Beauty in the Rain

When we awoke the sky was dark but there had been no rain,the weather forecast was for light showers.Breakfast this morning was to be taken in Denny's next door to the hotel.We all arrived there and the staff,whist very pleasant,seemed overwhelmed.Although they had been pre warned.Slowly everything became sorted and we had a decent breakfast(fresh eggs rather than pre made scrambled!).Despite the slow service we were ready to go by 07.10.Set off with Heinz and Sohrab and Tom Foster,who was suffering from a crash yesterday.His front fork broke sending him crashing into the handlebars.Xrayed but nothing broken,a new cheap bike found,and he is riding a little slower than normal.As soon as we set off there was light rain in the air,and the road out of town was of poor quality but soon we had some lovely views as we climbed a gentle escarpment overlooking the Mohawk river.This river was a very constant companion today,slowly veering away from us now and again,but always coming back into view.

We soon passed this rather splendid bridge over the Mohawk river  and very shortly after this church appeared.

I thought it should be Greek Orthodox ,so stopped to look and found that it was,in fact,the local catholic church.No idea what inspired them to have such an appearance.

 The temperature was good ,the rain intermittent and light and progress towards the only stop of the day very regular.However we did have to go 41 miles to get to the stop,so a long session.About half way there we came across Fort Klock,which proved to be a fortified house.

with some ancillary buildings .

A short stop there and we continued through lovely scenery,heavily featuring the river and the surrounding rolling hills.

Plenty of bridges of one sort or another and lots of streams running into the Mohawk.

After about 40 Kms Elizabeth began to flag,as we passed one of our support vehicles I asked if she was okay,although she said yes I should have stopped her then,but as it was we cycled another 10 Kms before she gave in and accepted a lift to the stop.All along this road the railway line ran beside the road and the river ran beside the railway line,a triumvirate of transport.

Once I arrived there ,they had erected an awning,as I moved under it the heavens opened and rain poured down.One visitor,Sue,one of Ken's daughters had driven to meet us and bought some superb banana bread,eaten with a squirt of cream,quite delicious.
 Elizabeth decided to call it a day for cycling,so I set off on my own to cover the remaining 44 miles to the hotel once the rain had stopped.I even took off my rain jacket and stuffed it in my back pocket,but it did not stay there long.Half way down the hill the rain restarted,I stopped to put on the jacket , which was just as well as it then proceeded to pour down again,drowning out any decent vision and meaning I needed a third hand to act as windscreen wiper.The scenery was still lovely,when it was visible,

 Eventually the rain stopped,the sun started to appear and Jeff and Charlie appeared with the sun to accompany me to the hotel.

This bridge was not in use but seemed a good monument.Eventually we turned off the road onto a lovely cycle track that carried us along for 13 miles.Some lovely views,rabbits,chipmunks

birds,and peace and quiet.

The Mohawk river runs into the Hudson river,which runs from the Atlantic via New York.tonight we are in Troy which sits upon the Hudson river.

Herewith the Hudson river at Troy and that ends tonights instalement.3273 miles completed,only 2 proper cycling days to go,but plenty of hills remaining.