Someone gave me a fortune cookie last night and the message inside was surprisingly significant. It said :”Happiness is enjoying what you have. Not what you desire.” so I tried today to enjoyed every minute of my day today not thinking at what I’d liked to have. Not only I had a wonderful day but I can assure you that I will remember it with a great smile. I have a picture in my mind of every road we took, every coffee shop we stopped or passed, every smile and word of my friends and every landscape of lakes or trees. …and I won’t forget a single hill, or at least, my legs won’t 🙂 !! So, Jerry, Scott and I tried to find nice roads to ride on, lake to swim in, playground to play with and ice cream shop to have so delicious fuel: it was amazing! I suggest you try to do the same: see, appreciate and remember all the positive sides and events of your day.

My shoes didn’t dry in my tent tonight, but it’s not a very big deal. Today it was very nice, windy but not hard at all, probably because the scenery was very beautiful. Two more days and less then 200 miles to go to reach the Atlantic Ocean. Wait…..what?!? 😱
That’s pretty crazy!

A nice and rainy day just to stay refreshed 🙂
However the scenery and the landscape was really nice and so we still enjoyed our day. After 20 miles I was a bit annoyed, wet and cold and Scott (younger Scott), who I was riding with, noticed and said: “Don’t let the rain ruin our day!” And he was right because it was actually a really nice ride, through nature and little towns. Toward midday the sky opened up, just for us 🙂

The weather forecast for today was heavy rain and thunderstorms from 11am onwards. So we decided to start at 7 am and get to our destination, 76 miles away, in less than 4 hour. This is Lake Champlain in Vermont which we had to cross today with a ferry. 🙂

Today we started from Lake placid and were directed to Plattsburgh which was supposed to be one of the shortest day of the trip, but which turned out to be one of the longest. 🙂 Knowing I had a lots of time, I started exploring the skiing jumps, the Olympic village and and where the Olympic flame was situated in 1980 during the winter games. Then I met Scott and Jerry on the way and we decided to go up Whiteface Mountain which is a very high mountain and its summit offers an incredible 360-degree view. So we pedaled up a steep road for about 10 miles and when we got to the end of the road at 4610 ft above the sea level there was a long and steep hiking path made of rocks and steps to go to the summit. We looked at each other with a surprised face like saying “…what now?!” So we took our cycling shoes of, put our bikes on our shoulders and started walking up very slowly. Why?! Good question, I was asking it myself too while going up…but we had to: it was there!! It was absolutely worth it, both the cycling and the walking climb. The view was impressive and Jerry was having too much fun on the very edge of the summit.

It is really nice to have a day off, although I couldn’t really rest having two beautiful lakes to swim in. We are at Lake Placid, a beautiful town situated next to two lakes. They organize every year a very famous Ironman triathlon here and many cycling races. It is also the town that hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1980!

Today I was trying to have some fun in the pouring rain, and I was succeeding until I had a flat tyre on a hill. I changed my tube very quickly and pedaled quickly in the rain to Placid Lake; when I got there it stopped raining, of course.

I had a pretty crazy and adventurous day today. Jerry was teaching me how to explore around and how to be a tourist on a bike. We searched for hidden caverns, natural bridges, quite lakes and much more. We passed through this town called Natural Bridge and so we told ourself “there has to be a reason” and we went to search for it but all we could find in this 50 inhabitants town was a old and unnatural fallen bridge. We went for two swims in two different lakes, Bonaparte Lake and Star Lake, we had a milkshake at 8:25 in the morning and a coffee at mile 25. We were laughing in the rain and stopping to take naps on the guardrail after hills: we had a very good time. 🙂
We are nearly done with this long and crazy adventurous trip and I’m tired, but sad that it’s finishing at the same time. So I discovered that if I made the most of my last days not only I won’t feel the length of every single mile or hill, but I also won’t regret how I used my time when it will be over.

Want an amazing day! We started form Oswego this morning and were heading to Watertown (NY). We rode the first 18 miles with two local cyclists who told us everything about the area and the most panoramic roads to take. Following that we took a break at mile 26 to have a cold drink and chat with whoever was coming by. Then we stopped to eat something and go for a swim at a wonderful beach on Lake Ontario and a couple of miles later we stopped again at a convenience store to have and iced-tea. It was pretty hilarious and I think I beat my record of unclipping my cleats from my pedals in one day. It was really hot all day long and as you can see from the picture, this area of New York State is really suffering under the dry conditions.
These are Ilene, Harry and Scott and they are all amazing people!
🙂