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This was not just a leisurely day. This was a Lazy Day. This was a screw-around day. I've noticed this similarity between Jim and Julie: both will screw around all day, or haul ass, and you never know which one you're going to get when you ride with them. Sometimes both in the same ride. I had to change my rear tire this morning, so Andy and I didn't get on the road until 8:00. We were sure we wouldn't see anyone, but we ran into Julie/Sandy/Michael at Fort Klock, a revolutionary-era fortified farmhouse. At the sag stop, we ran into Jim and John, and we ended up staying there for an hour. Four miles down the road, we ran into a revolutionary-era re-enactment site at Old Fort Johnson, and spent two hours there. Among other things, this site boasts the oldest privy (outhouse) north of the Mason-Dixon Line. "George Washington sat here." According to the tourist brochure (yes, there is a brochure for the privy), "It is a very high style structure with a French mansard-style roof and interior paneling that matches paneling inside the Fort. Construction is believed to be around 1749. A 1770 renovation was undertaken by John Johnson to welcome his new bride, Polly Watts of New York City, and this is still how the privy appears today." The brochure goes on to say that, according to Rich Strunk of Windy Hill Restorations, "It is probably one of the top five outhouses in America." Heady stuff... As a tangent, I always set out in the morning knowing that I'm going to get enought pictures for the web site, but never knowing what they're going to be. "Blessed are the flexible, for they will never get bent out of shape." After that (modulo some wandering around downtown Schenectady), Jim moved into hauling-ass mode, and we were cruising for ice cream. We finally found it a quarter mile from the hotel, and I got to introduce Jim (from Oregon), John (from the Netherlands), and Andy (from England) to Friendly's, a local chain of ice cream restaurants.
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I'm going off the route tomorrow, to visit my parents in Northampton,
MA (waypoint 50A on the weekly map). I'm not planning to bring the
laptop with me, so this is the last update until after the trip ends.
(Check back on Wednesday 7/30.)