Climbing Today; 1,785 ft      Climbing Total to Date; 38,875 ft

The alarm was set for 05:45 this morning, and I didn't want to get up when it went off.  I'm usually enthusiastic and up right away, but we have been beat down a bit recently and it's taking a toll.  When I did get up, it was nice to have a stocked kitchen for breakfast.  I fried a couple of eggs and made a couple of blueberry waffles.  The waffles should have been easy; just pop 'em in the toaster and Voila!  But an engineer with a master's degree and a medical doctor were not able to figure out how to make the toaster work - seriously - there were lots of buttons and such and I'm sure this toaster had more computing power than we had when we first landed a man on the moon, but we couldn't get it to work.  So I used the oven. 

It was a nice morning, but the mosquitoes were out in force - I think they  alternate shifts with the black flies such that one group is always on patrol.  We slowly made our way back out of the 1/2 mile of bumpy dirt/cobble road to the highway and commenced rolling.  Our stay at the Tug Hill Resort was nice except for 1 thing; there was only 1 other set of guests and they arrived after us, and with a dozen or more rooms available the proprietor put them in the room next to us!  So when we were trying to sleep at 10:00pm, the folks next door were chatting - not loudly, but the walls didn't stop the sound and I eventually put a pillow over my ear to help drown them out.  Such is life when you must exist with others.

Heart

4

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

We rolled on through several small towns and decided we would stop for "second breakfast" in Pulaski.  We spotted a diner downtown and got set to eat there when I noticed a sign on the door that said "No Shoes With Cleats."  Our bike shoes have cleats that clip onto the pedals - they are recessed into the sole so that you can walk normally, and we may have been able to get away with entering this place, but I just didn't like their attitude and didn't want to give them my business.  Doc likes McDonald's breakfasts and we had been following signs that pointed to a McDonald's, but when Doc checked on Google maps he discovered it was 0.9 miles away off our route.  So we didn't eat in Pulaski and headed on towards Port Ontario where there was supposed to be a restaurant.  We didn't find it, but stopped at a convenience store and got chocolate milk (a bike tourist favorite - fuel and hydration in the same bottle).  Outside the store, some Amish folks were selling goods and we bought 4 cinnamon rolls - they were delicious!  We only needed 2 of them, but they came in a package of 4, so we forced ourselves to eat 2 each. 

Heart

5

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

Leaving Port Ontario, we labored away in the late morning.  As we passed the town of Texas and Mexico Bay Beach I wondered if we had taken a serious wrong turn - the sun seemed to be more intense than usual and maybe it was frying my brain a bit.   We labored on through New Haven, and then the 10.5 miles to Volney seemed like it would never end.  I thought something bad was wrong with me as I was struggling to climb even the easy hills.  Doc later told me that he thought something was way off with his blood pressure cause he didn't feel right either.  When we reached Volney, the municipal building had a pavilion with picnic tables, and we rolled in there for a rest.  I laid on a table bench and found myself dozing off - something was just out of kilter - it was an immense struggle for me to convince myself to get up and go on. 

A few miles of forced march later, we rolled into Fulton and stopped at a store that had a deli.  I ordered a hot reuben sandwich and got an iced tea and a gatorade to drink.  Sitting outside on a picnic table, a local chatted with us about the trip and mentioned that they were having record heat at the moment.  I googled and found that the temperature in Fulton was 88 farenheit.  Gee whiz, no wonder we felt so out of sorts - we had come from much cooler temperatures into a freaking heat wave!  The temperature on black asphalt is even hotter than the reported temperature, so we were cooking pretty good today.  

Now that we understood why we had both felt so bad out of sorts we rolled on slowly and took several short breaks along the way.  We stopped for an off-the-bike break at a church with a nice shade tree, and when we reached Hannibal we stopped at a grocery store and bought cold drinks.  Call me an old codger if you will, but $2.50 for a coke seems ridiculous to me - still, I gladly paid it in order to have some cold liquid to cool me down.  Pushing on, we eventually reached Fair Haven and got a bit of a look at Lake Ontario.

Heart

5

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

We checked into our cabin at the Anchor Resort - the owner was very nice and drove us around in a golf cart to show us where things were located.  She even made dinner reservations for us at the nearby casual eatery - this area is so popular that even a "casual eatery" requires reservations.  

Black Fly Update.  We may be past them now - at least it was much better today - maybe they only hang out in the Adirondacks?  I'm hoping so cause my legs are covered in welts.  Fortunately, the benadryl cream I bought is helping immensely, so as long as I can stay away from those evil critters all will be well. 

Found Money Update.  This has been a good trip so far for found money.  I'm typing this entry outside of the Anchor Resort office because that's where I can get wifi, so I don't have my bag of coins here to count - but I think I'm over $1.30 now and there's 10 weeks to go.  So I may have to up the game from finding enough money to buy a coffee at trip's end to finding enough money to buy a beer or something.  

Met Some Other Cycle Tourists Today.  Well, sort of.  We passed a guy on a tricycle heading the opposite direction - behind him was another tricycle that was connected to his - I suspect that the 2nd tricyclist was blind or otherwise disabled such that the lead tricyclist was needed to allow him to participate - did you follow that?  Any way, it was kind of a busy road and we couldn't easily pull over to talk, so we didn't - but later on a pickup approached me from behind and rolled down the window and it was those guys (plus others) and they shouted they were going to Anacortes and would start eastbound on the Northern Tier in 8 or 9 days and would meet us on the road.  So we shouted back some information about this journal and (maybe) they understood and will be able to stay in touch.  So that makes 3 sets of eastbound folks we know of that we hope to meet along the journey.

Heart

4

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

So that's it for now. I'm losing daylight out here where I'm typing and have to stop - plus I have to get ready for tomorrow.  Honestly, it's a pretty hectic day to get up early, ride for most of the day, then find lodging and check in and occasionally do laundry and somehow find time to process the videos and update this journal.  But you guys want it, and who loves you if I don't?   Good night all, amateur video snippets follow - peace...