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Every few years, we try to organize a "Grand Road Trip". This year's ride was a modern reenactment of the classic Virgil tale of the founding of Rome by Trojan survivors of the Greek sack of their home -- a journey through upstate New York, with a baseball and history twist.

Our trip began with a road trip to Troy (home of Uncle Sam), complete with an evening of minor league baseball. The following morning we set out to explore the Erie Canal, mostly via bike paths that have been established along its banks. It was remarkable how the world went quiet as we got onto the canal path. Particularly during the first 40 miles to Amsterdam, the canal path went through trees, and even though we knew "civilization" was close by, we felt in a world of our own. Mike provided musical entertainment with the Erie Canal song and other favorites. After Amsterdam the trail turned to gravel, and we shifted onto paved roads, ending the day in Cooperstown, with an "apres bike" trip to a 160 year old cider press (amazing cider, highly recommended!)

Day 2 was a easy loop of Lake Otsego (aka "Glimmerglass"), followed by a run down the Susquehanna River (headwaters in Cooperstown) to the Cooperstown (the "Old Slugger" is highly recommended) and Ommegang Breweries. Lunch at the Ommegang was an event, which we followed with a visit to the Cooperstown Distillery (the lilac infused gin was awesome!) and (of course) the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Loaded down with liquor, we headed for our final day, back down into the river valley to end at Fort Stanwix in Rome. We enjoyed a stop at the Revolutionary War battlefield at Oriskany (the bloodiest day of fighting of the war, the Americans lost 650 out of 800 troops following a Mohawk and British ambush). Mike and Alex enjoyed flying down Route 28 at 40 mph. And we all finished the day looking a little tired, but looking forward to our next big adventure.