Bloomingburg, NY

Wassuppp! Well, after an extremely frustrating delay Thursday and Friday, I'm back in black. I have realized that I can get injured and things are beyond my control - dare I say I am human? I guess I am, I have hung up my cape. I made the jaunt over the Hudson River today (pic w/ my bike through a stone doorway, the start of the FDR Bridge going over the river.) Soon after, I ate a donated french toast breakfast (Yes, I AM intercontinental when I eat french toast) by a sweetie pie named Kathy at a local diner who gave me great directions. Then rolled through some beautiful countryside in upstate NY into Bloomingburg. If it weren't for the delay I would have missed the hundreds of acres of apple blossoms which smelled amazing. One of those aromas that instantly makes you smile.

Bloomingburg is a Fire Company which serves 10k people and has an impressive fleet of Pierce Engines, wicked clean. I met Chief Dempsey and some of the department at the station.

Due to my delay, (BFD had originally had a dinner planned for me at their Firehouse Thurs.) we went to a surprise birthday party where the food was awesome and the drinks were cold. I'm all carb loaded up for tomorrow, mountains mountains mountains. I'll be staying at Johnny's house tonight and off early in the AM. The FF's have tweaked my route and have sent me on a longer but flatter route through Port Jarvis NY.

Observations on the trip so far:

-All roads in CT that are not interstates are poorly marked and all intersections in CT must involve 5 of these unmarked roads

-Red Sox fans make the best apparatus drivers (You know what I'm talkin' about Ken in HFD)

-CT has underated hills in the west

-When your jacket hangs off of your pack, over your rear tire, it will smell like roadkill when you put it on after 4 days

-don't rely on GPS, word of mouth is more reliable (so long as you don't take advice from someone you just asked directions from says "You know where your goin'?" WTF?

-all people have goodness in them somewhere, sometimes it may just take a stinky unshaven man in spandex to bring it out