Backwards....

Will's on vacation, so I'm going to write a little about our last day of travel. We slept our last night in Poughkeepsie and took off south and south east. Will will (heh) have to fill you in on his last day.

As I mentioned before, it was probably the most difficult day of riding for the whole trip. One of the hardest things about riding through New York and Connecticut (when you're not on bike routes) is finding good routes. There are a lot of little roads that wander and that go over hills. Big hills. For a little while I felt like I was in Washington again - not because the hills were nearly as high but because of the feeling of constantly climbing. But that's a wholly inaccurate comparison as CT has nothing on WA. But the poor route options were way worse. We ended up taking 34 in CT to get back to New Haven, and normally I really dislike riding this. It's a busy road, but not a major highway. We rode it later at night (our only time riding at night), so it wasn't as bad as it probably is during rush hour.

Another challenge is that the drivers are a little more, shall I say, East Coast-y here, and it felt like a pretty dramatic shift to come into upstate NY and then into CT again. But there were some really nice people, too. Ashley and I stopped at a Middle Eastern restaurant for lunch, and the server took it upon himself to clean our water bottles as he was putting water in. A nice man in a Porsche thought we were lost (we were) and helped give us directions. A couple we ran into in the POURING rain offered to drive us all the way back to New Haven. We declined. (That was my first moment of 'I've ridden across the country and I'll be darned if rain and crappy routes are gonna stop me!')

There are many cyclists in these states and many great rides, but that last day was pretty tough. Probably about a hundred turns taking half a mile on each road with half of it climbing.

We got back to New Haven at about 9:30, ordered Chinese food, and slept a lot. Ashley let me stay at her place since I couldn't get in to my house. (The sub-letters had the keys.)

We have a lot left to write and do, but I need to go work more on my sermon for this Sunday. Since you asked, I'll tll you. It's Canaan United Methodist Church in Canaan, CT (not New Canaan, CT).

Next time... staying in Kinderhook! Riding through Albany!