Today was my first flat day - as evidenced by the increase in my average speed. The weather could have had something to do with that too - it was in the low 70s and cloudy most of the day today, a sharp contrast from yesterday's 95 degrees, sunny, and humid. I was actually glad it was cloudy today.It started to sprinkle a couple of times, but didn't really rain until after I checked in to my hotel for the night. That was lucky. My talking to the sky, saying "please hold off for another hour" every time it started sprinkling probably didn't have anything to do with it.
My average speed today was 11.9 miles per hour, a far cry from yesterday's 8.9 MPH. And the first hour today was a slow one (9 MPH) - the time I spent on the Canal Trail. It was nice to have a bike path to get through Rochester - no need to deal with cars in a busy city - but I opted for Route 31 as soon as the bike path surface changed from paved to unpaved. Route 31 was a great riding road. It had a wide paved shoulder for most of the way. At least the shoulder existed between the small cities / villages - within the cities it usually disappeared. There was only one bad patch of road (non-road) in a construction zone. I was ahead of the truck that was about to water the road, but there was still some real mud and a nasty gravel section. It's a good thing I wasn't drying clothes on my trailer today. If I had been, I would have needed to wash them again! I guess that's something I should be more aware of - put the clothes away before riding through construction zones or unpaved areas.
The only hills of the day were as I was entering Lockport, and within the city itself. It was a nice change of pace, although I'm sure I'll welcome some hills again in a while. I felt like I was riding like a normal person today, not crawling along at a slow speed. Those slow speeds will come back again, but for now I'll enjoy the flats.
My first stop today was at a bakery to buy a blueberry muffin. The woman in the shop looked at me and asked "what's that blue thing?". It took me a minute to realize that she was looking at the tube from my Camelbak. She had never seen one before. No wonder some people look at me (and all cyclists?) strangely - biking clothes, helmet, gloves, funny sunglasses, and Camelbaks. I guess I look a little odd to some people. Maybe that's why the dad with a little girl in the ice cream shop yesterday looked at me like I had 2 heads! I was getting close to Rochester at that point, and I figured that people in larger cities were just not ready to talk to strangers who they thought looked odd.
I was riding down Route 31 when I heard someone say "are you touring?". It was another cyclist who was about to pass me. He asked where I was coming from, and where I was headed. Then he said he wanted to do a cross-country trip too, and said "I wish I was you - have fun" before he went on his way.
I stopped for a sandwich in Brockport. While I was eating, a man saw my bike and then came and found me to talk. He had done a Newport, Oregon to Washington, DC trip back in 1996, and is about to head to Europe for a 2 to 3 week tour. It was fun to talk with him.
It's funny - a bunch of towns in this area of New York are named for other countries. It makes me want to look into where the names came from. I've passed through or been close to Mexico, Greece, and Sweden.
Tomorrow I head into Canada to Niagara Falls and the Niagara Recreational Parkway. That should be fun - I haven't been to Niagara Falls for years.
