In old New York

Hello,
I'm in Fulton, NY. There are pros and cons of libraries in really small
towns. The positives are that they are usually in really cute one room
buildings with beautiful stained glass windows that were built in 1801 or
something. The negative is that they are usually only open on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 10-3 or some ridiculous times like that. Since I haven't
written in a while I am having trouble remembering everything that has
happened. Unfortunately all of the entries in my journal read - "We biked
from town X to town Y. I am tired. We are camping. I am tired. We met
neat people today. Good night."

While I was writing my last email, my friend Scot walked through the door.
I guess Dorothy and Scot started in plymouth and tracked us down asking
people in the towns if they'd seen us and where we were heading. I guess we
aren't too hard to miss since they asked in Rochester, and all the people at
the gas station replied with, "Well, they were at the cafe around 2pm and
earlier they were at the bike shop." Ahhh, small towns. We had a very fun
night with them playing a raucous game of boggle and feasting on canned
chicken surprise.

Doon, at the bike shop, attached a mountain bike rack on the front of my
bike to replace the old broken one. We saw Doon's business cards and on it
he had - Doon, the biking viking, you can see what he means and get a taste
of his personality at -http://www.greenmountainbikes.com/bikehomepage.html
He pointed out that the nice thing about having a back rack on the front is
"it gives a flat surface so you can place things there...like a puppy." I
wasn't sure if he was kidding or not.

We left Vermont and entered New York via the ferry to Ticonderoga. Now,
when i was thinking ferry, I was picturing as in Staten Island or any other
New York area ferry. This one was just a platform that you rode onto and it
took you to the other side. It wasn't that pleasant in the rain, but we
spoke with the captain the whole time and it made it more enjoyable. We
decided (as we were standing on the ferry in the rain) that we would splurge
on a motel in Ticonderoga. The captain pointed out that this might be
difficult due to the big fishing tournament plus there was a French and
Indian war reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga. He was right, but after some
magic worked by Wendy at the Super 8, we had a roof over our heads. Being a
Saturday night, we decided to head into town and live it up with a rowdy
game of Bingo at the American Legion. I think they really got a kick out of
us, considering we didn't know all of the rules. Did you know that they
have an agenda with all sorts of special bingo games? An example of one of
our conversations:
me - "How do i play this special T game?"
Bingo Expert - "you have to get bingo twice in the shape of a T."
me - "Can it be an off center T?"
BE - "No, just a T."
me - "Can it be an L?"
BE - "No, a T. That's why they call it T."
me - "oh, ok."

We started talking to Williard who told us in vivid detail about how he
could throw a 90 mph fast ball in high school. Williard is currently 64 and
served in the Korean war. At one point in the night Williard leans over and
asks, "Have you ever seen anyone get blown away?" After we shake our heads
no in confused horror he assures us "it ain't fun." Thanks, Williard.

We rounded out the night with a trip to the Walmart - yes a Walmart
Supercenter was next to the Super 8. There I bought a $5 radio that I
placed on my front rack... instead of a puppy. After 10 minutes of being in
the store, though i had to get out of there - too many choices. We've been
shopping in general stores where there are no options, and the enormity of
the Walmart kind of got to me.

On the 24th we ran into the skooter guy in the rain and chatted with him a
bit. He is touring the perimeter of the US on his scooter. He's online
here if you have any interest.
http://www.peoriametropolitan.com/miracle.htm

One of our motivational mantras in New England was - "We just have to get to
New York, then it will be flat." We assumed this because there was no
separate elevation map on the New York map. Assumptions are bad things. We
forgot about those pesky Adirondacks. Actually biking through the
Adirondacks was absolutely breathtaking. Everything was so beautiful. My
pitiful attempt to describe it is as follows - remember when you were little
and you hadn't graduated to the Crayola 64 box of crayons? Instead you were
limited by the 6 pack. So your pictures were those 6 colors. That's what
it looked like. The trees were pure green, not lime green or sea foam
green, just green. The sky was blue...etc. And as melissa pointed out it
smelled like Glade air freshener. It was great.

We pulled into Raquette Lake the evening of the 25th looking for their
general store. It was closed. Someone on the lake recommended the tavern
around the corner. You could hear the snap in the air as fifteen heads
whipped around to look at the two out of towners (in spandex no less) as we
walked through the door of the tavern. After our cheeseburgers and calling
to find out that the camp ground we were supposed to stay out was closed and
the other one nearby had no showers, the people in the tavern offered us a
room upstairs for $10 bucks each. We snapped it up and after getting
cleaned up came back down to have a few beers with the locals. Met some
really interesting women our age and were disappointed when we had to turn
down their offers to go down to the next town's bar around 11:30. The bad
thing about biking all day is it tires you out.

It looks like my time is up on the computer. Hope you are all doing well.
cheers!
leigh