The following quote from the film version of A River Runs Through It (not in the novella) is displayed at the base of the Michael Jordan statue at Chicago’s United Center.

“At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection. He stood before us, suspended above the earth, free from all its laws like a work of art, and I knew, just as surely and clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.” 

Hello everyone,

That quote could easily personify the whole 7 weeks of this ride, but I’d say this particular day it was even more appropriate. Overnight storms blew out the heat and humidity and we had a great tail wind for most of the day. We rode fast most of the day but were in no great hurry to get to our hotel so we enjoyed many stops along the way to savor the beautiful vistas, the local folks and our comrades. It is a tribute to the group’s continued improvement that many echoed that ” we only had 80 miles to ride” as if that was an insignificant number of miles.

We started out in a large group but it quickly splintered due to a couple of flats and I again found myself riding with Howard and Lou. About 20 miles into the ride we stopped for a coffee and English Muffin. I think it was called Big Bear or Great Bear but we did have quite a bit of interaction with many of the people in the restaurant. it is peculiar to small towns but everyone is friendly when you walk in and there are no strangers. While we were there Sabine showed up and we stayed a bit longer so that we could all ride together.

Somewhere in the town of Fonda we stopped again for snacks and restroom breaks and I had a large custard donut. So we lingered some more. Lou received a text from Tracy wondering what happened. I think the SAG was getting ready to close up and we still were not accounted for. They keep track of the riders=. Mac also popped into the diner we had coffee at just to check on us. So we had not made it to the SAG and we already had stopped twice.

We didn’t stay long at the SAG and Sabine decided to ride on her own. We rode most of the rest of the route without too many long stops and the route took us through Schenectady so we were dealing with more traffic and roads that left something to be desired from a cycling perspective.  We stopped for lunch near the hotel and many of the other riders were already there. A couple of folks in the diner wanted to take our pictures and so naturally we complied.

At route rap at the hotel, we had the honor of an alumni rider from 2013, Brick Susko join us for dinner. His blog of 2013 was legendary for the 2014 riders and I actually met him in 2014 when we rode through this area. Brick rode with us that year but due to some mechanical issues he was unable to ride this year, but came out to great the riders. It was a special treat to see him. We are friends on FB and I love following his other adventures and he told me he is thinking of riding from Paris to Moscow next year with Michale and Michelle who I rode with in 2014. Herm?

We are down to our last 2 days of riding. Thursday will be the last full day of our ride and the last SAG. Tonight was the last team meal together as we are on our own tomorrow. Richard has not been able to ride but we have taken turns carrying his cycling glove so that a part of him is on the ride. I think I get to carry it on Thursday for part of the day. It will bean honor because he has been a trooper with his broken collar bone, but he pitches in to help at the SAGs and on the road.

Days Like This
By Van Morrison
When it’s not always raining there’ll be days like this
When there’s no one complaining there’ll be days like this
When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch
Well my mama told me there’ll be days like this
When you don’t need to worry there’ll be days like this
When no one’s in a hurry there’ll be days like this
When you don’t get betrayed by that old Judas kiss
Oh my mama told me there’ll be days like this

Thanks for reading!

~Chuck