Hello Everyone,

This was a long ride with plenty of climbing – 94 miles or so and the hills just kept on coming. I was still feeling poorly in the morning and quickly fell behind the fast group of riders. I keyed it down so that I could pace myself and make it to the finish to see my friends who rode with me 2 years before. Before the first SAG, we hit what Tom called “the worst climb on the tour”. I admit is was very steep and tough but you descend first and then climbed and if you hammered own at 40 mph, it didn’t require as much leg power to get up the climb.

The first SAG was around mile 30 and by that time, I was feeling better and gobbled down some apple pie with whipped cream, and several pieces of fruit. I stayed probably longer than usual for me and hit the road refreshed. We went through quite a few small towns and some of the farmland and forests were quite scenic. I saw a little stream with waterfalls and took a few photos.

I was riding and came upon a golden eagle attempting to pick up some road kill and it kept getting distracted by passing cars. I tried to take a photo but it didn’t appreciate my presence and took flight. Certainly would have made a nice photo and I spent 10minutes waiting for it to land but no luck.

The second SAG was was the town of Avon (the A is not long ) at mile 67. They had do it yourself sandwiches with choice of meat, bread, toppings and cheese. It was quite good and after a fairly steep climb. I remember riding with my roommate Larry to the SAG (2 years ago). We rode together the whole day to that point. I didn’t linger too long and took off for the final 27 miles and there was more climbing along the way as well as some good descents.

You could get glimpses of the Finger lakes as we approached Canadaigua. The Finger lakes were created bt glaciers and there are 5 major ones and several smaller ones. Canadaigua Lake which is one of the smaller of the big 5 is 40 miles long.

After I got into the Holiday Inn, I received a phone call from Patty that her and Cindy were riding to meet me and that Cindy’s husband John was coming in the car. I think they had rode about 50 miles on their bikes. It was certainly great fun to see two of my cycling buddies from the 2012 ride. Cindy tried to call Larry (my roommate of 2 years ago) but received no reply to the voice message we left. Larry you out there? How you doing?

Cindy, John and Patty went to route rap and got to meet up with Tracy, Larry, Robin and Rick. I had the pleasure of introducing them to my new set of friends. After that the 4 of us drove around the lakes (thanks John!) and ate dinner at a restaurant on the lake. We shared a few bottles of wine and I had a delicious homemade meat loaf.

It was a very fun evening. Patty and Cindy were planning t ride with me the next day about 30 miles before heading off to jump out of perfectly good planes. The two of them have around 7000 jumps and are two amazing ladies!

Tailwinds

Chuck