Soon to end

We had a great 450 mile bike ride this past summer. Kate has pretty much recovered from her very serious accident. Thank goodness for her helmet. And her accident was a lesson for a couple of hundred students in her school district. She may have saved, not only her own life, but with the publicity, many more lives.
As great as it was, this Blog will come down, on or about, December 15th.
We had a GREAT time and it was a great lesson.
Sooo, if you have any further interest in this blog, download, print or whatever by Dec 15th when it shall disappear from public view.
Best wishes, as always,
Roger

Final Thoughts

Hey, this is Kate and I have shoved Roger out of his comforable chair to take over for the final blog entry. I just wanted to let everyone know what an incredible journey this summer trip has been. Our trek across New York State from Buffalo to Albany provided us with the opportunities to discover wonderful scenic towns, interesting fun people, and history along the Erie Canal. I will convey much of what I learned this summer to my sixth grade students . Perhaps the most valuable lessons I can share with my students came through my bike accident. The importance of wearing a helmet when biking can never be stressed enough. Equally important, I hope my students recognize the value of completing a task, no matter the obstacles. That is why it was so important for me to drive 3 and a half hours to bike that last 8 miles today.

Thanks to everyone that has shared our adventures with us. I would personally like to thank Roger for being my guide,

Oh and mom, for the record, I have no intention of ever taking up "knitting" instead of biking, no matter the consequences !!!!!!!!!!

Kate thanks Colleen Greene

After completion of our bike ride we backtracked to Hefferen's Tavern in Green Island so Kate could reconnect with one her new BFF's from her accident, Colleen Greene. Immediately after Kate's accident we were looking for ice for her rapidly swelling eye. Colleen provided that and so much more! Her caring, concern and willingness to help a total stranger was above and beyond. So Kate wanted to thank her one more time and update her on her progress. Thanks again Colleen.

We reached the finish line today!

Today we both completed the remaining few miles of our 400+ mile bike ride feeling a sense of accomplishment, but also a sadness that a wonderful adventure has come to an end. It was nice to have Kate along this time, and I didn't have to pick her up at an Emergency Room at the end of today's ride. :-)

Our Erie Canal trek is tehcnically over but we have a few loose ends to follow up on in this Blog so don't stop reading quite yet.

Finishing the Erie Canal bike trail

Kate continues to heal from her crash. She is actually happy that the colors of the day are purple and yellow. (Of her bruises) Apparently that means they are healing and she is feeling better daily.

She vowed to finish the entire 400+ mile route and she shall! We have scheduled Saturday, September 25th to ride that final few miles into the Corning Preserve in Albany. That will complete our trip from Buffalo to Albany along the Erie Canal trail.

We don't actually expect anyone there to actually wave the checkered flag, but it is great symbol for her finishing the trip, despite her temporary setback and injuries.

Kate's condition + helmet safety

Nearly one week after her accident, Kate texted me about her injuries. "Still very black, blue, green, yellow, purple and sore." But she greeted her 6th grade class, and others (since she was the talk of the school), with all of her visible injuries and her dented helmet. Many of her students are no longer arguing with their parents about having to wear their bike helmets.

We downloaded this picture from the Internet for those of you who may have wondered about the right way to wear a helmet. Had Kate not been wearing her helmet properly, thereby exposing her left temple area to the blunt inpact of the roadway, I think that crash would have been much more severe, if not fatal. So wear a helmet; and wear it correctly!

The aftermath of the crash

Kate texted me today that, "The colors for the day are green and yellow." She was referring to the bruises to her face. :-) But she also texted that she was moving much better as well. I have no doubt that she will greet her 6th graders on the 7th no matter what.

While Kate will heal, the Kodak camera to the right will not. It was also a casualty in a seperate incident last Thursday. While the camera shell was recovered, the chip with all of the photos from our 400 mile trip was not. So this blog and its pics are the only record of our 390 mile trip. A new camera has been ordered. Durability was a big factor in our selection of a new camera!

Kate's bike helmet

We didn't get a chance to examine Kate's bike helmet until today. The left side of it clearly had impact marks at the temple area. Had she NOT been wearing her helmet, and wearing it correctly, she would surely have been injured worse. I watched the accident and I can tell you that it took only about a second for that bike to flip and go down. So please spread the word that helmets are well worth wearing even on a casual bike ride.

Kate was able to go home today. Had she not been wearing that helmet .......? She will spend the next couple of weeks healing up. Then she'll 'll be back do do that LAST 10 miles. She doesn't leave anything unfinished!

Not the end, Yet! - Part 2 - Thank you

After the crash, and after she stopped seeing stars, she collected herself and insisted upon trying to ride again. But we knew she needed some degree of medical attention. We rode about three blocks on into the the Village of Green Island. We passed a hand written sign that said, "It's hot outside, but our drinks are cold inside." To me, that said that they probably had ice inside for the swelling of her cheek and jaw, as well as having some of her favorite painkilling liquids available.
Inside T. J. Heffern's Tavern we met Colleen Greene who was absolutely wonderful! She provided ice packs to Kate and even drove to her home to bring back antibiotic ointment for Kate's "road rash" injuries. She referred us to a fire station and paramedics down the road. And thanks to them for evaluating Kate's injuries and giving us directions to the hospital in Troy. And Kudos to Kate for realizing she couldn't finish the ride, yet making it up the hill to "walk" into the emergency room!
And, the ER folks at Samaritan Hospital were great from beginning to end. So, Colleen, Brian, Heather and Terry are all Kate's new BFF's.
Kate is very sore and bruised, but very appreciative of all the help she received from those former strangers who were so willing to help her in a time of need. Thanks to all!

Not the end, yet! - Part 1

Today was supposed to be the final segment of our 400 mile Erie Canal bicycling tour with a party scheduled for the evening to celebrate. All started out well. But with only 10 miles of our summer tour to go, Kate flipped her bike on a hill in Cohoes, tumbling over the handlebars and crashing onto the pavement. With multiple injuries she ended up in the emergency room of Samaritan Hospital in Troy. After a few catscans and x-rays of her head, face, neck and shoulder, nothing was broken but she was badly battered and bruised in those, and even more places. She'll be a while recovering from that nasty crash, but it was stupendous! Leave it to her to go out with a bang!!!!
And, the party had to be re-scheduled, as she has vowed to finish the last segment of the 400 miles, as soon as the doctors will allow her to ride again, which will be a least a couple of weeks from now. We'll keep you posted on her progress.

33 miles we didn't expect!

We knew that the bike trail was closed coming out of Schenectady. It was advertised as a 4 mile, 1.4 million dollar renovation project that wouldn't be finished until October. Soooooo, I decided to do a reverse segment starting in Colonie, NY. We would travel west toward Schenectady until we encountered the closed trail. I estimated our total day of travel at 7 miles down and 7 miles back. Well, I was a little off! But only by about 20 miles. :-) Turns out the trail was rideable and we made it a very hilly 15 miles into Schenectady. That was good, but then we had to make it another 15 miles back to the truck. It was a much longer day than we had planned, but we were back before dark. So this was our longest travel day at 33 miles and we safely arrived in Colonie, NY. We only have about 20+ miles to go to roll into Albany. But that will have to wait for about 10 days since our lives tend to get in the way of our adventures from time to time. Stay posted f0r the finale!

Amsterdam to Schenectady

After two miles of paved trail out of Amsterdam, we had to hit the dreaded highway 5S. We have gone from stone dust trails to stone dust in the air and on the roadway as we passed stone quarries and stone laden trucks passed us for several miles. But, alas, we finally got back on a paved trail at Rotterdam Junction. There we took some time to relax and wash the stone dust down with a couple of cold ones, while enjoying a view of the Mohawk River. Then it was on to Schenectady. So we's be at roughly 353 miles at this point!

Erie Canal boat tour - Herkimer

After 44 miles of riding our bikes, it was time for a break. So we took a boat tour along the Erie Canal from Herkimer to ....... well, we don't know exactly where we went. But it involved going through the oldest original lock on the improved Erie Canal. The lock was about 100 years old and lowered and raised our boat about 20+ feed. Then we finished our day by biking into Amsterdam, NY. That brings our total mileage to date to about 337, on our way to 400+. In this photo our boat is drag racing with a NY State tugboat. We think our Captain Jerry won that race!

Central NY bicycling

We started in Utica, NY yesterday and arrived in Canajoharie this afternoon. On the way we passed through Herkimer, Ilion, St. Johnbury and got a sub in Fort Plain. Great riding. Our calculations are rough, but we figure we have covered ABOUT 315 miles so far. We're in the Albany segment and looking for the finish line in the next two weeks as time permits. Along the way we have met some gresat people. Here's a photo of young Emil we met along the trail. He's headed from Oswego, NY to Connecticut. Wish him well. He informed us that his name is easy to remember because it is "lime" spelled backward.

Old Erie Canal State Park

Old Erie Canal State Historic Park is a 36 mile linear park that preserves the remains of the historic Enlarged Erie Canal as both an educational and recreational resource. In most places, the park's trail is the old canal's towpath. and that is what we have been riding from East Syracuse to Rome. It is mostly a stone dust trail along that old towpath that so many mules and horses travelled for many, many years in the 1800's. "15 miles on the Erie Canal' is a song school children in New York still learn, since each mule and its handlers did 15 mile shifts on the canal before being relieved of their towing duties. Just thought you'd like to know.

Erie Canal Village - Rome, NY - Part 3

While I am busy tracking history and planning our trek from day-to-day, Kate seems to be on her own agenda. She seems to have an affinity for those quaint little pubs in the canal towns we pass through. She was excited to see Bennets Tavern, expecting more friendly patrons and a pint of their home brew. But, alas, this pub was built in 1835, but currently was not serving a drop of dram in this restored village.

And with that small bit of news, we headed out for Oriskany and ended our trek in Utica for the day, and the week. We're taking a couple of weeks off to deal with our other lives, but we'll be back in Utica soon to continue our fun trek to Albany.

Erie Canal Village - Rome, NY - Part 2

Here they are. The source of silent energy that towed our heavy canal boat along the Erie Canal attached to about 125 feet of rope. Horses could travel faster than mules, but both were limited to a speed limit of 5 miles per hour. If they exceeded that their handlers got a ticket. No radar back then, just a "You travelled too far, too fast" kind of ticket.

Erie canal Village - Rome, NY - Part 2

Here they are! Those silent sources of energy that pull the boat along the towpath attached to about 125 feet of rope. In the 1850's those horses or mules towed heavy boats at about 4 miles an hour. Horses were faster than mules and could actually get speeding tickets if they exceeded 5 miles an hour. No radar, just "You covered the distance in too little time" tickets.

Erie Canal Village - Rome, NY - Part 1

It was back to Rome to do what the Romans DON'T do. And it was another boat trip on the Erie Canal. This time it was in an 1850's era "packet boat" - or passenger boat. It was an interesting 40 minute ride - quiet, smooth and comfortable. It was so quiet because of the power source - no steam, no gas, no noise. Perhaps we should all turn to this mode of power.

Check Part 2 to see this form of silent transportation.

On the way to Rome

The directions said to go to Lock 21 and enjoy the persective as we crossed over a VERY narrow bridge over an operating lock. It was a few feet down to the water on one side, and a whole bunch of feet on the other side of this VERY narrow bridge. It wasn't quite an Indiana Jones kinda bridge, but it was narrow.

So when we got to Rome, we did what the Romans would do. We went out for a burger and a couple of beers!