The Blustery Day

30 June 2012                                    to view Bottle's Blog go to bottlestravels2.blogspot.com

Stats for the day:

Depart Pittsford, NY 8:35 a.m., arrive Lockport, NY 7:35 p.m.

Trip mileage – 630.8 miles

Today’s mileage – 73.92 miles

Time on bike –6:36:26

Average Speed – 11.2 mph

Max speed – 25.0 mph

Once upon a time there lived two people, a man and a woman, who set out on a cross country trek to visit family in the distant land of Indiana.  Being of unsound minds, everyone says so, they decided to make this trip on bicycle.  Silly, silly, silly.  It's not really silly to do the trip, it's silly to plan for 70+ miles per day.  We have learned our lesson!  We have also learned that as the day grows long, the wind grows strong, so we need to be done biking by four of five p.m. in order to not wear ourselves out fighting against the constant western gusts.  Head winds make for tough biking.

We had a wonderful time with our new friends, Jarrett and Barbara in Pittsford.  After a great night's sleep and hearty breakfast, we were on our way.  As you may remember from an earlier post, we have been anxious to see a lock in operation; well, we saw it today.  As we came upon Lock 32,we stopped to just check it out, when the lower gates opened and very nice sail boat, under motor power, pulled into the lock.  The gates shut, and within five minutes, they had pumped enough water into the lock to allow the boat to continue it's trip up Canal.  

All day long, we played leap frog with the boat as they made their way to Chicago, hoping to make it through all the locks before 10:00 p.m. when they are no longer manned and operated.  On at least four occasions when we caught up to them, and passed them, we had some very nice, but short, conversations about the benefits of both types of transportation.  Our similar gripe was the wind and how it was slowing us down.  Our trip took us off the Canal Trail in Gasport, so we don't know if they ever made their destination in time.  

The vast majority of our cycling time today was on the Trail, so again a very windy and dusty day.  But there were no breakdowns, difficult road crossing or trail findings, so all in all a great day.  There are a multitude of picturesque small towns scattered along the banks of the Canal, with names like Fairport, Spencerport, Brockport, and Adams Basin.  All with close ties to the workings, or at least past workings, of the Canal. 

On our journey thus far, we have had the exceptional opportunity to meet some very friendly folks along the way, and today was no exception.  While having a rest at Adam's Basin, we met two other cyclists out enjoying the day, Mitch and Laura.  We had a lovely chat about bicycling, phones, and technology, and swapped information.  Just a little while later we got a nice email from them wishing us the best and safe travels.  Another example of how many great people are in the world.  We love it!

At one point, we crossed over a river that actually ran under the Canal.  A very interesting thing to have happen when you think about the size of the Canal and the weight of the water that has to be help up by the aqua duct.  Nola got a great picture of the fall of the river.

Seeing that sailboat make its way up the Canal, made Rick wonder what it would be like to do the same, and leisurely sail the canal to check out the villages, towns, and cities along the way.  Maybe that adventure will happen some day.  But for now, we take our rest in Lockport, NY at Niagra County Camping Resort.  As planned and executed by our dear friends, we have in our possession a new/used trailer hitch and the turn by turn directions we had left behind in Rutland.  A huge thank you to Ralph for the hitch and Andrea for the directions.  We are still deciding what we will do tomorrow, Sunday, so check back in and see if we took the day off, or headed out again.  One thing we can guarantee is that it won't be a seventy mile day!