Day 6

Stats
Net Elevation gain: 203 ft.
Average Speed: 8.4 mph
Top Speed: 38.6 mph
Time spent biking: about 6 ½ hours
Total time for the day's travels: about 11 hours
Miles biked today: 54.6
Total for trip: 275 miles

For breakfast this morning, we ate local flavored yogurt (raspberry, strawberry, and orange) with granola. While packing up our gear and getting ready to ride, a fellow camper, a boy of maybe eight years came over and asked Jenny, “Is that a motorcycle or a bike?” Satisfied with the answer, he ran back to tell the rest of his family (“It's a BIKE!”), who we later gave a card with our blog on it, so they could follow along on our trip. What fun! We get all kinds of questions and comments about our bike each day. It's fun that people feel comfortable coming up to ask questions and talk with us. We love it!

Getting going in the morning is sometimes slow.

Once again, it rained today. For the 5th day out of 6 so far, it has rained for at least part of the day. Since in rained only in the morning this time, much of our gear actually dried up in the afternoon while strapped to the top of the bags on the rear rack. Anything that is really damp or wet, we like to strap on rather than pack into the bags because the wet can be spread inside the bags to other things that were dry.

We stopped for brunch at a little country store. We get to see so many different versions of “country store” while passing through the smaller towns, and we enjoy that very much. This instance offered a tasty Chicken Parmesan sub! We also ate a delicious brownie and drank some mango juice from Snapple. (Side note: It is really hard to find good juice in the small towns and it usually isn't an option. Snapple is okay, but if you want something besides that or orange juice or apple juice from the soda companies, good luck!)

Today we saw another great blue heron. It flew off before we could snap a picture, but it was standing in the shallows of a river we crossed in the morning. We also saw a couple trains today! We like seeing trains; there's just something about them that is intriguing or exciting.

Jenny takes a silly picture using the bike mirror while we stop for a short rest.

The terrain today was wonderful. We were riding in the river valleys most of the day, and it makes a huge difference, especially for this bike. We may be super slow up the big hills, but we can make decent progress in the valleys, even when we're gaining elevation.

One of the many lovely views from today.

Another wonderful thing we discovered today was that singing makes the miles (and small hills) speed by! We don't always know all the words to songs, but we try and see how many of the words we can remember. We've been singing songs by Bill Staines, Billy Joel, Kate Wolf, and any other songs we can think of, like The Star Spangled Banner. This is why we wanted the tandem, so we can talk and sing together without difficulty. Of course, when we're huffing and puffing from the more significant hills, singing is more difficult no matter what you do!

As we neared Binghamton, our road turned into a large interstate highway. We decided to give it a try, and continued riding on it the few more miles into the city, instead of trying to find an alternate road that would take us the way we wanted to go. We were a little nervous at first, but the few miles biking on the highway were actually quite pleasant. We had a big shoulder to ourselves and followed a large river on our right, so the grade of the road was mostly flat. People seemed to be aware that we were there and tried to move over to give us more room.

Binghamton was not the most attractive city. Most of what we traveled through was run down and a lot of places were for sale or vacant. We were looking for a cafe to stop and rest, and hopefully be able to go on line to look up directions. We found one after coming into the city from the north and turning west on Route 17C. They claimed to have the best sweet potato fries in the city, so we got some, along with two cups of fresh squeezed lemonade. The Internet connection was slow and therefore frustrating to use, but it did eventually prove to be useful in helping us determine our end destination...and the sweet potato fries were really good.

When we left the cafe, it was after 5 P.M. and we were both feeling cranky and tired. We made one more stop before we left Binghamton, this time for some groceries. Jenny went into the store and picked out yummy food: cucumber, blueberries, granola, soy milk, avocado, and nectarine.

We were glad to leave the city of Binghampton.

The road to get to the campground went straight up. It looked like a hill that you would expect to find in Seattle, WA, or San Fransisco, CA. We went slowly, but we made it to the top. We took a few stops on the way up to talk with people out in their yards about our bike and our trip, and also just to take breaks. When we got to the top we had climbed up 400 ft in just 1 1/8 miles! Eesh.

We biked up this!

We made it to the campground and set up our tent, took a shower, made a meal, and went to bed. We had gotten a bit of sun, which might have sped up our exhaustion.

Note: We are planning to write another “Questions Answered” post to answer a bunch of questions that have been asked in the comments. We love the questions, and all the comments. They are the first thing we look at when we stop someplace with Internet! Thank you so much for all your support!

Day 5

Stats
Net Elevation gain: approximately -300 ft.
Average Speed: 8.8 mph
Top Speed: 34.9 mph
Time spent biking: just over 4 ¼ hours
Total time for the day's travels: about 9 hours
Miles biked today: 37.5
Total for trip: 220.3 miles

Day 5 started slowly. Jenny was up early (6ish), but Brett was sleepy, so we stayed in the tent for a while longer. Just as we were getting ready to make the move to leave the tent, though, it started raining, and not lightly. We looked at each other and sighed. We know we'll have to do it sometime on this trip (get out of the tent to start the day in the rains), but we weren't quite ready this day. Finally, the rains let up and we were really ready to start our day.

The rain finally let up around noon. It was nice to have a little extra rest, but we were ready to get going when it finally stopped raining.

We packed and left Gilbert Lake State Park quickly, but it was noon by the time we left. Campgrounds are usually at the top of hills and this one was no different, so we enjoyed some nice downhills to start the day, dropping back to the river valleys. Along the way we saw several more deer, and some fabulous mushrooms!

Does anyone know what kind of mushrooms these are?

On our way into Oneonta, we decided to get Brett a knee brace for his ailing left knee. The pain had been getting more steady and a bit harder to deal with, and as Rick commented, it was telling us something. Although it was hard to be sure it was the brace's doing, the knee felt a bit better with less pain almost immediately. There were still plenty of times it hurt, but far fewer than it had been.

Brett poses with his new knee brace, about to try it on for the first time.

We also stopped for some scrumptious pizza just outside of town. It was SO good.

Yum!

Lots of things happened in Oneota. Most importantly, we replaced our failing back tire. We had been cringing every time we hit a bump or went down a hill quickly. We put on a slightly wider tire than before, but one that we have a lot of confidence in: a Specialized Armadillo. This tire is billed as puncture resistant, and Brett has had great success with this brand of tire on his bikes. We are very excited to have new tires on both the front and rear wheels now! We realize we should have done this before we left, but now it's resolved.

The rip was so bad by the time we'd reached Oneota
that you could see the dollar being pushed out through it.

Also in Oneota, Jenny recognized a face on the sidewalk out of her past. It's been about ten years but Jenny and Alix (who know each other from homeschooler camp at Hulbert Outdoor Center) had fun talking for a while. We got to meet her partner Calvin, too. They had cool bags that they made themselves, and Alix is selling her creations. It's always amazing to bump into someone from the past so randomly and unexpectedly!

Jenny and Alix hadn't seen each other in 10 years!

Lastly in Oneonta, we found a great place to rest, refuel, and tap into the Internet: Green Earth Health Food Market. Dean, the owner of the fine establishment, was really friendly and helpful, giving us oil for our chain which needed some after all the rains and offering us a chain tool (which we would have accepted had we not borrowed one from Spartan before we set off on our trip). Dean also gave us good directions out of town on more friendly roads than we would have taken.

So, finally, we set off to do some real riding. We had only fourteen miles on our odometer for the day, the downpours while we were in Green Earth had just let up, we had the new tire, and we were feeling rested and refreshed. We also felt a bit antsy to be moving forward, even though Dean had graciously offered us a place to stay for the night at the store.

Oh, the rain.

The terrain was easier, as we followed Route 7 West along the Susquehanna River. We made good time, stopping only for small breathers and one longer stop when a sign said “Strawberries.” We ate quiche and some great homemade ice cream (strawberry/rhubarb and also chocolate Oreo fudge).

It was getting dark as we neared our destination for the night. We had written down detailed directions to the campground this time, with how far we had to go before each turn, and this was very helpful in keeping our spirits high and our motivation strong. We only had one large hill to climb and arrived at the campground around 9 P.M.. We picked a spot, set up, cooked up some couscous, cheese, broccoli and hot dogs for dinner, enjoyed being able to use the Internet and the power to charge our electronics, and went to bed. We were going to take a shower, but would have needed coins, which we didn't have, and couldn't get because the office was closed for the night.

We were very happy with the final tally of miles for the day, considering we got off to such a late start. Also, we enjoyed our first day free of mechanical problems! (Although, we still had to change a tire.)

Our bike parked along the side of the road while we take a little break.

Day 4

Stats
Net Elevation gain: approximately 600 ft.
Average Speed: 7.7 mph
Top Speed: 37 mph
Time spent biking: just over 5 ½ hours
Total time for the day's travels: about 13 hours
Miles biked today: 43.08
Total for trip: 182.8 miles

Today was our first full day without rain. We had temperatures in the mid 70's and blue sky. It was a beautiful day for biking. We took our time getting up in the morning and Brett cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese and broccoli, while Jenny finished up some things on line and packed up a little. We pushed onto Rt. 20 again just before 9 A.M..

Brett cooks up a yummy breakfast.

The road continued to be up and down. We dealt with the climbs by looking for snakes on the side of the road and by counting the reflective markers in the middle and making a guess as to how many were left until we reached the top of the the climb. Brett imagined that the shale cliffs along the road must be prime snake territory and he really wanted to see one slithering along. No luck today, but we will keep looking.

No snakes, but if you look closely you can see a little animal in rocks,
a groundhog maybe?

There were lots of people out in the fields

and so many beautiful views!

We got a fun comment from a lady on the other side of Rt. 20, when she noticed us pedaling by. “Now that's the way to do it!” she yelled, very enthusiastically to us.

We were looking for a place to buy some food to cook or a restaurant to eat at when we found KC's Corner restaurant/motel at the bottom of a hill. We stopped and had our second breakfast. Brett got pancakes and bacon and Jenny had the eggs/toast/potatoes/sausage/ham. We shared everything and managed to eat it all up except for a little bit of pancake! KC's had Internet, so we got the computer out and were able to get a little blogging in before and after our meal. It is so nice to read all the comments on the blog from folks who are excited about reading it. We are touched by many of the comments, and they all inspire us to keep going and to keep blogging.

As it turns out, KC's is at the intersection of Rt. 20 and County Road 31, where we had planned to turn south to Cooperstown. Perfect! We packed the computer away and biked onto 31, which proved to be a beautiful road! There was not much traffic and the road follows the valley along Lake Otsego so it was also fairly flat, at least in comparison to Rt. 20.

We would like to report that today was our first day without any mechanical problems, but, unfortunately, that was not the case. We were cruising along Co. Rd. 31 when we heard a loud BANG! The rear tire was flat almost immediately, and we stopped. It turns out the rear tire now has a small rip in its sidewall at the rim, much as the front tire did on Day 1, only smaller. We figured that if the one dollar bill was working for us, why not two? We patched the hole in the tube, and placed another dollar bill by the rip in the sidewall, and hoped for the best.

Waiting for our patch to set.

The best would have been that the bike shop in Cooperstown had a tire to replace our damaged one. They did have a tire that would fit, but it's a bit bigger than we want. We bought it anyway (Jeff at the shop was really helpful and nice), but decided not to bother to change to it right away because our dollar bill fix was still holding nicely.

While we were in Coopestown, we bought a few things we needed to resupply like batteries. We also did what we came for: we explored the Baseball Hall of Fame. Brett visited once with his grandparents as a child, but Jenny had never been. Brett grew up with baseball, and it was fun for him to share his love of baseball with Jenny, and we both enjoyed taking our time walking around the museum looking at all of the exhibits.

Outside of Cooperstown, there was a big hill. About half way up that hill, Brett complemented Jenny on her excellent pedaling contribution. “You're doing a lot of work back there!” he said. “You know how I know? Cuz I'm not!” Thanks, Brett.

All joking aside, Jenny did take on much of the pedaling for the rest of the evening's ride because after we left Cooperstown Brett's knee was bothering him. He took some Ibuprofen a little while out and tried to go easy on it, but his left knee was still bothering him the rest of the ride.

Brett has to hold the brakes down to keep the bike from moving backwards while Jenny takes some pictures.

We saw some really beautiful sights on the evening's ride to Gilbert Lake State Park. We saw fields full of daisies, spectacular views from atop the hills we climbed, a few birds of prey in the skies, and four deer grazing in the fields. We also got a surprise amateur fireworks display as we biked by a house that was having a party! Our evening destinations always seem to take longer to get to than anticipated. We thought we were just a few miles away for hours. We ended up getting to the park after dark, around 10:30 P.M.. Despite the late hour, Brett set up the tent while Jenny cooked egg noodles, broccoli, hot dogs and cheese, and added a little spice that made a delicious dinner. Then we took a short but warm shower (the kind where you push the button and the water stays on for 15-20 seconds until you push it again) and went to bed.

One of the many deer we've seen along the road.

Day 3

Stats
Net Elevation gain: approximately -200 ft.
Average Speed: 7.8 mph
Top Speed: 38.1 mph
Time spent biking: just over 5 hours
Total time for the day's travels: about 10 hours
Miles biked today: 39.8
Total for trip: 139.7 miles

Hoping for a drier day, we were excited to wake up to sunshine. We packed away the tent and gear and Dennis let us look at his maps to our hearts' content. He even gave us a map of New York. We planned our route, and then left at 9:05, earlier than yesterday. Making decent progress and enjoying the better weather, we navigated our way through a few turns on small state highways, leaving behind the towns of East Berne, Berne, and West Berne.

Our first night of camping, and our good ol' tent worked great!

Dennis and Tammy's farm where we spent the night.

Looking at maps.

For brunch, we stopped and cooked rice and chicken masala (in precooked packages that Jenny bought at Deals & Steals before we left) at a cute little park along a river. The river flowed down over many little falls, and the rocks were full of fossils. It was a really neat place to spend a little bit of time. Before we left, we hard boiled three of the eggs that Dennis gave us, planning to make scrambled eggs with the others later and snack on the hard boiled ones.

A nice place to cook and eat brunch.

Cool waterfalls!

Not long after brunch, though, the rain returned. It rained most of the middle of the day, including a torrential downpour while we were flying down a hill. We were about to hide under the bridge at the bottom when the rain slackened enough that we weren't wincing. We were pretty annoyed with the rain and our patience for it has certainly decreased to the point of complaining about it. “It just keeps raining” was a phrase commonly used by Jenny.

We were soaked when we stopped at the Carrot Barn, a flower nursery/farm/store/deli. We felt a little bad going in all wet, but no one seemed to mind. We got a lot of comments like, “Staying dry out there?” (What can you say to that?) We bought cheese and broccoli to go with the scrambled eggs later, a bottle of lemonade to drink on the spot, and a scrumptious white chocolate raspberry cupcake. That cupcake was exactly what we wanted: not too sweet, great flavors, good cupcake and gone before we got back on the bike.

Enjoying the treats at the Carrot Barn.

Just after the painful downpour, we got another flat tire. For the third day in a row, we were delayed by a mechanical! Hopefully this isn't a trend that continues. This time, the problem was the previously mentioned gash in the rear tire tread. Either something had gotten in and pierced the tube, or the gash is large enough for the tube to sort of bubble out of it enough to give itself a small hole. To fix our problem, we first patched the tube with our kit, and then we decided to use a dollar bill for reinforcement between the tire and the tube. This took a while and we were off the road for a good hour or more. We had 3 people stop and ask if we needed any help, including Boaz, a friendly guy who was intrigued by our bike and snapped a photo to show his friends.

Waiting for the patch to be ready.

While we fixed the tire, the rain let up and we got some nice sun again, and in fact it was sunny most of the rest of the day. We turned west again at Route 20 and followed that for the rest of the day. It was a lot of up and down, up and down, because the valleys run north to south while Rte. 20 heads east to west. Interestingly, Rte. 20 goes all the way across the country, though we won't be taking it the whole way. It's a nice road for us in this region (besides the hills) because it has two full lanes in each direction plus a good shoulder to ride on. There really isn't much traffic, but what traffic there is tends to pull over to the passing lane almost every time, including the big trucks.

This is what our afternoon on Route 20 looked like:
pretty, but lots of ups and downs.

We stopped for some encouragement from an ice cream shop just outside Sharon Springs, NY. We enjoyed a huge banana split (though we got a bit chilled from it too). We asked about accommodations in the area and were told there was a motel in Sharon Springs, which excited us. We love the idea of camping most nights, but this night we just really wanted to find a place nearby, with Internet, and warm showers. We found the hotel, showered, plugged in our electronics to charge, and were so tired we went to bed without any more dinner than the banana split (it WAS big).

Our goals for tomorrow and the following days are to be more aware and proactive about eating good meals and drinking enough water. We aren't far off, but we can do better.

Bottom line: this is really fun.

Day 2

Stats
Net Elevation gain: approximately -100 ft.
Average Speed: 7.1 mph
Top Speed: 36.7 mph
Time spent biking: 6 hours 20 minutes
Total time for the day's travels: 12 hours
Miles biked today: 46.2
Total for trip: 99.9

We got off to a late start today, but still managed to get quite a bit of biking in. Brett cooked a delicious breakfast of eggs with onion, garlic, and cheese, plus toast and orange juice while Jenny worked on packing up. After breakfast we spent a while on the Internet posting Day 1 and didn't end up pulling out of the driveway until 9:55 A.M. as Robert and Theresa waved us off. What a pleasure to have met them.

It didn't take us long to see more wildlife. Today we saw lots of birds, and not just the run-of-the-mill varieties. We saw a cedar waxwing, an oriole chasing a crow, a great blue heron flying higher than usual, and many goldfinches.

It also didn't take us long to ride into more of the storm front, and in fact we were riding wet and in our raincoats much of the day. Once you are wet, there's not much you can do as a cyclist, and so we just keep pedaling through the rain. Sometimes it's unpleasant, once in a while it's actually fun or pleasant, but mostly it's just 'enh'. We weren't happy that it rained both of our first two days, but we know it will even out over the long weeks/months ahead.

Despite the late start, we made good time in the morning, mostly because we were headed downhill in general (to the Hudson River). We crossed the Hudson via the pedestrian walkway on the Dunn Memorial Bridge. We biked the whole thing, even the steep incline down after the sign that said not to. The drum brake on our bike came in handy there.

Riding down the hill into Albany, NY.

We are about to cross the bridge over the Hudson River.

We made it!

It was kind of fun to ride through Albany, New York's capital city. We didn't take the main roads, though. We took small ones, including one by the waterfront that ended at the train tracks and started again on the other side. A car would have no choice but to go around. A bicycle, even one as large as ours has more options! We crossed the tracks with our bike and continued on. One street we turned on to was ridiculously steep. We made it up after about 45 seconds of hard pedaling in our easiest gear, and were very proud of ourselves. We saw lots of poor folks, but almost all of them waved or smiled as we passed. We also saw some beautiful old apartment buildings that have been well cared for.

Not more than 2 minutes after we carried our bike over the rail tracks, we looked back and there was a train! It was going very slowly, but still, we were glad we crossed when we did.

Perhaps the best part of our day was stopping in a cafe on the outskirts of Albany called Perk Ups. It was a quiet shop, but it had tasty soup, yummy sandwiches, desserts, and Internet. We stayed in there a while, as the rain continued to fall (and not lightly). We caught up on our email and such, tried to get warm (as we were still wet, but not getting warm from pedaling), and just rested.

Just as we pulled away, though, we heard the tell-tale sound of a flat tire: PSSSsssssssssssssssss... This time it wasn't the front tire giving us trouble, but the back tire was totally flat. We both had much learning to do in changing it. We had (embarrassingly) never taken off the rear wheel on our Screamer before, so we took a lot longer than usual to get the wheel off and discover the problem (the tube was blown at the valve stem, though we also found a gash in the tire tread that might allow road debris to reach the inner tube), and a very long time figuring how to put the rear wheel back on after we put in a new tube. Despite the frustration of having mechanical problems two days in a row, we were able to work on fixing the problem and learn about the bike while still being really patient and nice to each other.

Fixing another flat tire. It took a long time.

Valuable skills were learned, but time was lost. The time was 6:15 and we were afraid we might not reach our destination (Thompson's Lake State Park) in time to check in, as the caretaker was leaving about 9:30 P.M. Also, one nice lady we spoke to told us we were going to “climb the mountain” on the road we had picked. It took us a LONG time to climb the mountain and it was dark by the time we thought we must surely be only a few miles from Thompson's Lake State Park. It was was also still raining (lightly, but still, our moral was fading because of it).

While still several miles away (we didn't know just how many), the park attendant drove by and said that he was leaving for the night, but that we were welcome to stay the night there anyway. We pedaled onwards through Thatcher State Park, but by now the darkness was complete and we were very tired. A few miles later, a nice man stopped and asked if we wanted a lift to the campground. He said he lived right near it, but we declined, thinking it would be only a few more minutes/miles. Of course, it took us close to another half hour to get a few more mile because of the hills. At that point, the man who had stopped before passed us again and turned into his driveway. As we were waving and passing, he got out of his car and yelled for us to stop, saying that he had something for us. He walked over and handed us a half dozen eggs! After talking with him for a few more minutes, we found out that our park was only a mile down the road, but he offered to let us camp in his backyard instead. That's what we did. Dennis was so nice. He helped us find a flat place to pitch our tent, gave us a light to use, and even ran out an extension cord from his garage so that we could charge our headlight.

We pitched the tent and set up our sleeping mats, snacked on some food and went to bed. By that time it was after 10 P.M. -- what a long day.

Day 1

Stats
Net Elevation gain: approximately 900 ft.
Average Speed: 7.3 mph
Top Speed: 40.1 mph
Time spent biking: 7 hours 20 minutes
Total time for the day's travels: 12 hours
Miles biked today: 53.8 miles
Total for trip: 53.8 miles

We did it! We put down our busy lives and biked away from Northampton, MA. We had a little entourage of friends accompanying us when we pulled away from Franklin St. at 7:56 A.M.. Guy and Selena turned back after the first significant hill out of town because they both had appointments to keep, but it was so much fun to have them along for a few miles. Spartan continued on and biked through a few towns with us (17 miles in total). When he too parted with us, it was both sad and exciting. We were finally on our own, but it was daunting to do this huge thing (bike across the country) alone.

Brett puts the finishing touches on our homemade "license plate" for the back of our bike.

We had lunch today at The Old Creamery cafe. They had yummy food to eat, and Jenny had been curious to go into the establishment for quite some time. We took a piece of quiche for later. When later came, that ham onion portobello quiche was the best thing!

What a lovely place to stop for lunch!

Soon after we left the cafe, we noticed the winds picking up and the dark clouds rolling in. We held out until it started to pour, and then we dug out our raincoats for their first use. The rain was pretty cold, and the winds in that first storm were gusty, but we made it through and it stopped after a little while. We had more rain a little later and sprinkles on and off all day, but really the weather was beautiful. We kept remarking on the stunning clouds, and there was much sun and blue sky.

Wet, but happy.

We have heard from several sources that the Berkshires are perhaps the hardest, steepest, hilliest day of the trip across the country. If that's true, good, because those are monster hills. To make it clear, we pedaled upwards for miles at a time at least three separate times today. Some of those times we would have mild inclines to break our ascent, but nothing to really give us a break. We rarely worried about being able to pedal up the hills because we have low gearing on the bike, but the hills really did take a toll on our bodies. Tonight we are sore, and we knew from before the half-way point that it was going to be a tiring day. We just hope that tomorrow won't be significantly affected by the exhaustion of tonight.

We made it out of the Pioneer Valley!

One of the best things about traveling by bicycle as opposed to automobile is observing wildlife from the road. We heard woodpeckers we would never have heard in a car. We saw numerous pretty wildflowers. We saw a fox (with cubs!) just hanging around in a field. We were so inspired by seeing the fox, by seeing something that you can only see if you are outside doing something very different than what we tend to do in our normal, everyday lives.

This mama fox was playing with her cubs on the rock when we noticed them. The cubs stayed out of sight once they noticed us watching them. What a treat to see!

Not that today was perfect. At about 4:30, Brett noticed a different sound coming from the front wheel. The front tire had blown a hole in its sidewall for an inch along the rim. Although the tube was seemingly intact, it wouldn't stay so for long if we didn't take action. Brett deflated the tire and with the help of Bill H., a super kind fellow bicyclist, we put some cardboard between the tube and the tire's sidewall. With a call to the nearest bike shop, we were on our way pick up a new tire. Tom, the proprietor of Ordinary Cycles in Pittsfield, MA was generous with his time and knowledge, and it was fascinating to hear his tales.

Sad Brett puts a temporary fix on our broken tire.

Since it was 6:15 by the time we left Ordinary Cycles, we called to let our gracious host know we would be a good bit longer. We found Robert R. (and his wife who we did not get to meet) through Warmshowers.org and he was a perfect host. He let us take showers (even setting out towels for us before we arrived), cooked us a yummy dinner, helped us look at maps for tomorrow, and let us do our own thing. Thank you!

So excited to get to New York!

Yay!

Our main goal for the day was accomplished: we made it out of Massachusetts and into New York! We stayed Night 1 in New Lebanon, NY. We hope to spend Night 2 in Thompson Lake State Park.

Thanks to all who helped today turn out so well!

Start Date

We will be starting our exciting adventure on Tuesday morning, June 8, 2010. Anyone in the area is welcome to contact us and come ride a few miles with us out of Northampton, though we can't guarantee an exact start time yet. Hopefully, we'll pedal off starting about 7:00 A.M., but there are plenty of things that could push that time back.

Moving day!

We are out of our house for the summer, as of today! For the next week, until we leave on our trip, we'll be staying at Franklin Street and enjoying the time we get to spend with the wonderful people who live here.

Our house has never been so clean and organized. It was a big job to pack up all of our stuff for the trip, plus put away lots of stuff in the house to make it ready for others to live in over the summer.

We will miss our home this summer.

A HUGE thanks to Selena, Cara and Guy for helping out with projects and finishing putting up the trim (!!) around the windows and doors in our house! We used the bamboo poles that we cut while we were in Florida in early May and installed curtains in the windows. The house looks so cozy and finished with the trim up. It's amazing how much you can get done when you have a deadline.