I didn't take many photos today given the hostile weather. Wasn't that scenic, thankfully about 20 miles on good road with wide shoulders instead of the gravel path. The weather didn't start to clear up until the last hour of my ride. All my photos would have just been a foggy, water drop covered lens.
I was able to stop using the Ziploc bags over my hands and feet, for the last 2 hours of the ride. So I did get to dry out some before showing up at the hotel. I added the Ziploc bags to keep my hands and feet warmer. Definitely made a big difference
Lunch was really good too, just a small town Diner. I pigged out and had a large bowl of chili and a buffalo chicken wrap.
As far as not seeing my folks tonight , I also didn't sleep well last night. It was a noisy site at Newark, there was a house nearby playing thumping music. It was probably a party somewhere; it was Friday night after all. Something with heavy bass. i also biked too late into the day yesterday. I didn't get to the 28b lock until 7:30 p.m. and it took me 30 minutes to set up camp, give myself a sponge bath, change, and kill all the mosquitos that got into the tent when i wasn't paying attention. I immediately just tried to go to bed, but my body needs more time to calm down before I can fall asleep. Lesson learned. I try to keep to a 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. sleep schedule when camping. It's just easier to sleep during those hours; things are quieter between those times. So I think that means I need to be done pedaling no later than 6p.m.
I normally get 8 and 1/2 hours sleep, and a lot more of the dark pink REM sleep. Usually two hours of REM sleep. And I normally get at least an hour or two of deep sleep. Which is darker blue but not even in the graph below.
a lot of the ride after the diner looked more like this as I got closer to Syracuse
anyhoo, jumping back to this evening , and back at the hotel room, i've got all the clothes in the bathtub. I've changed the water a few times now, and I used laundry soap after the first soak and drain. First time was just me showering with the tub drain blocked. I used my feet as the agitator. The water was super brown the first fill, and i'm hoping it was more due to the clothes than my shower. If it was me, yuck!
i wring the wet clothes by hand first, and then use the dry towels to further squeeze the water out.
i also gave the bike a good washing with a hose around the back of the hotel. It was way too dirty to bring inside when I arrived. To dry it off I rode a mile back to the byrne dairy convenience store, and I just got a salad and some snacks for the ride tomorrow. by the time i got back to the hotel, the bike was dry enough to wheel it into my hotel room. i should re-lube the chain at some point, but I won't do that in the hotel room. The chain lube would stain the carpet, and I don't want to get billed for a new one.
I'll be meeting my parents and sister for lunch at Five Guys around 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. I'm going to eat breakfast here at the hotel, pack up, and bike to meet them. I'll text them when I leave, so we all get there at about the same time. Fully loaded up I only do about 10 miles an hour, and I think Five Guys is about 12 miles away. It'll take them about an hour to drive there.
After lunch, I'll keep biking East. I'll probably camp at the canal lock near New London, West of Rome. It's only another 20 mi , but I'll be starting later in the day . The rest of the trip I plan on doing about 40 miles a day. So I'll probably arrive at Jacqui's parents by Thursday.
Unless the plan changes, I'll probably camp in my tent at Rotterdam and then have my last overnight camp on Plum Island in Waterford New York. Before Rotterdam, there will be another night somewhere east of Utica. Anyway, hopefully my last day of biking will only be 25 miles, from Waterford to Glenmont. I don't want to end on a marathon day, biking all the way from Rotterdam would be way too long.
