Follow-up to prior blog: Someone wanted more info about me riding on a road I shouldn’t have been on. I left Niagara Falls on First Street which became Robert G Moses (or something similar) Parkway. I saw a sign “No Commercial Vehicles”, but not “no bicycles”. Shortly after getting on the parkway, I noticed an old highway on my left with no cars. I walked my bike over there and found it was a bike trail; but it ended in 4 miles at the Niagara Power Plant. So I got back on the parkway and continued. Speed limit was 40, but there was no shoulder and the traffic didn’t seem to respect me. Maybe that’s because I’m in New York. But I didn’t feel comfortable so I got off at an exit at mile 9.5 and rode on county roads for a while. When I got back on the parkway to return, again “No Commercial Vehicles”. I was pretty close to the power plant when God/Moses or whoever told me I couldn’t ride on the parkway; I needed to be on the highway about 100 feet above us separated by a sheer concrete wall. I had no clue as to how I would get on the highway above. My immediate reaction was to get off the bike – the officer went on – and I started walking. But I soon decided this was silly – there were never many cars on the parkway – so I got back on and rode past the power plant - until I could get back on the old road.
Someone else asked about my 100,000 miles since 1990, and asked how come I started counting then? Actually the first entry in my spreadsheet is Sept 11, 1989 – the first week of our first tandem. This may have been my first bike computer, I’m not sure. The 1986 Trek 520’s may have had computers, but the 1975 custom build Reynolds surely would not have had one. We had mechanical wheel revolution counters in the 1970’s but I don’t remember using one much. And what would I have done with the data? When was Lotus 1-2-3 invented? -- Actually I wish I had data from the 1970’s when I was riding a lot. I’d guess another 50,000 miles from 1970 through 1989. But no one will ever know.
Today, we begin week seven of seven. It will take more than half of this week to get through New York. Today was more of the same. I was surprised, however, at the first rest stop to find several miles of swamp; something I wouldn’t have imagined in New York but there is was.
I was occasionally reminded of the ride Brenda and I did in the NY Finger Lakes region a few years ago. Around the lakes you saw expensive and well-maintained summer homes of the rich. Between the lakes, however, the farms all seemed to need maintenance. And this really surprised me because most were owned by the Amish. I saw a little of that today; some homes and barns needed fixing up and painting. You never saw this in Minnesota or Wisconsin; everything there was pristine.
Wind today was from the SW so helped us most of the day when we were going east but hurt when going south. The last 15 miles were NE so we had a fast ride into town. -- By the way, the town of Henrietta is a suburb of Rochester.
Day 44, 83 miles, 1,432 feet of climbing, 5.4 hrs. 3,288 miles so far
6 days remaining, 482 miles remaining
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