Day 03: Whitingham, VT to Troy NY Total Distance: 67.0 mi Moving Avg: 9.5 mph Moving Time: 7:02 Climbing Elev: 4100 ft Elev Gain: -1900 ft Route Summary: VT 100 S to VT 8 N to VT 9 W to NY 7 W to Troy, NY Well, another motel. Motels are really expensive. I'm not sure if I can really afford to keep staying in them. But I really didn't have much of a choice. I should have gone further north, to a state park. Oh well. Today was really not such a great day. It started with me sleeping in (again. I really have to stop) and not getting on the road till about 11:45. Then, there was a fair bit of climbing. By late in the day, I was really tired, and hungry. I stopped for dinner at around 4pm, and had a big meal. I think overall, my whole eating schedule was just off for the day, which meant I was tired and cranky all day. Sad face. Anyway, I tried to find a campground or a cheap motel between Bennington and Troy, but by the time it was late enough to stop, there was only a wasteland with no motels or campgrounds between me and Troy. Once I got to Troy, I found there were very few motels, and it is Renselear Alumni weekend or something, so the rates are even higher. On the pain front, my left knee was pretty bad in the morning. By later in the day, it was doing better, and I suspect it will be fine. However, my right Achilles tendon has started to hurt. I'm not really sure how to stretch that area, so we'll see how it goes. Tomorrow, I've got an alarm set, so hopefully I'll actually make it on to the road at a decent hour. And the hotel is serving breakfast. If I can get up early enought to eat it, that will help smooth out my daily nutrition. I'm too tired and cranky to deal will all the nightly chores, so I need to get up early enough to deal with them in the morning. Also, I find that I'm spending at least an hour (sometimes even two) doing route planning each night. It pays off the next day, but it would be really cool if I were following a published route. I suppose I could cut north and follow the ACA route, but I only have waypoints for it, not the actual maps. I should have bought those maps too. On the other hand, the route I'm taking has people to stay with on it (hopefully, I still need to call ahead, but I'm 3 and 4 days away from them). The software I'm using is really really cool though. I can't imagine what I'd do without it. From the looks of it, I think the next three days will be pretty easy days. I'm about 2.5 days from Syracuse, where I have (again, hopefully) a place to stay. I don't think I can make it in two days, so I'm taking three. This puts me a bit behind, but oh well. The past few days put me a bit ahead, so no biggie. Also, I'm getting towards flatter areas. I thought this part of NY was flat, but it turns out it still has a fair bit of up and down. Not as much as I dealt with these last couple days, but still enough to be annoying. Hopefully before too long it will be really flat, and I can make much more distance in a day. But now I really should get to bed, or I will have no hope of getting up on time tomorrow.