Canandaigua to Syracuse, New York

69 miles, 4:02 riding time, 2,509 feet climbing, 3,597 Calories

I've got a mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal

We haul'd some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay
We know every inch of the way
From Albany to Buffalo

Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge, yeah we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor
And you'll always know your pal
If ya ever navigated on the Erie Canal

It's Father's Day! It's also Willie's birthday - Happy B'day, Willie!

How do you like my new bike…er, trike?

When I went in search of my morning coffee, they had the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" playing in the reception area. Unfortunately, the weatherman didn't share Paul, John, Ringo, and George's sentiments.

It was drizzling when we left the hotel and it continued to rain for about an hour before stopping. We didn't have the gully washer rain we had the previous day, but the roads were wet and messy. There were periods of sprinkles and dry spells for the rest of the ride to Syracuse. More fl*ts today, but none for me. For some reason, people get more flats when it rains. Either we don't see debris in the rain, or the rain washes glass and wire onto the roadway.

Big Al and I burned up the road getting to the SAG stop, wanting to minimize our exposure to any possible rain. We slowed a little after that and caught up with Chris who had a mechanical problem. The three of us rode into the hotel together.

This part of New York is beautiful, with gently rolling hills, farm buildings, old barns, and tidy towns. We rode through Waterloo, birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866, and Seneca Falls, the home of Amelia Bloomer, suffragette. The highlight of the day, for me anyway, was crossing the Erie Canal!

We have now ridden more than three thousand miles across the U.S. Not much further to go before we are in Boston.

Hamburg to Canandaigua, New York

95 miles, 6:26 riding time, 5,000 feet of climb, 4,388 Calories
One FL*T

[My Garmin gps had issues in the rain, so the above figure for feet of climb is an estimate.]

"Rain, rain, go away
Come again some other day
We want to go outside and play
Come again some other day"

RAIN! It rained all day, a toad strangler of a rain, a deluge, a whale of a rain. I started the ride with Al, Chris, and Willie. Soon after the first SAG stop, I had a fl*t. As I was replacing the inner tube, Rick and Mack spotted me from one of the vehicles and stopped to loan me a floor pump, which was much appreciated. By the time I got back on the road, everyone else was long gone. I rode the last sixty-plus miles alone, in the rain. It would have been a gorgeous ride on a bright sunny day, good road surface, green hills, many dairies, and corn fields, but not so much fun with the rain pelting down. The hills were long and not too steep, but seemingly endless in the wet. As I neared the final turn for Canandaigua, I spotted Willie and Chris at the bottom of the hill; Willie was changing a tire. Chris said, he, too, had a fl*t - just before the second SAG stop. Al said, he had three fl*ts! Of the four of us that started together, all four of us had fl*ts in the rain! After Willie replaced the inner tube and inflated the tire, we rode in to the hotel together.

Canandaigua (kan-ahn-day-gwa) is Iroquois for "chosen spot" and was the site of the principal village of the Seneca tribe. Canandaigua is located in the Finger Lakes District, the largest wine producing part of New York.

Erie, Pennsylvania to Hamburg, New York

80 miles, 4:51 riding time, 1,664 feet of climb, 3,966 Calories

We left downtown Erie under threatening skies. Willie, Peter, Chris, Al and I rode together at the start of the ride. When it started to sprinkle, we all donned our jackets, only to take them off again a few miles down the road when the precipitation stopped. Our route took us along Lake Erie, but the lake was only visible from the road part of the time. The road paralleled the lake, with woods on the lake side and vineyards on the other. At mile 19, we left Pennsylvania and entered the great state of New York. (BTW, the shoulders on New York's roads are wonderful, wide and smooth.)

New Yorkers have similar tastes as the residents of states further west. Do they have flamingos in New York? How about a fifteen-feet-tall statue for your yard?

We met a couple of cyclists on the side of the road who are from Cleveland, Ohio, riding to Bangor, Maine. When they asked us where we started, they shook our hands.

Big Al and I finished the ride together, racing to beat the rain, which never came.

Trivia - the Erie County Fair, held in Hamburg in August is the second largest county fair in the U.S.

[Betsy - We ride the final eighteen miles from Burlington, MA, to Revere Beach, the morning of Friday, June 26.]

Erie, Pennsylvania - rest day

We are almost there! This is our last rest day. We only have six more days of riding before we get to Burlington, Massachusetts. Where did the past six weeks go? In some ways, Manhattan Beach seems a long time ago and, yet, only yesterday…

In my last blog, I forgot to mention that Peter started playing, "name the counties of England." Of course, neither Al nor I could name more than a few. I guess it was payback for "States' Capitals" that Al started the day before.

I think tomorrow's diversion should be bicycle haiku.

Five - seven - five

Wind pushes into me
I am a sail for the wrong
direction - headwind (Jonathan Neske)

The answer my friend
is not blowing in the wind
it's riding a bike (Jaberwock)

Yesterday, rain; today, it's drizzling in Erie. Early this morning, Ira and I walked down to the waterfront on Lake Erie, where we met Al coming the other way. A few blocks back up State Street was a Starbucks, my first of the trip. George was already there, reading about contract bridge, and Hank stopped in with his brother. Several other riders were out, on their way to the Laundromat or looking for breakfast. Amazingly, you could shoot a cannon down State Street without hitting anyone, on a Thursday morning, during rush hour! By far, there were more Cross Roads people on the street than Erie residents.

When I got back to the hotel, I spotted some of our group out front cleaning their bikes. I checked the forecast for tomorrow, 80% chance of precipitation, and just cleaned my bike's chain. It's almost time for my nap.

Wouldn't you know it, the wind is out of the west…on our day off!

Niles, Ohio to Erie, Pennsylvania

90 miles, 5:47 riding time, 1,264 feet of climbing, 4,426 Calories

"It's raining; it's pouring.
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed and bumped his head,
And he wouldn't get up in the morning."

As predicted, rain started falling this morning just as we were about to leave the hotel. The wind was blowing about 15 mph out of the SE, but we were spending most of the day riding north, so we finally got a helping breeze…did I mention it was raining? Shortly after leaving Niles, we were back in the country again, with lots of farms and few people. The route sheet said, "No services for 24.3 miles," and we had just left the hotel. Peter, Big Al, and I were taking it easy; Peter's knee has been bothering him for the past couple of days. Tom caught us and the four of us rode over some easy "rollers" and country roads into the first SAG stop, with Tom in the lead. At that point, Tom and Peter decided to call it a day and SAG into the hotel. George joined Al and me out of the rest stop, and we rode the next 34 miles together to the second and final SAG stop of the day. This SAG was at an old fashioned root beer stand that had opened in the same spot in 1955. They had the curtains down because of the rain, but I can imagine how nice it would be to sit on the stools, or in the garden out back, sipping root beer on a hot afternoon. Al and I left George, enjoying his root beer, and headed up the road in a pouring rain. Once we turned east towards Erie, riding became more challenging due to 20 mph winds out of the SE. We literally slogged into Erie, dodging potholes and water puddles. Although the lake was off to our left, we never did see the water. Al and I were the first riders to arrive at the hotel; several riders had opted not to continue riding in the rain and got into the SAG vehicles. There are crazy people and then there are the really crazy people like Al and me. There was mud in the bathtub after my shower!

I didn't take but four pictures today, due to the rain. We spotted a covered bridge (better bring a tape measure); George in his raingear; at the root beer stand; and Al at the Pennsylvania state line, in the rain.

I'm now sitting in my room, on the fifth floor of the Avalon Hotel in downtown Erie, with the wind howling outside and rain sheeting on my window. It's good to be out of the weather. Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day.

Wooster to Niles, Ohio

96 miles, 6:25 riding time, 3,456 feet of climbing, 4,595 Calories

Leaving Wooster, under partly cloudy skies, we encountered some more rollers, but not as long or steep as yesterday. We spent most of the day in what I would call rural residential neighborhoods - lots of nice homes and fewer small farms than before. There were several very large dairy farms, but most farms were quite small compared to the ones we were riding by further west. Our route sheets had us turning and twisting down narrow country roads, over hill and dale. It was a pleasant day to be on a bicycle despite a pesky east wind. We have ridden through Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and now Ohio without once having a west wind! The wind ALWAYS blows out of the west in these states, but not for us! What are the odds? Is a favoring wind, once in a while, too much to ask for?

Ok, what is it with the huge lawns? Every house has at least an acre of newly mowed lawn in front. Do these people have a fetish for riding mowers? Some of these lawns look like golf courses. Sorry, honey, I'm going out to mow the lawn - see you next Tuesday. They do look nice and nearly all the homes we have passed have been neatly kept and clean. Oh, one more observation, we haven't see any graffiti since leaving Los Angeles and there is very little litter along the roadsides in the heartland - very nice.

Niles, Ohio, is a former industrial center, iron, steel, and glass manufacturing. Many of these industries are now shuttered, but I did find the Niles Ironworks with a huge statue of a welder in the parking lot.

The cemetery in Niles had American flags marking the graves of her sons/daughters who had served in the military. It was a very moving sight to see the flags flying as I came into town.

At the second SAG stop, Rick pointed out this little spider who was centered in the Cannondale logo on my bicycle. Of course, I had to take a picture. I don't know when it got off, but it must have been somewhere south of Niles because it wasn't there when I got off the bike at the hotel.

As I walked into the hotel, Mary Lou S. introduced herself. In 1996, she and her daughter rode from LA to Boston. It turns out she knows Walter! It's a small world. Rain is forecast for tomorrow's ride into Erie…stay tuned.

Marysville to Wooster, Ohio

98 miles, 6:28 riding time, 3,582 feet of climbing, 4,794 Calories

"Bike" by MAL WEBB (2000)

Push on a pedal, push on a pedal / Get your (gasp) heart started
Push on a pedal / Push it down and up again
Get on your bike, sit on the seat / Push your feet on the pedals
And ride it all around / Ride it all around
Oh, get that car out of my way / I want to ride my bike today
It keeps me fit and gets me there / And won't go stinking up the air
Leave behind the daily grind / And let your mind unwind
If it's life you tend to like / You'd better get yourself a bike
Oh, oh, get yourself a bike

Today was another long day after yesterday's century - two centuries, back to back. Peter's knee was bothering him, so he, Al , nd I started out easy. After leaving Marysville, we returned to the winding country roads. As we move further east, we are seeing more trees and the farms are getting smaller and more frequent. The first seventy miles were either flat or rolling. Before the first SAG stop, we came to a bridge-out on our route. Margaret set up an impromptu SAG at the detour sign and we walked our bikes around the barriers and over what was left of the bridge. After the second SAG at mile 73, the rollers got much bigger and we had climbs of up to 12%, the steepest of the trip! For a while, we even got to ride in the shade of the trees hanging over the road, with the sweet aroma of honeysuckle in the air. We were in Amish country and I saw a few dressed in their black clothing and hats, but I did not take any pictures as that would be considered rude (thanks, Barbara). Al, Tom, and I raced to the hotel with Sue in hot pursuit.

Someone asked me about Sue's recumbent bicycle (see image above.)

Factoids: Wooster is an old manufacturing town. It used to be the headquarters for Rubbermaid Products. It is said that the first Christmas trees were introduced to Americans by a German immigrant who lived in Wooster.