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9/17/08 - Tribes Hill, NY - A heck of a day. The horses were hitched and I was on the road at about 8:40 am. The ride into Hagaman was fairly uneventful and pleasant. When I reached Hagaman, I had to abort my intended route that bypassed the cities of Hagaman and Amsterdam. There was a small, steep hill on the bypass with a road surface that didn’t give the team any traction with theirhorseshoes. The road was paved with an asphalt that contained recycled rubber. This surface was like ice for the steel horseshoes and didn’t provide enough traction for them to get up the hill. I had to break the teams out and tie them to a porch railing at a house down the hill. Several folks stopped by to help, including a photographer for the local paper, Pete Barber from the Gazette. The guys were very helpful in rolling the wagon back down the hill and into a driveway so I could rehitch the team. - Thanks Guys.
A little farther down the road, I stopped and gave a ride to Blanca, a nice lady who I had met earlier in the day. We had lunch on a nice piece of grass in the center of town and were joined by Pete Barber and a reporter from the Gazette.
On the road from Hagaman to Amsterdam, I stopped to talk to some nice people and let their children pet the horses. While stopped an lady pulled 75 feet ahead of me, in the middle of the road and opened her car door, which was promptly hit by a passing car. A few minutes later, I left on my way to Amsterdam. While stopped at a market, I was approached by a Sheriff Deputy who told me the lady said I hit her car. She must have been a Whacko, as 20 other people witnessed that she was at fault. The very kind Deputy left me a note saying that he’s going to stop by with coffee in the morning.
I’m now camped at a farm owned by Randy a couple miles west of Tribes Hill, NY. He and his girl friend Megan have gone out of their way to offer me their hospitality. I going to lay up here a day and rest the team. The team did a good 20 miles today and have been traveling four days without a day off.
It’s been a long day for me. I’ve met some really great people, had some difficult situations, traveled a lot of miles and ended up in a wonderful spot. Every day my faith in the goodness of the majority of people in this great country is reinforced.
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