D9 NE New Way

Everyday we get up early (at least by our usual time), get on the road quickly, and hope to arrive at our destination. It never happens. We pound through the first 30 – 40 miles in good form and quite quickly. Then stuff starts happening. Like I have to be on a zoom meeting. I can bike, talk, and meet (lots of oxygen at this elevation but sometimes have to stay in one location for internet. It rains and we have to swim, which is much slower than riding. Or, like today, we got to Albany but had to pedal into the city (Albany) to find a bathroom. The ones on the trail – not surprising for NY – were locked. We also tried to find a Verizon dealership but Google took us to a Verizon office (locked). We needed Verizon because Gloria tried to teach her phone to do the backstroke, but failed, phone couldn’t swim, and it sank (day it rained).

A little later – just north of Albany, as we came to the end of navigating the Hudson Valley Trail, I failed in getting us onto the Erie Canal Trail. Thankfully, it wasn’t for too long and the neighborhood where we found ourselves (off the trail) wasn’t too sketchy – although we wisely kept moving. In the end, we arrived in the evening, rather than the afternoon, in Schenectady. What a crazy name for a town. Although delayed, the ride was beautiful as always and we started see more trees starting to change color.

Once “found” we moved off the Hudson and up along the Mohawk River. It was just as beautiful as the Hudson. Now, just a few hundred miles along the Erie Canal Trail and we’ll be in Buffalo.