Singing birds woke us up at 5:20 this morning and when we got out of our tent, we found our long distance touring buddy Marianne had already packed up and gone making nary a sound. We saw later on her Strava account she stopped in and toured the Eleanor Roosevelt museum and put in more miles than we did.😂
Surprisingly just outside of Gardiner, NY the trail turned to single track and it unexpectedly began raining.
And then it started thunderstorming so we ducked into Kacey’s for some breaky burritos, wifi and a new game plan for the day.
We had a 70 miler planned with 10 miles already in. As I was trying to decide what kind of peppers were in the burrito so I could replicate the recipe at home Tom looked up after checking his phone and said, “You know, Goshen is actually only 20 miles away.” I immediately stopped thinking about the recipe and how much time riding in the rain that shortcut would save us. Using Google bike routes and Ride With GPS he’d found a 40 mile shortcut (that’s right a 40 mile shortcut) on semi bike-friendly roads.
Sometimes ya change the game plan. I think they call it a pivot. 😂
So bad news is we missed some of the Hudson Valley scenery we were looking forward to seeing. Good news is we finished early at our intended destination, got laundry done for the first time in a week and ate a couple of Angus hamburgers that were some of the best we’ve ever tasted.
When we were walking into town we kept noticing the haze. Surely this wasn’t pollution from NYC. It reminded Tom of when we cycled through the forest fires out in Montana when riding the Great Divide. It’s a peculiar blanket over the sun. Sure enough our friend Dan enlightened us… forest fires in Canada are throwing smoke our way.
More good news is without camping options the next few days, we won’t be exposed to poor air quality at night as we cycle through NYC, Philly and the Delmarva Peninsula during the day.
Seems like there is always some good news if ya look for it! Hope your day is full of good news. 😊
Chick on the image below to view more pics and vids:
Keep Calm and Pedal On 
The story of Maryann yesterday is a big part of why I travel and blog. So many amazing inspirational people out there that the world needs to know about. She boosted this old man as you two do. I’m back in the the van this week at Turkey Run hiking all the trails to prepare for another trip down to the Colorado this fall at GCNP. We are even seeing a little smoke here in Indy too. Prayers and tail winds.
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Ahhhh good thinking going over to Turkey Run to train with their shaded trails that provide lots of ups and downs – scenery too!
And I agree… there are SO many inspirational people to learn from!
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Love your commitment to God, each other, and the plan!
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Thank you Victoria. Thinking of you today. 🙏🏻
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Nothing wrong with cutting miles in the rain. Burgers sound wonderful. Did I miss a post that describes your route? Delmarva peninsula? Almost our backyard.
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Yes I think yesterday I put the link in the post. It’s also located under “Pages” in the right margin where all of our bike rides are listed. It’s called the Northeast Scramble | June 2023 😉
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