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First, an apology to my devoted fans. It's been four days since I've posted anything, which is longer than I've let it go since I started this website. Nothing's wrong, just a bunch of little things that got in the way. e.g. The trip to Niagra Falls kept us out really late, and we went straight to bed. Or yesterday's rain meant I had to do laundry and clean my bike, and then I spent over an hour on the phone. No one has enough free time, even when they're on vacation. Now back to the travelogue... This was a really leisurely day. It was raining when we got up, so luggage load was pushed back until after breakfast, which was itself at the unusually late hour of 7:00. Andy and I didn't get on the road until 8:00, by which point the rain had stopped. We were in the Finger Lakes region, which is really pretty, and Bruce had warned us that the hotel was in the middle of nowhere, with no food around, so we were in no hurry to get there. It did rain on us a couple times, but it was no big deal. For one thing, it wasn't all that heavy; for another, we were prepared. Between the wet roads and the road-grinding project (the first 7 miles of the trip), there were a lot of flat tires. Simply, you pick up a lot more stuff when your tires are wet. Andy and I got a flat apiece within two miles of each other, on the way into Geneva. In Geneva, we followed a bike path through a park along the shore of Seneca Lake, but there wasn't an exit from the park at the other end. Rather than go back, we found a foot-path that went beside the railroad track, around the chain-link fence, and out under the underpass. It was there that Andy's tire exploded, while he was just standing there. I have to guess that it wasn't seated properly on the rim, because the tire itself was okay, but the tube had a foot-long gash. The luggage truck was passing just at that time, so we flagged them down, and had an impromptu sag stop/tire changing party. Because we were in no hurry to get to the hotel. With all the delays, we didn't get to Mac's Drive-In (at mile 20) until 11:00, when they opened. This and the White Turkey Drive-In (see day 43) seem to be the only surviving Richardson's Root Beer stands. Mac's didn't do quite as artful a presentation on the root beer float, but it was still good. Waterloo was marked on the cue sheet as "birthplace of Memorial Day," but I didn't see anything about that in the town. Seneca Falls is the "birthplace of women's rights," and there was a National Park right on the main street, so it was pretty hard to miss. The first Women's Rights Convention, held there in 1848, passed a Declaration of Sentiments modeled on the Declaration of Independence, which declared that "all men and women are created equal," and which enumerated specific rights, including the right to vote. Seneca Falls is also a neat little town, with lots of other historical buildings. Past Skaneateles Lake, we were more out on country roads in farm country. Bruce had warned us that there wouldn't be any food along there, but you just have to know what to look for, like a "Restaurant" sign. There weren't a lot, but they were there. After I got in, I hosed down my bike for the first time since Winnemucca. The wet roads, and especially the dirty wet roads at the beginning, kicked up a lot of mud and stuff all over the bike. |
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