Easy day of riding

2 July 2012

Stats for the day:

Depart Buffalo, NY 8:00 a.m., arrive Sheridan Bay Park Campground, Dunkirk, NY 1:50 p.m.

Trip mileage – 710.8 miles

Today’s mileage – 41.29 miles

Time on bike –3:20:39

Average Speed – 12.3 mph

Max speed – 27.5 mph

We have met some truly wonderful people in our travels this summer, and Cliff and Carol are no exception.  As part of the Warm Showers group, they graciously opened their backyard for our tent, and their dinner table for a fabulous meal.  We were honored to meet their mothers, Joyce and Donna, along with Carol’s brother, Bill.  It was a treat to spend time with these folks, and even Bottle had a great time.  Thanks for everything!

A clear blue sky greeted us as we made our way back to the Trail in Buffalo, taking it to the end, then doing surface roads to our next destination.  We stopped for breakfast just in time as Rick and Bottle seemed to need some extra help this morning.  After a breakfast sandwich and some coffee, everything was right with the world and we moved along.

We have traveled mostly on NY Route 5, Bicycle Route 517 West today (although we were actually traveling south).  As we pedaled along, we stopped to rest at a viewing spot along side Lake Erie, and looked back at Buffalo.  It’s a bit hazy, but you can just make out the city skyline.

It’s been a beautiful day for riding, as we tooled along the roads passing small fields of corn and what we think is soybean.  Not that far south of Buffalo, we passed this vineyard with row upon row of grapevines.  What a lovely site to behold as the leaves sparkled in the sunlight, being tussled by the ever-present westerly breeze. 

As this was a shorter day, we made the trip in relatively good time; though it could have been better.  No summertime trip would be complete without at least one construction stoppage.  Well, here is ours.  They had the road down to one lane, stopping one end, then the other.  Lucky for us, they were only re-surfacing the closed side, so when we got past the area they were working on, we scooted inside the coned lane and made our way to the other end.  They must have figured we would do that, because they let traffic go from the far end before we made it to the finish line. 

Luck would have it that our campground is right at the end of their current work zone, yippee.  Now we get to wake up to the sounds of backup alarms and heavy machinery tomorrow.  Oh well.  It’s all part of the journey.