Slippin' Into Syracuse

To close out yesterday, some of our riders went skydiving after the ride into Canandaigua.  Patty and Cindy are veteran skydivers and Patty's husband operates a skydiving business about 45 minutes from where we were staying.  So Nick and John F. joined the ladies for a jump.  Everybody came back OK.

During breakfast this morning, I was having a discussion with John K. (OH) about the tour.  The conversation turned to how it was going to feel resuming "normal" riding when we returned home.  He said that he didn't know whether he would ever ride a century again.  John said that he really enjoyed rides up to about 60 miles and that, beyond that, it became more of a test of endurance.  There is something to that. 

I had not ridden a century for over 20 years before this year.  In the past three months, I have ridden eleven.  For me, this challenge still gets the juices flowing.  Still, John has a point.  Be careful not to lose what makes all this fun in the first place.

Today was yet another fine weather day: mid 70's, mainly sunny, wind slightly helpful and not too humid.  There was a fair amount of climbing which will only be escalating as we move toward the Green Mountains in Vermont, the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Berkshires in Massachusetts.

   

Morning departure from Canandaigua

Early in the ride, we were traveling aliong the north shore of Seneca Lake.  This is another lake that Diana and I stayed on in 2009, although on the south side near Watkins Glen.  Formed by glaciers, this lake is over 800' deep.

Seneca Lake

Seneca Lake

We passed through the village of Waterloo which is known for having been the birth place of Memorial Day in 1866.  President Lyndon Johnson officially recognized this with a proclamation in 1966.

The takeaway here is that the Super Bowl gets more play than Memorial Day.

Still a little further down the road was the town of Seneca Falls.  This is where the Women's Rights Movement had an important convention in 1848 and, for the first time, formalizing the demand for women's suffrage.  The convention was hosted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others and counted frederick Douglass among its attendees.

No flatbed Ford in sight this time

River in the Finger Lake District

For a section of the ride today, we were paralleling the Erie Canal on a scenic park road.  At one point, I spotted a deer.  The rest of the clip gets rather humorous, as you will see. 

Near the end of the video, Tom slowed to take a photo so I had to get both hands on the bars.  We cornballed for the rest of the ride over this.  When going through intersections, the lead rider yells "Clear" when no traffic is present.  You can guess what the response was.

Total Miles:  70               Total Vertical Climb:    3200 ft.