We left Millerton after a nice breakfast at the B&B. The trouble with luxurious lodgings is that we don’t want to leave. We didn’t get out of town until after 9:00. Of course, the day started with yet another kick-ass climb, but it was beautiful rural farm country in Dutchess County, New York. The weather was cooler than it has been, actually feeling a bit chilly on long downhills. We did get a taste of what we hope is to come when we had a 9 mile run along the valley into Stanfordville that was nearly flat. We made the best time of any nine contiguous miles on the whole trip covering the distance in about 40 minutes.

After that we had some more hills to climb as we made our way west to Rhinebeck. Rhinebeck is a beautiful old town on the east bank of the Hudson. We stopped here for lunch, then headed south along Rt 9 making our way past the old Vanderbilt Mansion until we arrived at the FDR home in Hyde Park. We got off the bikes and spent a couple of hours here including taking the guided tour of the home.

It was about 4:00 when we left the Roosevelt home, then we made our way south along Rt 9 again until we got to Poughkeepsie. The maps we have from Adventure Cycling Association include a small detail map which purported to show all the roads we needed to navigate in order to access the sidewalk to cross the Hudson River on the Mid-Hudson Bridge, but the map was a bit small for my old eyes so we missed one turn and had to backtrack. Nevertheless we managed the feat without undue issues and found ourselves high above the Hudson River with panoramic views north and south. It’s a view you can’t enjoy from a car as cars can’t stop halfway across the bridge and get out and look around.

Once we crossed the Hudson we continued west to New Paltz, where we are now staying in the New Paltz Hostel. We covered 61 miles today, which is pretty good since we spent a couple of hours playing tourist instead of cycling this afternoon. Hopefully the terrain will become a little less vertical now and we will start getting some decent mileage days in so we can stop thinking about miles and schedules so much and just enjoy the riding more.

The weather was just about perfect today and we can only hope for more of the same. Oh, and we are now 263 miles from home.