July 23, 2003

He's got the whole world in his hands.  some weird shaped building in the Plaza.

easier day.

DAY FOUR STATS: 

Miles: 29          Time on Bike: 2:10         Start: Hudson         Finish: Albany

Jump to:  Day One    Day Two    Day Three   Day Four    Day Five  Day Six    Day Seven

You are not reading yesterday’s story.  I wake up in our fancy St. Charles hotel and look at the Weather Channel to Déjà vu.   Once again the entire northeast is covered in clouds.  Its raining outside and the weather channel is predicting storms all day again.  Should this be the day we stay, and lose a day?  In The Plan we should be heading to Saratoga today, about 60 miles.  Big decision time.  Albany is only about 30 miles, which may be a more reasonable goal.  If we leave by 9 and all goes well, we could be there by noon.  I am sure there is a lot going on in a city of that size.  Even if we get hit with rain, Gary proved yesterday that we could bike through it and survive.

            By the time we got started the rain had stopped, we didn’t know for how long though.  We told Gary the plan, the directions, we would take route 9 about four miles where it would split with 9J.  9J hugged the Hudson, usually a good sign that it would be less hilly.  9J would meet up with 9 again up by Albany.  Once we get to Albany, we’ll find a hotel and call him on the cell with the name and directions to the hotel. 

Water stop.

Another rest, with a beautiful view of the Hudson.  My flag and bike.

I wrote a song in the style of Neil Young as we rode, called Old Train Bridge.  This may be the album cover.

           
Here’s the bridge into Albany.  We’re on the bike path, but I told The Weave it wasn’t necessary.

             As soon as we got over the bridge and into downtown Albany we saw a Ramada Inn.  We could see they had a pool on the roof.  Although it was right next to the highway I went in to see how much the rooms were, and if they were available.  They only had a few rooms left, but the price was really cheap, only $60 each.   I went outside and talked it over with Rita.  We looked at the sky to see how the weather was, should we ride on, risk rain, risk higher prices.  Me and Mikey took the elevator up to see how the rooms and halls looked.  The place was old, the hallways were run down, but we could see one of the rooms the maid had just cleaned and it looked decent.  Since there were only a few left we decided to take two.  Cher was playing a few blocks away at the Pepsi Arena and there were a lot of old ugly ladies in the hotel.  Our room was overlooking the pool, which was alright too.

            We decided to go for lunch and walked a couple of blocks to an old Irish Pub.  The food was good bar food but the waitress pissed me off.  She was pretty, but self-centered.  Here’s an example.  We sat in the front corner across from the bar, the only people in the place.  She stood at the back of the bar reading a newspaper.  When she took our order I asked if her air conditioner was broken, because it was hot in this place.  She told me it depended upon where you sit.  There was an industrial strength fan in the place, which she had pointed directly on where she stood at the back of the bar.  After about 20 minutes a young guy, the owner came in and the first thing he noticed and did was to walk over to that fan and turn it around facing the whole room instead of the princess waitress.  She also talked on her cell phone while she served us.

            On the way back to the hotel I stopped and got some Buds, Coors, waters and sodas for the pool.  The sun had broken out and the pool was nice.  After awhile I figured Gary should be getting close so I called him.  I noticed a lot of background noise and he was talking very loudly.  After ten seconds of greetings he said frantically, “Ï gotta go, I’m gonna get killed, You told me I didn’t have to take the bike path on the bridge and now I’m in the fast lane on the New York State Thruway.”

 “What??” I asked.  “Your stuck on the Thruway?”

Mikey started to tap me and saying Dad, Da, Da.!

I turned to tell Mikey to stop interrupting me and saw him pointing up to the ramp of the Thruway.  I looked up and saw The Weave up on the Thruway.

Gary continued, screaming into the phone, “I saw a sign for Troy so I went the other way and I ended up stuck against a railing with a forty foot drop and I’m in the fast lane on the Thruway!  I gotta go.”

Mikey climbed up on the fence of the pool to follow The Weave’s progress across the lanes of traffic.  “

He’s throwing his bike over the fence now onto the bike path, he made it, he made it!!”

We were relieved.  So was the Weave.

This shows where the Weave was trapped. 

Enough reading I’ll let the pictures tell the story of Albany.

Look in the corner of the pool at The Weave, Mikey and me.  Cheers.  We also made up games to play in all the pools we hit, like golf and basketball.

Empire State Plaza.  It was surprisingly impressive.

More of the plaza.

I forget the name of this building, but its famous.  Me, rita, weave, and mike.

Mikey meets Frankenstien.  When we heard there was a free concert featuring Edgar Winters we dedcided to go.  “Mikey asked What does he sing?”  I hummed a few bars of Frankenstien, da-da dut-da da- da- da- daaa, da da da da da.daaaa.  Mikey knew the song and as soon as we got there Edgar played it.

Here we practice being extras for a still shot, faking serious conversationl.

As beautiful as Empire Plaza was, we were still in Albany.  This was two blocks away.

 We went to dinner in a great sports bar and headed back to bed.