I am writing this on Wednesday 5/15. WiFi has been less available than I thought it would be. I hope to post this tomorrow, so you may not see it until Friday. There are several pics.
Typical Winery Retail
The drive to Finger Lakes was uneventful. I was driving and listening to songs about the open road as only Bob Segar can sing them, when I came upon a small truth. When it comes to open roads, nobody builds them worse than Pennsylvania. I stopped at a Wegman’s in Ithica and bought some food for the week, including a salad for dinner. I got into camp about 4 and spent the rest of the day organizing all the stuff I took.
A Boat out of Water
The forecast for Thursday was great – sunny and warm. But the forecast for Friday was for rain all day, heavy at times. So I decided to spend Thursday riding around Seneca Lake. That’s a 77 mile ride. At home, the longest ride I plan is a little over 60 miles. With the hills in Howard County, I expect to complete the ride with less than 6 hours of saddle time, and less than 6 ½ hours overall. That’s pretty much my limit. The road around Seneca Lake is a lot flatter than Howard County, so I figured everything would be fine. Everything started out fine. I broke for lunch at mile 35, a little over 3 hours after I started. Winds were calm. Flags and signs hung limply from their posts, lake water was smooth. My average speed was over 15 MPH, which is much faster than normal for me. I was looking forward to a relatively easy completion, but Mother Nature had other plans. While I was eating lunch, the wind picked up big time – and it was going to be a head-wind all the way back to the car. I don’t have quantitative data, but I’ve ridden in a lot of wind. This one was absolutely awesome. Flags and signs were going crazy in the wind. The Lake had whitecaps. There were times I could barely keep the bike moving forward. I needed breaks every 2 or 3 miles. No matter the weather, there’s only one way to get back to the car. After almost 7 hours in the saddle and over 8 ½ hours on the road, I finally made it. I was so tired I didn’t even know what hurt. I got wind burns on my face and legs. My riding glasses were not doing a very good job of keeping dust and stuff out of my eyes. When I got back to camp, I forced myself to take a shower right away because I didn’t know when the rain was going to start. Then I laid down for a couple of hours because I was too tired to eat. The rain held off and I ate some snack foods after I felt a little better.
Waterfall
The countryside around here is very nice but not the breathtaking types of scenery that makes it easy to take pictures. There’s the lake, of course. Over half of the Seneca Lake shore is privately owned. The summer season hasn’t started yet, and lots of people haven’t opened their lake homes or put their boats in the water. One thing I noticed is that nobody up here leaves their boat in the water over the winter. There are plenty of wineries, many with very impressive retail / tasting areas and great views of the lake. There are also several houses, a few small towns, and lots of small farms. Many of the farms are Mennonite. I saw road signs warning of horse buggies, but I didn’t see any Amish. It’s pretty flat land and mostly open. There are plenty of trees, but not nearly enough to break the wind. This is an area with a lot of waterfalls. I passed my first waterfall near the end of the ride. As you can see, it looks pretty impressive.