CATSKILL NEW YORK

Left Pete's house mid-morning and tooled around my old college town of Newark, (that's new. ARK for you Jersey-ites out there) Delaware for an hour.. reminiscing and getting numerous flashbacks. It's amazing what a strong mental Imprint that dinky place has left me with. Between 18 and 22 I suppose I was very open to Impression. Newark was an interesting place for a Newe York suburbanite; it is technically south of the Mason Dixon Line, and has this odd sort of.. southern country feel to it.. or used to.... train tracks, loneseome whistles... Virginia-styled brick architecture... a Black side of town.. and of course I was swimming in Grateful Dead mythology back then.. full of plenty of Depression era vibes and country-istic imagery.
Couple shots of important places at the old Alma Mater... Howard and a couple of you may appreciate these.

RODNEY F DORM

TRIPPY TRACKS

74 AMSTEL AVENUE.. MY SENIOR YEAR. ALL THE OTHER CIVILIAN BUILDINGS ON AMSTEL AVENUE ARE GONE BUT THIS

SMITH HALL... MOST OF MY CLASSES WERE HERE

Romantic tears done with, I headed out onto I-95 and north, for Jersey and New York. As many of you know, there's not a lot o fun to be had on old 95... but the Trip wasn't over just yet.

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 Like the Space-shuttle skimming into the Earth's atmosphere, I missed by a degree or two and pushed past my home base in southern New York State... up the New York State Thruway to the majestic and ancient Adirondack Mountains, 100 miles north of Albany. Like an Intergalactic Star Cruiser coming back into the Solar System, I needed to check my speed at the Outer Planets first.. and buddy Al Gilman's lake house at Schroon was just the ticket for jet cool-down.
Al's a great old pal... a highly erudite mountain-man dude who lives half the year as a Key West Grouper and the other half as a Adirondack Woodchuck. He's recently hooked-up with a lovely gal who is making his heart (and presumably other things) throb.

LAKE GEORGE VILLAGE

SCHROON LAKE

TOWN OF SCHROON LAKE. THERE'S NOT MUCH MORE THAN THIS

It was getting cold up there... low Thirties at night.. and I knew the Trip was coming to an end. "As autumn closes in..." . I went out with Al to do some winterization over at his friend's crumbling motel... and just to be out in that crisp Adirondack air was a sooper treat. The Adirondacks are a very special place... Mother Nature takes no prisoners up there... and those that stay the Winter have to be hardened and well prepared for it. But the Weather Channel predicted rain moving in by Weddnesday late, and I knew enough not to press my luck... riding a bike five to six hours south out of the New York mountains in a bitterly cold rain.... no thanks.
I have been incredibly fortunate on this trip in terms of weather (and many other things). I got wet TWICE in 12,500 miles. That's it.. twice. Do the Math... that is simply unbelieveable. Anyway, I knew the journety had to come to and end... and started back south towards.... home.... although I am techically homeless.
Anne cooked us a great chicken dinner at her beautiful house up the mountain road from Schroon Lake. The house is something like 200 years old... and is very "Adirondack-y". Practical... creaky..... efficient.... awesome views from the weathered front porch and immense starshine at night under the incredibly clear mountain skies smelling of snappy hard-wood smoke. We played pool and drank Jaegermeister to strains of high-end Bluegrass as well as Gypsy Punk while Cooper the Whippet happily chased her tail at our feet.

Next day I glumly packed my gear into the duffel... one last time. Al bid adieu for the season and left to do some copper business over in Wevertown... just after he left I realized I'd lost my bike key and dug around for an hour... finally giving up and tearing the spare key off the frame where it had been taped for emergency. When I returned back outside with my luggage, I saw to my dismay that the bike was lying on it's side in the grass. This is not good; a 550-pound streetbike is not supposed to be laying on it's side for ANY reason... and I pulled a muscle in my arm trying violently to wrench it back up. Minimal damage, fortunately.. just a bent mirror stalk, but I had to do some mechanics to straighten all out reasonably.  Finally I warmed her up one more time and headed south for the Catskills.
I DO LOVE NEW YORK
(UP-state, that is)