ridin' w/my pops

am back in my "hometown" of niskayuna, ny. quiet place on the mohawk river where the kids are smart and the adults drink good wine. as you cross the mohawk and head north, small farms and orchards are the norm, towns are smaller, spaced farther apart. within 50miles, you're in the adirondacks, a place where a love for epics is easily developed. yesterday, my dad and i went for a ride across the river, up along ballston lake towards saratoga, looped around saratoga lake, where small white caps were whipped-up by a steady 20mph WNW wind. we kept our speed pretty mellow but worked plenty hard to make headway into the wind, jeff sr riding behind, but not on my wheel, "i wanted to push my own wind" he says later that day as we discuss the epic over a couple bass ales. nice.

we cruised past the saratoga horse track, where we watched the Traver's Stakes together and washed down our losses with large, cold domestic beers a long time ago now. Stately Victorians line the road, but we quickly pass them by and turn down Rt50, past SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center), which brought-back some pretty great memories for both us. He probably thinking of that kick-ass The Who show, while I, one of Phish's jams - both of us doing the same thing, just in different eras. as we pass SPAC, patches of blue sky we had being eyeing hopefully finally take-over the sky and the sun shines-down, temps finally crawl over 55. we ride by side for a couple miles, before the shoulder narrows back up, then put our heads down and focus on cutting some wind.

As we make a final turn to the east, we snag a now 20+mph tailwind and begin to fly, hitting 30 on a couple flats w/o effort, but sooner than we'd like the route turns on it's tail, sending us directly into the wind. we grind-out 5-6miles of road, before heading back down over the Mohawk and into Niskyuna, past quiet suburban homes, pedaling softly, enjoying the success of our 4 hour ride together.

Back at Jenn's mom's place, estrogen is running rampant. 20 women, graciously giving us gifts for the baby-to-be. J Sr and i roll-in, begin eating everything in sight, hugging a few old friends, horrifying others in our smelly gear. Many thanks to my folks for coming-up to hang, real solid to go for a ride with my pops, catch-up with my mom, their recent trip to Thailand. big thanks to jenn's mom for hosting the event - and feeding us for 2 days.

today, a cold has settled deep in the chest, probably did too much last week, left myself open to this. sprung my back on thursday doing some efforts, man, i'm kinda a mess right now. only thing to do is ride back across the river for a cpl hours. ridin' solves all problems...