"Before I sit down, I must warn you. I'm a Red Sox fan."

This morning at the Roosevelt Motel in Hyde Park I went to get breakfast before the group. The Cafe area was packed with the geriatric crowd that looked me over in my argyle socks and Yankee gear. When I grabbed a second bagel, I definitly got the stink eye from one or two of them. I sat down to enjoy my meal and soon enough an elderly woman sat is standing across the table from me and asks if she could join me. I said absolutly, and then she gave me the disclaimer that is the title. All because of what I was wearing. Later in the day as Timy and I struggled up a hill a Suburu pulled over and the driver said, "Hey the Yanks won today." Pretty awesome pick me up.
My bike has been holding out so far on the trip and I feel very lucky about that. At the same time I can not help but admire how well Billy is doing on this trip. I am not just talking about the physical aspect but dealing with the bike issues. It is remarkable, I tip my hat to him.
We attempted to stop in Pine Hills to eat at a place called The Mountain Cow. It was closed. Like just about everything else in the place. Apparntly nobody can eat on a Sunday in that place. We started to double back to check out a pizza place, and sure enough it was closed. As we stood in the parking lot trying to figure out what to do, some guy was smoking a cigarette looking at us. I thought, well why not just ask this guy? He said they serve food back there pointing towards a sign that said Backyard Garden. I assumed it was an actual garden or some sort of florist. Turns out it was..tada and outdoor bar. The place was filled with the types of characters you would hope in a bar on a Sunday in upstate New York.
One of these regulars was named Dan. Dan was about 350 and change wearing a cutoff shirt. He lived by the metal dump in town, and has taken several bikes from them to ride and "lose weight". Everytime that bike gets trashed (no pun intended) its back to the trash heap and a new bike. Dan was listening to the game on the radio and "predicting" what was going to happen to the Yanks as the game was on Yes with about a 3 second delay. Sal, Dan's friend and victim was very impressed with Dans ability and could not get over how Dan knew what pitch was coming. Oh, and Dan said that he was going to finish the Applachian trail by next May, he was going to walk 50 feet a day.
Dan offered some critical advice on the Route to help us out. He told us of "the downhills to end all downhills" was up ahead. He appreciated what we were doing and wished us luck. I love these types of encounters. It is all about doing things for the story.
We passed the hill that I past out on last year. We rode right past it. I wanted to take a picture on top but the opportunity did not present itself. We just kep going. I guess that is progress, we move on and do not look back.

The hostess of the Wake Robin Inn has been an absolute peach. She offered us a first free drink. I saw some really expensive Irish whiksey on that top shelf by some pricy scotch. It would have been like stealing from Mother Theresa, possible but you will get yours in the end. Billy and I opted for some Makers Mark and after those hills I feel great.

so cheers