Day 31: Liverpool, New York to Amsterdam, New York

Distance: 119 miles
Average Speed: 18.3 mph
Terrain: Mostly flat, a couple of good hills. 1900 feet of climbing.
Winds: Light and generally favorable. Started chilly.

Should you ever develop a hankering to visit the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, you’ll find it right here in Amsterdam. I was curious so I walked a couple of blocks to check it out. It’s a storefront in a downtown block of abandoned storefronts with abandoned second and third floors as well. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony is coming up this weekend, but it will take more than that to bring this dead town back to life. It perished just north of Albany and Schenectady, as corpse cold as the textile industry that was its mainstay. We’re staying at the America’s Best Value Inn, which strikes me as an imprecise use of language. It may be America’s Cheapest Inn, but Value implies the return of something in exchange for your coin. This establishment is on a par with the Blythe, California Super 8.

We continued our journey eastward on the general path of New York Route 5 today, sweeping through some small towns on some flatter roads and then dropping into and out of the Mohawk Valley. The route paralleled the Erie Canal for some stretches. The Erie Canal, inland canals in this country in general, amazes me. The amount of effort spent on the public works projects to support a transportation technology that was financially viable for just a few decades is amazing. With perfect hindsight you would say, “Damn, man, double down on the steam locomotive and stop this silly digging of ditches.” I suppose the irony is that the canal tow paths made such great rail beds when it came time to lay track. And of course now they also make great utility rights of way as well, not to mention the occasional park and mountain bike trail. I wonder how the calculators of such things assess the economic return on that investment. If anybody knows anything about how the Erie Canal paid off, chime in.

Today’s ride was something of a mixed bag. The first two thirds was a bit ragged, sore knees from the return to climbing yesterday, and it just felt like I wasn’t getting much of a return in speed for my efforts until lunch. After lunch the engine room started answering bells. The climb onto the southern heights over the Mohawk shocked the old legs back into life, and then I had some tailwinds that let me wind up the speed even over the lifts for the last 30 miles into town.

I’m glad I could rev it up for the last third because tomorrow we put on the crampons and go climbing—7100 feet across the Taconic and Green Mountains of New York and Vermont before crossing into New Hampshire. 123 miles. I’m looking forward. I got back on my ice and ibuprofen regimen today to keep the knees from barking for the next couple of hard days. I had gotten lax during the middle of the country. It turns out this ride begins and ends with a bang.