Day 67-68 Hogansburg to Mooer's Fork, NY to St. Albans, VT September 10-11, 2009

Day 67-68 Hogansburg to Mooer's Fork, NY to St. Albans, VT
September 10-11, 2009
100 Miles
3252 total miles

I didn't realize how fatigued I was until I woke this morning, 10 1/2 hours later. Last thing I remember was turning out the headlamp. Rip Van Winkle slept in New York, too. I rode the first day into a headwind, the edge of a system moving in from the Atlantic over the middle Atlantic states. Then camped out in Mooer's Fork at a campground that was all but closed for the season. One of the highlights of Thursday's ride was a visit to Dick's Country Store, Music Oasis and Gun City, where there is an amazing selection of guitars of every make and every musician's desire. Leave out the guns. Prominent in the photo of Dick's are a couple of windmills-- the stretch of high ground above the St. Lawrence Seaway between Chateaugay and Churubasco is filled with windmills turning above the tree canopy. Dozens of windmills, if not a hundred? I lost sight and count of them all!

Today, September 11, 2009 is the eighth anniversary of the tragedy that befell the world. Flags at half mast, sober reminders of our sorrows, flew across border stations, post offices and other public buildings. Perhaps my border experience is tempered a bit by my recognition of the very necessary job the border agents perform every day in helping assure our security. Recent convictions in Canada and UK of planned attacks on the CN Tower in Toronto, the Canadian parliament in Ottawa and the "Pop-Bottle" terrorists, give pause for thought. What is the destructive force behind these minds? What are the bridges we must rebuild to understanding the balance of the world that has been so poisoned to want to perform such terrible acts?