It sometimes is good to break away from the ordinary, go some place new. I think it was the first time I ever went to Connecticut even if I didn’t spend much time there except for in the ever so woke country around Salisbury.
Driving home you could really smell the pungent honeysuckle along the road. Some cow manure and farm smells but not so much as manuring season has passed by in favor of planting as it’s already mid May. Ancram, Historic Farming Community the sign read. I was actually surprised how agricultural that part of Dutchess County really is – not all gentlemen farms and suburban sprawl unlike the part of Connecticut I explored. And winding along NY 82 in Ancram I smelled somebody burning garbage, lol! What burn ban? Hell yeah. No trash fires though when I drove past that homestead on NY 9W that years ago always had something burning back in the day – you know the folks who got in trouble with the town for having too many pigs and cows on their small acerage, even though it was pretty rural, but it just takes that one neighbor to cause trouble. Part of living rural is about freedom, and if that means a bit of stinky smoke or manure, then so be it.
Busing it to work as my bike is down for the week. With all the rain and the current going out, the Hudson River looks to have a very stiff current heading south. Glad I’m not on a kayak on the river today. I’ve kayaked the Hudson many times before, but today would not be day to do it, probably will still some shit mats floating on the river from all the rain. I was actually surprised how dry most of the trails I hiked after all the rain we’ve been having lately. It really was good hiking conditions. I think the breeze, the deep blue skies and the rock terrain of the Berkshires and Taconics meant things drained quickly.
I have all but one bolt off that disc brake on my bike. Struggling to get that one off, it is soaking in WD-40 and I will work on getting it off, hopefully not bugger it up any more. This was one of the things I was worried about, but I think I will free it up. If not, I will drill it out. Worse comes to worse, I’ll order another brake disc – they’re not expensive and the current one is worn. Not the first bolt I’ve ever stripped, but I’m getting better with shit like this. Maybe I’ll work on it tonight, but it’s a fairly nice evening, so I may want to instead lead the oil soak in another night, and be careful trying to pull it. Certainly not the first I might need some more drill bits – I’ll need them for widening the tire stem hole to the size of the Shrader valve, but then once the wheel comes in I should be able to get it installed over the weekend, and hopefully be back on road come next week.
I think I’ll go to the park after dinner, and read books on my phone until dusk. Enjoy the nice weather, closer to home, as I can’t ride anywhere. Walking isn’t a bad thing, though I do have a bit of a blister on my toe so I got to be careful how much I walk tonight. I do miss having the bike, and look forward to having it back on the road in the next week or so. Really the main issue is just waiting for the wheel to come in. I am actually kind of enjoying the change of pace, having a bike is nice but it seems like you feel like you constantly have to be riding places and that with it, walking is slow and pointless, even though walking is much more leisurely and works different parts of the body.
Looks like more rain for the coming weekend, so getting out of town doesn’t look that promising. The following weekend is Memorial Day Weekend, which is always horrific with the black flies, and my perception that all the good campsites go quickly, though I’m not sure that is true. Sure been a lot of rainy, buggy awful Memorial Day Weekends I’ve camped and pretended it was fun, but it kind of sucked. I am not so sold on it this year, indeed some years in more recent years, I’ve just skipped on it. Can always just take another long weekend in the summer.
Camping in campgrounds is not for me. It strikes me too much like my apartment or living in the city. I’m sure you’d be in big trouble if you shot some guns, burned some plastic wrappers and plates, listened to some music too loud or even spoke to loud. Or smoked some real smelly grass. Don’t forget you have to buy the firewood wrapped in plastic and quiet hours – that means complete silence is from 10-7 pm.
Such a high level of control and discipline is not for me. It’s not the wilderness experience I crave both when I stay up in the woods or when I own my homestead. I don’t want to smell my neighbors burning barrel but I want the freedom to burn whatever, have smelly livestock that produce manure, shoot guns and make as much noise as I want at the bonfire. Not just the suburban house next to a cornfield.
It won’t happen this year but I am getting closer. But in the meantime I won’t be camping in any campgrounds if I can at all avoid it.
All I can say is that Great Barrington through Salisbury is super woke and wealthy. Some farms along the way but most of them are a bit too prestine to look much like working farms, kind of the gentlemen farms where a handful of farm hands take care of beef cattle while the owners are gone Monday through Friday to work on Wall Street. New England is always kind of a woke and old fashioned compared to what you’d find in New York much less Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Definitely far from the Ward Brothers of Madison County. No burn barrels or run down trailers with a hog pen out back there to see. Just big mansions.
Earlier in the day I hiked Flag Rock overlooking Hossactonic Mass and then later Peeskawso Rock overlooking Agawam and Stockbridge. I was a bit nervous about the rock ledge on Peeskawso so I kept my distance from the ledge and didn’t go all the way to the top. Now I’m at Taconic State Park at the Harlem Valley Overlook. Checking out Rudd Pond next then heading to Rip Van Winkle bridge and if time allows will walk out on that. Then head home after stopping for toothpaste. I am glad I got away. Maybe I should have hiked some in Connecticut but nothing struck my fancy and time on All Trails compared to the Harlem Valley Overlook back in New York State.
As I push into my forties, I have this fear that I’m increasingly addicted to the ordinary, unwilling to try new things in favor of long established ways of doing things. I’ve stopped visiting new places, closing off my mind stuck in routine and the ordinary life.
the pungent honeysuckle 
along the road. Some cow manure and farm smells but not so much as manuring season has passed by in favor of planting 
as it’s already mid May. Ancram, Historic Farming Community the sign read. I was actually surprised how agricultural that part of Dutchess County really is – not all gentlemen farms and suburban sprawl unlike the part of Connecticut I explored. 
And winding along NY 82 in Ancram I smelled somebody burning garbage, lol! 
What burn ban? Hell yeah. No trash fires though when I drove past that homestead on NY 9W that years ago always had something burning back in the day – you know the folks who got in trouble with the town for having too many pigs and cows on their small acerage, even though it was pretty rural, but it just takes that one neighbor to cause trouble. 
Part of living rural is about freedom, and if that means a bit of stinky smoke or manure, then so be it.
as my bike 
is down for the week. With all the rain and the current going out, the Hudson River looks to have a very stiff current heading south. 
Glad I’m not on a kayak on the river today. I’ve kayaked the Hudson many times before, but today would not be day to do it, probably will still some shit mats floating on the river 
from all the rain. I was actually surprised how dry most of the trails I hiked 
after all the rain we’ve been having lately. It really was good hiking conditions. I think the breeze, the deep blue skies and the rock terrain of the Berkshires and Taconics meant things drained quickly.
off that disc brake on my bike. Struggling to get that one off, it is soaking in WD-40 and I will work on getting it off, hopefully not bugger it up any more. This was one of the things I was worried about, but I think I will free it up. If not, I will drill it out. Worse comes to worse, I’ll order another brake disc – they’re not expensive and the current one is worn. Not the first bolt I’ve ever stripped, but I’m getting better with shit like this. Maybe I’ll work on it tonight, but it’s a fairly nice evening, so I may want to instead lead the oil soak in another night, and be careful trying to pull it. Certainly not the first I might need some more drill bits – I’ll need them for widening the tire stem hole to the size of the Shrader valve, but then once the wheel comes in I should be able to get it installed over the weekend, and hopefully be back on road come next week. 
and read books on my phone until dusk. Enjoy the nice weather, closer to home, as I can’t ride anywhere. 
Walking isn’t a bad thing, though I do have a bit of a blister on my toe 
so I got to be careful how much I walk tonight. I do miss having the bike, and look forward to having it back on the road in the next week or so. Really the main issue is just waiting for the wheel to come in. I am actually kind of enjoying the change of pace, having a bike is nice but it seems like you feel like you constantly have to be riding places and that with it, walking is slow and pointless, even though walking is much more leisurely and works different parts of the body.
so getting out of town doesn’t look that promising. The following weekend is Memorial Day Weekend, which is always horrific with the black flies, 
and my perception that all the good campsites go quickly, though I’m not sure that is true. Sure been a lot of rainy, buggy awful Memorial Day Weekends I’ve camped and pretended it was fun, 
but it kind of sucked. I am not so sold on it this year, indeed some years in more recent years, I’ve just skipped on it. Can always just take another long weekend in the summer.
