Soggy Bottom Days

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I'll be riding out of New York state this afternoon and I've hardly seen the sun peak out from behind the clouds yet. I've been on the road for eleven days and rained on for seven. Not a light rain, either. If you want to know what the weather has been like go put on a bicycle helmet, t-shirt, gym shorts and biking shoes. Put on a pair of glasses, too, even if you don't normally wear them.

Now go stand in the shower and turn it on full force. Be sure your glasses steam up so you can't see. That's what the riding has been like at times in this state.

It's causing a lot of soggy underwear.

Otherwise, the trip is going well. The roads in this state have the wide shoulders that make bicycling much, much safer. I've been passing through all kinds of quaint little towns and the people are very friendly, too. When I stopped for lunch today (after another downpour) a woman named Frances Griffith stopped to chat. Hearing that I was raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation she immediately reached in her purse and handed over a $10 bill.

A couple of days ago, I passed through the hometown of Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz, and noticed the sidewalks were actually made of yellow bricks. But I didn't stop to take any pictures--because it was raining. I also passed within a few miles of Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith uncovered the golden plates that became the Book of Mormon and launched a new religion. I didn't stop there, either. It was too damp and dreary. I did manage to stop in Seneca Falls to see the Women's Heritage Museum. Seneca Falls is the site of the first convention, in 1848, to begin the push for women's rights. It's hard to believe that for centuries the dumbest man on the face of the earth had more basic freedoms than the most talented woman. 

Sadly, it's true.

Harder than peddling a bicycle: some Mormons traveled from Missouri to Utah in 1846,
pulling all their possessions in handcarts.

That's one reason I've always been liberal: because conservatives have been freaking out about how change was going to destroy society for centuries. The convention at Seneca Falls was headed up by Elizabeth Cady Stanton; but Susan B. Anthony was not directly involved in the movement until 1851. After that, one historian has said, Stanton and Anthony were like "two drumsticks" keeping up a constant beat for equal rights. The contest was long and arduous, and defeats were common every year, but I've always liked Anthony's attitude. Asked once by a young female reporter if she expected to live to see women vote, she said no, but added, "Failure is impossible."

Not a bad way to look at the world--after she had persevered for more than fifty years.

Perseverance is always the key: So I'm going to go pedal some more.

If you would like to donate to help find a cure for type-1 diabetes please click HERE! 

(This single click takes you to my fund-raising page.  There, click again on "donate to this event."  Then click "Biking and Painting for Diabetes."