Day 45 Journal Henrietta, NY to Liverpool, NY

I biked 92.14 miles today. What a fantastic day I had. Felt super the whole day – should have gone on and done a Century (100 miles)! Lots of energy, and even with the scorching heat index of 100 degrees I thought today felt cooler than yesterday. The humidity was a wee bit lower and the winds seemed to cool me better today. Others may not agree with this, but I did not mind the heat today. I really love New York roads. They are nice to ride a bicycle on out here. The shoulders are nice and wide and paved. Even though we are now into the eastern states where the traffic has increased a whole lot, with the wide (clean) berms it really makes riding smooth. The three of us, Chuck, Peg and I ate the continental breakfast at the motel this morning and then got in line for the 6:15 AM luggage loading. We were on the bikes and down the road at 6:17 AM. We were told about a road construction detour at route rap last night. That sure makes it go easier when they have found out ahead of time about road closures/detours and can tell us how to proceed. So many times we have had an added adventure in our day trying to walk or ride precariously through beyond these ‘road closed’ signs – and with no warning that we would be encountering any construction. So today at mile 5 we had to follow the detour signs and that added an extra mile on to the route today. The terrain was rolling off and on today, which made the riding fun and interesting. We could see more lakes and wildlife preserves today. We came within 10 miles (north) of Seneca Falls, NY. We are very close, but north, of the Finger Lakes region of the state. We didn’t stay long at the two SAG stops, as we were aware of trying to beat the heat – and there was a thunderstorm warning out for the afternoon. One of the riders with us until Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Dave, came to say hello at our second SAG stop. His wife was there too, and she had made enough little individual cherry topped cheesecakes for all of us. Nice treat! When we got into Liverpool and were at the 89-mile mark we saw an inviting restaurant in the downtown we were passing through. It was called The Retreat. Seemed to be a very popular and busy place. But the service was “slower than molasses in January”! But that was OK I guess, because our rooms at the motel would not have been ready anyway, so might as well hang out and drink water and re-hydrated and fuel up sitting at a restaurant. Recumbent Jim had caught up to us (or was it that we caught up to him?) and he stopped to eat with us. Of course he and I had to have a piece of pie – still on our quest to find the BEST pie in the USA on this northern route. He had the raspberry pie and I had the coconut cream. Mine was definitely made there – and was soooo good! Chuck and I split a Rueben sandwich and we were then ready to do the final 3 miles to the motel. We had gotten in at about 12:30 PM to this restaurant and it was going on 1:45 before we got back outside. Quite a few other cyclists had by this time stopped at this place to eat. When we went outside we heard thunder! The sky was really getting black. We could not see that when we were in the restaurant. It was a mad dash to ride those last 3 miles trying to beat the rain. Luck! We made it in and just as I got up to my room and opened the curtains the sky let loose. A torrent of rain and high winds. I sure did feel bad that so many bikers were still out there and were getting very soaked. Hopefully they found shelter along the way. It continued to rain for about 45 minutes. Peg took her camera along today – so I loaded photos from her disk over to my computer and will have something to post this time. Every morning I debate whether to take the camera, and I put it back because it is a weight issue. The less I carry on the bike the less I have to lug up a hill! My body itself is weight enough that has to fight gravity on every hill. Route rap is at 6:00. Dinner is across the street at some -- you guess it – BUFFET! Yippie. Hey, we got FREE bottles of ice cold Gatorade and water from the hotel manager as we came in. Also they offered us a big bowl of free bananas. I grabbed a couple of those to eat as soon as I get up in the morning. I have eaten so many bananas I know I’m turning into a monkey. Another 85+ miles tomorrow to a town near Utica, NY.