After resting on Saturday for Rena’s graduation, I woke up at 6:30 and had breakfast with my mother-in-law Jen: scrambled eggs, croissaint, blueberry jam. I loaded up my water and headed out to New York! It started off chilly and almost eerie quiet: Very little traffic or signs of life, really.
I made it pretty easily across the Connecticut River, and then things became a long, stead uphill for pretty much eternity. I continued my struggle with Google Maps directions, for the same reason as on Friday. This time in particular it got ugly.
I took a turn knowing I had about a mile to go before I should come out to a fairly major road again, and just to stay on the same road until then. I intended to do so, but misread a sign at a Y intersection, and when I thought I was staying on the same road, instead moved off. Shortly thereafter I spoke with a woman walking a dog who was originally looking for directions, but then sounded interested in chatting about work, going back to school (as a 60 year old woman) with a graduate daughter, travel, and her interest in Bernie Sanders and in the Dalai Lama. Nice lady, and not the sort I usually find myself interacting with.
This sort of ruined my concentration though, and it was a little longer before I realized that I should have come out on a major road by now. By the time I did, I looked at the maps I had stored on my phone and decided to make the gamble that if I stayed on the same road, it would still come out on the major road on its own in a bit, and save me from backtracking over dirt road hills. I had no cell signal to refresh my maps, and this turned out to be a bad gamble, especially because after a climb I tried again, and misread my phone - I thought it had a signal, but missed that it was for emergency calls only, so it cleared the results I had already pulled up, and was unable to replace them.
I went a little bit further, and the road finally turned off to the east (exactly the opposite direction) and I decided to stop to have a banana, and then suck it up and backtrack my way to what I remembered of the maps. Unfortunately, I only remembered the next couple steps, and I still had no cell signal, so I was unable to repopulate the Google Maps suggestions. I ended up going down MA-116 blind, through what I would discover was less populated than I’d imagined a part of Massachusetts could be. I spent many miles doing a slow grind uphill, hoping that the next crest of a hill would yield some businesses or a public library, or something that gave me hope for wifi or a cell signal. It was not to be.
Knowing that I didn’t want to go to Adams, I eventually took 8A south, still running with no connection to the outside world, until I’d already headed back west again. Things finally seemed a bit more populated, though only in a traveling sort of way. I stopped at the first gas station I found for a gatorade and a powerbar, and happily noticed that it had wifi, so I was finally able to get Google Maps going again. With that in mind, I continued onward to Pittsfield, where I finally started getting a cell signal back (some 30 or 40 miles after initially losing it), and started to breathe calmer. In all, I figure it cost me about 15 miles, which isn’t a huge tragedy, but it was hugely stressful for me at the time, especially given the difficulty of the terrain at the time.
I arrived into Pittsfield, which seems like it’s a city that used to be pretty nice. Some parts of it still are, but lots look like they used to be until everything closed down. Lots of run-down buildings. I rode by a car accident where a truck had clearly been t-boned fairly forcefully, but no signs of injury were still at the scene, at least. I ended up stopping for lunch at a Subway before heading into the final mountain stretch for the day. Everyone there seemed sort of sullen, somehow. I noticed I was seeing a lot of New York plates, and that was encouraging - I was almost at the border. I hit the road again, once again dropping into my bottom gear and settling into a rhythm at 5mph or so until I finally saw a sign that improved my mood quite a lot - the truck going down the hill warning sign.
I enjoyed a long roll down the other side of the Berkshires and stopped for a photo of my bike against the New York border sign. It wasn’t long though, before the road leveled out again. I was passed by a pair of cyclists who commented on the load I was carrying as they went by. Shortly thereafter I went by a race track where cars were drag racing. I couldn’t see much from the road, but I got a couple pictures before moving on. And then Google Maps again asked me to move off of the numbered route, to back roads. Again, my cell signal was gone. I was frustrated, but it truly did look much more direct to Albany, so I conceded to follow directions under revised rules: Instead of memorizing the next three or four steps at a time, I was required to check my phone at every turn, and to make specific note of the mileage expected at each turn. It turned out to be useful - I was supposed to follow one road to its end at a T intersection, and turn right. I stopped at what looked like exactly like that to me, only to check my phone and realize it had intended me to curve left and continue on another quarter of a mile before the real t-intersection.
The whole time I was dealing with these small steps on back roads I kept wondering if Google Maps was pranking me somehow - I was going by small houses on lakes and farms, and yet it was saying that Albany was about 10 miles away. I saw cows and horses and things, and I felt like I should be looking for a city. When I finally saw skyscrapers over the crest of the hill, I was pretty relieved.
I rode a bike path across the Hudson River and into the city, barely having to ride on city roads at all before getting to the Holiday Inn Express where I met Rachael and we spent our last night together before I went off solo. We took a trip a mile into the city to get Indian food, and it was fantastic!