Hanging with Robin and Sweetbryar

Our destination today was Woodstock NY. There are many towns of that name in the US, but this is the one that gave its name to the Woodsfock Festival of 1969 - although the festival itself was held on a farm 46 miles away.

We programmed our GPS to take us from Great Barrington, MA to Woodstock, NY. It said it was 42 miles west (as the crow flies). As we rode out the Sky Top Motel, Chris noticed the actual road distance to Woodstock (by the shortest route) was being shown as 94 miles. We stopped in the middle of the drive and tried to sort this out. It turns out the GPS wanted us to go via Albany, about 40 miles north of both our starting and finishing points. We tried programming it to take the fastest route - still via Albany! I put in a town between Great Barrington and Woodstock as a via point, and that blew the road distance out to 122 miles - still going via Albany..

The manager of the motel saw us parked in the middle of his driveway, and came out to help. He had a detailed map. It was easy. We needed to take 27 west from Great Barrington to Hudson (situated on the Hudson River) and then turn south on 9.

At Hudson we told the GPS we wanted to go to Woodstock. By this time it was no longer insisting we detour north, and found us the shortest way there - down windy roads, through some beautiful country.

We didn't have Robin and Sweetbryar's address, but Chris thought he might be able to find it again after being there in 2006. Heading out of town for a mile or so and looking for a road on the left, he gave up and we turned back into the centre of the town to find a WiFi hotspot to check for any email from Robin.
The coffee shop entertained people that mentioned ,"I have a gig on tonight.","artwork","painting","drums".
Many other places have a small art community but you soon realise that this place has a saturation of friendly, supportive, weird art people- all of them. They all know each other and have a culture of supporting the local organic markets and stores. When times are tough some survive quite well (even luxuriously if caviar is involved) by exchanging goods for services. They are as colourful as the sunflowers that grow in their gardens.

Sure enough, there was an email from Robin with his address. It was in the direction that Chris remembered it, except further along the road.

We were given a generous welcome. Robin and Chris are very different in many ways. For example Robin and his family are wonderful musicians - while Chris doesn't have a musical bone in his body. However they both joined the original ArtMetal list server around the same time (in 1994), and both have a similar sense of humour - think Goons, Monty Python, Looney Tunes...

We were soon bouncing off each other's jokes and laughing till it hurt - well at least it hurt Chris, who's chest is congested at the moment.

After a few hours and a few beers, Robyn took up my offer to have a ride on the bike - the first person so far on this trip! He brought out his own leather jacket. He looked the genuine article. Fonzie has competition. Perfect in every way.

Sweetbryar waited patiently for her man to return. (If he wasn't quick, another biker might pick her up.) 

She loves red shoes.

We took off quietly down the road heading out of Woodstock for a short distance before Chris opened it up. Even with two up and all our baggage on the bike, it is no slouch.

After Robin dismounted and composed himself, we left. It was necessary to find a motel and clean up.

Robin and Sweetbryar came to our motel later and took us to dinner in their car. It was so good not to have to ride for once. We ate at "the Duck", aka le Canard Enchaine. Elegant food in an elegant restaurant. We had a fabulous evening.

 It ended too soon. We said our farewells at the motel.