Day 45. Liverpool, NY. 94 miles. 1,600 ft climb

A Mule Named Sal.    Today's 94 mile ride started out with cycling about 20 miles on a bike trail along the Erie Canal, which was historically very interesting.  In fact, the New York route is basically following the Erie Canal route, which was designed as an all water, no portage route from the Atlantic (actually, the Hudson River in NYC) to the Great Lakes and opened in 1825.  Western NY saw a big population surge as a result of legislation in 1817 establishing the route for the canal.

Erie Canal Houseboat

Riders Were Required To Walk Bikes Along Some Erie Canal Sections

But Terry Was Riding On This Section

 Before giving more details of today, though, there's a postscript to yesterday's blog.

Throughout the trip so far, there have been the occasional gripes by other bloggers about the food (boring, same old same old) and the motels (some good ones, but lots with lousy internet, not great service, far from restaurants).  Probably both  road fatigue and the last straw of a bad motel combined to spark a mini rebellion in the peloton yesterday.   Apparently, today's motel rooms were the worst--with torn carpeting, cracked walls, mold, dysfunctional plumbing, and crummy internet service.  Riders really complained to the Handlers.    Terry hasn't really mentioned it, but I saw from other blogs that it was quite an issue.    The saving grace of last evening was that Steve's sister-in-law lives nearby and the laundromat bunch (Terry, Steve, Dan and Travis) went to her home for a steak barbeque and sitting on the back porch with some locally brewed beer.  Apparently, New York state has the most micro-breweries in the country.   It was great evening!!  The only downside was that it meant a little late to bed for Terry, and with a 94 mile ride today, he felt a little tired.  Well worth it, though.

Steve's Favorite: Pork Slap Beer

Another last---the last long ride of the tour.  As mentioned above, it started out on the Erie Canal bike path, under overcast and spitting skies.  Then, it was more rural roads.  The route is just north of the Finger Lakes region, but won't really drop down into that.   At first, it wasn't really worth putting on rain gear, but as the day wore on, the skies grew darker and finally opened up, about 2 hrs before getting to Liverpool.   Once again, Zippy was drenched to the bone, but wasn't close to hypothermia.   Just miserable.   Everyone arrived safely, but all looked liked drowned rats.  Now the challenge is getting everything to dry by the morning, especially the bike shoes.   The wet clothes are now all draped around the room and on the heater. 

I sure hope that conditions, both outside and lodging, improve in these final days......stay tuned.