July 14, 2018
Day 57 Watertown
Watertown, NY
Made ourselves some oatmeal and a shake in the motel room, then hit the road. We took the waterfront route along Lake Ontario again today on our way to Kingston. There weren’t many cars on the road on a Saturday morning and we moved along fairly quickly. It had rained a little bit overnight, making it more humid. We were sweating nicely by 9:00. We rolled into Kingston around 10:30. It’s a pretty nice city, at least from the roads along the lakeshore. There’s a bit of a bike trail, although sections were heaved from winter weather and tree roots. Sometimes we just had to go back on the road. At one point, we went past a park and saw morning yoga and Taichi classes going on. We made our way to the dock to board the ferry to Wolfe Island across the St. Lawrence River. We grabbed “second breakfast” at Tim
Hortons and used the rest of our Canadian money. As we waited for the ferry, a number of day bicycles gathered near the bench we were on. Once we all boarded, we had to figure out how to fit all of our bikes in a small space without cramming them all together. It worked out, but a little crowded. Once we got over to the island, we then had 8 miles to traverse across to the other side of the island and the ferry to the US. It was a lovely ride, even though it was overcast. There are quite a lot of alternative energy sources here in the form of wind turbines and solar panels similar to the one my sister has where it rotates to get the most direct light from the sun. We made it to the dock with plenty of time to spare. There were a lot of cars parked near the ferry and we weren’t sure why until we heard that there was a festival on the other side in St. Vincent. Apparently they have a French Festival around Bastille Day and this is their 50th year! Which means it was crazy crowded when we disembarked. First we had to go through customs, very formal. Haha. “Where did you come from? Do you have anything to declare? Have a nice day.” You want to get into the US? Come through Canada! Then we had to figure out where to go, as all of the main streets were blocked for the festival. It might have been fun to hang around, or at least get a pain au chocolat, but it was so crowded and nowhere to safely put our bikes. We didn’t even get a chance to take a “Welcome to New York” picture, wherever that sign may or may not have been. So, we made our way to Watertown. We’d booked a room yesterday, good thing too, as we heard them tell someone that they had no rooms available and were fully booked.
Today's ride: 67 miles (108 km)
Total: 482 miles (776 km)
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