Hamburg, New York to Canandaigua, New York

Today held for us, as promised, a very difficult day. Still, it was fun. We had 94 miles to travel, with lots and lots of steep hills. The alleged total climbing today was just under 6,000 feet. I do believe that it was indeed at least that much. Michel has a Garmin bike computer (model 705) which enables him to see road elevation. He tells me that we were often at 11% uphill grade today!

I rode virtually the whole day with Craig. We had a really nice time. He and I proved to be pretty equal in speed and stamina, it seemed. We were in the middle of the pack, sometimes near the front, for virtually all of the day. We had a really nice ride, and we enjoyed each other's company the whole time.

The road quality was excellent, with a wide and smooth shoulder all day long. Nice! There was a mild wind behind us, at least most of the time. Also nice! The sky was sunny (up until the last 20 to 30 minutes, that is). Craig and I were making good time, averaging over 16 mph even despite the hills.

With the sunny skies however, it did get pretty hot. I didn't take my Camelback today, so I was just drinking out of the standard bottles on my bike. I probably wasn't drinking enough, I suppose. Whatever.

Our second SAG was at 68 miles into today's ride, and it was in a city called Avon. There is a bank in downtown Avon, with the rather standard sign in front displaying the time and temperature. It was just after Noon then, and the temp was 87 degrees. It was really hot.

It was honestly difficult to drink enough fluids, in order to keep up with that heat and the associated level of exertion.

As the photo above demonstrates, we hit 3,000 miles today! I am pretty proud of that. Since leaving the beach in Los Angeles on the morning of May 9, we have now traveled over 3,000 miles! We hit the 3,000 mile mark at 51 miles into today's ride. Cool!

Craig and I got to probably within 6 to 8 miles of our destination today, here in Canandaigua, by probably 2:00 PM or so. All of a sudden, the weather turned to crap. Serious crap. Scattered thunderstorms had been the prediction for the early evening today, and we had been aware of that. The storms came early unfortunately. In literally only minutes, we went from a few random raindrops to a horendous downpour! Those last 6 to 8 miles were miserable and also a bit frightening.

I normally wouldn't care much about getting a bit wet on the bike. This downpour however managed to effectively fully disable my brakes. With the still hilly road, and now more traffic, entering into the city of Canandaigua without any brakes seemed almost to border on being a bad idea. There was a powerful and gusty wind coming from the right, tending to blow us into the traffic to our left. Indeed, there were times when the wind was so threatening, with also such poor visibility, that we just stopped our bikes on the road shoulder; getting rained on while standing still seemed safer than getting similarly rained on while being pushed leftward into the traffic.

When we finally arrived at our destination, miserably cold and wet, the storm took notice of our success and it immediately stopped! That seemed so unfair! Mother Nature is not only a bitch sometimes, but she also has a really annoying sense of humor. Oh well. Gotta deal with her, like it or not.

Tomorrow's ride is a shorter one. We go to Syracuse tomorrow. I will be happy to have a lighter day tomorrow, as I really am very tired.

Thinking of Syracuse, I am reminded of a quite different bike trip, that of roughly four decades ago now. Bill, Brent, Doug Anderson, and I collaborated on that trip, and I know that we all remember the nativity of that expedition at the Syracuse airport then. What an experience that was!

It is a statement of the obvious that this bike adventure is soon to come to an end. I have all of the expected mixed feelings about that. Among other things, I do wonder if I will remember what I am supposed to do, when I finally return to work. I am certain that I will need to re-learn a whole lot. Hopefully I will be up to the challenge.

As I think now of returning next week to La Crosse, I find myself wondering how all is going there. I have no doubt that all is running smoothly despite my prolonged absence of these past several weeks. If memory serves, Julie should be near her due date for her baby. I really hope that all is well with her and Mike. Having a baby may be more frightening than riding a bike without brakes into a hilly city during a thunderstorm.

More tomorrow!