Day 62: Cambridge, NY

Day 62: Cambridge, NY

August 13, 2016

Miles: 42

Average Speed: 10.0 mph

Poultney, VT to Cambridge, NY

Today is my brother Arthur's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Art!  Hope you had a great day!

We awoke at 7:30 this morning and were down in the dining room at 8am.  Breakfast was served from 8am to 9am only, so no tarrying this morning. 

Scrambled eggs, bacon, croissant, chocolate chip muffins and fresh fruit!

A seating mishap caused a little complication this morning.  One of the guests is a musician and he momentarily left his seat to get something from his room.  In his absence, a couple arrived at the table and, because there were not two seats together, were forced to sit on opposite sides of the table.  When the musician returned to the table, he now found himself sitting next to a seemingly unattached attractive woman.  He engaged her in conversation and in general made every attempt to appear interesting and appealing.  He must have thought things were going well, because he suddenly announced to the room that he was going to get his guitar and sing a song he had recently written.  He returned and, though it could be argued he was singing to the room, his steady gaze at the suddenly uncomfortable woman at his side left no doubt a serenade was in progress.  The object of the troubadour's interest was a little uncomfortable at this unwanted attention and began to avert her eyes from that passionate gaze of the singer, who, unfortunately, mistook her demure demeanor as evidence of his successful romancing and commenced to gaze even more longingly at her.  When the song ended there was a round of applause and congratulations and then the young man attached to the  romanced woman abruptly left the room.  The young lady, a little at a loss as to what to do, murmured an apology that she must get going and quickly went in search of her companion.  Jane Austin could not have scripted the misunderstanding any better.

Green shirt is with the woman to the singer's right, but the singer takes advantage of his position 

We spent a little time after breakfast determining where we would end up today and decided upon Cambridge, NY.  We chose Cambridge because we were still a little tired from the heat  and hills of the last two days and thought that an easy 42 miles was about all we could handle today.  Riding 42 miles may not seem like an easy day to some, but if you've already been riding for two months and ride at an slow pace over a not-too-hilly route, then 42 miles actually is an easy day.

We rode for 13 miles before we came to the head of the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail.  The abandoned D&H Rail has now been converted to a bike/hike/walk trail and we were happy to get off the roads for awhile.  This trail is not heavily used, so unlike some other converted rail trails, this trail looks more like a hiking trail in spots than a bike trail.

Getting on the D&H Rail Trail in West Pawlet, VT

Trees are providing much welcome shade

We met Dan, who was out performing some trail maintenance

The trail often looked more like a hiking path

The trail was beautiful, but after four miles we decided to leave and head back to the road.  Our tires were sinking in the loose dirt and this made us work hard for even the slow pace we were now making.  And, Di took issue with the prevalence of bugs, who seemed to like the shade as much as we.  We got back on the rode and within a few miles rode into the town of Rupert, which happened to be having its annual summer party.  We asked if we could join and were told we could as long as we ponied up ten dollars apiece.  We asked what we got for ten dollars and were told we would get a large piece of chicken, cole slaw, baked beans, potato salad, a bread roll, a glass of punch, and an ice cream dessert.  Sounded great to us so we paid up and got our food.  All our food came in a styrofoam container, which is acceptable, except the hot chicken, which came in a plastic bag, which is not an acceptable way to treat hot chicken.  We ate it anyway, but under protest.

Di with her meal and chicken in a bag

Hot chicken in a bag! Yum.

We had our fill of the Rupert Chicken in a Bag Festival and resumed riding.  The skies had darkened considerably and rain looked imminent and we began hearing thunder way off in the distance.  Sure enough, we hadn't been riding more than 15 minutes when the rain started.  We found an unoccupied building that was undergoing construction and borrowed its porch while we waited out the rain.

Rain stop #1 (its always good to have a tootsie pop in case it rains)

The rain stopped after about 30 minutes and we started riding again but had only gone a couple of miles when we saw a crack of lightening.  We quickly found a store front with an overhang and a bench to wait out the rain once again.

Rain stop #2

As soon as the rain stopped, we jumped on our bikes and rode with a little more enthusiasm than we had displayed earlier in the day.  It looked like it might rain all day, so we wanted to seize those non-raining moments with gusto.  This time we were able to ride almost nine miles before it started raining again.  We were able to take refuge in front of the take-out window of a pizza joint.

Rain stop #3

We had to wait close to an hour before the rain stopped and we could ride again.  This time we rode for three miles before the rain started again and this time there was no safe haven and no port in the storm (not to mention a convenient porch) to provide us shelter.  We had no choice but to ride in a heavy downpour.  Di finally spotted a house and the best we could do to escape the rain was to press ourselves against the side of the house in an effort to escape the brunt of the rain.  It didn't really matter at this point because we were soaking wet, but we didn't want to ride in the heavy rain because of the reduced visibility and it seemed a little silly to simply stand by the side of the road with our bikes while getting pelted with heavy raindrops.  If we were to do that and some motorist yelled, "Get off the road!", then for once I would have had to agree he had a point.

Not the most ideal shelter from the storm

We remained with our backs to the wall for about 30 minutes before the rain let up and we were able to resume riding.  We knew it was going to rain again so we now rode with conviction and urgency, but even so, we still had to stop to admire a most beautiful and inviting rainbow.

That's a rainbow!

It will probably not come as a great surprise that it commenced raining once again when we had only a couple of miles remaining in our ride.  This time there was no lightening, and because we were already soaked to the bone, we just rode in the rain.  We finally arrived at our Airbnb apartment at 6:30pm.  We didn't quite have that easy ride we were looking for and we got a lot more rain than was really necessary, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  Besides, we got that great rainbow, so it was definitely worth it.

Tomorrow we ride to Williamstown.  It looks like we will be visiting with Bethany and Chris on Tuesday night and I'm very excited to see them and check out their new home.  Beth and Chris have promised us a home cooked meal and I have to admit that is another thing I'm looking forward to.  Hey you guys, just letting you know that we will appreciate and enjoy anything you cook for us with one exception: chicken in a bag.  That's right out!