New York 

Shabbat in Utica                                           September 8, 2001     

This week I’ve experienced more on each day of the ride than ever before in my life.  I left my house at 6am with a bike which was so heavy that I could not lift it fully loaded.  Yet only an hour later I’m powering that same bicycle up some of Manhattan’s steepest hills (yes there are hills in Manhattan).

On the 2nd day I crossed the Bear Mountain Bridge and continued along the East bank of the Hudson.  Here I passed through some wonderful towns, my favorite of which was Rienbeck.  These towns are small, and comfortable to be in (see my comments on suburbia).

There were pretty shops selling knickknacks and souvenirs but the charm lay in the town itself more than the goods.  I stopped for a bit to shop, and continued on into the country.  Beyond this the scenery was predominantly farmland with a few clusters of exurban development.

I spent the night in Albany and rode to Schenactedy (love the name) on a terrifying 6 lane roadway.   By that afternoon I reached the Erie Canal where I could relax and travel peacefully.  This stretch was the most wonderful portion of the entire trip.  I passed through grassy fields, marshes, and fun towns like Hamburg and Florida.  I even got to take a swim (ssshh don’t tell) in the canal near a picnic spot.  One evening when I was unable to find a spot along the bike lane, I was blessed to be offered a place to stay by Mr. and Mrs. Martuscellos.  I very much appreciated their hospitality.  Setting my sights on Utica as a rest stop for Shabbos, I calculated my daily distance to correspond with the remaining mileage.  I pushed myself extra hard to get into Utica before sundown.

Thank G-d though, I reached Utica by 4pm and got food before checking into a motel.  I even had time to chat with the manager for some time.  Then I hurriedly set up, davened and had a nice meal of bread and margarine, cottage cheese, and vegetables.

On Shabbat afternoon I lulled away the afternoon conversing with the manager beneath a canopy of tall pine trees.  I praised her for these majestic sentinels which had attracted me to the spot.

As I returned inland, it came time to stock up on foodstuffs.  So I headed into a local store and one of the employees invited me into the back room to watch the television.  I had no idea what could be so interesting on TV, but I had some time, so I went back to see what was going on.  Everyone in the country knows what I mean when I say that the sight of two planes crashing into the North and South towers made me feel like a rubber band with one end attached to the screen.  Like everyone else it was the shock of a lifetime.  While I had always felt that the buildings were an architectural travesty, I kept thinking of the people whom I'd met while working with the Port Authority, and wondered if they might have been late to work.  I eventually pulled my eyes from that screen because I had a much larger agenda.  It was my effort on this ride to help Americans prevent this from ever happening again.

I returned to the Canal and had a very wonderful trip.  It was amazing to see the waterway transform from canal, to marshland, to brook and back.  I also enjoyed seeing so many wonderfully quaint towns.  One incident which occurred at this point will be burned into my memory forever as the most awesome moment of my life.

As I was riding along the canal, I spotted two immense willows growing up along each side of the path, creating a small tunnel through the foliage.  I stopped to photograph this and then halted to dip my feet in the water.  There was no air traffic (due to Tuesday’s events) I heard no cars, and so the landscape was completely quiet.  I let my feet dangle in the cool water while I watched the foliage dip in and out of the water as the wind blew it.  There were saw small insects darting past my feet along the surface of the water like video game characters.  I wish that the moment could have lasted a lifetime.  But finally it was time to get up and let the sun whisk the droplets from my skin.

More to come soon