DAILY DOINGS: I'm sure if you've been following my website for some time, you've heard me say that anyone can ride across country in sunshine and tailwinds.  Every ride has a "badge of courage" day somewhere along the route...it can be terrain, it can be winds, or heat.  Most of the badge days are due to weather...ours was today.  We woke up to overcast skies and a forecast for heavy rain and possible thunderstorm pretty much off and on all day.  It held off until we got on the road but we weren't too far along when the skies opened with a vengeance.  At one point, we had to detour off the main highway a couple blocks in Amsterdam because the highway was underwater.  Barb sat by and directed riders off to avoid them becoming drift wood in the Mohawk River.  But as most days in the summer, we expected it to clear up at some point during the day.  Although it did calm down around 10:00 to 1:00, it fired back up before the back riders got to the motel.  And when I said it fired up, I mean it was pouring.  When Karen and I got to the motel, we didn't even want to get out of the van...just sit there and watch things float down the street seemed a better option.

I was scheduled to ride today, but as with any sketchy weather day, I needed to keep an eye on what was going on so I stayed in the van most of the day.  Early during the heavy rain, a couple riders decided it wasn't in their best interest to keep riding so they got in the van.  That proved to be one of the major reasons for me to be in the van as I'm the only one who puts bikes on the top...even when it was raining so hard I couldn't see the ground while I was up there.  Finally, after the first SAG, the skies seemed to quit crying and the riders were able to ride in relative comfort...they were already wet, but being able to see and be seen was much better for a couple hours in the middle of the day.

Our route today was also a challenge.  We rode on highway 5 for about 50 miles where we picked up a major bikeway/bike path that circumvented Schenectady NY.  The major problem with bike paths are they are hard to support as most of the time the riders are out of sight and inaccessible to the van.  Karen and I spent the afternoon bouncing around trying to catch everyone as they popped in and out of sight near the highway.  At one point late in the day, we were sitting where the bike path crosses a street...when all of a sudden, we saw Johnny and Tim coming at us from down the street instead of from the bike path.  "What are you guys doing there?" I asked them.  "There's an AB arrow that turned us off the bike path!"  "What?" I said.  After they went on their way, I got out of the van and went to investigate and fix any problems for the remaining riders.  What I found was a 2 year old arrow that Barb painted the first year we found this path.  At that time we were staying in Albany and had to get off at that point.  Now the arrows are a bit faded and the one we painted the year after directing them to not get off the path was also visible but faded a bit more than the two year old ones.  Remember when I couldn't get anyone to notice fresh, bright white arrows...now I can't get them to not follow old faded ones...geeze.  We've definitely turned a corner on that subject.

Because of our wide spread (some riders had stopped for a storm while others were able to press on or were ahead of the worst) Karen and I had to bounce forward and set up the second SAG until Barb got there with the Green Van.  While there, I got on my bike and rode backwards to take a couple photos and to check to see if everyone was doing OK on the path.  At one point, there is a very steep hill on the bike path where I told them I wanted to take photos of them with their tongue hanging out.  I got there and in a short while the Clydesdales came lumbering up the hill.  I took a quick photo and ran back up the hill to get a shot of them coming around the top.  I was wearing rain gear (something I rarely do) with a hood over my helmet and when they saw me running to the top of the hill ahead of them, they thought it strange that some weirdo was running away from them.  When they got to the top, they saw my bike laying near the path and thought, where did that guy get Mike's bike?  They rode right past me and still thought I was someone stalking them on a pilfered bike.  They didn't recognize me until I spoke to them at the top of the hill.

In spite of the foul weather today, we came through basically unscathed.  We did have a couple fall, one on a rail road track and one on the bike path going around a barrier.  Why they put the barriers at every intersection is beyond me.  If they did that on the interstate, no one would drive on them.  Anyway, we survived a tough day.  The riders have my admiration for their grit and determination during a less than optimum day.  Nothing will stand in their way of getting to the beach on Tuesday...we press on and tackle the hills tomorrow.  After today, I think they will be ready for some climbing.  Check in and see us finish another tough day.  M

PS:  To Bernie and Mike from the Western Leg of the ride.  Thanks to your dad and niece for bringing goodies for the SAG...we miss you guys.

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