Day 79: Rome, NY

Today I rode from Syracuse, NY to Rome, NY, a total of 46 miles (my new ideal distance!). It was another great day for riding -- warm and sunny, but not too hot, and although there was a headwind most of the time, it was relatively mild (in the 5 mph category).

I'm thinking about the weather a lot these days. No matter how I slice it, Isaac looks ready to deposit rain and storms in my biking path on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Amsterdam, Albany and Rhinebeck. Ugh. Of course, the long term forecast can change for the better and even if it doesn't, with any luck it will be the type of rain I can dodge or wait out if it gets serious. Certainly there are now more places to take shelter from a storm than there were in Eastern Montana! But I've had remarkably good weather on this trip so far, so I feel like I'm kinda overdue for a bad spell. Fingers crossed, nonetheless.

The route today couldn't quite match up with yesterday's. Busy roads -- but good shoulders -- out of Syracuse, and then a series of roads, still with good shoulders, that were just a little bit too big and busy to be in my sweet spot. So I spent more time on the Erie Canal Towpath than I intended....and....today, it was OK. Still dusty as heck (you really have to clean and oil your chain and cassette each day afterwards), but it was a nice respite from the traffic and, although pretty familiar at this point, also quite scenic. But the surface did degenerate at times, going down to a single track (see photo) and heavier layers of gravel.

At one point I met another laden biker, going the other direction, so we naturally stopped and chatted. Oddly, Chris was travelling the same way I was -- he had started in Minneapolis and was headed to New York. So our 180 degrees opposite paths caused us both to scratch our heads for a moment, until we figured out he was going Southeast to his destination for the night, and I was going Northeast, and we just happened to pass on a road going North/South. But Chris sorta put me to shame:  (a) he was camping, (b) he had ridden 120 miles yesterday and was planning on doing 100 miles today, (c) he was wearing sandals and (d) he was planning on making NYC by Tuesday (there's one way to deal with the rain threat!)

But, if there's one thing that's been reinforced for me on this trip, it's that you've got to...repeat after me..."ride your own ride." Chris had to cut our conversation short because he was worried about the mileage he had left and riding too much in the dark. So that's not for me, no thank you! I didn't even get time to take a photo (in which you would have seen, despite Chris being a full year younger, that I look a lot better in the waistline department -- competitive, moi?).

In any event, I pedaled into Rome at the latish hour of 4, briefly stopping, I hesitatingly admit, at a Burger King (sorry, Bob) for a vanilla shake and a $1 BK Bacon Burger, before pulling up (can you pull up somewhere on a bike?) at the Angel's Nest B & B, run by Mary Davis out of a converted convent. The pews and some of the original stained glass remain and it's, how shall I say this, different. As is Mary, who traveled for about 25 years, all over the world, as a teacher/educator for military personnel kids. But settled in Rome when she retired (she had lived in Syracuse), where she has more irons in the fire (civic duties, hospital boards, charities) than you can shake a stick at. Which she shared with me over some champagne out in her backyard patio -- painstakingly decorated with flower pots too numerous to count or describe. Definitely a lovely and interesting host. I can only begin to imagine what breakfast tomorrow is going to be like!

Here are today's route and metrics:

 

Day 78: Syracuse, NY

I can't believe it's Labor Day weekend already, summer's ending, my kids are going back to school, and I'm still on the road. At the risk of repeating myself, I'm ready to be home -- and I'm definitely experiencing a few pangs of regret for not being with my family at this traditional time of seasons (and pace of life) changing.

Not that I'm hopping Amtrak quite yet, mind you. I'm now only seven days away from being back in Manhattan (subject to the vagaries of Isaac-generated storms) and, by my calculation, by the time I get there I will have logged almost exactly 4,000 miles. So I'm finishing up what I started!

Days like today are very helpful to the cause. The weather was perfect for biking (notwithstanding a bit of a headwind) and, having started with low expectations about the likelihood of finding good roads into Syracuse, I was surprised by just how excellent the roads and riding conditions were. Any big road, with traffic, had huge, paved shoulders. And I wasn't on these all that much. There were big roads with very little traffic. There were medium-sized roads, also with little to non-existent traffic, that still had shoulders. There were back country roads, virtually empty (except for one nut in his yellow Corvette who must have zoomed by at over 90 mph). I did a lot of self-routing, as there were a bunch of smaller roads that paralleled Bike Route 5/Erie Canal Towpath and where I wanted to go. So I invariably took them. And didn't even inadvertently add too many hills as a result (although I did get a few 8%, and one 12%, gradients -- but all were short).

I took the crushed limestone Towpath only twice -- each time for a couple of miles at most -- both as a connector between paved roads and as a change of pace. For my tastes, that was just about the right ratio to other roads. Although the Towpath kept throwing up interesting sights, including a rebuilt aqueduct over nine mile creek outside of Syracuse.

All in all, it was a pretty glorious day of biking -- about 45 miles in all -- a distance that, while shorter than most of my days so far, is actually pretty nice to target. In fact, I've tried to plan my remaining route to have more days in the vicinity of this type of mileage. It gives me more flexibility to linger in the morning (finishing up a blog post or having a leisurely breakfast) or to try to wait out a passing storm. Or to get in to my destination early and actually have my hand wash dry by the next morning. Or, as I did today when I got into Syracuse, seek out and get a massage (very tight hamstrings and IT bands)!

Syracuse was in full orange bloom, as today saw a home football game at the Carrier Dome (losing a heartbreaker, 42-41, to Northwestern). Freshmen arrived only a few days ago, and everywhere were parents and kids, the great majority of them festooned in orange shirts or other Syracuse identified attire. They all looked like they were having a pretty good time (maybe too good a time (!), as an aside to Stephen, who, as a senior in high school, is considering applying this Fall).

Otherwise, I think the city was relatively empty due to the holiday weekend. I had dinner at the bar of a lovely, upscale, restaurant -- bc restaurant -- in the Armory area of downtown Syracuse, where I chatted with Ellen, one of the owners, and Mackenzie, the bartender, about things orange and otherwise, as well as a regular patron, Joe, also an attorney (finally, I'm back in a locale where it's safe to talk politics again!). And, although the restaurant was only about 1.2 miles away from my hotel, I took the hotel's shuttle, rather than walk or bike, which was a good decision because I had a lovely time making the acquaintance of the van's driver, Nestor, who was both bemused and awed by my journey (photos of all but Joe are posted below -- hi guys if you're reading this).

So, notwithstanding a bit of homesickness, it was really an excellent day -- both biking-wise and people-wise. On to Rome, NY, tomorrow (actually today, since I'm finishing up this post in the a.m.), where I'm staying at a bed and breakfast that promises to be interesting (a converted former convent).

Here are today's route and metrics:

Day 77: Seneca Falls, NY

Not much to report today. Left Rochester on the early side, concerned with the forecast of scattered thunderstorms as early as 2 p.m. at my destination of Seneca Falls, and stayed on actual roads for the first 10 miles (as opposed to the Erie Canal Towpath) both for speed, distance (the roads cut out about 5 miles of Canal loops) and sanity (mine -- there's only so much crushed limestone I can take in a day). Turned out to be a good choice, as I rode through some posh sections of Rochester that were easy on the eyes, including Eastman Kodak House (which, unfortunately, wasn't open at that hour).

Migrated to the towpath and enjoyed about 3 miles of pavement, before it returned to its normal, gravelly state. But it did take me past one of the operating locks on the Canal, just as some private craft were using it (I asked -- the boats need to have a pass, sold on a daily, weekly or annual basis, but whether they cover the costs of operation is another question). But it's impressive to see the gates open and close and the water level rise (or fall). It's like a giant bathtub, with the boats floating in it like rubber duckies (OK, strained analogy). But I have seen bathtubs that were slower to fill than this lock!

Seneca Falls, itself, is a quaint little town, probably best known for being the birthplace of women's rights, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived and helped organize an 1848 women's rights convention, the first of its kind, and where the National Women's Hall of Fame is based. Although, with tourism being its lifeblood, the town's web site hedges by touting itself as the "Historic Gateway to the Finger Lakes" (presumably the wineries along Cayuga Lake are a bigger draw than the museum).

My history lesson at Seneca Falls was of a different kind. My lodgings for the night, Hotel Clarence, is a hip, redone establishment hidden within the infrastructure of a classic, historical building. But it was also where the daughter of 50's/60's rhythm and blues/rocker, Gary "U.S." Bonds, was hosting her wedding party and guests. (Remember "Quarter to Three"? Well, actually, I didn't either, until I looked it up on the internet. It hit number one on the Billboard charts, even). I think I was about the only room not involved in the wedding, which has the potential to be annoying, but instead turned out to make for a very nice social evening while sitting at the bar having dinner. I met the man himself, Gary, whose good friend, Michael, bought me a glass of wine upon hearing of my journey (thanks!), and a lovely couple from Rockland, NY: Billy (a New York cop for over 20 years) and Diane (whose parents respectively hail from Colombia and Peru), all while being waited on by a very overworked, but still calm and efficient, bartender, Lauren. Fortunately for me, I was able to nab the absolutely last clean red wine glass in the hotel before it disappeared into the maws of the wedding party.

Here is today's route (sans metrics, thanks to the same old unknowable Garmin misfunction, although, before the data disappeared on me, I noted the total ascent was over 1,600 feet -- the first taste of climbing in a long time -- partly brought on by my exploring some back roads, not on my "official" route -- which invariably brought with them some rolling hills):