Rest day in Schenectady, NY

We took a planned day off today to do some touristy sight-seeing. We only have 5 planned riding days left before we arrive at our destination in Mashpee on Cape Cod. So, unless something unexpected happens, this is our last planned day off on this leg of our trip.

We rented a car and drove to nearby Albany to pick up a new bladder for my Camelbak hydration pack. The old one had developed a leak, resulting in cold Gatorade oozing into my shorts as we rode every day for the last several days. It's an experience I don't recommend. Then we drove to Cooperstown to tour the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was worthwhile, as we both have some interest in the sport (mine dropped dramatically after the players' strike of about 10 years ago). The drive down there, which took about 90 minutes, was just beautiful. It was primarily on Route 20, which was our originally planned route across New York. We were glad we were not riding it once we saw how hilly it was. We also drove through a hellacious thunderstorm on the return trip, which dropped several inches of hail on the highway. If we had been riding through that kind of storm, we probably would have thrown the bike in a ditch and gone looked for a hole to dive into.

There were a lot of kids also visiting the BHOF dressed in their Little League uniforms, with their coaches/adult chaperons similarly dressed. My favorite part was an exhibit of pictures of baseball in Cuba, including several pictures of kids playing the game in the street using a bottle cap in place of a ball.