Eyelids Hang Heavy

As soon as I entered the port of just over 8,000 people, Burger King was on the brain. Navigating through the little roads, and rather reckless New York drivers (an unfair stereotype), the big, blaring letters gleamed ahead; "BK". Josh eventually met me there and we began attempting to plan where to go next. Josh recommended a hotel.

Dreams of showers, television, wi-fi, and just being able to dream pranced around in my thoughts. I wanted to get further for the day... but then again I didn't care that much either.

The Erie Hotel & Restaraunt & Tiki Bar ... & Manor was like the social center of Port Jervis. After cleaning up a bit (clothes and bodies), we went downstairs to check out the Tiki Bar. 

"A pitcher of Budweiser, please", I asked the waitress. 

Flat-screen televisions lined the walls of the place and they would have been great if they were playing anything other than the local news. Instead, we watched the video of a six year old shooting victim with a blag bag draped over her body flash across eight different screens. After that, we got news of a group of teens killed in an auto accident by a careless driver; the video camera zoomed in on the mangled wreckage as pictures of the dead teens appeared on the bottom. 

I left to go take a nap in the room.

An hour or so later after futile attempts to rest, a rapping came from the hotel room door. Mike Hinchey was back from his bear excursion in the Pocono. With him walked our old friend Jordan Archibald, an ex resident of the Hinchey household.

We had a fun evening behaving like the old rascals of Cape May Court House. 

In the morning, we were out of the hotel by the ten o'clock deadline. Josh continued attatching panniers and bags to his bike as Mike and I cycled to a thrift store. I finally found the wool sweater I've been looking for. Quite literally the ugliest sweater of all time, I found it in a box marked "FREE" on the front. Victory.

Of course, we had Burger King for breakfast and I got a slight headstart out of the gate. A couchsurfer by the name of Katie Johnston was kind enough to take us in for the night so we had to cover 50 miles to the town of New Paltz. 

Katie was born in Salt Lake City, Utah but has been living in New Paltz the last five years studying metal arts. She's been working in the town of Woodstock about forty-five minutes north and spends most of her time rock climbing in the nearby Shawangunk Mountains. She's got a wild head of dreadlocks and a talent for listening patiently to people. Not too many of those types of people anymore. 

Traveling 50 miles in about five hours or so, I missed out on a lot of relaxing and side-activity time. Thus, I couldn't really tell you much about the ride other than it was through lots of green mountain ranges, farms, and pastures. The roads weren't much fun for there wasn't any shoulder much of the day and it seemed like every one was out for the weekend. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit better in those terms.

Food + beers at the local restaurant and a semi early bedtime for this guy.

Neversink River

0.o

Shawangunk Mountains; a very popular tourist climbing spot and one of Katie's favorite around.