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Day 19: How to get sick

Westport, Mass., to Syracuse, N.Y.: 355 miles, 6 hours

1. Visit the Northeast in August, when temperatures and humidity are both in the 90s.

2. Get accustomed to breathing air that feels like it’s just risen off a boiling pot of water.

3. Spend plenty of time in homes and restaurants with air conditioning so strong that it feels like a February morning after a snowfall. When your skin begins to tingle with the onset of the freeze-drying process, you’ll feel the fog form in your lungs.

4. Repeat the process a few times, and you’ll soon have the worst cold of your life. In August. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to shiver and sneeze for a while.