Day 46

Little Falls, NY to Albany, NY -- 72 miles -- Today's ride was one of the easiest we've done the whole tour. The route was all on Route 5, a fairly flat highway along the banks of the Mohawk River. Our only official SAG stop was at the top of our only significant climb. The view from the top overlooked the river valley and countryside beyond and it was a beautiful sight. The weather was cloudy and cool most of the morning but we didn't get any rain, thank goodness. It's been raining most every night but over with by the time we start riding. Don Behrens' charity volunteers provided another SAG stop for us about 15 miles away from the finish. There was a large crowd gathered in the parking lot of Dunkin Donuts cheering and clapping for us as each one of rolled in. It was a nice welcome! Don personally led us on a route that he regularly rides and he promised there would be much less traffic and more scenic than the CrossRoads route. So with Tracy's permission, Don led us on a personal tour on a nice bike trail along the Mohawk River into Schenectady (where we saw Union College and some nice old buildings) and then into the Albany area. Tonight is our last official route rap at 5:45. It's starting to sink in that this will all be over with in three days. We still have two of the hardest days of the tour left to do tomorrow and Thursday. We ride from here to Brattleboro, VT over the Green Mountains (a BIG climbing day) and on Thursday, we ride from Brattleboro through New Hampshire and on into Burlington, MA, our final destination. Then it's all over except for the ceremonial ride to the Atlantic Ocean on Friday.