The long awaited sequel to the Fernandez Brothers' bike trip has arrived. This year we ride, camp, and dance our way through some legends of Northeastern folk culture. Hopefully, we will see you all at the dances. Better yet, come ride a segment with us!

Starting July 15th we will be keeping this page updated with our progress and our daily fails as those are usually the most interesting happenings. For those of you who are interested feel free to check up on us here and share any thoughts.

They say not to change anything before a big ride, so today I replaced my front brakes, front brake cable, rear brake pads and bike computer. Oh, and earlier this week I installed a new saddle. For Isaac's part he is having his chain and cassette replace and will also get a saddle upgrade before we depart. I guess there's nothing like contemplating a week of one-on-one time with your wheels for motivating overdue maintenance.

I've packed up everything on my list, including both pairs of underwear, and the weight doesn't feel too bad. Today I bought a new pair of lightweight pants to replace my largest, heaviest piece of clothing: the jeans. I'm looking forward to seeing The Steeldrivers tomorrow and meeting up with Isaac.

Today I did some surveillance work on our pending launch site. I can't recommend Grey Fox for it's contra, but it's a warm spirited music festival with something for everyone. While the execution wasn't perfect, the calling included some classics that deserve their reputation. The highlight of my day was, of course, The Steeldrivers on the main stage.

Since the mice Megan is traveling with are intolerant of summer days in the car, we gave them the grand festival tour in "the bus," a portable mouse cage that is better imagined than described. Every kid at the festival wanted to know about them, thus proving that adult fear of rodents is a learned trait. Mice aren't crazy about crowds of people either as it turns out.

The rolling terrain of the Catskills is intimidating and this won't be the last time I point out that the elevation gains this week are much more concerning to me than the distances. However, there's nothing to do now but pack up tomorrow, kick things off with the festival's questionable dancing, and start pedaling.

Walking out of Grey Fox today I was taken by that little bit of nervous energy that comes from challenging yourself. This should be possible, but there's real potential for failure. It's a good sign this should be satisfying. Still, at moments like that I tend to wonder what the purpose of these adventures is and with that thought in mind I passed by a cell phone conversation to catch the phrase, "Did you say sit and talk to me or shit and talk to me?" There it is folks, the magic going on in the world that I miss out on sitting at home every day. So, off we went to see the world.

Once packed up, our bikes we each heavy enough that we can barely lift them. We traveled approximately 0.5 miles from the festival when we had to make our first stop. In heaven. We discovered this sought after place actually exists in Oak Hill, NY and goes by the name The Yellow Deli. They serve things like frosty fruit smoothies in mason jars, lamb sandwiches with cucumber, and naturally sweetened diet sodas in an atmosphere of woodwork that might be found in a hobbit hole. Or, if you'd like, on the deck decorated with hanging planters overlooking bathers in the mountain creek. If I had only one afternoon in my life to spend in Oak Hill, there's no doubt I would spend it at The Yellow Deli instead of at Grey Fox.

The second leg of today's ride was approximately 100 times longer than the first and delivered us from the "Deli" to the "Alps" by way of the greater Albany area. Riding is hilly as promised and it was emphasized in the last 20% of the day where a gain of almost 1000' brought us back out of the Hudson River Valley. At Alps Family Campground we have a quiet site by the pond where frogs are singing us to sleep. Condensed chicken noodle soup slurped from the cans purchased at the campground store never tasted so good.

Today's mileage: 54miles

Sunday was another 54 mile day made notable by the pass over the 2200' Whitcomb Summit. At moments, the climb slowed to pedestrian speeds, but rolling over the top was richly rewarding and the race down into the wooded and shady Pioneer Valley was breathtaking. I can't say the ~4800' of climbing behind us has relaxed us about that ahead, but I'm gaining confidence. I think the best way to describe the slopes we're dealing with is to point out that we have had multiple excursions over 40 mph on the opposing descents. Isaac "always brake second" Fernandez holds the trip record at 42.5.

A blissful moment early today came upon encountering a roadside antique store and farm stand where we were served pints of fresh picked raspberries to be eaten in view of a mountain ridge with a stand of Berkshire wind generators. Later we experienced a momorable moment of local color. Sitting in a gas station parking lot draining cold beverages we watched a 20 year old Mitsubishi coupe with holes in the body panels experience a traffic stop because its plates were registered to another vehicle. As it turns out, the car in question was a new purchase whose registration had not yet been updated. Of course.

As tomorrow presents a similar challenge, we are hoping for an early start. I'm excited to for my first experience with a Nelson Monday dance since Nelson seems to be the seat of my beloved Monadnock Folklore Society. I just hope I have enough energy left to stay awake through the dance.

Daily mileage: 54

Trip total: 108mi

60 miles through Greenfield and Keene brought us Monday evening to the dance on top of the hill in Nelson, NH. With a quick stop, we added the Guiding Star Grange to our landmarks for this trip. The hill climbing seemed easier than yesterday because there was no one large feature and as we started early we were in Nelson before the end of the business day. I was excited to experience this well known Monday tradition. The dance was packed to the extent that dancing was limited. Add in the tendency for lines to drift in the direction of the slope of the floor and we had situations where lines were completely mingled. I appreciated that the Nelson dancers had a positive attitude about the inevitable crashes on the dance floor. It was also interesting the carefree style of the young crowd there appears to comfort new dancers because there were a lot of less experienced dancers for a dance in a relatively remote location. There was an appearance by Bob McQuillin and calling as if Steve Zakon-Anderson's style was being emulated by an auctioneer. I definitely have a better understanding of the barn raising phenomenon that is the Nelson Monday dance.

Now, if you had been observing us today you might have noticed a few things. Perhaps when we yelp getting on our bicycle you might assume this is an exclamation at the joy of riding. When we shift our weight in response to applying pressure to the pedal it could be in attempt to aid tired leg muscles. When we grimace at a bump in the road you might worry for the jostling of delicate gear in our bags. However, none of these explanations is correct. Instead, as a result of the... anatomically improved... design of the saddles we are using for the first time, the explanation is that any perturbation of our backsides brings the fire of a thousands angry schoolyard paddlings immediately to our consciousness. In fact, perhaps the only movement that doesn't induce pain is the gentle swing of the hammock.

Although I consider this the halfway point as it is the farthest distance we will be away from both the start and the end of our journey, we have another day of significant mileage before our scheduled "resting" day in the Amherst area. So today, with a grimace, we begin rolling out of the Monadnock region.

Monday's top speed: 42.5mph

Monday's mileage: 62

Monday total: 170 miles

After three days of riding and a night in the woods we decided a full strength cleanup was needed before we present ourselves to other dancers in Amherst. To accommodate this we rode straight to the town today and found a hotel and a laundry in walking distance of the dance. The ride was smooth retracing almost all of our path to Greenfield. We are grateful that good weather has served us faithfully thus far. College towns are always fun and I don't think I've been to this one in about seven years.

These accommodations have allowed us to continue the establishment of a bike trip tradition: the mid-week hotel grocery trip. We had already eaten at The Amherst Pub where the food is good, but the atmosphere is a little dark. Then we went to the grocery store where we bought corn muffins, blueberries, strawberries, tea, sports drinks, popcorn, oats, salsa, yogurt, sweet pepper, and a watermelon. We noticed half of these items would be less popular if everyone had to carry their own groceries home!

We are looking forward to a day of healing and the dance before Thursday's trek over the hills and back to New York.

Tuesday's top speed: 41mph

Tuesday's mileage: 60

Tuesday's trip total: 230 miles

It would be such tedium to fill every day with frivolity, but one can do so to any particular day with amazing ease and so we did with this day. In particular, we had a peacefully sunny moment on a bench outside the laundromat watching the town roll by this morning and feeling as if there were not a care in the world. After we did our laundry and ate the last of the leftover blueberries and strawberries, Isaac got his hair cut and we threaded through some Amherst boutiques. I've realized that the real reason people like to shop on vacation is more because there's no other time to do it than that it's all that entertaining.

Since we already had a thorough tour of UMass when Isaac was applying to colleges, we went after the next most interesting tourist attraction: the Emily Dickenson museum. The 90 minute tour of the two buildings on the museum property gave us a better idea of the context of Dickenson's work. The tour guide was very good, clearly knowledgeable beyond the job requirements, and a bit familiar. I was particularly taken by the state of the second house which has not been restored and is thus falling apart, but completely authentic. What does it say about us that we found the undecorated service areas of the house to be the most inviting?

For dinner we found a restaurant around the corner from the dance with a diverse menu and a house specialty of large popovers. This reminded us of being at home in Maine and raised the question of why ice cream served in popover's isn't more common.

Finally, we came to the Amherst dance for an excellent evening with Elixir and many familiar dancing faces including our tour guide from earlier in the day! This was an appetizing reminder of the sort of quality music and dancing in store for the weekend. As we told the story of our week, we found many kindred cycling spirits who we hope become riding friends in the future.

After the campsite we had a peaceful ride in the dark to the Westhampton KOA. We were thrilled to share our site with the Borazes who are also passing the time this week bound for the festival. This morning we are about to launch our final push over the mountains to Falcon Ridge!

Wednesday's mileage: 18

Trip mileage total: 248mi