Off Route (May 31)

Without much convincing, I dragged Dolly and Marilyn B. off route first thing this morning.  We made a slight detour near the start of the day to go to a National Historic Site - the Home and Presidential Library of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  We ended up spending about 3.5 hours there, so missed the SAG support and the sighting of other riders all day.  A good call, though.  They have a lovely visitor centre, the house that FDR called home throughout his life and a magnificent museum/education centre in the Presidential Library.  I would highly recommend this if you are ever in the area!

This is the living room/study/library in the house and you can see one of FDR's wheelchairs in the middle.

View from the back of the house looking towards the Hudson River.

The coach house and stables.

The gravesite and gardens.

Sculptures outside the library.

FDR with Dolly and Marilyn

Cutouts from the Berlin Wall.

Outside the library.

Inside the library.

As you can probably tell from the pictures above, our string of sunny days has come to an abrupt halt.  We were fortunate that most of the rain happened while we were inside the buildings.  Once back on the bikes we didn't need raingear until about the last 7 miles.  A cold front must have moved through while we were inside, though.  Much colder upon our return to our bikes, and down to 9C by the time we pulled in to the hotel.

Lots of hilly terrain again today, although there were only a few really rude grades.  We did about the first three miles on a bike path (Hudson Valley Rail Trail) and another eight miles near the end of the day (Harlem Valley Rail Trail).  In between, though, lots of ups and downs, often on pretty crappy road surfaces.  Lots of horse farms and rural scenery yet again.  No pictures, though, as we were trying to beat the rain and get in before dinner was served.  Oh yes - we've been passing a number of wineries the last few days.  Those in the know, though, claim that NY wine leaves a lot to be desired.

Oh - there was one more picture.  We entered Connecticut just a few miles from our destination.  Had to stop (on the uphill!) for the obligatory photo.

Stats for the day:
80 km from Highland NY to Lakeville CT.  We only added about 4 miles by going to the DR place.  Temp started at about 18C and went down to 9C by the time we were done.  About 2900 feet of climbing today.