10/11/17
Amsterdam, NY > Lee, MA
Miles Ridden – 87.3
Mileage to date – 4,112.7
How do you follow-up a triple double (3rd occurrence of 2 flat tires in a day)? Well if you are John then you ride over a nail and get your 13th flat tire on the same day that you enter the 13th state of the tour! I think the only way it could have been more been interesting is if he waited until tomorrow Friday the 13th to do all this.
John made it to his home in Lee, MA yesterday. I am sure it was nice to sleep in his own bed for the 1st time in over 7 weeks. The plan is to take the next 2 days to ride to Boston and finish the tour tomorrow (Friday).
As usual John is in good spirits. His account of the day –
“I was moving quickly from Amsterdam to Schenectady when a roofing nail punctured my rear tire. Flat number 13 took me a while to replace. My bike is now equipped with Schwalbe Marathon tires, considered to be an excellent touring tire due to their thick rubber casing. They have a wire bead and can be very difficult to install on a wheel rim. I struggled for some time before I was able to remount the tire on the wheel. With the tire back together, I moved pretty well thru Schenectady and then Albany. Once I crossed the Hudson River, the hills started pretty quickly. The ride from Nassau to New Lebanon seemed to take forever. I took route 22 from NY near the Massachusetts border and got on route 102 in to West Stockbridge. When I crossed the MA state line I took a photo of the sign but I felt nothing. I moved forward and when I entered West Stockbridge the reality finally hit me, these roads are in fact all connected. I’m back to where I started, The Berkshires. I pedaled up Lenox Branch Road as I have countless times before and it felt pretty surreal. I moved at an even pace as I can no longer attack hills, they’re now nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Riding down Lenox Mountain road to Tanglewood was a highlight of the trip. The leaves have turned and the it was a very comfortable day and the woods smelled like the Berkshires in autumn. I arrived at Tanglewood visited with co-workers and friends and tried to fill them in on some of the things I’ve being doing over the last 50 days. It’s pretty great to be home.”
