We are talking about driving to upstate NY by Labor Day. The bus won’t be ready until midday tomorrow and there is still some work to do, meaning at best we leave Friday late afternoon and potentially Saturday. That’s 15 total days. We don’t go over 60 and like to avoid major highways.

A nice looking route which meets the criteria is 47 hours of driving, about 4 hours per day. That’s more like 6 for us, at least on some days. Then what about where to camp? Add maybe an hour more. Or, if we stay in hotels en route, we are trading time for money.

Sounds like something unpleasant frankly. Maybe split up? Mme Awesome flies to NY some time between here and there, and I finish the drive solo? Or a couple of epically long days to make for elbow room? It’s going to be one of those times when no option is particularly great and we have to make the hard choice.

We took a nice bike ride along the Rio Grande today. Option one, on the west bank, was a paved path totally in the sun; option two, east side of course, was a semi twisty, shaded singletrack. We of course made the right choice.

Of note were the several road runners. One, zooming along with feet too fast to see, appeared about to run head on into a fence. Then, with a few swift flaps, gracefully cleared the barrier. None of them yet have made that beep beep from the famous cartoon.

We had a nice lunch out at Annapurna with the whole crew, courtesy of M B. Thank you sir.