Hello Everyone,

Today I had the honor of riding 30 miles with my two friends from XC 12 Patty and Cindy! At breakfast, they were able to meet some of the new riders and swap stories. Rick did confirm though that XC 14 has had more horrendous headwinds than any of the 19 prior groups. He should know as he has done them all.

The morning started off on the cool side and some off us wore jackets or vests. The ride was “only: 68 miles but there was considerable climbing to contend with most of the day. Patty and Cindy were only going to ride about 30 miles and then head off to the airport to do a few sky dives. It was fun chatting with them and catching up on how everyone misdoing. Patty was able to talk to Tim quite a bit  earl yon. We stopped to look at one of the other Finger Lakes, I think it may have been Geneva.

There were quite a few small twins and they seemed to run together almost. Not as much woodlands or farmland but we did go past a wetlands area and saw some uncooperative osprey nesting who refused to allow us the honor of taking their photos as they sat on their nests. Around mile 30 there is a gas station / deli and we stopped there for a mid morning lunch ( I had 3 “lunches” today – more later). It was a happy and sad time as Patty and Cindy would head off to the airport but we did engage a local fireman seeking donations and another lady whom Patty knew, in conversations. We had our hugs and said our good-byes and sped off in opposite directions. It was a pleasure riding with them today and brought back pleasant memories of the time we spent together in 2012.

The first and only SAG was around mile 38. It was in a different place than what the queue sheet described. Cindy and John knew that the place of our planned SAG had been torn down but suggested a nearby park. It was actually a superior location with a pavilion so that worked out well. I ate a bit there (lunch 2), had my photo taken for 3000 miles by Robin, chatted a bit and headed off in search of more hills to climb.

Since we had stopped so often, I thought that I was way behind everyone else but did manage to catch up with Herm who was having a root beer float at a local creamery. Herm had taken a side tour in search of a castle but found out that was a bait and switch. Thus I was able to catch up with him. He told me that the place advertised “floats” but when he asked for a “root beer float” was told that the last said she didn’t know how to make it. My comment was “two scoops of vanilla ice cream and fill up the glass with root beer. Herm then told me that it didn’t taste like a root beer float. Thus we rode a little further and decided we needed something to drink and had a couple of sodas (or pop as some folks say.

We took a few photos of the Erie canal and coped with numerous turns along the way. Once we spied a road that appeared to rise up to heaven but fortunately we turned right before making it to the pearly gates. It did look like an almost vertical climb.

As we approached our hotel, Herm was looking for a hot dog place recommend by a rider from last year named Brik. We found the stand, waited in line and consumed several dogs along with other filling items (lunch 3). I also managed to engage one gentleman in a conversation and turns out that he visits the Lou once a year and was raving about Pappy’s on Olive not far from Wells – small world!

Our ride in was uneventful but with a full stomach. I did find some hostess cupcakes in my room and I suspect they are courtesy of Tracy as we talked about cupcakes and twinkies and I mentioned a preference for the cupcakes. I guess that I should have said, I early liked Corvettes and one would have magically appeared in my room….

WE had diner at a sport’s brand watch some of theWorld Cup game as the US tied Portugal. I departed early to work on the blog and finish my laundry. Now that the trip is approaching the end, I am starting to get really efficient in dealing with all the recharging, downloading, uploading, writing, checking, washing, sorting, that is required to ride and blog and stay not too smelly. So now that I have the hang of it, I will be shortly returning to the real world and having to figure that out as well…

Tailwinds

Chuck