Savta Tales - A Guest Post by my Grandma, Savta Naomi

Even though much is different, your trip fills me with memories.

Bike trips 70 years ago.

As is the way for old wives tales, let us start by saying that everything was different back then: Our bikes had no gears and there were no bike trails, yet there were much fewer cars and it was much easier to ride on the road. Side bags already existed, a little less fancy, yet they did their job.

Not a word about mobile phones and GPS. Who would have even dreamed?

Us four girls left for the big adventure: Esther, Mily, Emily, and myself. We took the train from New York to Albany. From Albany we left for a loop through seven states: New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

We fixed our path by the beautiful places we wanted to visit and by the hostels which luckily were adjacent to these places. The trip was in the fall, surrounded by the famous New England red foliage.

Four young girls riding alone must have seemed like easy and attractive prey and very quickly two enthusiastic guys had joined us. We were less enthusiastic. It took us five days to get rid of them, and Esther summarised: The exterminators dispensed with two bugs.

The photos show the four girls. The second photo also shows one of the guys. The other one was taking it. Selfies also didn't yet exist back then.