The Rip Van Winkle Bridge over the Hudson River is visible from Beattie Powers Place in Catskill, NY.

We checked on my mom’s car, parked in Hudson’s Columbia Memorial Hospital, before I took her home.

She wouldn’t be driving for a bit, so I explained how I would return her car to her house in the Northern Catskills. The plan didn’t really make sense to her, but the plan wouldn’t make sense to many people.

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The next morning, when I pulled into the driveway of her Haines Falls home with my bike on the back of my car, my mom understood the plan. “You’re going to bike to Hudson?” she said and I nodded.

“Woo-hoo!” she said, “Adventure!” and raised her fist in the air.

I’ve driven state Route 23A between Haines Falls and Palenville hundreds of times but never ridden it on a bike. The road drops over 1,000 feet in a few short miles and the knobby tires of my mountain........

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