It is great to be writing from my hometown of Waterville, NY, formerly known as the Hop Capital of the World. I'm now at the Waterville Public Library, where a local troop of Eagle Scouts has planted hops as some kind of historical project on the front lawn. After close to 48 hours with no internet access (due to a forgotten iPhone charger, and a mysterious internet outage at my mom's house), I started getting some concerned phone calls and emails. Sorry about that, everyone, and thanks for being so attentive—it's nice to know people are looking out for me!

The lack of internet access was one of several factors that compelled me to put in my longest, hardest day of biking yet. After 70 miles of what were by far the hilliest roads I've traveled, I showed up at my mom's just as the sun was setting. I really didn't want to worry people by being on the road for another day without posting anything, and I knew that any public libraries where I might be able to get online would likely be closed for Labor Day. Furthermore, I thought it would be interesting to push myself a bit knowing that I have 3 days of rest coming afterward. I wanted to see what I was capable of.

On Route 20, the road that inspired this whole crazy idea to begin with, I discovered that in one short week I have turned into a biking machine. Every town along Route 20 is in a valley surrounded by huge hills, and as I conquered one after another I found they just don't bother me anymore, neither physically nor psychologically. I just go up them.

However, I was a bit sad not to have a charged up phone (which is also my camera) for the leg of the journey that I was most looking forward to. I truly love this 70-mile stretch of road with its singular mixture of natural beauty, dilapidated buildings, and roadside kitch, so I did my best to capture images mentally instead. Patches of red and gold sunflowers. Spectacular views of acres of rippling cornfields. A garish purple, pink, and yellow nail salon. Sweet corn, baby goats, and rusty air compressors for sale on the side of the road. Antiquated post offices with peeling paint. Sagging porches with dirty pastel sofas and broken toys. Fat grasshoppers, the kind that fly. The old ice cream shop with the giant milk bottle whose new proprietors colored it in red to make it resemble a wine carafe, and converted the place to an Italian restaurant.

Before I knew it, I'd arrived at The Tepee in Cherry Valley, a landmark I'd passed many times but never stopped to visit. Just in case I had second thoughts about going in, a sign on the lawn beckoned me with four words that sounded like heaven on earth:

HOT DOGS, COLD SODA.

After a brief wander through the gift shop to check out the various Native American clothing, jewelry, toys and gifts, I got down to business and ordered the special at Tepee Pete's Chow Wagon outside: 2 hot dogs, fries, and a grape soda. Pete offerred me a complimentary shot of his 7 spice chili, which requried signing a release form. One mouthful of the chili tasted delicious at first, but effectively burned my face off in the seconds to follow, so I enjoyed the rest in very small doses on my hot dogs and fries.

As I munched happily, Pete regaled me with stories of other interesting travelers who've passed by the Tepee over the years, most of whom make my own little bike excursion sound downright mundane. There was the recovering cocaine addict who walks all over the country carrying a cross on his back. His wife drives behind him in an RV, so he has a place to sleep each night, and he stops in at schools to discuss the pitfalls of drug use. Then there was the guy who rigged up his bike such that when he pedals forward, the bike goes backward. And my favorite, the guy who was riding coast to coast ON A UNICYCLE. A friend towed his gear on a bike.

As I finished eating a few other travelers stopped in and Pete tended to their lunch and face-burning needs. I chatted with a guy named Tyde, and when I lamented about my dead iPhone and inability to get pictures of the Tepee, he kindly whipped out his camera and took some action shots of me for the blog.

My next stop, I decided, was to be another Route 20 landmark that had always inspired me with curiosity: The Petrified Creatures Museum. I arrived shortly before closing time, so I opted to forgo the $9 admission fee to venture into the back yard where you can dig up your own fossils. Instead, I contented myself by admiring the fossils of one boisterous family with 4 or 5 little kids who had just come back from their own excavation, and browsing the museum shop which offered everything from plastic dinosaurs to dusty fossilized trilobytes to sparkly geodes. I purchased a creature, albeit not a petrified one: a golden sun star the size of my hand to add to my echinoderm collection. The proprietress let me have him for a mere $5 because he wouldn't seem to dry out in the damp case where he was kept.

I mentioned I was on a bike and asked her if she'd wrap the sun star up securely for me. As she did she asked me for details about my journey, each of which got a raised eyebrow and an emphatic "You're crazy!" in response. After a couple minutes she said, "Well, one guy came through here on a bicycle. At least you're not on a bicycle." I guess she thought by "bike" I meant "motorcycle."

"I AM on a bicycle."

"You're on a BICYCLE? A bicycle! You're REALLY crazy."

I told her about the guy on the unicycle.

I had more than 20 miles left to go after the Petrified Creatures Museum, and pressed on despite feeling genuinely tired and sore. In the last few miles, I experienced a sort of leg cramp that I'd never felt before, sort of an electrical sensation shooting down the muscle fibers in my quads that felt like someone was snapping a rubber band on them. I could barely walk when I got off the bike but it felt VERY good to shuffle up the front steps into my mom's kitchen and surprise her by showing up a day early.

So, I made it home. I'm glad to have a few days to spend with my family and friends, to rest and regroup, and am looking forward to venturing into truly uncharted territory. I'll likely take a break from blogging, but will try to get the rest of my videos and photos up this week. I'll be back on the road Saturday morning. Stay tuned!