Riding for a day in bad weather makes you appreciate the other days much more! Today is that sacrificial day, in which we rode for 43 miles in spitting rain and a steady headwind. It helps us appreciate the awesome weather we’ve otherwise had!
Somewhere between Canastota and Rome
With today’s tally, I’ve now ridden about 270 miles, mostly on the towpath trail, though some on-road and some getting to and from motels or restaurants. And then yesterday, when Google Maps got confused! I feel really good. Can certainly feel my thighs and butt, but I’m feeling much better than I had feared when I set off having hardly been on a bike in ages (other than a 15-mile ride I did with grandson Jack a month or so ago).
My seventy-year-old body seems to be holding up!.
Jerelyn is doing really well also, though she started out with some knee pain, and she’s bruised herself hear and there on the trip. She joined me from Pittsford, having ridden there from the Rochester train station ten miles. I think she’s up to about 150 miles, which is awesome!
We stayed last night in an underwhelming Day’s Inn in Canastota, just across a highway fron the Boxing Hall of Fame. Our search for restaurants in Canastota were pretty unsuccessful; there’s almost nothing, but then this morning, just before setting out (having resigned ourselves to the reality of nourishing ourselves with cashews and protein bars), I found a restaurant in Canastota that is located just where we would be getting on the trail!
Leaving Uncle J’s in light rain
Regretting that Google Maps hadn’t found it last night, we biked to Uncle J’s Low Bridge Station at 8:30 this morning, and it was awesome! By then, the rain, which had been heavy most of the night, had tapered off, and we didn’t get too wet. We were able to park our bikes under an overhang. The only problem with Uncle J’s was that the portions were too large—two scrambled eggs must have been three or four, hash browns were plentful, toast, and huge pieces of ham….
We left Uncle J’s and got on the Erie Canal just across the street. It was raining then, and we were wearing our rain jackets. It seems that rain was soaking through my rain jacket to the windbreaker that I was wearing underneath. I think it may be time to retire that rain jacket.
The terrain was much like what we’ve been riding through on the preceding days—mostly along the second-generation canal, but some that seemed to be first-generation and filling in with vegetation.
It was quite hard to identify reasonable places to stop for meals along this segment of trail. We were using Google Maps, and who knows, maybe the kinds of establishments we were looking for didn’t pay for high visibility on Google searches. But we weren’t able to identify any lunch spots on today’s route—UNTIL we were right there. Then places seemed to magically appear on our iPhones.
At a few places on today’s route, we rode along the Barge Canal, and we passed a few locks. Thank goodness for our Ortleib panniers, which are totally waterproof.
For part of today’s ride we were biking alongside the Barge Canal—and passed a few locks—but mostly it was the earlier-generation, narrower canals.
We got into Rome about when our stomachs were telling us it was time to fuel up, and it was really hard to find something that wasn’t a KFC or McDonald’s or Wendy’s. One coffee shop that sounded pretty good on Google Maps had closed last year, and the other near-by was drive-through only. But we found our sort of place: The Copper Easel and Superofficial (combo art gallery and coffee shop(), where I got the best mocha latte of the trip (so far), and we both got scones.
At a unique art gallery and coffee shop in Rome
Rome was about the half-way point today. It seemed that we kept riding under huge Interstate overpasses (at least a few of which were I-90), and at one point we got a little turned around as we switched from riding along the Barge Canal and the older Erie Canal. But we made it…despite the headwind.
Oh yea, when we were thinking about this trip, everyone said to ride west-to-east to have the prevailing wind at our backs. But so far—for the first 270 miles that I’ve ridden—I (and now we) have been bucking headwinds! Oh well. At least it’s really flat.
So much for wind out of the west! We’re bucking a really strong headwind here! Jerelyn took this video of me, riding ahead.
Getting into Utica this afternoon around 4:00 was a little hairy. We rode in on the main drag: Genesee Street for a couple miles—with thick traffic and inpatient drivers.
But we made it to our Bed & Breakfast, the Rosemont Inn. It’s a huge step up from the Day’s Inn, Rodeway Inn, Scottish Inn, and Dollinger’s…. It’s really nice.
The Rosemont Inn, on the eastern side of Utica
After showers and a bit of rest, we walked to a great Dominican Restaurant, Mi Casa, for affordable, genuine, Dominican Republic cuisine. Lots of plantains, rice, beans, fish…great stuff.
Awesome Dominican cuisine!
Tomorrow, we have a ride of about 38 miles to Fort Plain—a town I’ve never heard of. It should be slightly fewer miles than today and less windy—though it still looks like winds will generally be out of the east….
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