Day 49 -- Little Falls, NY to Latham, NY

Miles: 83.72
Total Miles: 3752.42
Time: 5:48
Average Speed: 14.4 mph
Max Speed: 31.8 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 15
Elevation Gain: 2227 ft
Weather: Light rain in the morning changing to very hot and humid later
Today started out as almost the same as yesterday, but it slowly died down and turned out to be very hot. We got a lot more pictures today because after the rain passed we didn't have to worry about the camera getting wet. Today was also really cool because we followed the Mohawk River almost the entire way. We woke up at 5:50, ate breakfast at 6:30, loaded at 7:30, then began to ride in the rain. It wasn't raining at the hotel, so we kept our rain jackets in our back pockets. About a half of a mile into the ride, it started to rain. We didn't put our jackets on because it was so hot, but the rain still hindered the enjoyment of the ride. It calmed down to a drizzle, then it stopped for quite awhile. During that time, we went by a bunch of castle looking buildings, so we took a picture in a part of an old one. Also, we saw a bunch of small creeks and river that were absolutely roaring under some of the bridges we went on. All of the rain we had yesterday made today a little more interesting. After the pictures, it almost immediately started to sprinkle again. It wasn't very hard, so once again we didn't put on our rain jackets. We rode through that light sprinkle for about 10 miles before it stopped, then it started to get hot. As it got hot, we had a pretty large climb for about a mile, so I got more wet from my sweat than I would have if the sprinkle had kept up. At the top of that hill was the first sag stop. It was nice to have a dry sag stop unlike the 2 yesterday. We did our normal long sag stop routine, then we got going again. There wasn't much after the first sag stop beside the beautiful and fast moving Mohawk River beside us, so we didn't stop to take pictures for about 5 or so miles. Since it was dry out but there was still and overcast, we knew we had to take pictures when we got the change. We soon found a lock where they let the boats go past the dam, and we took pictures of the river and lock there. Once we were done taking pictures at the lock, it started to rain again. This time it became a heavy and steady rain that we could have used our rain jackets for... too bad we left them in the drop box at the sag stop. We just rode cold and wet through the rain until it stopped... then I sweated and stayed just as wet as when it was raining. It was a nice ride from then on out with no rain and a lot of shade. About 3 miles after it stopped raining we got on a nice bike path through a wooded area next to the river. Along the bike path we came upon another lock, so we stopped and took some more pictures. This one had an older boat going through the lock than the last on, and the water was rushing through the dam like crazy. The rapids on the lower side of the dam were enormous. Anyway, we took that bike path all of the way to the second sag stop.

That sag stop was at another root beer stand type thing, so we got some ice cream then continued on our way. After the sag stop, we almost immediately got right back onto the bike path. It was nice for about 2 miles, then we saw an asphalt paver that looked like it was ready to pave a path in front of us. Sure enough, on the other side of the machine, there was just gravel that hadn't been paved over yet. We rode on that for about 2 miles, then the path became paved again. I never thought that I would be so excited to see asphalt after riding on it for the past 47 days. Anyway, the path stayed paved for the rest of the ride on the bike path. Once we got past the gravel and a little bit more, the path went right up next to the river again. Wade took a bunch of pictures of me behind him and in front of him while we were on the bike path. One of the pictures he even tried to get both of us in it. We followed that for about 8 miles until we had to turn and ride the last 3 miles on roads to the hotel. Before we made our turn onto the roads, we took the bike path about a mile and a half further, then turned around. We ended up only getting an extra 3 miles out of that, so after we climbed some hills to get to the hotel, we rode around in some neighboring car lots to get a few more miles. The day was only supposed to be 76 miles and we almost got to 84, so we ended up doing about 8 extra miles today. What also helped us get those 8 miles was going to Mass this evening. It was only about 7 tenths of a mile away, but there and back makes a mile and a half. Big John ate with a college buddy of his tonight, so it was just Fran, Rand, Wade and I that went to Mass today. The first time he missed Mass on this trip, the next day he got 2 flats... I doubt anyone will ride with him tomorrow. Anyway, today was great because we actually got to take some pictures. According to weather.com, there was a 10 percent chance of rain today, and tomorrow is a 40 percent chance. Since we got rained on almost all morning with a 10 percent chance, we plan on getting wet tomorrow... but hopefully not.

Day 48 -- Liverpool, NY to Little Falls, NY

Miles: 78.16
Total Miles: 3668.70
Time: 5:20
Average Speed: 14.6 mph
Max Speed: 28.2 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 15
Elevation Gain: 1612 ft
Weather: Heavy rain for every minute of the whole freaken day

Today was the day when all of the rain that we had seemed to be avoiding the whole trip just dumped down on us for the entire ride. We only took 2 pictures today because the camera would have gotten soaked if we would've gotten it out. The only pictures we took were before the ride under the canopy so we could remember the rain we rode in all day. We woke up at 6:00, ate breakfast at 6:30, loaded at 7:30, then rode out into the rain. The first stretch of road wasn't so bad because we had a bunch of turns, so there was something to think about besides the rain. There wasn't anything between the hotel and the first sag stop, but I led the whole way. We were originally following Phil and the other fast guys, but they missed a turned and I didn't, so everyone decided that I was the man and they should all follow me. As you all know, that wasn't to wise. By following I don't mean drafting, but following about 5 yards behind. Because the rain was coming down so hard and because the roads were so slick, it would be too dangerous to draft. Anyway, we eventually made it to the sag stop, but we didn't stay long. We grabbed some food, some people went to a pastry shop, then we headed out back into the rain.
There weren't many turns between the 2 sag stops, so it was a little less interesting. Due to that, it was hard not to think about the rain pounding down constantly. About half way between the sag stops, I was able to stop thinking about the rain because the wind picked up, and it was a head wind... a strong one. We had the ultimate duo of heavy rain and head winds. We just slowly made our way to the next sag stop. Once again we grabbed some food, ate it quickly and continued on our way. For the rest of the ride it was just more and less turns. We basically stayed on Route 5 all the way to the hotel. When we got there, everything was soaked and all we wanted was a nice warm shower. That's exactly what we did. Also, after dinner tonight, Good Looking Larry, the 74 year old, played the piano for us, and he was awesome. When he got done, Gerard, the mechanic on the trip, played a little bit too, and he was really good too. Since we didn't have many pictures today, Wade took a picture of Larry and a video of Gerard so that the blog wouldn't be all gloom and doom today.

About 3 days ago I got an email from the office again. They decided that since I became such a big fan of feed lots in Kansas, they would make my office into one. Looks like Smitty found something he enjoyed and was good at. If you click on the picture, he has the animals and equipment well organized. Also, just today, I got another email from the office. It was their last Friday of Freedom while I was away to have fun, so they decided to play some cards and drink hard liquor. It looks like the game got really heated based off of what they were betting. I bet Barney (Brian) cheated to win, but that doesn't surprise me... he always cheats.

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.

Day 46 -- Hamburg, NY to Canadaigua, NY

Miles: 100.59
Total Miles: 3512.17
Time: 6:21
Average Speed: 15.8 mph
Max Speed: 37.3 mph
Flats Today: 1
Total Flats: 15
Elevation Gain: 3869 ft
Weather: Rainy and slight tail winds for part of the day around 80 degrees

Today could be summed up by rolling hills and rain in the morning. We didn't take many pictures because there wasn't much to see, but when we got into Canadaigua we went to see part of the finger lakes. It wasn't the most beautiful day, but it was still very enjoyable. We woke up at 5:30, ate breakfast at 6:00, loaded at 7:00, and began our first full day in New York. It started out very nice because we were following big John, so we were getting a great draft. After we went through some round abouts, we started getting into some rolling hills. John was much faster than me up the hills, so he usually had to wait at the top of the hills, but we stayed on his wheel for the first 15 miles. At the time that I just couldn't hold onto his wheel anymore, it started to look a lot like rain, so we decided to stop, put our cell phones, diabetes supplies and camera into plastic baggies, and let John go ahead. Right after we started riding on our own, we could see the rain falling in the distance... On our road. We just took it like tour bicyclists and didn't put on our rain jackets. We didn't put on our rain jackets because we were stupid enough to leave them in our luggage. It wasn't very bad at first, but once we got into it for awhile, the rain started to pick up. After about 5 miles of rain, we arrived at the first sag stop. It wasn't much of a sag stop because we were getting rained on, so we didn't stay our usual amount of time.

We left the sag stop just in time for the rain to pick up again. The funniest part was that we were riding along the edge of the cloud and if we had been paralleling our route 2 miles to the left, we would have been dry. Unlike some things (wind) the rain didn't slow us down, so we just got used to it and kept pedaling along. Today was a day filled with flats for the entire group, so it only made sense that we would have our share. About 15 miles past the first sag stop, Wade got flat on his front tire. I couldn't get the tire off to change it, so I went to get the tire levers out of my bag. Just as I was opening the bag, Wade pulls off the tire. Surprisingly he didn't rub it in that he got it off when I couldn't. Anyway, I changed it, and Wade pumped it with the hand pump. We got going again, then the sag van when by, so we got them to stop and give us a floor pump so that we could top off the pressure in his tire. Once we got that done, we started going again, and just about 2 miles down the road, Wade stops again. It wasn't a flat this time, but he said his brakes were rubbing. It was great because it gave me time to pee while he fixed his brakes. He actually found out that it wasn't his brakes and instead the wheel was rubbing against the frame. Someone put it back on his bike wrong... I had no excuse to get out of that one. Anyway, he fixed the wheel then he rubbed that in. I didn't expect to go 2 for 2 with messing up and Wade fixing it without him making fun of me.

After the flat it was just nice riding with a slight tail wind until the second sag stop. That sag was at a root beer stand type thing with burgers and such, so we had some real food, then ate some sag stop food. We stayed for quite awhile to make up for the short first sag stop. After we were done there, we made our way to the hotel. It was just more of the same rolling hills and slight tail wind basically the entire way there. We didn't get hit with rain for the entire day after the morning, so we were just getting dry when out to the left we saw a very dark cloud that was about to come over top of us. We sped up a little bit to try to avoid it, but since we were only about 5 miles out from the hotel, we thought we could beat it. Just as we were getting onto the road that our hotel was on, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees, the wind picked up dramatically, and a couple strikes of lightning came into view. At that point we were about a mile from the hotel, so we debated whether to get shelter or try to make it to the hotel... we chose the safer option. As we were darting to the hotel in that last mile, the wind was picking up more and more, but we just kept pushing our pedals around and around. Wade was fast enough to keep up with the cars, but I wasn't quite that fast. We eventually got to where our hotel was, crossed over 2 busy lanes to get into the left turn lane, then went quickly through the parking lot to get away from any possible rain. We succeeded by not getting wet and not getting hit by lightning... I bet Joan's proud of me for keeping Wade safe.

After we checked into our room, unloaded luggage, and waited for the rain to stop, we went out to do our extra 6 miles for the day. Today's extra was more than just roaming around so we could reach our 4000 miles mark by the end, it was a ride to add 6 miles on to 94 miles to get a century, a ride to see one of the finger lakes, and most importantly, a ride to get ice cream. We rode out of the hotel, went to a pier, got some pictures, went along a gravel bike path along the lake, got some more pictures, rode some more miles, then went for ice cream. There was a very nice view at the lake at many spots along the path, so we took quite a few pictures. The ice cream was also good, but it was expensive, so we only went once today. After we finished dinner tonight, we went to Wegman's, which is a grocery store that was enormous. There was a huge selection of beers, which I enjoyed, and a huge selection of fruit and candy, which Wade enjoyed. We didn't buy anything, but we still had fun shopping for the first time ever.

Day 45 -- Erie, PA to Hamburg, NY

Miles: 91.63
Total Miles: 3411.58
Time: 5:58
Average Speed: 15.3 mph
Max Speed: 34.8 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 14
Elevation Gain: 2064 ft
Weather: 10 mph head winds around 80 degrees
Today we followed Lake Erie on Route 5 for almost the entire ride. We were also riding into a steady head wind, so we had 2 reasons to stop and take a lot of pictures. Also, we rode along side of grapes the whole day instead of corn. We took it slow and stopped for bunches of pictures, which resulted in us being one of the last ones in today. We woke up at 5:30, ate breakfast at 6:00, loaded at 7:00, then began our ride along Lake Erie. For the first 10 miles we were just turning a bunch through town to get to Route 5, but once we got there, we had great views of the lake the rest of the way. When we were 15 miles in, we got our first good look at Lake Erie with only the horizon in the background. It was a great view, but we knew there would be more, so we didn't stop very long. At mile 24 we were already heading out of Pennsylvania. We came up to the New York sign, waited for some people to take their picture before us, then we quickly took our picture and moved along. We immediately realized that we were in the Empire State because the drivers were more rude to us. We make a joke with our Boston friends that the closer we get Boston, the more jerks we see... The just laughed and agreed.

After the sign we rode Lake Erie for about 10 more miles before we reached a mini sag stop. It wasn't an official sag stop, but they had water and snacks. We filled our water bottles, grabbed a banana, then we went down to the pier, sat on a bench right next to the water, and ate our snacks. It was quite the scene: We could hear the waves brushing against the side of the pier, we saw blue water for as far as we could see leading to a lighter shade of blue in the horizon, and we were just relaxing on a bench. We got some pictures then we had to continue because we were at the back of the back due to our relaxation on the bench. We rode along the lake for another 17 miles to the only official sag stop of the day. Just before the sag stop though, we stopped to take a picture of a cliff. It was a cool picture, but the best part was that there was a golden retriever swimming around in circles down below the railing. We watched the dog for quite a while, then we moved on again. Before we made it to the sag stop, we found a state park and rode around in there for awhile. All that was good at the state park was the views, so we took a couple of pictures then headed to the sag stop. Like always, we spent a good long time at the sag stop, ate a load of food, put sunscreen on, filled our water bottles, then headed out.

After the sag stop, the wind started to hit a little bit harder. We just rode nice and easy, and we eventually left Route 5 and started heading away from the lake. When we were only about 10 miles past the sag stop, we came upon a store with a bunch of iron cast statues outside, including one that was a 2 story tall girl. We took a picture, but the pose wasn't my idea... I promise. We took some pictures with some other statues including a couple of Statue of Liberties. After our fun with the inanimate objects, we continued riding into the wind. Since we weren't next to the Lake Erie anymore, there wasn't many photo opportunities... so we took a picture of grapes. We figured that since we took pictures of corn, we have to take pictures of grapes. Once we finally arrived into the town of Hamburg where our hotel's at, we rode into the downtown... but first we decided to get ice cream. We stopped at Dairy Queen and had some ice cream, but Wade wasn't satisfied with a small cone, he needed the biggest one that they had. He tried to lift it, but he couldn't get it, so he settled for a medium. After that he had to try a new bike too... Once again he failed. The day was actually just 85 miles, but since we're crazy, we decided to do 6 more miles into town. The real reason for our madness is a 4 letter word I like to call Wade. He calculated out the rest of the days and he found out that we have to ride 6 extra miles a day for the last 8 days in order to reach 4000 miles for the trip. I think he's insane, but I guess I'll go for it. The downtown turned out to be very nice, so I'm glad we went to check it out. It had a bunch of round-a-bouts, including about 4 of them that we got to go through. Every time we go through one it make me think about M. John, scary thing to think about. Anyway, we got our 6 extra miles in, then we finally made our way to the hotel. Tomorrow is 94 miles, so if we do our extra 6 miles, we'll have another century around our belt.

Day 44 -- Rest Day in Erie, PA

Miles: 33.30
Total Miles: 3319.95
Time: 3:06
Average Speed: 10.7 mph
Max Speed: 28.2 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 14
Elevation Gain: 864 ft
Weather: Wind from all directions around 80 degrees
What do 2 crazy bicyclists do on their day off after 4 centuries in a row?... they ride 33 miles. Believe it or not, I had to convince Wade to go, but both of us rode our bike on our day off. We woke up at 8:00, went downstairs and ate continental breakfast, then went back up to our room and watched TV. After about an hour of debating whether we should go or not, we decided to ride our bikes to the state park. We got our bike clothes on, put sunscreen on, got our bikes ready, then we got all the way downstairs and realized it was raining. Our curtain was closed up in our room so we didn't see that it was raining, so when we got downstairs and realized it was raining, we laughed at how stupid we were not to look outside before we got ready. We went back upstairs and waited for the rain to stop and the streets to dry a little bit. Once we decided that it was dry enough, we went back downstairs and started our bike ride on our day off.

It was 8 miles to the state park, which is an island on Lake Erie. The 8 miles to the island were almost all downhill, which meant one thing... the ride back would be all uphill. When we got onto the island, we rode on a nice bike path through trees with brief views of the bay between the island and the main land. Once we got about 5 miles onto the island, we came up to a large monument. It was called Perry Monument, which rang a bell. It didn't take us long to remember that there was a Perry Monument at Put-in-Bay Island where we've visited before. We took a picture by the monument, then we turned around and took a picture of the bay with downtown Erie in the background. After we finished with pictures there, we continued our ride around the island. When we were about 3 miles further around the island, the actual Lake Erie came into view. There were a couple of beaches that we stopped at and took pictures at. Since were at a beach and the front wheel dipping in the Atlantic Ocean is coming up soon, I decided to practice... I'm going to be really good at that wheel dipping thing when the actual ceremony takes place.

After some pictures at some beaches, and a picture by a lighthouse on a pier, we finished up our ride around the island. When we got off of the island and climbed some hills back toward the hotel, we stopped for some food at a deli. The sandwiches were huge and we both barely finished our food. It was great because at 4:00 it filled us up for the rest of the night... it even made Wade say that he was full. After we finished our lunch/dinner, we rode the rest of the way to the hotel, took a shower, and finally started to rest.