Day 14

Start :Tillsonburg ON
End: Courtright ON

Mileage : 100

We had rare south-east wind with us all day. Since there is no accommodation between where we were and the border, at 3:30pm, 60 miles in, we decided to take advantage of the empty road (Sunday afternoon), good weather, and wind to do another 40 miles to find Campground or motel.

Then when we got there, surprise... No motel. Google map fail. And neither of the restaurants in town were open. Luckily Jesse met a very kind local family who welcomed us into their home, let us shower and sleep in the basement. They have two very cute boys who didn't want us to leave!
Thank you, everyone who has been so nice to us and all fellow travelers, it makes a a huge difference!

Day 13

Start : Dunnville ON
End : Tillsonburg ON
Mileage: 70

Headwind pretty much all day.

Warmshower host kindly took us in on very short notice, for which I am so grateful, because I was not looking forward to biking any more on gravel road to look for camping spots...

Day 11

Day 10 was a rest day in Rochester.

Day 11:

Start : Rochester, NY
End : North Tonawanda , NY
Mileage :78.9

Today in pictures: (use your imagination)
Ditch:


Taking shelter from downpour



Getting caught in this



Then we had a huge dinner.

Day 9

Start : Phelps, NY
End :Rochester, NY
Mileage: 61

Since the day's ride was going to be fairly flat and around 50 miles, we decided to add in a few detours to check out interesting things we found from Atlas Obscura (thanks, Tchad! It's a great resource):

1. The Sacred Grove
2. The Mushroom House



3. Mt. Hope Cemetery

We arrived at our host, Chris' house in the evening. After wine, cheese, dinner and some great conversations about riding, we got to sleep in the family camper:

Day 8

Start : Syracuse, NY
End : Phelps, NY
Mileage : 53.4

Jesse pulled his back in the morning. Today was pretty tough for him.

We are in the finger lakes region but are too tired to go explore. I think my family had been here years ago when we went on a road trip?

Day 7

Start :Utica, NY
End : Syracuse, NY
Mileage :70

What we encountered along the way:

RC car race


Colonial Fort



Canal operator who has a poetic love for sailing (he likened biking to sailing on land).

A wonderful host family, Jenny, Olin, and Zita who took us in at the end of the day and spent a great evening together.

Days 5 and 6

Day 5
Start :Troy, NY
End:Sloansville, NY
Mileage:47.5

Day 5 was generally a rough day : late start, headwind, hills, and heat. We didn't get to the campground but instead camped behind a post office off route 20

Day 6
Start :Sloansville, NY
End : Utica, NY
Mileage:60

We took the Erie canalway trail for a good part. It is nice and flat, but the fine gravel was scary.... Heat and headwind continued.

Day 4

Start: Plainfield, MA
End : Troy, NY
Mileage : 65.3

We biked through some serious rain in the morning and took refuge in McDonald's in Adams, MA. It only took us the three days to break down and get fast food. Well, anything tastes good when you are cold, wet, and hungry...

We crossed the state line today. Hello, New York!

Day 3

Start : West Brookfield, MA
End : Plainfield, MA
Mileage : 61.4

We packed up our campsite early and hit the road at 7 am. The rain last night cooled things off quite a lot. That worked out well because doing the big climbs in 80+ degrees would not be fun at all.

We continued on Route 9 West and took the Norwottuck rail trail. Rolled through Amherst and started the slow ascent at Williamsburg. Highlight of the day : we ended up at a super nice campground with a hot tub!

Elevations for today:

Day 2

Start: Hudson, MA
End: West Brookfield, MA
Mileage: 42.5


On the way to the campground called "Highview Campground". True to its name, it's on top of a seemingly never-ending hill. We both ended up walking the bikes.

First time cooking and camping on this trip. Thanks Cathy for lending me the lightweight tent!

Supposedly there might be a thunderstorm rolling in soon.

Day 1

Start: Malden, MA
End: Hudson, MA

Dipping the rear tire on Charles River (not the ocean, but close enough):
Bags were off the bike because they were so heavy and we didn't want to lose them in the river...

Weighing in

Everything that I'm bringing

My Lemond Reno with Old Man Mountain Sherpa front rack and
 the old Topeak Explorer rear rack.

Bike with racks:   11.2kg / 24.7lbs
Front bags:            5.3kg / 11.7lbs
Rear bags:             9.6kg / 21.2lbs

I loaded everything up and went for a ride around the block.  As David said, it "handles like a mule".  Hello, uphills!!

Ice cream!

It's gorgeous out today.  Good ice cream? Totally there. 

After the 30 miles round trip for me,  the knees seem to be doing okay so far.  I am really hoping that all the foam-rolling and stretching will help me keep tendinitis from returning.   The hardest part from here to Chicago is the first 200 miles!

Switching Gears

photo: Herbert Chang

After 8.5 years at my company, I've decided to leave the working life for a while to pursue other interests and reflect on my life.  It's not hard to cruise along and go through the routine once you've built up the momentum ... but sometimes it's good to stop and check that you're still heading in the right direction and moving towards your destination.  Well, that time is now for me.

What that means:

1. I'm going on a long bike trip soon.
2. I will be posting on this blog while I'm on the road.
3. What will I do after the trip? No idea. For pretty much the first time ever, I'm planning to be spontaneous. 

Nova Scotia

.

Old and new

Cape Cod Rail Trail

I'm finally done with school! The first thing I did on my first "free" weekend was to put away the trainer and gave my bike a good cleaning outside. Polishing it made me realize that this bike has been though quite a lot. Scratches here and there remind me of the various crashes I've subjected it to. I recall all of them, too: the first fall not being able to clip out in time right in front of the Broadview, riding into a ditch while out training with David, then the infamous accident in Sandusky, OH, one riding out of Yosemite, and then on the same day on a really sharp turn which led to my first flat ever with 2 more days to finish the 4K. Then last year I wiped out on wet road at the ALA autumn escape. It's been almost four years and I'm glad The Juggernaut is still in good shape despite all the mishaps.
On Sunday I drove down with L and K to Cape Cod to do the CCRT. 2 miles in, we took the wrong turn at the rotary and ended up in Chatham. It was a completely subconscious move by L and I... we simply followed what we did last October during the ALA ride. This added 20 miles to our planned ride. Surprisingly the trail was pretty empty for such a warm day. This was my first ride outdoors this year and it felt great.
Lunch at Catch of the Day was satisfying. On the ride back I thought that name would be brilliant as our Wildwood team name...
Somehow the 22 miles back just flew by. Maybe it was the tailwind.
I reset my odometer before we started in the morning. Logged 61 miles today. I thought about setting a milage goal for this year but decided against it. I'll just ride.

Home again

So after 21 days and 6 cities, I am back in NY from my first "vacation" abroad since I started working. I think I am going to do this quite out of order - ideally I would have liked to record the planning before the trip, made a few en-route posts with pictures, and then follow those up with a proper conclusion (possibly with detailed list of expenses in a spreadsheet) afterwards. Well, since I was 1) in a high frenzy prior to departure and 2) too cheap to pay the 1 euro/15 minute to post while on the road, here I am trying to make up for all of that now, after my trip has ended.

I spent 12/14-12/25 in Italy, then 12/25-12/30 in Athens, and 12/30 - 01/04 in Istanbul. This trip was meant to be my first step to fulfill my childhood dream of seeing the world. I don't have long periods of free time, so I figured I could do this a little bit at a time. These three precious weeks were right in between the end of finals and the beginning of the spring semester. I planned the trip with small time margins and hoped to fully utilize my free time. It turned out that things barely fell into place in time, and that by trying to predict things that I could not control I had caused myself considerable stress and aggravation. This was especially true before the trip, with last-minute visa applications, snow storms and whatnot.

I followed through my plan of sleeping through the entire flight to Rome, thanks to the lack of sleep on the previous nights. Was not jetlagged at all. I had deliberately not planned out many things and wanted to give myself some freedom to be spontaneous (gasp). In retrospect this worked out well - I don't feel that I missed out on many things during trip, and for the few things that I did miss (like the Christmas Day Mass at St. Peter), I did so by choice.

I was quite wrong in my initial hope to escape the New England winter by going to the Mediterraneans region during winter. Venice was cold, and 2 out of the 5 days of my time in Istanbul, it snowed. Hence I always wear the same thing - the jacket - in all of my pictures. It was great not having to deal with the crowd however.

Breaking out of daily routines was great. One of the best thing about traveling was simply the feeling that one has endless options and can do virtually anything. Not that I actually did anything crazy (which is all relative depending on who you talk to...), but just having that idea was awesome. Traveling alone gave me a lot of time to feel, to wonder, to delve into old memories, and sometimes just let my mind go blank. For the first week I kept on wanting to turn off my cellphone whenever I walked into a quiet place like a church, only to realize repeatedly that I don't have the phone, and that I have no service abroad anyways. It was quite funny though, how it kept happening, like a reflex.

It's good to be back. Next I think I'll write about the foods.

Transitions

Today officially marked the end of the frisbee season for me. After frustrating pool play in the wind all day yesterday, my club team fought hard today and ended up taking division 4. It was a great time. At the second half of the championship game, the fatigue really set in. However, as I struggled to play defense, sucking air and pushing hard to bridge the gap between what I want to do and what my tired body can do, I had this amazing feeling. It was probably all the adrenaline talking, but in the midst of all the frantic movements, I realized that "This is awesome. and THIS is why I play." It was one of those random thoughts that just make you smile out of nowhere. I really wish I was more eloquent... maybe I can then do a better job with trying to capture that moment.

That being said, I am sad that I won't be able to play with TBD in the fall. I'll be starting part-time graduate school in a couple of weeks. The plan is to take two evening classes in the fall semester and try to finish the program in two years. Sounds like some rough time is ahead....but for the time being, I will try to exploit the rest of the summer as much as I can. Now that frisbee is done, I can finally focus on training for the half-marathon that Jen has talked me into doing.

to be continued....

Ties

Last night I went to my cousin Dennis' wedding. Congrats to Dennis & Geneva!

As much as I cringe when I hear about classmates and peers getting engaged or married, this wedding left me feeling warm and fuzzy. I still wonder about the concept of two people becoming joined as one... do couples naturally gravitate towards that goal? Or is some of it the outcome of a push and a nudge here and there by the rest of the world? I guess I'll figure that one out when the time comes.

Weddings are one of the few events (in adult life) that brings everyone together. It was so good to see my cousins whom I haven't talked to in years and catch up. I was both surprised and delighted to see Mr. P, a family friend who brought Sean, Cathy and me to start at our respective schools when we first moved to the States eleven years ago. We've all come pretty far since that day, and even though we only spoke briefly, I know Mr. P is happy that the three of us turned out "alright".

Ah, must comment on the dancing. Jennifer dragged me onto the dance floor. Not gonna lie, I felt quite self-conscious dancing in front of my grandma, father, aunts, uncles, and everybody else. Much of the anxiety over dancing in public, which first manifested itself before high school prom, has subsided over the years (thanks to various things and people), but it's still there. Afterwards my brother, who refused to join us, called my moves "awkward". Whatever. I don't dance to entertain others.