10 June 2005
Baltimore, MD to Albany, NY
No significant riding.
Finally, the planning is over and the fun begins.
JT and I arrived nearly simultaneously at BWI at roughly 7:45am for our
9:45am flight to Albany. We quickly checked in and headed for security.
A lot of people now wear sandals and flip-flops when they travel so
that they won't have to take off their shoes to get through the metal
detector. This is the first time I ever wore sandals to the airport,
but they "recommended" that I take them off. Nothing good happens when
you disregard the recommendations of the TSA people so I took them off.
I was more than a little annoyed though, because they let JT get
through with his sandals on.
The plane landed on time in Albany and we picked up our bags and headed
to the taxi stand. Ten minutes later we were at the Days Inn, but we
were way too early for our room to be ready so we dropped our bags and
headed to the Applebees at the Colonie Center Mall for lunch.
The weather was mostly cloudy and hot. When we emerged from the mall to
walk to the bike shop we found that it had just stopped raining. By the
time we reached the edge of the mall parking lot the ground was
noticeably drier...the shower appeared to be extremelylocalized.
Our bikes were ready when we got to CK
Cycles. The guy there said that ours were the best packed bikes he
had ever received. So kudos to the guys at the Annapolis Bike Doctor
for another safe and excellent bicycle shipping experience. The CK guys
are the first shop to ever install everything on the bikes properly,
and they charged only $20 per bike to unpack and build them up. Most
shops charge about $45. The only thing wrong was that both of JT's
tires were almost flat...probably because he hadn't pumped them up
since he last rode the bike in southern California last July.
We rode back to the hotel and checked in. On our first try we got a
smoking room but were able to change it. Then we spent some time
repacking our gear and preparing our bikes for the trip. Later we're
going to eat dinner--probably at the mall again--and maybe stop by the
local Barnes and Noble or Starbucks to try and mail off this report.
Meanwhile, there's not much to do but watch Law & Order.