Walpack Center, NJ to Middletown, NY!

Tuesday, May 30. As I write this, it's Wednesday night, and we've already spent a full day in New York. We came across the New York State line on Tuesday around noon, having spent the night at a less-than-full-service-but-under-new-management private campground. We started the day by walking our bikes back up to the campground's entrance at the top of the hill. I had seen the start of today's route when we pulled off into the campground, and It looked like we'd start the day climbing hard.

Fortunately for me, it was a short climb, followed by a couple hours of rolling hills--and a few steep climbs just for fun. I hadn't gotten the new music suggestions, so my brain was on it's own (and oxygen deprived, as well). Songs like "The Old Gray Mare (Ain't What She Used To Be)" and "Mr. Postman" got me up the hills on this day.

We rolled through Montague and crossed into NY at the town of Deer Park. We stopped for lunch at the Port Jervis Subway, and continued on through the townships, boroughs and villages of Huguenot, Godeffroy, and Cuddebackville before we hit a really long, steep climb right before Mount Hope. Just beyond Mount Hope and THE HILL was Otisville (remember Otisburg from the original Superman movie?), and a mail stop for us.

The replacement Airmat and a care package (thanks, MB) were waiting for us at the Otisville PO. Right next door was the Otisville Ice Cream shop, and it was a blazingly hot day--so we pulled a table to the shade and enjoyed some of Hershey's Premium Ice Cream.

While we were sitting there, minding our own business, Lorene stopped by. She is just getting back into cycling after knee surgery, and was interested to hear what our plans were. She's also just organized a citizens' committee to stop the installation of new electric lines through Otisville. So she wasn't able to throw in the towel and join our ride--but if you're reading this, Lorene, you can catch up with us any time!

By the time we were ready to leave Otisville it was 4:00pm, but hey, we only had about 8 miles to go and Lorene had assured us that "there was nothing up ahead to break your hearts" before we got to Middletown. There's always something, and today it would be Middletown.

We arrived in Middletown with our hearts still intact, only to find that Middletown is a town split in two. And the two parts have yet to meet each other. We stopped at a large city park, replete with commemorative statues and plaques, at the junction of two major county roads. From there our plan was to find the closest reasonable hotel and head for it. The three that we called didn't know where the park was, nor could they direct us from the county road intersections. Our last shot was the Middletown Motel, which had an address on county road 211, so we set off in the direction of their address.

In just a couple of blocks, the addresses reversed order. We were looking for a quiet place to call them for directions. At the corner we stopped there was a Domino's Pizza shop (loud music inside), a neighborhood ice cream truck, and the hubbub surrounding a recent fender-bender in the parking lot of the Domino's.

Matthew hunkered down to call them from the back of the building, and I approached the cop who was finishing up citing the parking lot accident. He told me he wouldn't stay at the Middletown Motel, but he did give me directions to the other half of Middletown--where they keep the nicer hotels.

Turns out this was about another 3 miles away, but there was the promise of a bed and food, so off we went. Now, I'm sure he was just giving me visual cues, but the directions were "right at the Wendy's, left at El Bandito. Then you'll start to see all the chain restaurants and the hotels will be right there." Lunch was long gone, and the Reese's cookies (new!) I had at the c-store as we came into Middletown were just an appetizer. I was hungry.

After a final, short but crushing uphill climb, we did find the hotels and restaurants in Middletown(part 2). It takes us some time to get our bikes and trailers unhooked and ferried in the elevator to our 2nd floor room. After that it's showers, a weather-channel fix and some laundry before we can grab dinner.

The weather channel shows that we have about 7 minutes to our choice of the area's restaurants, so we chased over to the Red Robin. It's a chain, but not one that we know--change is good, right?

The sky was darkening and the sun we'd seen all day disappeared behind gray and darker gray clouds. We noticed a huge cloud forming a circular pattern right above the Red Robin--we still had minutes to spare before the oncoming rain and 80mph winds arrived.

Sure enough, the rain started within minutes, terrifying the hostess and knocking out the satellite TV. The storm didn't last very long (80mph winds blew through in almost no time), and by the time we finished with dessert the storm had passed. We walked back to the hotel, and spent a cozy night not worrying about staking down the tent for a rainstorm. Maybe some other time.

Tomorrow--we continue on to Hyde Park, NY. I'm loving our pace and feeling good (and trying not to worry about the mountains yet to come). Brian, thanks for the "NY Welcome". 11, 5, Jim--thanks for the hill-climbing music suggestions. I think that 5 is right. I'm pretty sure that the reason I'm channeling Cher is from listening to too much Disturbed.