Day 34 – Osceola, NY Old Forge, NY – 9/22/19

Today’s Miles: 56

Total: 1,617

We started the day with a great downhill.  It was steep and a little too much loose gravel, but I did hit 38 mph.  There wasn’t going to be many places to eat through the day, plus we ran short of oatmeal so we stopped and had an early breakfast after riding for 2 miles.  It was a great breakfast of hash, eggs and toast, but it took them forever to get things done.  We knew we had many miles to travel and some hard hills as well, so we were anxious (at least I was).

We had nice quiet roads today, but it was hilly.  All through the day we were up and down.  In fact a few times I just got off the bike and pushed.  I think I could have made it with the gears I have, but I just didn’t want to. The temperature was really close to 80 degrees and the humidity was high which didn’t help things either.  The sweat would run down into your eyes and actually sting the eye.  Anyway, enough complaining.  All I can say is I am beat.

I got separated from Tim and Nancy and there were no eating places, so had a lunch of granola bars and water. It seemed to do the trick.  I was hungry for dinner. We again had tacos that we cooked in camp.  You can’t go wrong there.

We are staying in a campground again tonight.  I think I am breaking a record for consecutive campground stays.  This is number 6.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain.  I am hoping it will go around, but it looks to long going across the country to miss us.  I need to get a little Sunday School in my day, so I am heading to the tent to read a little. Church was just too far away to make it.

A river we rode along.  You can see the colors coming.

Again, just so you can see the colors coming.

An old railroad hotel that is currently  a bed & breakfast type place.

Day 33 – Port Ontario, NY Osceola, NY – 9/21/19

Today’s Miles: 29

Total: 1,561

We had a nice surprise today.  We had written on our planning sheets that today would be a 51 mile ride and it turned out, as you can see, only 29 miles.  I don’t know how we got things messed up, but a nice surprise. 

We have left the lakes behind.  Lake Ontario is the last of the Great Lakes that we will see.  We had a pretty steady climb today heading toward the Appalachian Mountains.  It was up and down, but we gained about 1,300 feet today.  It was a good climb in that there were not that many downhills and the elevation gained remained a gain, if you know what I mean.

I saw the funniest thing today.  We were climbing a hill and going rather slow in doing it, but we passed this kid, maybe 7 or 8, that looked like he had been playing in the mud.  He was covered in mud or moss or something and was buck naked.  He was holding up this big frog and said to me as I passed, “I caught a frog!”.  I said back to him, “You caught a frog?”, and then his sister comes out and yells at him to get in the house.  Anyway, it was funny how proud he was of his catch.  He probably stripped and headed into the creek by his house and had the time of his life.

Wish I had a picture!!

We also passed this river with people standing shoulder to shoulder fishing for the returning salmon.  It looked crazy.  It looked like a good way to get a hook in the back of your head as others were casting.

I think you can see all the fishermen in this photo.

Since we had a short day, we did stop and do laundry.  I was in deep need of it, so that was a good thing to do with our new found time.  We also planned the days left in our trip so that we could look into return tickets home. Kind of weird to be planning and knowing the trip is coming to an end.  I do think I am ready.  Miss my Carey Ann.

We have been seeing Amish since the start of this trip.  Yesterday I saw a farmer planting fall wheat with his horse team.  Kind of neat.

Day 32 – Sodas Point, NY to Port Ontario, NY – 9/20/19

Today’s Miles: 68

Total: 1,532

There is not much to report today.  I was worried about the hills that we would encounter today, but they seemed not to big of a problem.  There were hills, but I was just patient with them and tried to not make them an issue.

Passed many apple orchards.  It was tempting to just walk over to them and grab an apple, but I thought better of the idea. Many of them are honeycrisp apples.  I love those.

Today, Nancy had a breakdown with her bike.  The shifting cable broke.  Tim and Nancy were behind me so we just communicated about it through texting.  She ended up getting an Uber X and took her to Oswego that had a bike shop.  Tim rode to that city, they met up and then rode to our campground tonight.

We are at the Selkirk Shores State Park.  We are staying in the group camping area.  No one else is here, but the park is completely full.  I guess it is the weekend and everyone is trying to get one more camping trip in.

Lighthouse at Sodas Point

A view of Lake Ontario and another lighthouse in the distance.

Some really nice homes in this area.

Kind of pretty, but things just always get old, don't they?

The sunset tonight.

Day 31 – Bushnell’s Basin, NY to Sodas Point, NY – 9/19/19

Today’s Miles: 48

Total: 1,464

Wow, I have been out one whole month.  In some ways it seems to have gone fast and in others it seems I am living the same day over and over again.

Ended up feeling kind of weird last night without Tin & Nancy there.  All these thoughts of what if this and what if that.  Anyway, woke and all was fine.  Didn’t have any of the cooking stuff so ended up going to Tim Horton’s for breakfast.  I’m kind of liking their breakfast egg, bacon & cheese biscuit with a chocolate doughnut and orange juice.

It was a 16 mile ride on the Erie to get to Palmyra.  Wow. It has been wonderful to ride the Canal.  I kind of wish I was riding it all the way to Albany.  It is just so pretty and relaxed without dealing with traffic and hills.  Palmyra is the turnoff point, however and we headed north to meet up with Lake Ontario.

I enjoyed my stay in Palmyra.  I always wanted to go to an LDS temple on the bike and do some work there.  I showed up and the temple was closed for two weeks cleaning.  I guess I will have to see at a later time if they will accept someone who comes in on a bicycle.  I know they would, but I wouldn’t be able to dress like you normally do going to the temple.  I enjoyed being there and then went to the Sacred Grove which is right there.  I enjoyed my walk through there as well.  It seems I always enjoy that place.  Just the quiet, peaceful, spiritual feel to it.  I ended up thinking of Morgan and her mission here and my Mom & Dad and their mission here as well.

The LDS temple in Palmyra.

The Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith's vision took place.

The recreation of the log home the Smith family lived in in 1820 when Joseph had his experience.

Can't see it real well, but Church and Main Street in Palmyra.  There is a different denomination church on each of the four corners.

A home in Palmyra.

I said it on Instagram, but I just want you all to know that I have a testimony of what took place in these woods.  I really believe that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  I do believe we have a Heavenly Father and a Savior who love us and cares for us. I believe Christ has restored His gospel on the earth again.  If you want to know about it, I would love to talk with you.

Met back with Tim and Nancy in Palmyra and we were off.  It felt kind of good to be on the road again.  That is one thing about the Erie Canal is that the riding is a little dusty with the dirt tract.  It doesn’t seem to be kicking up dirt, but it is.  We rode along some beautiful orchards and homes and are on the shores of Lake Ontario tonight.  We are at an RV Park where the people are so nice here.  We had people talking to us like crazy and bringing us food.  They are just extraordinarily kind here.

Another house we passed.

The sunset tonight over Lake Ontario!!

After the sunset, pie for desert. 👌

Day 30 – Middleport, NY to Bushnell’s Basin, NY– 9/18/19

Today’s Miles: 62

Total: 1,416

Another day riding on the Erie Canal.  It was again, a wonderful day of riding. If you ever want to have a semi-easy 300 mile bike ride, the Erie Canal can be a great plan.  It is flat, beautiful and there are many communities along the way that you would probably love to see up close.

Talked with a few of the boaters going down the canal today.  There are quite a few people that just spend the summer in their boat along the different places in the canal and then winter the boats somewhere and return to their homes.  The people I talked with love it.  They just tie up to a dock and live there and most places will only allow you to stay there for 14 days and they move to a different town.

Past a couple more locks today.  I think all along this canal, there are 38 locks that lift the boats.  The water runs toward Albany and I passed 33 and 32 today.  They say all along the canal, the lift is 500 some feet that the boats are lifted.

Lock #33

I am having a quiet, lonely evening tonight.  I split up with Tim and Nancy for the night.  They went into Rochester to stay at a warmshowers host and I wanted to get a little closer to Palmyra to see the sights there tomorrow, so I stayed on the canal and rode a little further. They were more interested in seeing the architecture of Rochester.  We will meet up tomorrow again.

Had a second breakfast/lunch at Tim Horton’s and ate a burger tonight at Tom Wahl’s.  It was a great burger, but couldn’t eat the whole thing.

Still following the canal through Rochester.

Cool train bridges.

This is Pittsford, NY.  My sweet daughter Morgan served in this town as a missionary.  It was her first area.

Camp for tonight!!

Day 29 – Niagara Falls, ON Canadato to Middleport, NY, USA!!– 9/17/19

Today’s Miles: 42

Total: 1,353

What a beautiful day.  I think this day was the best overall day we have had with weather.  We left Niagara Springs and headed north and crossed back into the US.  It feels good to be back.  It was a pretty relaxed day today.  Getting to where the Erie canal would start for us was a pretty easy ride and the Erie Canal was wonderful.  It is mostly hard packed dirt and small gravel, but a very smooth ride and very quiet and peaceful. See some people fishing in it and a few small fish jumping.  There are many Canadian Geese and other bird wildlife.  Really nice.

We picked up vegetables for a stir fry over some precooked rice this evening.  Very good.  We are camped right next to the Erie Canal tonight in Middleport.  The City offers this campsite at no charge.  There is a restroom with nice showers in it that are free as well. I guess they are trying to get the visitors in here.  This a pretty sleepy town.  Not much going on. We are camped right next to a boat that is touring the canal and spending the night here as well. There was also a sailboat going through the locks in Lockport that was heading towards the Lakes. 

Lockport was an in interesting town. The have five flights of locks there to lift boats up 60 feet.  Each lock is 12 feet.  That is the way it was originally built and they had one side of the locks for boats going up and the other side for boats going down.  They have kept one side for historical purposes, but have rebuilt the other side to take larger boats and there are only two locks to get the same lift.

A little about the Erie canal. It runs from Lake Erie to Albany, New York,  I guess there it joins with the Hudson River which would allow a boat to reach the Atlantic.  It was built in 1825 at a cost of 7 million dollars which is equivalent to 4 billion in todays dollars.  I think it took 3 years to build and the money that it took to build it was earned back in a year.  It has been rebuilt a couple times over the years.  Now, it is used just by recreationalists.  We have seen a few boats on it, but not many.

The Niagara River below the falls.

 A new Stoker product that I didn't know existed. 😊

The newer locks.

The old five flight locks being rebuilt.

The canal and path beside it.

Our camp tonight.

 Nancy cooking stirfry.

Goodnight!!

Day 28 – Niagara Falls, ON Canada– 9/16/19

Today’s Miles: 0

Total: 1,312

Day off of riding today.  Tim woke and asked, “Who thought it was a good idea not to ride today?”.  It was him who made that decision.  Anyway, we considered for a small moment to cancel our second day and get on the road again.  It probably is good we rested again today.  I think it has been good on our attitudes as well as the body.

I didn’t do much.  I had some work which took much of the morning.  I had an interview with a prospective employee for a company I work with.  That was interesting to do that on the road.  It turned out well and I think we both enjoyed the interview.

I went to the Korean restaurant again for lunch. I have to take the opportunity to eat rice and kimchi again. I then went down to the falls and just read my book.  Decided to return to the hotel about 3:00 and just got to wondering if I should take the boat up to the falls like most tourists do.  I checked the price and it wasn’t out of this world ($25) so decided to do it.  So glad that I did.  That really was an awesome experience being on the bottom of the falls and close up.  They just towered over you.  The falls were creating wind and the mist was blowing in your face.  It was crazy.

I’m excited to get going tomorrow.  Kind of anxious to get back in the US.