("Cliff Notes" Version: A short, but productive day as we crossed our first State border into New York state! ).
Day 9.
The morning was chewed up by packing up our campground items and coping with a flat battery in the minivan. We also caught up on our online obligations at a Starbucks in Dalton. This led to a late start (~1 pm) back in downtown Pittsfield.
It was kind of unusual cycling through the busy, bustling streets, keeping a wary eye on traffic and signs/lights. A rare urban/suburban experience during our trip.
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| David enjoys the Pittsfield street-scape |
When we arrived in West Pittsfield, I pledged that we would stop at the first lunchtime stop we could see, as in previous days we had seen just how limited the retail options can be in western Mass. A Subway franchise was soon spotted, and became our home for the next 45 mins or so.
After lunch, we continued along Lebanon Mountain Rd (Route 20W), with a mixture of climbing and walking our bikes up the long mountain road. Aside from the spectacular vistas, we also enjoyed seeing the cluster of buildings known as the Hancock Shaker Village.
Right around 3 p.m., we experienced a couple of great events in quick succession. First we finally crested Lebanon Mountain, realizing that it is all 'downhill' from here! (meaning that tackling all the Berkshire peaks was behind us, and the few hills & peaks ahead of us would pale into insignificance compared with those already "under our belts").
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| Elizabeth celebrates topping the highest peak we'll see from now on! |
Just a few minutes later we were confronted by the huge, imposing sign that announced"Welcome to New York"...quite a thrill for the 2 of us who hope to see more of this type of signery in the weeks ahead.
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| Quite a feeling of achievement! |
From that point on there was a lot of downhill cruising, some of it so steep that we opted to pull over a couple of times to let our hot braking surfaces cool off a little. The vistas were wonderful and inspiring as we eased into our first non-MA town of New Lebanon. The dramatic highlight there was speaking with the caretaker of a large, well-established Healing Shrine next to an imposing Catholic Church. He was quite "taken" with our plan of heading to Chicago. We enjoyed hearing stories of the Healing Shrine, but (naturally) had no inkling that within the day we might have need of its "services".
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| "Lady of Lourdes" Healing Shrine in New Lebanon, NY |
As we rode westward through town, we were suddenly hit with a relatively flat tire on Elizabeth's rear wheel. I tried to "limp along" by pumping it up without tube replacement, but it was immediately obvious that was a "loser" idea. Since the time was after 4 pm, and Ava was in need of setup help at the new campground site anyway, we decided to call it a day.
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