Our first short leg took us several blocks to the site of the infamous bump that threw Kent last year, resulting in his broken collarbone. He gamely posed for some pictures, as you can see, and then we set of down Route 5, which we would travel for almost the entire journey today.
The group consisted today of Kent, Ilkka, and myself, along with several of Kents friends who are also riding buddies.
We will be joined later by Ted Leh, who also rode on the ABBike ride last summer, and two others.
The weather was perfect for riding, sunny and cool in the morning, and pleasantly warm in the afternoon. We rode at a nice touring pace, stopping at various places for photo ops or for interesting historical places, like locks on the Erie Canal.
Kent's wife Carol and rider Mike Powell's wife Randee are driving the route ahead of us, and provided outstanding sag service at our one official sag stop. They set up in a little park in the village of St Johnsville, sparking the curiosity of the locals watching from houses across the street. They couldn't figure why these two women were setting up a veritable feast, with nobody else around. Eventually our group rode around the corner and the neighbors got to watch seven hungry cyclists engage in a feeding frenzy.
After the delightful sag, we continued up route 5, still along the river until the last several miles where we headed up out of the river valley to Johnstown. We stopped at a Subway for lunch, and were met there by Ted Leh and his family, including son Steven, who had been the youngest rider to complete the coast-to-coast ride last summer. Ted will ride out with us tomorrow as we head down the river to Schenectady.
After we ate, we rode a little farther up the hill to the Holiday Inn, our home for tonight. Unfortunately, they did not have the rooms ready until well after 3. The girl who seemed to be in charge was not at all helpful in getting us into our rooms, acting as if it was unreasonable for us to want to be in the rooms even as "early" as 3 p.m. We waited out in the parking lot for awhile.
Things seemed to start happening when we got our suitcases and started unpacking stuff in the lobby. I thought I could at least start working on my GPS data and pictures. Anyway service was not a priority here. Hopefully tomorrow night will be better.
Tomorrow we have a very short day, just a tad over 30 miles. I recall this stage as including lots of very nice bike paths and lots of river scenery.
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