According to the American Heritage dictionary (edited by my peerless brother Joe), the definition of amnesia is 'loss of memory'. According to Ginny, my wife, mother of my children, quilter nonpareil, and intermittent bike widow, the definition of amnesia is getting pregnant for a second time. For me, cycling fool and really bad lab rat, amnesia is taking another long distance bike ride.

Having all but forgotten the pain and frustration of last year's bicycling debacle, I am about to begin another tour. As luck would have it, my mother-in-law from Indiana has been talking about seeing Niagara Falls for some time. My wife, who is also Vacation Czar in our household, has arranged for her parents and sister Leah to meet up with our family in Niagara Falls. We will arrive first on Saturday so that way I can take in the Falls with my wife and kids on Sunday. The in-laws will arrive Sunday night. On Monday morning, I will bid them au revoir and hit the road on my trusty Tour Easy recumbent.

Originally the plan was to ride back home to Mount Vernon, Virginia just south of Washington DC, a distance of at least 580 miles. This is coincidentally just about exactly the distance of last year's ride. Now I may not be the sharpest cheddar in the fridge but I know this coincidence must be bad karma.

So with a stroke of sanity I dumped the Niagara to DC ride. After a day at the falls, I will hit the road due east on August 16. Yes, I'll be bound for Albany New York.

Try to contain your excitement please.

That's better, now read on.

As any school child worth his or her SOLs knows, Albany is the capital of New York State. In the early 1800s, it was one of the ten largest cities in the United States. Today, it's...not. Despite a bit of a renaissance in the 1980s, Albany, like much of Upstate New York, has seen better days.

For better or worse, Albany is my hometown. My mom still lives there and, despite forty-nine years of experience being my mother, she is willing to endure a visit from me. So I get to visit with Mom, gorge myself on her fabulous cream chicken on toast (I am a man of simple needs), and get to see her fabulous new wallpaper. Sound like darn good reasons for riding 320 odd miles, don't they?

And on the way I get to ride on some mighty nice roads. For some reason, despite the nasty winters, upstate New York has some bodacious bicycling roads. Unlike the Commonwealth of Virginia, they actually pave the shoulders in New York State. Outside of a handful of cities, the population density is surprisingly small, there are no coal trucks to speak of, and the scenery is to die for.

I plan to start at Niagara Falls, ride along New York bicycle Route 5 and the the New York State Barge Canal (a.k.a. the Erie Canal), pass just north of the Finger Lakes, and cruise for miles and miles in the Mohawk River valley. For those of you who are not gifted in things geographic, canals and river valleys mean nice flat roads.

Okay so it's not Puerto Vallarta. But it's not Troy either. (Close, but no cigar.)

So the trip is on.