Hello from Rochester, NY!

So by now you all have heard the bad news about our (temporary) separation while Katie rests up and I do the opposite of resting up – keep pedaling!

The last three days I have been riding with two awesome young women (students at MIT) we happened to meet while couchsurfing in Albany (we were both set to stay with the same family on Saturday night – what a great coincidence!). They were kind enough to let me join them for three lovely days of flat riding through upstate New York, passing through Schenectady, Utica, and Syracuse, among other towns.

A few thoughts so far:

1. Roadkill: there is a LOT of it! Squirrels, possums, raccoons, etc. They are sometimes gory, sometimes covered in flies, and very occasionally flat as a pancake. Mostly they still look almost entirely alive, ready to spring up off the road and scare a passing cyclist.

2. Food: I had my first diner meal of the trip yesterday at Dave’s diner in Schuyler, New York. They had a bunch of memorabilia all over the walls, including a sign proclaiming: Hippies – use the back entrance (no exceptions). I couldn’t quite tell if this was meant to be ironic or not (for FORMAC students: they also had an old UNEEDA Biscuit advertisement posted, and later that day I saw a huge side of the building billboard ad in Syracuse for it!).

3. The kindness of strangers continues to astonish and amaze – from the Memorial Day partiers who offered us beer just before a one-mile long climb to the driver who stopped us today to show us a detour that saved us miles. Mike and Missy of Little Falls, NY, stand out by far for offering us their cabin to sleep in when we knocked on their door to ask about camping near their property. They were in the middle of an impromptu Memorial Day weekend family reunion and they promptly invited us in for dinner.

That’s all for now – it’s past my bedtime (early, I know…). Tomorrow is my first day riding alone, which is both very scary and very exciting. I will be incredibly careful to keep both my physical and mental health intact over the next few days as Katie does the same!

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ROUTE PLANNING

This trip is starting to feel more and more real – in the last four days we have been to two bike shops, two outdoor stores, three optometrists, one hardware store, and three ice cream shops. We have bought (almost) everything we need to start our trip, and we have officially planned the first TEN DAYS of our route (from Boston to Buffalo via NIAGARA FALLS), complete with couch surfing and camping plans.

This is our most exciting purchase, which was made with the assistance of two adorable slash really awkward EMS employees who may or may not have given us an unauthorized $25 discount on an $80 product for no reason as far as we could see. Hopefully this trend of free stuff will continue.

We are so excited to make dinner with it tomorrow in Katie’s backyard. We might even sleep in the tent. We also had to buy an accompanying massive tin of white gas to fuel it, which for some reason made us both oddly giddy (not the fumes even).

In other news, due to Katie’s inability to navigate the streets of her hometown (3+ hours spent driving in circles and counting…), we have determined that Rhiannon will navigate the trip (this is also because of her totally SWEET handlebar bag with a clear plastic cover perfect for holding maps). Today also saw that first rush of mechanical glee, as we attached a rearview mirror and an odometer to Rhiannon’s bike, which involved the use of SEVERAL tools.

Tomorrow we will saddle up both bikes for the first time and hopefully attempt to wobble down Katie’s street at 2 mph.

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