Day 47 Little Falls to Lathem, NY 75 miles with 2476' of climbing

Today we ate breakfast at 0630 and luggage load was at 0715.  We left right after loading and the weather was 66 at the start of the day with the high forecast to be in the mid 70's.  The humidity was also supposed to be lower than it has been the last 2 days.  Yesterday when we came into Little Falls we came down a nice hill, which means that leaving today we had to climb out of the bottom to the top. We climbed 576' on the 1st hill out of town.  I did not look at the percent grade of the hill as I felt really good and I pushed it going all the way to the top of the hill and then took pictures of other riders as they came to the top.  I then caught up with Gary and Rick and rode about 20 yards behind them for about 8-10 miles until Rick got a flat tire and I rode by myself into the 1st rest stop at mile 35.  We had a great tail wind and the ride was going very fast even with the climbing we had to do.  At the rest stop I found out another rider was cut off by a car and hit the pavement and broke a helmet and had a flat.  They fixed her flat , found another helmet for her,  as she was OK and she finished the day feeling OK with a little road rash.  We were all Glad she is OK and with only 4 more riding days, we are all getting a little spooked about  riding without mishap to ensure we all make it to the ocean on Monday.

After mile 50 we entered a real smooth and wide bike path  and we would ride this all the way to mile 71 until we had to get off and use the streets to get to the hotel.  The view along this bike path was really great with the river on the left side and the trees along both sides that gave us great shade, even though it was not all that hot today.  We all stopped at mile 56 and ate lunch at Jumpin Jacks Drive in.  We then hit the bike path once again and continued on to the second rest stop which was at mile 64.  I filled my bottles up and only age one slice of Watermelon and John and I were off again for home and the last leg of the journey for today.  We arrived at the hotel with Dennis, and Beth already there so we all checked in and once again went to get something to eat.  When we got back from the 2nd lunch the luggage was unloaded and we all got cleaned up and I am catching up on 2 days of blog as the motel last night in Little Falls had issues with their Internet and we could not get any service there.

Tomorrow we are scheduled for  80 miles with about 5000' of climbing.