Once again, I participated in the FANY ride. FANY stands for Five hundred miles Across New York, but is pronounced fanny as in what hurts after FANY. This makes my fifteenth time out of 18 possible. I missed 2003, 2010 and 2015 (although Jane and I visited the 2010 ride for the last few days). Links to our web pages of previous rides: 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, and 2001.

This year, there were somewhat more than 100 riders with a few taking advantage of the hotel option and several doing “Sore FANY” which is a ride to the half way point each day and then cycling the rest of the way. New this year was the half FANY option. Riders could join at Hamilton Wednesday evening and ride the last three days of the ride. Candace did this. A number were also taking advantage of Comfy Campers which provided and set up tents, air mattresses, morning coffee or some combination. Candace and I decided to do Comfy Campers because it greatly simplified the tent logistics for us.

I’ve updated my table of mileage and climb for each of the FANY rides.

With the low gearing I installed before the 2014 ride, I made it up every hill.

I followed the cue sheets (not counting missed turns or side trips) except on Thursday, we took a shortcut (on the cue sheet!) that saved about 13 miles. On Friday, due to the threat (which materialized!) of heavy rain, Karen (ride organizer) came up with a bail out option that was shorter by about 30 miles and much flatter.

My son Jeff lives in Saratoga Springs. I drove to Saratoga on Friday and spent the night with Jeff. On Saturday I parked my car in the lot at Skidmore and rode the bus with other FANY riders to Niagara Falls.

After we arrived back in Saratoga on the next Saturday, I joined Jeff, daughter Amy, visiting from Connecticut, and Lynne and (grew up with in Arizona) and Glen at the track. On Sunday, the six of us went to Lake George for a cruise and then toured the Yaddo Gardens in Saratoga Springs before having dinner at the Olde Bryan Inn.

The improved cue sheets continued this as Karen used ridewithgps.com to create them. In addition, the tracks were available for download to your GPS or smart phone. I downloaded the tracks and just followed the black line on my GPS. Riders using smart phones could get audio cues.

In the past, I made a separate photo album for each day. But without Jane, there just aren’t as many photos. So, all the photos are in a single album below.

Clicking on a picture sends you to the album. Within the album, clicking on a picture brings up a larger photo. You can also see a slide show. Sometimes the slide shows come up with small photos. Double clicking on “play slideshow” seems to help bring up the large photos.