Day One Hundred Sixty-four, 090811 - Rochester, NY

Day One Hundred Sixty-four, Date Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Time in Saddle: 9:33
Distance for the Day: 85.42 miles From Baldwinsville, NY To Rochester, NY
Accumulated Trip Distance: 7887.06 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 522’/600’, Highest: ?? Accumulated: ??
Speeds: Avg: 8.9 mph, Max: 36.3 mph
Weather: 64°
Expenditures: $17

Woke up at 5:40am and got up immediately to break down and be ready to roll by 6:17am. The sky was clear, except for some high cirrus, and there was an almost cheerful bright gibbous Moon high up, with ducks swimming in the lock. Today, I should easily (hah!) reach Rochester, NY. I mistakenly thought it was only 40 or 50 miles, but in reality it was more like 70 miles – still, not too bad. I stopped at the hardware store in Cato at 9am looking for a short chunk of solid-core, insulated copper wire to make a moveable sunshade for my helmet. Since turning west, after leaving Maine, on sunny days, when the mid-to-late afternoon comes, the sun shines in my eyes, and I have to ride one-handed, sometimes, to block it. When I was coming eastward through the southern states, I jury-rigged a duct tape sun shield to my helmet’s short-brimmed visor, and that worked ‘okay,’ but it wasn’t adjustable, and was clumsy. I chatted with store owner, who pointed out all the antique tools hanging on the walls, and his antique 1910 cash register, which impressed me so much, I took pictures of it, and his dog, Apache. He happened to have a bunch of junk wire hanging around, and gave me a foot-long chunk of it for free. I stopped in Wolcott for lunch at a pizza shop for a somewhat overpriced messy-but-delicious burger, fries and soda ($12), and saw two ‘oversized load’ trucks take up the entire street of this little town, transporting humongous wind generator tower segments. Lying on their sides, they were almost as tall as a single-story house. The whole day had been really nice, sunny, with occasional clouds, light breezes, and temps in the low 70s – perfect cycling weather. Every region has their own favorite roadkill critters, and upstate New York’s are frogs – lovely. The terrain between Barnesville and Sodus were somewhat hilly, which slowed me down, and I was still 26 miles from Rochester, so I wouldn’t reach Scott and Katie’s home until late afternoon or early evening. I called Katie to let her know, and plowed on. In Union Hill, I stopped in at Mike’s Ice Cream for a choco malted ($5) and met owner/racecar driver Mike Steltor at his day job (the ice cream shop). He has a website http://www.stelterism.com/ that tells all about his racing career – how he got into it and his record – interesting reading, check it out. I finally made it to Scott and Katie’s amazing home (big, new, *nice*) right at 8pm; had a wonderful warm shower, and then had a late dinner with Katie of stuffed bell peppers. We chatted the evening away, but she had to get up early, so she went to bed at about 9:30pm, and I stayed up until midnight, you guessed it: blogging.