Day Seven: Pittsfield, MA

Day Seven of our journey was a day of highs and lows. I mean that both metaphorically, as I'll explain shortly, and literally, as we gained and lost over 4000 feet of elevation over the course of the day.

Electronic cue sheets are working amazingly well on this trip. It is unbelievably useful to have an accurate map with active location right there on the bicycle, helping me along as I go. I'm never lost, and I know where all of the turns are!

The day's riding was great fun. We hit a 17% grade, which Dave and I climbed twice, just to stir the pot. We saw some goats on the side of the road. We got to lunch so early, that we had to wait over 45 minutes for the van. The general store had a non-public restroom, for fear of overflowing the septic tank.

After arriving in Pittsfield, we visited Ordinary Cycle. I needed some grease for my Speedplay pedals. The shop had all sorts of old timey stuff, like Spokey spoke wrenches (I bought two), an extensive selection of tubular tires, Mavic GEL 280 rims, a duplicate of the bicycle I rode down the Pacific Coast Highway. The proprietor looked like something of a Glenn Swan clone, so we asked him if he knew Glenn and, sure enough, they were old buddies. Awesome.

We saw Charlie in Pittsfield! Dr. Charles LaGoy, as he is now known, was my big brother through a Big Brothers program in Brooklyn from 1996 to 1999. Some twelve years later after we first met, Charlie, his wife Melissa, and children Hannah and Finn, are residents of Pittsfield. Charlie just finished medical school. Jane finally got to meet Charlie, which was great! Charlie came with us to dinner and regaled us with stories of all sorts of things. I'm amazed by how much I can still learn from Charlie.

I left my fork at dinner. Lenny brought it back for me. Thank you, Lenny.