August 1, 2015
My apologies for not keeping the blog updated.
It’s been a busy and challenging 6 months. I’ve sat down to write an update three times since February and the story just keeps growing and growing. I’ve decided that I need to get back to posting weekly so sit back, and hang on. We’re jumping head first into the middle of my crazy life and I’ll try to finish up the big story soon.
Ride in the Catskills
July 31, 2015
Today was a day for celebration. Lexie’s tumors are gone. YES gone! It’s the first time since I found out about her cancer that my hopes were up. I’ve been living day to day since we got the diagnosis back at the end of February and for the first time I can look forward more than tomorrow. While she was originally given three to six months to live, we’ve long since surpassed that three month mark and are closing in on the six month date now. For the first time since February 25th, Lexie does not have any tumors. So how does one celebrate this milestone? We Ride!
Lexie has loved to ride since the first time I put her on a bike at 3 yrs old and there is no better way to celebrate than to do what she loves to do. So I took Lexie, her Mommy Arlene and I we went riding through the Catskills of New York. Our destination was simple. I wanted to get a picture at the Big Indian sign and then from there we’d play it by ear or rather eye. If a road looked interesting, turn on it.
The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but the most enjoyable route rarely involves straight lines so once I had us all loaded up on the bike, I headed North on the Taconic State Parkway beginning at the Northern most tip of its path through Westchester up into Dutchess County.
The Taconic State Parkway is a pleasant road to ride on once you leave Westchester County that is. Its full of historic significance for New York and the area I grew up in. The Parkway was the dream of Robert Moses and Theodore Roosevelt, not as a joint effort, but as two men fighting over their own individual idea for it.Most people who travel it today do not have any idea just how involved or important this road was to New York. While the Taconic never did make it all the way to Canada as Roosevelt wanted ( it ends today just south of Albany, NY) it did hold the record for the longest steel suspension bridge in the world at the time of its build but what I think is more amazing is the bridle path that use to occupy the center median. Another little known fact is that it was supposed to be built along the Hudson River (another idea by Roosevelt), not the Taconic Mountain Range (Robert Moses’s idea) where it is today. Today, people just think of it as another highway, it is anything but a highway and it played an important roll in the politics of its time.
So off we went winding our way through the Peekskill Hollow, past the old Fahnestock Ski Area where I had learned to ski as a child, out of Putnam County and into Dutchess were I lived and worked for 6 years. The sky was beautiful with big puffy white clouds and plenty of sunshine as we approached our exit at Bulls Head Rd. in Clinton Corners, NY. I had my choice of routs, but I picked Bulls Head Rd because this is also the first exit I had ever pulled over to let Lexie walk and do her business on our first trip together some 11 years earlier. Today we would not be stopping, but rather taking a left off the exit and making our way West toward Rhinebeck, NY where we would pick up RT 199 and ride across the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. From there we would pick up 209 South to 28 West but here is where having a good eye or intuition or just the desire to be somewhere different pays off. I’ve traveled Rt 28 many times and this time I saw a sign for 28A and 
decided to see where 28A would take us so I took a left and let this new world unveil itself to us and boy did it ever. Rather than take us along the Northern route around the Ashokan Reservoir, 28A led us along the Southern route proving to be much more spectacular, much less traveled.
From there we got back onto RT 28 and took that into Big Indian, New York. Those the follow me on Facebook know that I am of Wampanoag decent and have recently been entertaining people with my Native American clothing aka a Breechcloth. I could not think of a better photo op than to pose with the Big Indian sign in my Native American attire. So that’s what we did.
After a few pictures we headed West looking for some more interesting roads. I saw a sign with an arrow saying Big Indian so we headed down that road. The sign pointed to s store than had gone out of business, but the road proved to be the highlight of the trip. Rt 47 winds south out of Big Indian, NY along the eastern edge of Big Indian Wilderness and ends in Claryville, NY. If you ride and even if you just drive, this is one beautiful road. It follows the Espous Creek and then the West Branch Neversink River the entire route which provides for numerous swimming and fishing holes all along its 20.6 mile length.
Just south of the YMCA I came across another bike on the side of the road. I stopped to see if he needed help, but he was just taking a break. We exchanged stories, he took some pictures of Lexie and then off we went. One cannot or rather, should not take this route without stopping for a dip or to do some fishing.
I chose the former and Lexie and I took a dip 
in the water just North of Claryville right were the road crosses over the river. It was a beautiful spot to stop, take a break and jump in, but be warned, get too close to the river and the ground is soft and sandy which was no problem for the BMW R1200 GSA but might prove troublesome to other bikes.
Our trip had begun just before noon and we were fast approaching 5pm so we decided to start making our way home, but not in any direct or hurried form. Rather, we just kind of headed toward home. From Claryville we headed south to Grahamsville and then took RT 42 through Woodbourne, Fallsburg, Kiamesha Lake and finally down into Monticello. That section of road was very interesting. Heavily populated with the Hasidic Jewish community, it truly felt like we were in another country. Everything from the building to the stores had a very different feel. Some might feel uncomfortable in this type of environment, but I love seeing such a drastic cultural difference. I’ll have to plan a trip back to this area to sample its fair.
Dinnertime was now upon us and we had just gotten on my least favorite road for the day – Rt 17. Rt 17 might as well be an interstate. A 6 lane divided highway with average speeds topping 75mph. Quite a contrast from earlier in the day when we were navigating the back roads through the Catskills, exploring dirt roads and meandering down gravel roads. Thought the BMW is capable of this kind of riding, Lexie and I have traveled all over the country on roads like this and I much prefer the slow pace of the road less traveled today over the rapid fire speeds of the interstate. Besides, all Interstate roads look identical.
I pulled off in Monroe to check out Jake’s Wayback Burgers. Never having been to one, I thought it was something a little more upscale, but while it was not what I expected, its burgers were delicious. I had ordered an All American Burger and enjoyed every last juicy bite. Lexie had taken a few bites of her food and decided she would rather wait till we got home to finish so we cleaned up, packed up and then right before we were ready to make tracks toward Bear Mountain, Arlene gets an alert on her phone that a major accident had just closed the Bear Mountain Parkway. We had to decide if we would ride further south across the TappanZee Bridge, further North across the Newburgh Beacon Bridge or chance it and hope it cleared before we got there. Not knowing where it was closed, I would have the option of taking Rt 9D north if the bridge was still passable so we decided to head toward Bear Mountain anyway and give it a shot.
Sunset was now upon us as we hit Bear Mountain and we lucked out, the accident was cleared and the road wide open. The sunset views were spectacular as we wound down the Bear Mountain toll road. We arrived back home at exactly 8pm. Lexie was so happy and proud to be perched up upon her bike and enjoyed every moment of this 215 mile 8 hour ride to celebrate the success of her treatment. The following morning, we’d be returning home to Vermont where we’ll await the next round of Chemo in two weeks.
