Days 2,3, and 4: Elmsford to Poughkeepsie; to Hudson; to Amsterdam

The past few days have gone by so fast I had little time to post anything. Saturday morning we awoke at our Hampton in Elmsford, had the hotel breakfast and hit the road. It was a really nice day again, and we continued to travel orth through the really nice trails in Westchester county. There were a lot of people out riding, skating, walking their dogs, etc. as you woud expect on a Saturday in August. We traveled through into Duchess County, where they had equally nice trails. Theirs had a lot of abandoned rail lines running along the road, so I guess they saved funds by just leaving the old railroad there rather than remove them. It kind of shows you how resilient the rails were, as they havent been used since 1970, and except for all of the weeds and some trees growing up within them, they almost looked like they could be used with a little polish. We got a late lunch at a sports bar in Hopewell Junction, expecting to go a good ways after lunch. But the heat and lack of shade in the afternoon took the best from us. We arrived in Poughkeepsie with not much left in the tank. Our choice was to stay there or go on to a small town called New Paltz 10 miles away. We decided to stay, to save the miles on our legs. So we booked a room at the local Holiday Inn Express, which looked on the map to be fairly close. Google Maps, however, wasn't done messing with us and took us on a tour of poughkeepsie, almost 5 miles through town to the hotel. So we finally got in, cleaned up, and asked the very nice woman at the front desk about dinner spots. She said we could walk, and there were a few spots down the road, including Daves Hot Chicken, which Jerry said he would like to do. So we set out walking, and walking, and walking down a very busy highway/boulevard, looking for restaurants and finding car washes. We finally spotted Dave's, a mile and a quarter away, with a line of about 30-40 people outside waiting to get in. Ugh. We ended up walking back toward the hotel to a Wendy's we spotted earlier, where we both orderer Hot Chicken. So, wiped out we ended up riding another 5 miles and walking about 2.5 more. Long day.

The next day, we headed out toward Albany and the end of the Hudson Valley section of the Empire Trail. We had a pretty good morning, heading across the Hudson on Walking Bridge state park, which is a trestle bridge turned into a hiking/biking/walking bridge. We spent the morning on the west side of the river, stopping for coffee in Kingston, a kind of a hippie town not far from the river. We came back across a bridge farther north that was a long climb up and a bumpy ride back down. We traveled through the area, going past Bard College ( I had heard of it, but had not idea where) and had lunch in a nice Italian restaurant in Tivoli, which must attract the Bard students and parents. We were going through the map, bemoaning that we would likely need to just travel 15 miles to Hudson, rather than farther, because there were no hotels beyond there til Albany. thank goodness, as the afternoon proved to be hills, more hills, and bright sunshine and heat. We made it into Hudson, a total of 65 miles, and searched for a hotel in this very bougie little town near the Hudson (hence its name). We found a room at the Hudson Whaler, about a 12 room hotel on the main drag, nice room, but a cold shower (it heated up by the time Jerry showered), and went out for a very good pizza dinner. A nice town to stay in .

This morning we started off at a local coffee/pastry shop in Hudson and headed up toward albany and further.Being fresh and with the weather cooler in the morning, we made our way to Albany, about 40 miles, by lunch. Albany is the end of the Hudson Valley portion of the Empire Trail, and from there we will be taking the Erie Canal portion. The junction is at the spot where the canal used to meet the Hudson River. Now it is just a plaque, as it doesn't do it here anymore. So we had lunch nearby at a local beer spot, which had good food and air conditioning. This afternoon we headed out to the Erie portion, which actually started by going north of the city, before heading west. We ended up faced with the dilemma of stopping early, in Schenectady, or going on towards Amsterdam. After a relativey short day yesterday, we were in the mood to move on. Ironically, this afternoon we traveled from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, without leaving North America. The afternoon cooked along, sapping our strength, but with a lot of effort, and a stop at an Irish pub in Schenectady, we rode on toward Amsterdam We looked at an odd inn called the Amsterdam Castle, which was an armory but is now decorated like a castle (It looks like a brick castle). We tried to get a room there, but it was a bit too expensive, so we moved on, finding a Microtel on the edge of town. The day ended up at 89 miles, which toasted me as I've not ridden much this year. I took an immediate hot shower to wash the stink off of me, washed my clothes in the sink, which turned the sink water dark until 3 rinses later. Hung up the wet clothes and ordered Chinese delivery, and am now writing this post.

It's been a long couple of days, but once again I'm glad we are doing it. you meet the nicest people, and always start a conversation when they see you with bikes with large packs. We ran into two couples who were talking in the lobby of our Microtel. They both were heading across the country, starting in California where they live only 30 miles away from each other. One couple started on April 1st, and the other June 1st, and they met by chance here in Amsterdam NY and were talking about their trips. Isn't that wild? You never know who will show up when you hit the road.