Day 48 – Play Misty For Me

August 4, 2018

Day 48 – Latham, NY to Brattleboro, VT – 80 miles, 5,190 feet vertical

We’ve travelled 3,552 miles with ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT. 

We crossed the Hudson River today and rode through Troy, NY – “Home of Uncle Sam” and also home to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and my son Matt’s alma mater.  The area looked very familiar from all the campus visits.   How considerate of America By Bicycle to take me to both of my kids’ alma maters. (A few days ago, we were near the University of Rochester where Samantha went). 

We also made it to our ninth state – the Green Mountain State – Vermont.  

It was misty indeed today.  We had a weather delay this morning with the main load postponed until 8:30 while we waited for the storm to blow over.  (See the radar map that I woke up to.)  It had stopped by 8:30, but the roads were still wet and we road through a constant mist and drizzle.  Rain gear on.  Rain gear off.  Rain gear on.  And so it went for the first several hours.  

Finally, around 1:00pm, the sun came out and stayed out.  This was just in time to relax at a cafe in Wilmington.  Unfortunately, the constant mist had played havoc with my chain and drive train and I could hear it churning away with every pedal stroke.  A quick call to Karen at SAG 2 confirmed she would have some chain lube waiting for me.  It was fine after that.  

The terrain reminded us of what climbing is like.  We haven’t had a day like this in … oh, … thousands of miles.  We survived.

Because our bikes were beyond filthy, we all spent some time at the hotel in Brattleboro hosing down the bikes and giving them some much-need TLC.  

At Rap tonight, I was gobsmacked to see my good buddy Steve and Karen standing in the lobby.  They had driven down from Manchester, VT to surprise me.  And surprise me, they did!  It turns out that my wife is an unindicted co-conspirator in helping to pull this off.  And Tami’s friend Gina surprised us too. Gina rode with us through the Wyoming segment.  It seems to have been “friend and relatives” night, since there were many more sprinkled throughout the troops. 

Tomorrow is our penultimate day and it will take us into our tenth and final state, New Hampshire, and a gala banquet dinner.  We all have the option to speak at dinner.  I will have to think of something witty and meaningful to say.  

Please enjoy these photos from today’s bifurcated weather display.  And don’t forget to look at our progress map at Where’s Jeff at jeffblye.com 

Thanks for following.

…Jeff