Little Falls: Big Wind

TOP: When you're on a budget...

2nd: Hanging at an Italian bakery in Schenectady. NOTE: Carl is not pulling here

BOTTOM: OK, so mr adventure racer got us a bit lost. Here we are in a stream conduit under the thruway (I-90). Apparently he thought that the mules would be pulling canal barges through this.

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Day 2 started out crisp and sunny, with a tantilizing headwind. The first 40+ miles were all on a paved bike trail, mostly sheltered, no vehicles allowed, and just awesome for cycling. We made a quick pit stop in Schenectady at an Italian bakery for bread, and then had a great breakfast right in downtown at a little coffee shop. The waiter was a hoot, seemingly amazed that people "at your age" could do such a thing. We beat him senseless in the alley and left him for dead.

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Along the way the trail broke for a bit, and we let world-class adventure racer Carl take the lead (for the first time I might add). That ended us up in a stream conduit, under I-90, deep into rocks, and thankful that it was not raining out else we would have drowned. Now, you can understand how easy it would be to get confused here; clearly, the mules could have pulled the canal barges through this conduit...I mean, if it wasn't straight uphill, full of rocks, 5 feet tall, and a mile away from the actual canal itself. So, we didn't let Carl navigate too much more.

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Once we came off of the paved trail, there were various segments of road, packed dirt, crushed gravel, and, our new nemesis sand. Yes, one segment of the trail was actually sand, which, surprisingly, slows down your average speed. After about an hour to power through 6 miles, we popped out on the road expecting an easier time of it. THAT was a really bad idea also, as we ran headlong into about a 25mph headwind, very hilly terrain, and, in the words of carl sandberg, miles to go before I sleep.

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After hours of pain, we finally made Little Falls, where we all rendezvous'd for the final leg into Herkimer. This was a relatively fast road segment...well, it would have been if the winds didn't exist, and it wasn't uphill the whole way. We got to Herkimer just before nightfall, grabbed us a cheapo motel, and hit a great little restaurant overlooking the canal for dinner. Tomorrow, goodbye Herkimer, hello Baldwinsville.

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"Wind Beneath My Wings" Lumpy out

Low Bridge, Everybody Down: Riding the Erie Canal

TOP: Carl in his natural state of affairs (ie. not pulling, or expending any energy)

2nd: Mark and John near the canal start, adjacent to the Mohawk River

3rd: Mark doing bike maintenance...we were in tears on this one, as he basically set his brake "on" for the entire ride

BOTTOM: Lumpy, John, Carl, Therese, and Mark ready to roll

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More pix can be found at: http://lumpydoestheeriecanal.shutterfly.com/

As many of you know, I've had a bit of a love affair with the Erie Canal, the first great infrastructure project of our young nation. It's what opened up "The West", and clearly what made Rochester into a city. A few years back a group of us kayaked the canal, and it was an awesome project. This past winter I started cross-country skiing the canal (THAT will take a few years...), and decided to bike the length of it this year. Joining me on the adventure would be my old San Diego (now DC) buddy John, local tri-geek/adventure racer/XC ski champion Carl, my recent hip replacement riding buddy mark, and for part of the ride our local "50 and tough as nails cycling chick" Therese. We rode mountain bikes/hybrids as a chunk of the ride would be on trails, or on the canal mule paths.

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The ride started with a mad dash to Albany on wednesday night. We elected to ride east to west, into headwinds the whole ride, to simplify logistics. Mark that down as dumb-ass idea number one for the trip. About an hour from albany, as we're tooling along, singing "the erie canal song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23GDoyaxIig and eating our 2 foot long subs, I realize that I left my helmet back in rochester. So, a madcap stop at a local target left me with 2 choices...a Barbie lid that fit like a skullcap, or a blaze red lid that made me look like I belonged on a firetruck. And don't you think for a minute that I REALLY didn't want to buy that Barbie lid!!!! But, safety trumping coolness, I went with the fireplug.

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We drove directly into the Albany airport, dropped off the rental car, pulled the bikes out, and started our ride. This evening we were going to knock off about 20 miles so we didn't have to double back from the hotel in the morning, and to give us a more manageable first day of riding. Of course, that entailed a 20 mile ride in the pitch black, in a strange city, with no idea what we would encounter terrain or road-wise. The first 10 miles or so were very cool, on the actual canal path, with not a sole in sight. Well, not a sole except for the drunken mother pushing her baby carriage at 10:00 at night on the pitch black path, with no lights or reflectors. THAT was almost one dead baby.

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The trail dropped us of in Cohoes for a very cool segment, through this old canal town, in the pitch black, with not a car on the road. We cycled right down the middle of main street, all the way to the Hudson River. From there, we turned south to head to the hotel.

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Now, for those of you who understand anything about terrain, which clearly we don't, rivers are actually at the LOW SPOT of the local terrain, because apparently water RUNS DOWNHILL. So, as soon as we turned around, we started what was to become a relentless 8 mile uphill climb, again in the pitch black, with minimal shoulders. On a positive note, it didn't become a 55mph highway until mile 5!

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We finally made the hotel, tired and cold but happy that we had a segment under our belts. Mark went to the nearby mobil gas station for his mandatory 12 pack of cold beer, and the rest of us shut down for the evening. Carl dreamed all night of how many ways he could beg off taking his pulls....

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"Low Bridge" Lumpy out

And a Happy Easter, from Satan Himself :-)

Well, just like vampires can't see themselves in a mirror, usually people can't see my horns. Apparently the Salatino children have invented some newfangled photographic technology that can capture the true image.

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"Oh man, now my secret is out" Lumpy out

April Freakin' Seventh

Scene out our front door this morning after last night snowstorm. In April. A week before I leave on a bike trip.

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:Where's that global warming when you need it" Lumpy out

I Can't Drive. FIFTY-FIVE

Today was our good friend Laraine's 55th birthday. In her honor, her husband Tom rented out a local theater (with marque and everything!), invited about 100+ friends, and ran Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, laraine's favorite movie.

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For any of you who have never seen the "uncut" movie, it's actually a bit different from the one you see on TV. In fact, also in honor of Laraine, Steve Martin uses the "F word" 55 times in one scene alone.

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Now, I'm not an expert with kids, but it seems to me that Soup Attendent Tom just MIGHT have known better than to encourage people to bring their young friends to the movie. Yup, 6 year olds walking out of the theater going "F*&$, F*&%, F*&%". He's SUCH a role model!

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"An F'n good time" Lumpy out

Rubber to the Road

Mark and Terese, pining for cider. But, alas, it's spring, and there's no cider to be found.

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Beautiful day out today, and Mark and I decided to go get a ride in out in the flatlands of the Parma farm country. As we're getting ready to head out, we get a call from Terese, who is just looking for a reason to "skip school" for the afternoon. So, bike in tow, she plans to meet us along our route and ride with us for a while.

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Now, I don't WANT to say anything about "girl directions" here, but we gave her ONE ROAD, and told her to HEAD NORTH...hours later we finally tracked her down, miles SOUTH of where we had planned to meet her. Even the birds know enough for fly north at this time of year.

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Anyhow, we had a lovely ride, until we got near the lakeshore, when it dropped, oh, 15 degrees down into the low 40's. Only my "minimal" body fat allowed me to survive this deep chill.

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"Not just an ass, but a compass" Lumpy out

Back Out West

TOP: Lumpy and Cliff doing the construction thing

2nd: Open cockpit race car at the Bondurant School of Driving

3rd: Rocky Mountain Oy...er, chicken nuggets. Yeah, that's it...chicken nuggets

BOTTOM: Dodgers, but without Manny

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I made a 2 week run out west for work, and was fortunate enough to be able to slot in some fun while I was out there. After visiting the Bradleys in Pasadena, I made a mad dash up the coast to San Luis Obispo for work, then all the way back to Palm Springs to get in some hiking and visit the Carlsons. Then, after a few days of R&R, I stopped back to Phoenix, picked up Kathy who had flown in, and hit another conference for a client of mine. The fun of this conference was that the evening event was a trip to the Bondurant school of racing. Big time fun, as we got to do a few "hot laps" in a Corvette ZR1 with a pro driver, topping 120 on the straights and, oh, 120 on the turns. My driver blew one of the first turns, so I asked him if this was his first time driving. Bad idea. He proceeds to BURY the 'vette through the course, and was up around 120 through the esses. I was pretty much crapping my pants. He slows to pull back into the pit area, turns to me, and say "Son, NEVER dish the driver". I was in tears laughing.

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Then, we got to drive a governed Corvette through a slalom course made of cones. The winner got the coveted "golden pylon" award. I proceeded to hammer the 'vette, and within a minute easily had the record for most cones destroyed in a single run. At one point is sounded like a machine gun going off under the car, so many cones were bouncing into the undercarriage. When I exited the car after my run, the timer came up to me and said "THAT was some piece of driving...not good driving, just driving. I ain't never seen anyone crush that many cones in one day, much less one run.

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I also snuck in a short horse ride while I was in Phoenix, then headed up to Flagstaff for some more work. After a couple of days of hanging in the hospital there doing an install, we dropped back to Flagstaff, got in some hiking and biking with Cliff, and sent Kathy packing for home. On our last bike ride, Cliff took us through the wonders of the barrio...nothing more interesting than two lilly white anglos, riding their titanium road bike, through the barrio at 5:00. Last time I let him navigate. To close out the week we grabbed a Dodgers cactus league game, but unfortunately Manny hadn't arrived back yet with the team, after just re-signing. Still, always fun watching the pro's in an intimate venue, and couldn't have been a nicer day.

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Val also needed some work done on her art studio, so I helped cliff install some cabinets. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I was born to do construction. Afte several hours of headlamps (wires everywhere in the walls, and no blueprint), 7 different size screws, pipe stabilizers, and many a beer, we finally got the cabinetry installed. I REALLY don't want to be there when Val finally puts supplies in it. LOOK OUT BELOW!!!

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"Made for the SouthWest" Lumpy out