2 Lefts

Today after 10 miles of riding we entered Ohio! Goodbye to the vineyards of upstate Pennsylvania and hello to the abandoned industrial plants of Ohio. The roads across the state line took a sharp turn for the worse. Whoever was leading spent much of their time waving their arms like a crazy person in order to warn the following rider of perils on the pavement. We had a slight headwind today but otherwise the weather was generally good. We saw very few hills and that's how I like it. Today's pedaling took us alongside Lake Erie for most of the day. We passed vacation towns where every other business was selling some kind of treat or fried food, and fancy neighborhoods where the residents have fenced off access to the lake so that the riffraff can't get in. We are undoubtedly riffraff. Today's lunch was brought to us courtesy of Mike's aunt Kellie, uncle Randy, and Subway. The Subway lady thought Mike's accent was Irish. Mike blamed it on his red beard but I thi...

Day two of our return to the saddle finds me having a molasses kind of morning. It often takes me a while to warm up and find my vigor so nothing too out of the ordinary there. We continued our trace of the edge of Lake Erie and rode through many miles of vineyards. Trees rise and recede on the view to our right and the wide expanse of the shining lake makes for a stunning view. The terrain is flattish with rolling hills and not too challenging. After a few thousand pedal strokes we made our first break in a small town called Barcelona. They have a marina, a pier, a boat launch, a small park near the water, and a lighthouse from the 1800's. Additionally, they have a restaurant tacked on to the side of a mini mart. Rach and I ordered the exact same meal: scrambled eggs, wheat toast, and home fries. The feel inside was very relaxing. It had a wood bar, few customers, tiny lighthouse figurines scattered about, and plenty of patriotic bunting. Soft rock played overhead on the speaker...

Yesterday was a wonderful rest day, mostly due to the lack of activity and the abundance of food. We did venture outside in order to procure more food and to mail yet more items back to San Diego. Earlier in the week Mike had purchased a waterproof stuff sack for his sleeping bag which meant he could send home his non-waterproof stuffsack and rain cover. Thanks to REI for putting a store right next to the bike path in Rochester. We explored the hotel's "fitness center". We mostly wanted to use the pool but also took time to figure out how the temperature controls for the sauna worked and to weigh ourselves on the gym's scales. Somehow we have both regained the weight that we previously lost. Not that it matters, we feel pretty healthy these days! Today we continued to make our way across the top of New York state. It is taking some time. However, we should make it into Pennsylvania tomorrow. We travelled through towns named after seemingly random European locations ...

Riding the Erie Canal bike trail was a rollicking good time. I hadn't considered it much at all previous to our arrival so it came as a welcome surprise. After being out in the mountains we knew the canal would be flat and we thought we'd going screaming along. We did, at first. The canal doesn't seem to handle too much industrial traffic these days, although we did see a barge or two. Mostly pleasure boats: powerboats big and small, kayakers, and jet skis. Some of the towns along the way are a delightful treat with all kinds of shops and vibrancy. Others don't seem to have found new industry or energy after their canal heyday. Directions were easy through this stretch and we had a lovely surprise as we took a bend near the outskirts of Rochester and stumbled on an REI right at the canal's edge. We bought a couple tent stakes and a new waterproof stuff sack for my sleeping bag. Figuring out directions, going off the route, searching around for stores - it can swal...

Today began with more farmland, farm buildings, farm machinery, and farm stands. Today's fruit was cherries. We've probably eaten 6 pounds of cherries in the last week so we declined to purchase any more. Despite camping less than a mile from Lake Ontario last night we didn't actually see the lake until 17 miles into today's ride. It is large. You-can't-see-the-other-side kind of large. There were plenty of boats out and about and we stopped to watch them at a lunch break in Sodas Point, a small holiday-type of town on the southern shore. Later we watched yet more boats from a large and beautiful park in Pultneyville. We like boats. There were also plenty of boats being pulled behind vehicles on the road but we like those kinds of boats less. In the afternoon the route took us away from the lake and inland, south towards the Erie Canal (Mike likes to call it the Spooky Canal). There are dirt bike trails alongside the canal and we'll be riding on these for almo...

The rain absolutely pelted down two nights ago. Thank goodness it was overnight when we were snug as a bug in a rug in a sleeping bag. We said adios to the throngs at the Old Forge Camping Resort and hit the road. (The place is owned by the same people who have a huge water park down the road. They run a private shuttle there in an old blue school bus.) We drifted out of the Adirondacks and the mountains that have besieged our lungs and legs. Early in the morning we rode a section on the Booneville road that defied time and motion. There were long disused cabins here and I imagined young families visiting in the 1960's, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonder bread for their children, arriving in lumbering station wagons paneled with wood. We searched for a place to take a break but the road had shed any homes or buildings at this point and stretched on for miles without distinction, pine trees on either side all exactly the same height. The asphalt seemed to be a tre...

A quick post today since it's already 9 pm. We stopped by the ADK Trading Post to publish a blog post on our way out of Long Lake. Today was hot again and the terrain was initially hilly, though not as mountainous as it has been in the past week. Lakes, forests, hills, rinse and repeat. As we cycled into the small town of Raquette Lake a lady in a car hailed Mike. Her name was Liz and she was a host on Warm Showers. She asked if we'd like to swim in the lake by her house, which was nearby. Why yes, yes, we would. We waded in and cooled off. The next small town was Inlet where we tried to find a new rack for my bike. They only had racks with two struts. Three struts or bust! I said thanks but I'm looking for something a little sturdier and I think the proprietor was a little offended. We pedaled on regardless. Our final town of the day was Old Forge. Their bike shop had some good rack options, including a very sturdy steel Surly rack for $140. I went for the Topeak Explo...