Back on the road—August 25

 Much as I love riding right next to the water, it was nice to leave the crushed limestone of the trail and return to a well-paved road with a good shoulder.  We rode 50 miles into Comillus, a suburb of Syracuse.  Because the heat has returned, we were riding by 7:15 and arrived at our hotel at about 1pm.  Fortunately, the place had a large, air-conditioned lobby where we settled in to wait for our rooms, even offering watermelon to people passing through.  

This is an ideal road for biking, as we are safely tucked in to a nice wide shoulder, behind a rumble strip,  with not much traffic to bother us.

We had lunch at a park next to part of the old canal, abandoned when the canal was enlarged in 1918. The current canal at this point is several miles south.

This photo shows approximately the same scene when the canal was operative.  Hard to believe it is the same spot.

I was fascinated by the stonework that made up the walls of the old lock.  What an engineering feat!

We had biked today’s road in 2013, and I remembered seeing and liking this mural, which is on a wall along the road about 2 miles from the closest town.  Coming to it on a bike, I can slow down or stop to admire it.  Would I do that if I were in a car?

                                                Bike shadows on a hot afternoon