It was a much better weather day today, still chilly, but not wet. The rain was in the form of sprinkles, not downpours. I did a lot of talking to the sky whenever it started feeling wet. I know, I know, that couldn't possibly work, but it did the trick today. It was another beautiful ride today, mostly rolling with a couple of long uphills- followed nicely by some good downhills. The biggest problem I had today was the black flies. I found that I could only do one thing when I stopped. I could either change clothes (too hot, too cold), grab a snack, or take a picture. I couldn't stand the bugs any longer than that. I actually had to take my helmet off and brush off my head after one stop because I felt like they were crawling all over me! I guess there is one good side effect to my staying in motels because of the weather - I don't have to deal with the bugs at a campsite.
I spoke to the owners of the Shamrock Motel this morning before I left. They made sure that I knew that once I passed Blue Mountain Lake that there was nothing until I hit Inlet. When I said I thought there was a place to stay in Raquette Lake, they told me I wouldn't like it there. And they offered to come and get me if I ran into trouble on the road. Very nice. I also showed them the entry on the Northern Tier maps for their motel. They had never seen the maps before, and didn't realize that they were listed.
I met Jeff (from Michigan) on the road this morning - the first other Northern Tier cyclist I've seen so far. He started on May 15th, and has been riding 100 miles a day. He's definitely moving much faster than I am. He thinks he'll be in Bar Harbor in another 5 days. We chatted for a bit, and shared some tips for each of our ongoing routes. He told me there are a couple of guys about a day in front of me.
This is the first motel in the last three nights where I've had a phone in the room. The first thing I tried to do was to upload my journal entries for the last two days, but my baby PC wasn't getting a dial tone. Strange. Then I realized that there was a pretty long delay after pressing 9 for an outside line before the dial tone started. I couldn't figure out how to insert a pause in the dialing string, but since there is a data jack on the phone I was able to plug in without unplugging the phone. It was a long shot, but I picked up the receiver, dialed 9, and waited for the dial tone. Then I had the Jornada dial the rest of the number.
Boy, was I surprised when that worked. Hopefully it will work again so I can upload this entry too.
Tomorrow will be a short ride. I'm only going as far as Boonville. My folks are going to drive up to visit me on Wednesday, so I'll have a rest day there. I'm really looking forward to seeing them.
Helmet head - this one's for Alan. I promised I get some pictures of good cases of helmet head, and I thought I had a pretty good one at the end of my ride today.
