A 5:30am sunrise wake up, gifted the group time to explore the old ice house site on the banks of the Hudson. The sun rose over the trees, sparkling through the leaves to shine on our pavilion protected row of tents. We meandered through a Nutella, peanut butter and bread breakfast, sleepily stumbling through another long conversation. After waiting for the rainy weather to let up, we followed the two points (Juliet and Gabe) to The Store, a half convenience store half coffee stop. Here a couple trekkers made their first phone calls home while the rest of the group nerdily talked about our all time favorite books and movies. We also did some yoga and stretching, then headed out to our next stop, Aldi just outside Albany. Sitting in the parking lot around sourdough sandwiches, cucumbers, yogurt and sweet potato chips, the group played two truths and a lie with some comical laughter from everyone. With full bellies and some newfound face masks and nail polish for our spa night, we journeyed off to the Holiday Inn Express hotel where we started laundry in hopes of quelling the stinkiness of our panniers. More fun calls home to parents and some showers later we descended to search for a dinner spot. A Thai restaurant on a cobblestone street in downtown Albany served us a scrumptious dinner of pad Thai, pad see ew, and various curries. Returning to the hotel we piled into the guys room for a “spa night”, applying face masks and nail polish with more peals of laughter filling the room. We finished off an extraordinary day with another circle to review the highs and lows of the day. Looking forward to exploring “small”bany tomorrow!
