A baseball for my grandsons

Seth and david, can you hit this one?

Bicycle memorabilia

I have been collecting bicycle related photos and have the time now to display some of them.

Day 27-Waiting for the UPS mail

Day 27 Friday, June 4, 2010 Distance 14.01 Time 59 min. Total so far 1934.56 km. Today, we had to wait all morning to see if Dave's rim will arrive by UPS. It's almost 1 pm with no results yet. We have tidied our room a little, watched a movie, gone over maps, written emails and talked to Sarah and Tryne on Skype. The weather is good and I am itching to get back on the roads after a good rest. Finally, Chenango Point Cycles called and away we went. Matt worked on Dave's wheel and had a good system for spoking it. While they worked, I rode to the nearest post office to mail a parcel. It was a huge building and the lineup was about 20 long. Even the bicycle store had more workers than the two here and the one that I finally got said it was his first day there. In the line I got to talking to Michael whose son used to tour. I was telling him that I was worried about my bicycle even though it was locked outside. When I finished mailing my parcel, I found him outside watching over Silver. We took a photo and he wished me a good trip. Back at the store,they were almost done and I was talking about Silver never having a chain replacement so they hoisted her up to have a look. Apparently her chain is the most stretched Josh, Jeff and Matt have ever seen which is why I have had some slipping with the biggest chain ring. However it is better at this point to change both front and back ring systems as well as the chain. They did not have all the parts in stock so back at the motel we called ahead to a store in Schenectady with no luck and then to Rick's Bicycle shop in Glen Falls which will have the parts and will be about 3-5 days ride from here weather permitting as there is lots of rain in the forecast.

Day 26-Rest day-New shoes-Bulged rim

Day 26 Thursday, June 3, 2010 Distance 12.03 km. Time 51 min. Total so far 1920.55 km. After 11 days of riding, we have decided to have a rest day today and see if we can get Dave a new pair of cycling shoes. We slept in, had the continental breakfast and later called the bicycle stores. We rode to Chenango Point Cycles crossing the Susquehanna River again and they had some Specialized shoes which Dave has been wearing for years. We then headed to a Weis grocery store near there and Dave could feel a problem with his back tire. As we passed by the bike store again, we decided to have it checked and they found a bulge in the rim and the guy said the tire would have blown off soon. We're not sure if it goes back to the day when the spokes broke. Well, now we might be stuck here for a while. As they were busy ordering a new rim to hopefully arrive tomorrow, I was outside watching Silver and Blackie and met Ife, a young fellow who has a racing bicycle but went in asking about touring. When he stepped outside, he saw our bicycles all loaded up. Ife is a youth pastor who came to Long Island from Nigeria with his parents when he was 10 years old. He just finished school here. He said that if we were stuck here for a while, he could accommodate us at the church. I took his number and told him about our blog and about the website, crazyguyonabike.com that I enjoy reading. We reduced pressure in the tire, saw some friendly dinosaurs and safely returned to the motel. We talked to Sarah, Chris and Tryne and I called our neighbor, Boyd who is watching the house and later we talked to Matthew, Melissa, Seth and Amara on Skype for the first time.

Day 25- Goodbye Pennsylvania-Hello New York

Day 25 Wednesday June 2,2010 Distance 82.53 km. Time 4 hrs. 59 min. Total so far 1908.52 km. After listening to the trucks, buses and more trucks (gas trucks, cattle trucks for the meat processing plant in Wyalusing and dump trucks for the quarry) we were a little apprehensive about finishing off the ten miles on this road. We waited for the fog to lift before hitting the road. I'm sure we were very unpopular with the truck drivers as there was not much edge and what there was, was in very poor condition and dangerous sometimes with big holes and cracks. Not only that but the road went up and down as it curved all over. After passing through Fairfield and Montrose we were very happy to reach Hwy 11 and cross into New York. Then we had reasonably flat roads for a while with really nice edges and we zoomed along. We are going toward Binghamton to find a bicycle store to purchase some spokes for Dave. We had the Susquehanna River going alongside the road. We found Aeros Cyclery and Joan had some spokes almost the correct length. She told us that in 2002 her store was closed for over a year because the Susquehanna river had flooded that June. She said that the Eureka Tent factory across the street spent a small fortune after that to make a system around the building to prevent further flooding. Dave is in a quandry now as to which route to take to Maine where Cheryl lives -at first he was thinking of continuing east between the Adirondacks and Catskills and then over but now we have been talking to people that say if we take Hwy 11 north and go above the Adirondacks we will see less hills. We really want to save our legs for Canada. We were going to keep on Hwy 7 and came to a place where bicycles are prohibited on it so Lou from Dick's garage gave us directions to the motels. I didn't complain when we turned in to the Super 8 but I did complain when the person behind the counter told us the grocery store was 1 mile up the road and it was really more like 3! Sarah is really good at catching us on the internet and we talked to her and baby Tryne on SKYPE. It is still very cold in Alberta. In fact, on the weekend they had a rowing regatta in Edmonton and they all had to turn back to Calgary due to the snowy roads. I think we'll keep this heat instead!

Day 24-Shelters from Thunderstorms

Day 24 Tuesday June 1, 2010 Distance 52.59 km. Time 3 hrs. 20 min. Total so far 1625.99 km. Elevation climb today 6210 ft. It was overcast this morning and by the time we reached the Wysox grocery store, it was raining. It was in a beautiful mall with a big smokey factory that makes fiberboard right behind it. Yuck! We talked to Robert who was at the mall doing his daily walking. He has a brother, Charles, who is 80 and competes for the USA in the Senior Olympics. His bicycle is titanium and has those fancy aerodynamic wheels without spokes. We debated heading back to the park shelter but the rain let up so we decided to push on. The only problem with that is that the bicycles and our bodies get pretty dirty from passing vehicles. Silver doesn't like getting dirty and made weird sounds during the day. We stopped at a few picturesque lookouts but because of the wet, hazy, foggy conditions the photos don't show how beautiful it really was .There was a great downhill run into Wyalusing where we had lunch and I dried out my rainwear. Shortly after, we left Hwy 6 on which we have gone almost 300 miles and turned north to Hwy 706. At Camptown, the sky was so dark that I told Dave I wouldn't go farther. The only shelter was to go back a little to the elementary school. The caretaker wasn't going to let us stay but just as he said it, there was lightning, thunder and a downpour. I said we were going to stay so we parked the bicycles under the awning by the front door and Larry invited us in after talking to the principal. Larry said all the trucks we have seen are for gas. He sold out use of his land way too early as now folks are getting 1000 of dollars per acre instead of the 50 dollars he settled for. He also said the 4 elementary schools will soon be amalgamated into one big school. When the rain let up, we were off again and made it as far as Rush when it was black again. We spotted a ball diamond awning filled with stacked picnic tables and headed there just in time to stay dry again. It was almost 3 pm. so we decided to stay there for the night. We even were able to get internet through someone and I managed to finish a blog.

Day 23-Teeter-Totter on Memorial Day

Day 23 Monday May 31, 2010 Distance 63.42 km. Time 3 hrs. 48 min. Total so far 1573.40 km. Elevation climb today 7839 ft. As we were leaving the motel, we had a talk with two motorcyclists from Ontario. I noticed one item that they pack that we don't--Bike polish. They were busy making their machines beautiful. They also like it that they don't have to wear helmets here. We left the caterpillars that had stolen a ride on Dave's bicycle yesterday behind in the garbage. Someone told us that the purple bags strung from the trees here snd there are to catch the millions of flies that are after the caterpillars. All I know is that I have to keep my mouth shut when going downhill fast. My fastest is 59 km on a downhill and I can feel the bugs crashing into my body. Today was like being on a teeter -totter all day as we were going up and down, up and down and up and down! It was extremely hot -the news said this was the hottest spot in the nation. I put on my Trek head band. Dave had to stop partway up one hill because he couldn't see anymore for the sweat. We wanted a short day because the highway would get busy with people returning home from the holiday weekend and may be under the influence. In the morning, we met bubbly and young Shannon and Brandy and enjoyed their enthusiasm for us. We reached Towanda at about 2:30 and stopped at a gas station and I guzzled down a whole cold drink. As we looked for the park, I found a wallet on the road filled with cards and money (I didn't count how much). It belonged to James N who lived in that town on Hillcrest St. We weren't going down and up the hill so I called from the grocery store and had to leave a message. We then went to the police station and tried to hand it in. No one was there but we talked to a lady on the red phone and told her the police could find us at the park. As we were biking into the park a young officer stopped and we handed over the wallet and I gave our name and blog site. It's a bummer that we didn't get a photo because Dave's hands were busy holding my bike. We set up under the canopy and later in the evening met Stacey and Chris and their black lab. Stacey is a high school English teacher and Chris is a mechanic who has lost all kinds of business after Obama announced his new incentives to pay for old cars if you buy a new one. They invited us to their place in New York if we take Hwy 20 but we will stay on Hwy 6 tomorrow for a while.