Scene 4: Don’t Let’s Start Missing Flights

https://open.spotify.com/track/2kGwIRvtl5Axrb8hzIruFb?si=0ca53bcdd0ff4759

We were up late last night, and I didn’t sleep well. I wake up starving and in need of more coffee than we have. We get enough made to get going. The only option is biking to the main drag of Woodstock for breakfast. There are a ton of great restaurants over there and several places for breakfast. We settle on Bread Alone, a cute bakery with general breakfast options. We know it’s going to rain but shouldn’t be as bad as Friday.

It’s really not. We’re damp when we arrive but not soaked. It is cold. Was supposed to be 35° overnight, which is wild. Happily I brought gloves for us, and we’re ok. I realize on the way there that we don’t have our bike lights or a hat or a lock. I am not functioning. At least it’s warm inside when we arrive. I’m ordering everything on the menu. Egg sandwiches and nut butter toast, made with a mix of almond, pecan, and cashew butters. This stuff is amazing!

Our movie continues inside the restaurant. There’s a group of folks with grey hair and Bernie stickers who obviously come here most Sundays. They feel like Friends a few decades later. There’s two women with two dogs at a table behind us. They are training them to be true service dogs, but these are not the first dogs in restaurants we’ve seen here.

The nut butter gives us new life, and Leslie buys us a couple of jars of it to take home. After a lot of coffee, we head back to the hotel to pack up and check out. We’ll have to check a bag with the nut butter, but we’ve got tons of time today.

Now it starts raining. Wow. It is pouring. I’m pretty sure that is sleet and mini hail that is crashing my sunglasses. The bikes are category one e-bikes. Basically normal bikes with some assist. No throttle to use without pedaling. The assist has gone out on one of them a couple of times. Jiggle the cord and it comes back after a bit. We’ve switched them out between us as these hills are serious without the assist.

We’re about a mile from the hotel, cold and soaked, when the assist goes out on mine. After three days of riding accumulating about eighty miles, and my legs are toast. Leslie offers to switch out in a parking lot but I’m so cold I’m scared to stop moving for fear I won’t be able to start again. We are a mess when we get back. Hot showers do nothing to our frozen legs. I’m carrying at least five pounds of water in my backpack in wet clothes.

The plan is to get to Poughkeepsie today, by Amtrak. Bikes are being picked up at the hotel by Outlook. We get an uber to Kingston. We’re in the middle of a lot of small towns. We need to get to Rhinecliff to get the train, but it’s pouring still and we just need a place to hold up for a bit. We pass the reservoir on the way and Leslie asks about the boats we saw yesterday. It’s the only mode of transportation we haven’t taken this weekend. We were on the lookout for one, and saw several rowboats on the water, but no signs of renting one. Justin tells us that you have to own a boat on the lake.

There’s apparently a limited number allowed, so each year some are abandoned and they auction them off in August. If you win the auction, it’s a scavenger hunt to go find your boat. He says it’s like geocaching, but you get a boat. This is hilarious as we were just talking about geocaching yesterday.

We land at Rough Draft, a bookstore/coffeehouse/bar in Kingston. We need this at home. It’s all my favorite things in one place. It’s also warm and dry which is a huge bonus for us. We decide that Poughkeepsie is just not in the cards this weekend. There’s a great bridge and views that we were going for but won’t be worth it in this weather. Besides, this place is awesome and a great way to pass a day people watching.

I suppose the director of this movie thought that we needed a callback. Who should appear walking into Rough Draft but Caleb from the bike shop. He greats us and asks about the ride he sent us on yesterday. Really nice to be able to thank him and talk about the great day.

He greats his friends; and after beers and coffee and pies, we decide it’s time to head back to Rhinecliff to get the Amtrak to Albany. We can’t get the train all the way to the airport, it’s a short uber ride and we have plenty of time.

When we arrive at the station there’s an announcement that our train is delayed fifteen minutes. No worries. Then thirty. Then it’s headed back the NYC with a mechanical issue. We need to get the next train which is due to arrive an hour after the original. Cool cool cool. We still have time. And now it’s late.

In just a few minutes we’ve gone from, “hey we can call my cousin when we get to Albany and hang for a bit” to “well, shit, we might be going home tomorrow.” There’s a flurry of back and forths with the lady at Amtrak. We somehow get more than half of our money back; and a little after four, we hear the announcement that our train is finally arriving. We head down to the track as we are told it is imminent. It’s cold out here and there’s still no train. Around 16:15, it finally arrives! We are crazy late, but assuming that the writers have just put this scene in for excitement.

Our flight starts boarding at 17:20 and we arrive in Albany just five minutes before that. I’m calling an Uber as we run through the train station. We’re still just over twenty minutes from the airport. Our driver sees us running out of the station. We tell him our conundrum, and he is in. “I got you, ladies. You will make your flight!” Buckle up because buddy is weaving through traffic and flying down the highway. We arrive in just seventeen minutes.

Security isn’t bad, and we are waiting for our bags just a couple moments later. Leslie’s bag gets pulled for inspection. They pull out her lacrosse ball, and we’re elated. Then our dreams are crushed when the agent pulls out our two delicious jars of mixed nut butter. He offers to let us give them to someone outside or get out of line and go check the bag. Wild offers from TSA, but our zones have already boarded. Thank goodness Albany is a small airport. Leslie basically demands that the guy give the nut butter to someone who will use it and not throw it away. IT’S TOO DELICIOUS TO WASTE! We are absolutely in a movie right now.

We walk up to our gate as the last zones are boarding and walk straight on. Timing is everything and ours has been perfect all weekend. What an amazing whirlwind of a movie this has been. A buddy comedy for sure. Thanks, friend! Looking forward to the sequel!