden decks for you to pitch your tent. Rach checked her bike and had lost a bolt on her rear rack. Thankfully we have plenty of spares. The chill was in this morning. I put on my arm and leg warmers for the very first time on the trip and we rode about three miles to rejoin the route in Millerton, New York. We had a leisurely breakfast at a classic diner with gleaming chrome sheet metal paneling. There was certainly less drama today than yesterday.  I think we both liked it that way. We made it to a new state: Connecticut. Lots of climbing. Longer and more gradual than in recent days. I set a new maximum speed of 46.8 mph on one of the descents. Lots of charming small towns with bakeries and general stores and beautiful stone libraries and picturesque park benches and fountains. Also a fairly depressing stretch where rows and rows of young calves...

We began Saturday's ride with our first bear sighting, thankfully from a distance. We gave the bear some time to wander off into the bushes before continuing down the road. The day's riding took us up and down country roads, past farms and fields. At the town of Huguenot we saw a sign and began chanting "deli, deli, deli". They made Mike a giant sandwich and I had an egg bagel. We passed through Bloomingburg where everything was closed for the Jewish sabbath and instead stopped in Burlingham for an ice lolly and iced tea (look away, Helen Young, you would not approve of iced tea). Towards the end of the day we met a trio of cyclists from Brooklyn who were also touring, albeit much more lightly than we are. They were carrying only sleeping bags and were planning to camp out that night. We met at mile 95 for them, and around mile 65 for us. We rode with them for a while and tried not to embarrass ourselves as they zoomed along at 15-20 mph. At one point a herd of cows...

The time had come to leave the big city and return to the country. As we hoofed our bikes and bags down to the street from Blake's apartment I started laughing when I saw another loaded touring bike leaning against a bike rack. Its owner Winston lives just down the street and was about to depart for an overnight trip to a state park. After the impromptu bike tourist convention Blake was kind enough to lead the way as we rode to the base of the Williamsburg Bridge. We said our goodbyes and thank yous and pedaled off in search of Penn Station. Rach and I decided to take another train to rejoin the route, this time to a place called Hackettstown, New Jersey. Rach had last been in this stretch of America when she worked at a summer camp about 15 years ago. We arrived at the station with plenty of time so I went in search of something to eat at a sandwich place. I was wearing my riding clothes and the cashier said "Oh that's cool that your shirt has a zipper." I cocked m...

We are just about to wrap up two rest days in New York so it's time for a blog post. We spent our first morning in New York exploring Prospect Park in Brooklyn. They had pedal boat rentals in the park but we had had quite enough of pedaling and gave it a miss. We met up with Blake for lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant where we consumed a large variety (and quantity) of foods. Hummus, pita, labneh (yogurt), falafel, and more. Afterwards we returned to Blake's house and had a relaxed afternoon before heading out into Manhattan to meet Joven, a friend of Mike's from high school. That meeting also involved food, first in the form of dumplings then ice cream for dessert. We've joked that our stay in New York is a vacation from our vacation, and have thus given ourselves permission to eat even more food than usual. We continued the food theme the next morning at a small casual restaurant named B&H Dairy. It was recommended to us by a friend in LA (thanks, Dan!) and ...

We rode a bit farther yesterday than we had first thought so that gave us plenty of time to laze around the Howard Johnson motel this morning. Our first phase was only 10 or so miles from Plainfield to Summit, NJ. Cool temperatures, overcast skies, and forests thick with trees as we climbed much of the way. In Summit we found the train station and bought our tickets to Penn Station. An hour later we were in the Big Apple. Our friend Blake was kind enough to meet us at the station and suggested a place called Pizza Suprema. Rach got an "upside down slice" while I got the "Grandma slice." We sat at tables across from Madison Square Garden and enjoyed the sunshine. Blake checked out one of the "Citi-bikes" and we all set off on a scenic bike path that followed the water on the western side of Manhattan. This is my first trip to New York City and it was incredible to be here. Books or TV shows don't adequately capture the vibrancy of the place. We rode...