Hank – I have to say that was the noisiest campground I’ve  ever camped in. Kids screaming, music playing, and crowds of people talking. It was louder than when we were camping on the 4th of July.  We were feeling wimpy so we decided to sleep in and get a late start as we try to find a place to stay the night. Stealth camping was even on the menu. As luck would have it, I finally got a real person on the phone instead if the answering machine at Battle Row Campground. They had tent sites available and so we were set. Off we went with about 45 miles to go and about 2,000 feet of climbing.

Traffic was even more intense but most of the roadways we followed had plenty of shoulder. Still, hours of traffic noise is very unpleasant. I’m really disliking riding through the northeast part of the country. So much congestion.

When we stopped for a late lunch three people from the big city rolled up on their touring bikes. They’re headed for the state park we left this morning. They were doing 70+ miles today. Pretty awesome.

We maneuvered our way to the campground and got there in time to set up camp and shower just before it got dark. 

We moved the picnic table closer to where we put the tent while unloading our bikes we put our panniers on the table. It didn’t take us long to find out the table was covered in ants. Despite my best efforts to clear them all out I still found a few outluers in the tent after we put everything inside. Such is life on road road, eh?

I have an aunt on Brooklyn whom I haven’t seen in maybe 40 years. I tried calling her but the number I had was disconnected. I called my mom who called my aunt in Florida who gave her the right number. I called Aunt Pat and we’ll be connecting with her tomorrow along with one or more cousins whom I’ve never met. That’ll be fun.

Kathy – Our 46 mile ride today was sunny in the high 60’s and low 70’s. It seemed like we climbed the entire day. The beautiful blue skies helped to distract my attention from the constant stream of cars and trucks that passed us during our ride today. Hank and I are both ready for the massive amounts of traffic on the roads to subside. Unfortunately we have a while to go before that happens. Tomorrow we ride into the heart of New York City. Long Island is really looong…it is taking us three days to ride from where the ferry dropped us off in Orient Point, N.Y. to Brooklyn, N.Y. We are hoping to see Hank’s Aunt Pat while in Brooklyn. Hank’s dad is from Brooklyn, N.Y. Overall It was a beautiful day to ride, but unfortunately monitoring the crazy traffic and all the climbing made it only a C+ day.