Granny, There've Been Glaciers Here

July 21, 2015 - Schenectady NY to Pittsfield, MA
65 miles

I knew this day was coming - had better than a week on the Erie flats to prepare.  Today, I was meeting Granny, and she did not disappoint.

For those dear readers not fully attuned to the lingo of biking, we are talking the smallest forward chain-ring in combination with the largest rear cog - the granny gear, the combination that propels, if the legs are duly prepared, a rider and his gear up a hill.  Typically a steep hill, maybe even a long steep hill.  Now I like my granny, but I don't see her much.  She may be disappointed, but she is a reserve granny, the one you know will be there when you need her, with tea and crumpets and anything else that will help.  She speaks to you every stroke of the pedal, And hopefully the visit is long enough, for granny can get a bit disappointed when you abandon her, dismount, and walk uphill.

I did not disappoint granny today, but we did have a pleasant visit.

Bike Tourists ahead - Mohawk River ramble

I left the wonderful, historic stockade neighborhood and headed north out of Schenectady to follow the path along the Mohawk River where it meets the Hudson River at Cohoes (at quite a waterfall).  A beautiful morning, I was pedaling along and noticed two bike tourists ahead of me.  It is always of interest to run across bikers when traveling in the same direction - permits a possible conversation for a mile or two.  Rarely do folks stop to chat going in the opposite direction - its a momentum thing.  This was, however, a most unusual encounter.

Joost and Rienke

Permit me to introduce you to Joost and Rieneke van der Plicht.  Following the usual questions of "where are you headed" and "where have you come from/started", it was the normal followup question "where are you from" that drew my interest.  "Eastern Holland."  I proceeded to mention my maternal grandmother's origin is also eastern Holland, a place called Landfort near Gendringen in the German border region.  Landfort is a 2,000 acre estate, a former castle, that had been in the family for many generations until it fell into disrepair and was purchased by the State and has since been restored to its former glory by a long term tenant land lease.  Joost not only knew of the place, but also knew the author of a book (in Dutch) on Landfort, and participates in a regional historical society. Needless to say, this enabled long conversations about ancestry until Cohoes, when after coffee, we parted as they were staying in Troy a few days on their nine-week circle tour before returning to Boston.  When I return to Holland, I will have a contact to visit the estate again, and look forward to that opportunity.

Albany on Hudson

 But it is always a marvel that you run into people at a precise moment when it seems least likely, and find a common connection.  Had I not stayed in the Stockcade neighborhood and did my century ride yesterday, I would have missed this encounter.  Had I left earlier than my 8:45 AM departure, or later even, I might have missed it.  This encounter made me smile well into the hills.

Which after a lunch in downtown Albany, I encountered east from the Hudson and almost immediately started climbing a long rise to the crest of the Berkshires between New York and Massachusetts, winding through country roads.  I even was the one person audience for a group of bluegrass pickers practicing on the front porch of a house.  I stopped, listened, applauded, and was immediately entreated to a piece of lemon cake and conversation.  Only on a bike.

Pickers of  East Shodack, NY

Western Massachusetts and the Berkshires are a lovely landscape, I look forward to finishing my trip understanding them better - but hopefully through valleys - though I should not want to disappoint granny!

From whence I have come, down in the valley