Friends

Sometimes it's hard to come back from a vacation high. It has been good to snuggle the cats, sleep in a soft bed, take a shower, and be reunited with my remaining pairs of bike shorts.

But boy, this one twee houseboat just speaks of a very different sort of life:







It was definitely a relief to have a break from the news. A good reminder that there are drawbacks to being glued to it all.

On the other hand, the horseshoe crab's tank needed attention, the clownfish were hungry, the ants needed watering and a temperature boost (I'd turned the heater down while away), and the windowsill plants were all thirsty.

And there's a lot of boathouse and rowing stuff on the horizon.

I am so much more motivated now to make sure we get out on some silly Petrichor adventures, and sooner rather than later!

I have to wonder whether there's a way to set up Petrichor with a boat tent. And a proper galley box. Hmmm....

I should probably finish varnishing first.

Then there's the moment when suddenly, you're back on familiar roads/paths. I don't ride the section of the Erie Canal Trail that's north/west of here all that often, in part because the direct route is only half as long, but I've been out there occasionally.

Today's locks were particularly cool. In the morning, Lock 10 started singing to us. I got a couple of recordings of it that I'll hopefully get around to posting soon. Later on, I noticed the Lock 7 sign just in the nick of time to get us to pull over and visit. I've been to Lock 7 previously, but this time we got to watch two sailboats and a motorboat lock through. What was most amazing was watching the water spew out when they discharged the lock to get the sailboats in. I also recorded video of that bit.

And then, home along the Hudson River, over the Skyway bridge, and back to the kitties and the house!

I have a lot of catch-up stuff to attend to tomorrow, sigh. But I'll ride the vacation high just a little bit longer, now.

First, a new sea shanty verse:

Where are me shorts
Me bikin bikin shorts
All gone for beer and tobacco
For the chamois’ all wore out
And the legs are knocked about
And the tail is looking out for better weather…

So last night I hung up a few articles in the women’s bathroom at the campground in the futile hope things would maybe dry out just a little, please? When I got up to pee at 1 am, my towel, socks, and sports bra were all still there…but two of my pairs of bike shorts were gone.

In the morning, I waved goodbye to Je, who headed up the trail for breakfast, and had a modest camp breakfast of my own, of coffee, apricots, a granola bar, and a chocolate hazelnut biscotti. I was thinking to wait around for as long as I could just in case someone had good intentions when nipping my shorts. Even fit in a short hike on the Round Lake Overlook trail. But alas, nothing.

So eventually I left a note where my shorts had been, plus a longer note at the park office, then set forth.

This was a long riding day altogether, 83.7 miles, and the morning miles I mostly rode hard in order to have time to enjoy brunch and catch up with an old friend from Tufts in Rome (rowing teammate; so great to catch up!!). Then some hard miles after brunch to try and catch S expediently at the train station in Utica (success! Thanks in large part to Je). Then we decided to ride past Utica, closer to Herkimer, to be nearer to where Jo and L are staying.

So I’m kinda tired now. But on the plus side, we should have more reasonable days tomorrow and the next day. And there should be some particularly cool sights to check out tomorrow.

Plus today was dry.

So, onward.

Today some of the finest pleasures of bike touring have been experienced, along with some of the most exquisite minor annoyances.

We have had lots of sections of riding through “green tunnels,” with dappled light in woods full of pink and purple wildflowers of a type I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure they’re introduced.

We went on a short side quest to check out the remains of the Richmond Aqueduct, but the mosquitoes there were so thick we only stayed long enough for a few photos before fleeing. If I had been in a mosquito suit I would have been temped to stay far longer.

The skies turned sunny in the afternoon and we had screaming tailwinds for several sections of the trail that were on-road. That now means my legs are sunburned, argh. But it also meant fun episodes of zooming along, reminding me of brevets ridden out here.

My face and arms are fine, though, thanks to good coverage. I might just wear long leggings all day tomorrow to give my poor leg skin a break.

Tonight’s camping is unfortunately not nearly as cool as the last couple of nights. Our only options were RV parks, so we’re in one at a site on the edge across from a group holding a loud, drunken conversation (as one rightly does in this sort of place). The real problem is that we’re towards the bottom of a slope, the ground is saturated, and it’s raining again. Getting wet is one thing; I’m going to have to be really careful to avoid getting muddy.

So, all just about right for a bicycle touring expedition!

At least the rain is dampening the general noise level of the campground, plus any smoke from campfires, plus the mosquito flocks!

Too many things happened and I am 1.5 beers in, in Lockport, NY

Number of bike shops visited: 2
Maid in the Mist again, still hilarious and I cackled when people screamed when they got wet
Lockport Flight of Five and wait until you see photos of where we get to camp tonight!!!!
Mississippi Mud for ice cream, 2 giant scoops
So many old bridges
Idk what else.

Don't most good adventures start with a one-way ticket?



I'll be bike touring with a couple of friends for the next 8-9 days, probably updating to Flickr primarily, then here, secondarily.

One of our favorite referees called the regatta, "Henley on the Erie [Canal]" because the section of canal the races happen on is only barely wide enough for 2 racing lanes plus a narrow warmup lane. The sculling races are run using a head race format where boats start individually and race the clock, but sweep boats compete against each other in the Henley head-to-head format.

It's a far less competitive regatta than Henley, but really, that's great for us.

I had 3 races. My priority race was the Mixed 2x with J; we've been able to train and race together for a bit over 3 years at this point, so this is a boat where we can look at our prior progress and push ourselves to improve over the past. All told, we had a pretty fantastic race. A couple of minor hiccups but overall we were able to squeak out a win! The top 5 boats in the event all had finish times within 5 seconds of each other, so it was a tight competitive field. These are all things that make for great racing.

Prior to the Mixed 2x, I went down the course in my single. It was the very first time I've been in a single this spring, but immediately after hopping into Wild Blue Yonder I had the feeling of, "Oh yeah, hello my dear boat!" And I was able to maintain a pace for the race I was happy with. Collectively that netted me a mid-pack finish (I think 5 out of 10?), which is pretty much the best I think I can ever hope for in the single. I care much more about having a great race, and I did, so that was also satisfactory. And I was really glad to have the chance to preview/steer the course before the Mixed 2x race, just to remember what it's like since it's a narrow channel.

After that, we had a race in the Men's 4x. For a little bit of context, we originally had an overall total of 8 Masters rowers sign up to go to the regatta. But that included 5 women and 3 men. There are a lot of logistics to figure out with the number of athletes, the boats available, and the regatta schedule, so collectively I just told the coaches in charge that I would be more than happy to join the Men's 4x if that helped with the numbers and facilitated other races.

And it was a good decision. We also had a pretty great race, and netted a third place finish.

But more than that...sometime after that race at the Head of the Schuylkill where I raced in a "men's quad", it occurred to me to shop for a set of Stylish Mustaches. It looks like Accoutrements for Fun no longer makes the original sets, but I did get a couple of hipster mustaches from them, and found a set of the Stylish Mustaches plus another set of the Stylish Mustaches for Women on ebay (I think it was).

Anyway, all those mustaches were hanging out in my costume box, just waiting for the right occasion, and this was almost certainly the right occasion.

But even better than that...our youth team also had a similar dilemma with the overall number of athletes competing and the team's gender and skill balance. So we also had a Boys 4x compete with two girls in it. So I pulled out the mustache collection to offer a couple to them, and all of our youth rowers were super thrilled. What was even more fun is that their boat actually won their event, so we all got a bunch of photos of our Boys 4x sporting their medals and their mustaches.

(oh, and I should also note, in our Masters Men's 4x race there were at least one and maybe 2 other boats that also had women in them, but I noticed none of the other boats were as well-prepared with their fake mustaches as we were, haha).

Overall, I tend to find 1000-m sprint races a little bit silly. But once again, this was a really fun regatta for us, and I felt like I got in some satisfying and intense racing amidst the silliness.

The only big missing factor for me and I think for all of us was not having Coach Y there; he is still in Chicago with no certainty around a return. He is so very much missed.