Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
Albany to Schenectady, NY

July 3, 2005
Distance 30.3 Miles

This morning we returned to the same restaurant we had breakfast in yesterday to have the good oatmeal with raisins and strawberries. George and Jane want back to their room to watch the Tennis match and we started riding towards the Erie Canal. Only trouble we had forgotten to load the GPS so we had to pull into a parking lot and get out the computer and load the GPS. By then we both needed another potty stop, so we rode back to the motel. We finally started out around 9:30.We worked our way over to Cohoes and the start of the Erie Canalway Trail. We had some trouble finding the start of the trail, till a man in a wheel chair came out and gave us directions. Sure enough up the hill and under the overpass and we found the Trail. The trail was paved most of the way with trees on both sides, making it a cool fun place to be.

We did see several bicycles, walkers, and people on roller blades. We all appeared to enjoy the trail. Several times we could see the Canal from the trail.

On the bicycle trail from Cohoes to Schenectady, we were near roads for very short periods. As a result we did not stop for lunch until we reached Schenectady.

We arrived in Schenectady around 1:30. Needless to say Mary Kay was hungry we finally found a Burger King restaurant where we fed Mary Kay's stomach. After lunch we rode another ½ mile to the motel where we are spending the night. There were 2 motels one on each side of the street. We decided to try the least expensive motel. We checked in, even though the only non-smoking rooms were on the third floor. We then tried to get our bicycle in the elevator. It just would not fit; it needed to be about three inches shorter. The motel manager then suggested that we put the bicycle in the laundry room only his staff was busy working in there. So them he suggested that we just use their large room with a hot tub in the room with the bed. We had no objections, so tonight we are sharing the room with both bicycles. We will walk across to the expensive motel for dinner.