Day 47 -- Canadaigua, NY to Liverpool, NY

Miles: 78.37
Total Miles: 3590.54
Time: 5:19
Average Speed: 14.7 mph
Max Speed: 36.8 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 15
Elevation Gain: 2604 ft
Weather: Tail and side winds around 80 degrees
Today was an easy day that we just took nice and slow. We stopped at a bunch of different places, took a bunch of pictures, and took a bunch of side routes. We woke up at 5:35, ate breakfast at Denny's at 6:15, loaded at 7:15, then headed out. We started out in last place because other people got out really fast and Fran didn't. We didn't mind since it was a short day, so we just took it easy and rode at about 15 mph for the first 15 miles until we came to our first attraction of the day. The Seneca Lake, which is one of the finger lakes, came into view, so we decided to pull off and take a few pictures. The parking lot we turned into happened to be connected to a really nice pier that we went out on. The water in the lake was amazingly clear, and the sun was shining on it just right, so it was sparkling in the light. I could have sat out on that pier for quite some time, but we stayed for our share of time then continued on our way. Not even a half of a mile later, we arrived at the Seneca Lake State Park. Once we entered the park (for free), we rode along the lake on a nicely shaded path and made our way to a park area. When we got to the park area, we decided to turn around and go back a different way. That direction came to a dead end, so we went back around next to the lake... I didn't mind.

The main reason we went into the state park was to get our extra 6 miles for the day. It turned out to be only 4 miles, but we figured that we could get 2 more later on. After we left the state park, we were once again almost in last place. We rode at a fairly good pace for the next 15 miles to the first sag stop, and we didn't stop much between the state park and the sag stop... except to pee. When we arrived at the sag stop, there wasn't anyone there, so we had all of the fruit to ourselves... we had a great time at that sag stop. Once we got our fill there, we headed out again. We started to draft Fran after the sag stop, and little did we know that we were making a mistake by doing that. We figured that he would know where to turn, so we just followed in behind him. We were supposed to make a turn about 2 miles after the sag stop, and about 3 miles past it, Wade says, "I think we missed our turn." Fran didn't think we went by it yet, so instead of turning around, we went a little bit further. We rode about a mile down the road and we didn't see a turn, so I went to a store to ask for directions, but it was closed. As a result, we decided to check the next turn that we could see up ahead to see if that was the right road. Once we got up there, we realized that wasn't it, so we finally decided to turn around. As we rode back past the store I noticed that it was open. I went inside and asked for directions. They told us that the road we were looking for was about 2 miles back, but we could take the road up ahead that we just turned around at, and it would take us to the road we wanted to be on. We did just that, and our luck continued. On that road that connected us to the road we were supposed to be on, there was a huge hill that got up to a 10 percent grade. Wade took a picture of the hill so that we would always remember to not follow Fran. After about a mile and a half on that road, we got to the road that we were supposed to be on. As a result to all of this, we got our 6 extra miles that we needed... and a few more. We stayed on that road for quite some time, then we ended up turning right back onto Route 5 again, which is the road that we were on when we missed our turn.

About 5 miles down the road, we came upon a sunflower farm. It looked like a bunch of dandelions at first, but once we realized it was sunflowers, we had to stop and take a picture. There was even a sunflower maze that we could've went through. Right next to the farm was the Inn Between. I always thought it was between Botkins and Anna, but apparently it's between Canadaigua and Liverpool... who would've guessed. Anyway, we finished with our pictures and continued down the rode. About 5 miles down the road, we saw a sign that we thought would go well in Terry Daughtery's (Tatum's) yard. It was a snow mobile crossing sign. Anyway, we took a picture of the sign, then continued our ride. There wasn't much until we made it into Liverpool, but almost immediately when we got there, we turned into a park that overlooked the Willow Bay. It was about the size of the finger lakes, but we just rode around the park a little bit, then went back on to the road we were supposed to be on. After that, we just rode nice and easy through town and into our hotel. Before we checked in, we ate at a sports bar across the road. It was good, and it was enough to get a by until our dinner tonight. It was a special dinner tonight because Rob, one of the riders, has a brother that lives near by and we went over to his house and had a BBQ. It was definitely different than what we've been eating all of the other days. They had everything from beer and lemonade to swordfish and chicken. We had a great time just hanging around with all of the riders for a change. It gave us a chance to just sit around and talk for awhile. Wade talked to Adella most of the night, so he didn't even have to listen to us old guys all night. The food was great, the weather was perfect, and the house had a great back yard for this type of thing. It was a great event to end such a great day.