What will I do tomorrow?

When I signed up for this trip, I thought to myself that I hadn't been ready for previous, shorter trips

to end, but after a month I surely would have had enough.  Not so.  I could start the trip all over again tomorrow.  Of course, from Boston the prevailing winds are from the wrong direction, so I guess I have to get on the bus back to Washington tomorrow.

Our final day was an absolutely perfect day for biking.  We rode 57 miles into Boston on our longest cue sheet of the trip, 105 turns!  It was a great route, as it kept us off of main roads, while taking us past Lexington and Concord, through woods, along ponds and rivers, and past many lovely historic houses.  It just wasn't long enough.

I have enjoyed writing my blog, thinking about what makes each day special for me, and trying to share  at least some of it.  What I can't convey is the friendship and comradrie of the group, from the help with bike problems, spreading word of good places to shop, having someone ask if you have laundry because he is heading to the laundromat, or just sitting together and reviewing the highlights, and sometimes low lights of everyone's day.  And then there is the sense that my bike is part of me, even going up hill.   Stay tuned, as I hope I will have more adventures to share in the future.

Minute Man statue at Old North Bridge

Louisa May Alcott's home, also in Cambridge

Congratulations message from Ken near the end of the ride

Susan and Ziva by the Charles River at the end of the ride

The Corner Gang, as we call ourselves, as at least one of us is always hanging out at a corner waiting for the others to ride up.

Finally, a wet day

I don't have many pictures from today's ride, as my phone/camera was packed away to stay dry.

This was the scene outside our motel this morning, and it didn't get much better until we were 46 miles down the road in Westminster, MA.  While we didn't have the hills or mileage of the last couple of days, we did have fairly miserable road conditions, including some roads whose paving could only be called historic;  we knew it was down there somewhere, but with a lot of other layers on top.  Several people opted not to ride at all, and others called it quits at lunch, but a few of us hung in.  We think we went past some beautiful scenery and nice old houses and churches, but I was primarily concentrating on avoiding puddles that might be hiding potholes.  Tomorrow looks like a beautiful day for our ride into Boston and a chance to make up for the ice cream I didn't eat today.  Sadly, it will also be the last ride of a trip that I am not ready to have end.

54-42 or fight

That's not a reference to the Oregon territory, it is the 5442 feet we climbed today on our 70 mile ride from Williamstown to Amherst.  Because we failed to find the turnoff from the bike trail, I clocked in at 77 miles for the day.  My legs handled the hills pretty well yesterday, but they complained a bit today.  However, with the climbs you not only get great views, you get some wonderful downhill swoops to cool you down and rest your legs a bit.

A beautiful sky as rain clouds threatened, but our luck held and we didn't get rain.  Tomorrow's forecast looks terrible, but so did today's.

More interesting sights along the way

Our highest altitude, 2087 feet, and a three mile climb!

The doorknob of tonight's dessert place.  I had bada bing ice cream, which featured dark chocolate and cherries.  Yum!

80 miles, lots of hills

LBut still no rain.  It really looks like our luck will end tomorrow.  We had a hard ride today, but rewarding just for the sheer joy of riding.  We rode out at 6:30 am, and immediately had a great downhill swoop.  This was nice while it lasted, but it meant we soon were riding back up hill -- lots of climbing, into the Taconic Range, which becomes the Berkshires in Massachusetts, with about 5 miles of Vermont in between, our only three state day!  Both Ziva and I were meeting friends in Williamstown, and we were all trying to ride ahead of the rain. Consequently, about half the group arrived at the designated lunch spot well in advance of the trailer.  We picked up sandwiches at a cafe, rode up a few more hills, and had a great lunch by a lovely reservoir.  We arrived in Williamstown in time for an especially well-deserved ice cream before cleaning up to meet our friends.  I had a fine time with an audience to hear more about my adventures.

Our lovely lunch spot.  Food tastes so good when you a are hungry!

And a little fuel to get us the last mile to our hotel.

Bikes along the Mohawk

We rode about 55 miles today from Utica to Johnstown, New York, the first 35 miles generally following the Mohawk River.  It was another beautiful day, and one of the first times we have been hot since we left Madison!  What an amazing streak of good weather, which may end tomorrow.  Hard to complain about three weeks of mainly sunshine.

After finding another fine bakery for a morning snack, we continued for a final stretch along the river, again on the Erie Canal trail.  This segment was much rougher riding than we had found earlier, as it had been under about a foot of water when the river had flooded.  We wished for trail bikes and rode very carefully.  Then after lunch, the ride changed dramatically, with about 6 miles of steady climbing and another 10 miles of more gentle uphill.  The view were wonderfully rewarding, and I realized that I had missed hills, as most all of the ride has been very easy going.  Guess I have to ride the western half of the country.

Friendly bakers, good chocolate doughnuts

Bike trail along the river

General Herkimer's home, built approximately 1764.  If you did your homework yesterday, you know who Herkimer's is.  And did you notice that today is the anniversary of the Battle of Oriskany?

As we were riding along the Canal trail, we encountered an Amish buggy.  We almost missed the horse tied just a short ways away.  And we never did see the the buggy driver, who we suspected was fishing nearby.

The rewards of climbing hills.

A day on the road

Today was billed as an ordinary, point A to point B ride of about 65 miles, actually 69 miles because we had to detour around some bridge construction.  Here is some of what we encountered:

A beautifully restored old house along the road;

a used bike lot, where I

tried out a bike just like Shafi's,

and Ziva decided to switch to four wheels;

Deb's coffee shop, featuring chocolate almond pie, and two very cute kids.  I wanted to take a picture of the girl, whose t shirt read Live, Love, and Be Happy, and her little brother jumped into the scene;

Then we met a giant pig,

and I tried cow-tipping.

Our next encounter was an interesting sculpture,

which is some kind of farm equipment.

We learned a little history at the site of the Battle of Oriskeny.  You should look that up.

And as we came into the home stretch, about a half mile from Utica College, where we are very comfortably housed,  a giant ice cream cone loomed up!  Perfect timing!

To end the day, we had plenty of time and a good place for a little bike cleaning.

A fast fifty miles today

We rode along a highway today which had a nice shoulder, generally good paving, and few temptations, so it was a fast 56 mile ride to Baldwinsville, a pretty town on the Erie Canal and Seneca River.  We are staying in a huge old mill, quite recently converted into a very nice inn.  There are two approximately 14 inch square posts visible in my room, and many others in the three story structure.

Today was wardrobe adjustment day, as there were rainstorms around us which required frequent putting on and taking off of rain gear.  Fortunately, we managed to miss just about all the rain, so our good luck with weather continues.

It was also mural day.  Most of the small towns we rode through had murals commemorating their history.  Sorry I haven't figured out how to use the panorama feature on my camera, but I am posting partial views of what we saw.

Looking back at storm clouds chasing us.

A mural on a store built in the 1850s.

My favorite: this one showed the agricultural and ecological history of the area.

A mural by the side of the road, commemorating one of Roosevelt's speeches. I would love to know more about the genesis of this one.

Part of a mural done as a Girl Scout project in Baldwinsville.

Fifty-five miles on the Erie Canal

We had only 55 miles to ride today, most of it on the Erie Canal towpath.  We rode slowly and enjoyed ourselves along the way, and consequently, this became one of our longest days on the road.

I was surprised by how different the Erie Canal is from the C&O.  It is much wider and is still in use, mainly now for pleasure boats.  In many spots, it looked like we were riding next to a river, rather than a canal.  As it is not a national park, private property comes down to the canal, and often, we seemed to be riding through people's front yards, while checking out their docks and boats.  I was greatly tempted to borrow a canoe or kayak for a bit of a paddle.  We only passed five locks, quite widely spaced, and we were fortunate to be at a lock as two boats went through.  Since our vehicle could not meet us on the tow path, we stopped for lunch at the town of Pittsford, which had several restaurants, a great bike store, boat rental, and lovely park all right at the canal.  Other towns were somewhat off the canal.  We did ride through Rochester but hardly realized where we were, as we were on the tow path and a connecting trail along the Genessee River.  The weather is in the seventies, fortunately still warm enough for ice cream at a very popular stand in Palmyra where two scoops is the smallest serving (8 is the largest, but even I wasn't tempted.)

A serene canal scene

Tug coming into a lock, as the water goes down, and motoring out at the new lower level.

Interesting sculpture made of bike parts spotted beside the road

Another record setting day

Today's record is one I hope NOT to equal again -- three flat tires.  And it was three flats within three miles!  The first was a rear tire, and it occurred just as it was starting to rain a bit.  We pulled into a convenient shelter, changed the tire, determined there was a problem with the tire stem, saw that the rain stopped, and we thought all was well.  I got back to the the road and prepared to head off when I realized that now the front tire was flat.  We took care of that one, caused by a piece of glass, and headed to lunch, where I could top off my tires using a good pump.  And then, about a mile after lunch, my rear tire was flat again.  The culprit this time was a small, very sharp stone.  We were quite efficient at tire changing by this time, as well as in danger of running out of tubes, so I was grateful that the rest of the day proceeded without incident.  I was the only person to have three flats, but two others had two flats each, and we totaled ten flats among all of us for the day!

Yesterday we had the day off to play at Niagara Falls.  I headed for the Maid of the Mist first thing in the morning and rode up to the Falls with a boatload of Japanese tourists.  It is thrilling to be that close to the roaring water, and I liked knowing that tourists have been doing this since 1846.  Rejoining some of my group, I then headed for Niagara on the Lake for a little wine tasting and a stroll around the town, which was the first capital of Upper Canada.  There was much talk there about commemorating the US invasion of the town in 1813, a phraseology I found interesting.

Today we returned to the USA, riding 74 miles to Brockport, New York.  We had some difficulty finding our way after we crossed back, partly because construction messed up the signage, but also because we couldn't quite believe that what once had been two lanes of a four lane highway was now designated a bike trail!  Other that the tire changes, the rest of the ride was pleasant, along New York State Bikeway 5, which is very well marked.  We got wet at the end of the ride, which is only our second rain in three weeks.  The motel we are in offered to do a collective laundry for us, perhaps figuring that was better than lots of wet clothes hung to dry in the rooms.

Up close at Horseshoe Falls in our blue souvenir raincoats.

One of the wines I sampled was from Wayne Grezsky's vineyard.  

A final view of the Falls from the American side

Third tire change of the day!

A clean laundry feeding frenzy

Blue sky and blue water

Many of my pictures from the last two days are remarkably similar: beautiful scenes of blue skies and blue water.  On Tuesday we biked 67 miles from Port Dover to Wainfleet, and much of the route was within sight of Lake Erie.  Once again the weather gods blessed us with a perfect day, which added sparkles to the water.  Beautiful as it was, it didn't always smell very good.  We think the strong winds on the previous days tossed a few dead fish onto the shore.

This morning we reluctantly left a lovely, peaceful Jesuit retreat house to ride 42 miles to Niagara Falls, my first time here.  I was prepared for lots of tourists, but not for the boardwalk, carnival, anything to get your money atmosphere that extends  back several blocks from the falls.  My friends Susan and Ziva rode in together with me, and we stopped to take pictures near Horseshoe Falls.  Three old ladies with bikes seemed to be as interesting as the Falls, and we spent about an hour talking to people from Germany, the Philippines, Malta, and the USA, most of whom took pictures of us!  The Falls is a spectacular sight, but I think I will remember the people.

One of many beautiful views of the lake.

Susan and Ziva playing on the beach.

I guess they got tired of enjoying the view.

Relaxing again

Ken, one of our leaders, doing a bike repair clinic after dinner.

A fine morning treat at a cafe by the lake in Fort Erie.

Arriving at Niagara Falls