All Roads Lead to Rome

Day 5 is over; we pedaled 70 miles. We were motivated to get to Rome; hotels are spread out here in upstate New York.

It takes all day to ride that distance. We were on the road at 8am with only a banana in our bellies. Kent needed a tune-up on his rear derailleur and the bike shop was 30 miles east, so we were keen to get going.

It was another day of pedaling hard all day with few stops along the way. One nice stop in Syracuse: the Erie Canal Museum. We knew they’d have great postcards; they did.

After we left the Museum we had only a few miles to get to the bike shop, but the wind started blowing hard and we found ourselves on busy city streets with cars zipping by way too close.

Since we left that morning with a minimalist breakfast, no coffee even, I was famished by lunch; while I waited for my sandwich I wolfed a cherry danish and washed it down with a large lemonade.

After lunch the route took us back to the tow path where the wind couldn’t find us. It was a gorgeous afternoon and the trail was flat; much of our travel was under a canopy of tree branches. The path is so smooth most of the way we astounded to come upon this hazard.

Sounds strange, but today we had lots of downed apples on the trail — an apple could throw you off your bike, so it’s hard to take your eyes off the trail immediately in front of you; I think it was a small branch that broke my spoke yesterday. Staring at the 5 feet in front of your bike all day adds to the tedium of long distance riding. That and the sore butt syndrome. We’ve got padded shorts, but after about 40 miles what good does it do? I was watching the clock — at one point today I could only pedal for 30 minutes without a break; I was saddle sore. But like everything else when you pedal all day — it passes.

Part of the urgency with today’s ride was the forecast. After 5 gorgeous days on the trail, rain is predicted for morning. We’re got the gear, but not the experience. Rain will force us off the trail; the gravel surface would be too slow going, so we’ll be on the roadways. Today’s big mileage was in part to position us for a shorter 30 mile ride tomorrow in case of rain.

Whatever the weather we’ll be having a great time.