July 20, 2021
To Auburn
It feels like we’re at another inflection point in the tour. After our three day layover we’re on the move again, and in a different direction. After a month and a half of generally heading southeast we’re turning north now at the start of our loop around the north end of the Adirondacks.
And, we’re running down the clock on the tour. if everything continues as planned, three weeks from today we’ll be on the plane to Amsterdam. Increasingly discussions about Europe are entering our conversations. What’s our plan for shipping our suitcases south to Viterbo for the flight back to Portland in November? How will the recent catastrophic floods in Germany and Belgium affect our plans, since our itinerary cuts through the heart of the devastated area? And most importantly, how will we like Dutch cuisine?
But back to today. It’s expected to heat up again with a high in the mid eighties, and there’s a chance of thunderstorms moving in by midafternoon. Accordingly we get an early start and are biking north out of Ithaca by eight.
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After biking north along the shore of Cayuga Lake for a few miles we turn northeast and start climbing for the only significant work of the day - 600 feet in two miles at a very steady 8% grade. The climb isn’t too bad - it makes a big difference to have gotten our gears adjusted and not throw all that energy into inefficient and annoying grinding.
Once up we meander our way northeast on small roads, traversing the heights separating Cayuga Lake from Owasco Lake, the next finger east. It’s quiet, peaceful, green. Easy riding, and the best cycling miles of the day. We’ve seen this country before and some of the exact scenes in Susan Carpenter’s post of her own ride from Ithaca to Auburn last month. From the looks of it we must have taken basically the same route once we got a few miles north of Ithaca.
And from the looks of her photos she must have gotten a better day for her ride than we did. Today the sky is hazy all day, from what we will later learn is forest fire smoke drifting across the continent from the west coast and down from Canada. How nice - a whiff of Oregon, just in case we were feeling homesick. On the upside, it kept the day significantly cooler as the sun never did fully break through.
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I think this bird may be a relative of the model our friend chose for his painting.
So cool to see one perched in a tree!!
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About fifteen miles into the ride we crest out about 800’ above lake level and begin the gradual descent to Owasco Lake. Passing through Locke, a man endears himself to us when he sees us coming and immediately dashes to restrain his large dog lying on the grass loose in his yard. He’s a biter, he calls out to us by way of explanation as we quickly bike past.
In Moravia we stop at a convenience store and I down a sports drink, part of my new campaign to try to keep my electrolytes recharged. A few miles later we have one last climb for the day and then a fast two mile descent brings us to the shore of Owasco Lake. We closely follow the shore the rest of the way to Auburn, arriving shortly after noon.
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Video sound track: Just an Old Fashioned Love Song, by Three Dog Night
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Our room won’t be available for a few hours so we look around for a promising place to hang out for awhile and find one: Historic Grounds Coffee, a new business in town that’s only been open about two months. We like to the feeling of the place, especially when we find that the woman running it is training her young son - maybe eight years old? - to run the cash register. This is only one of her children though - she has six others, which is hard to believe taking in her youthful appearance and positive energy. She’s finally out of the birthing business and is trying something new in her life. This is her first business.
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A couple of hours later we learn that our room is ready so we relocate to it and hang out there for a few more hours while Rachael does our laundry and we wait for dinner.
Dinner is just a bit odd. It appears to be a fairly new Italian restaurant run by a Sicilian couple that immigrated about seven years ago. The menu is attractive, but they’re so new that they aren’t licensed yet. The server is a young woman - girl really; she can’t be older than about 17 - and she’s being shadowed by an even younger woman who’s a new employee today just learning the ropes.
The meal is fine, but I want a beer. Rachael heads back to the room while I go around to a corner for a a pint and to catch up on the blogs. When I come out a half hour later, everything has changed. The sky is darkening fast, it’s very windy with the flags all blowing straight out. I obviously don’t have much time so I head straight back to the room, stopping as few times as I can hold myself to. I hear the first rumblings just as I arrive at the hotel, and ten minutes later it’s pouring outside.
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Ride stats today: 42 miles, 1,700’; for the tour: 1,899 miles, 54,700’
Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 1,899 miles (3,056 km)
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I do, however, worry about the increase in COVID cases there and elsewhere. Stay safe.
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From an Americans point of view: potatoes with just about anything mashed into them, and Brats. They like "Chinese" but it's really Indonesia more than Chinese. Sandwiches for lunch: everything (meat, cheese, bread) is on the table....and take a piece of bread and place ONE item on it....not like a subway sandwich. (Rachel did a sandwich placing meat and cheese and looked up to see all Patrick's family looking at her). If you have a banana split, start eating at one end of the dish and eat to the other side, don't mix it up :)
Beer! Trappist Beer!
Chocolate! (Dutch are number one chocolate eaters)
Bread!
Rachel
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