Updates in New York

The past few riding days have been cloudy and rainy. So not much picture-taking time =/.

Heading into Rochester, the weather was questionable.


Well a picture here giving you a sense of how cloudy and rainy it's been. Still, would have liked to give you a picture of the grain fields (which are breathtaking) we pass by but the mileage has been putting some pressure against us picture takers.


Bah got another anyway. Passed by an apple (?) orchard.


At our lunch stop, where we were next to a lake (which feeds into Lake Huron?).


Took some shelter at the "Fly By Night Cookie Company". Was envisioning a huge industrial complex churning out cookies, but it was in fact an adorably cozy little cottage with jars of cookies.


On our ride into Rochester, we saw some nasty little clouds coming up. But that doesn't bother us! Pah!


WELL the raindrops were giving us a beating to the point we couldn't see where we were going, so we took refuge in a gas station, where we passed the time listening to this man talk to us about Vermont's history and his experiences in World War II. One of the most eye-opening parts of this trip so far.


At RIT, one single person cooked all 30 of us dinner, and we sat around one huge table eating. It was a lot of food and a lot of table.



The next day, there were some volunteer opportunities at a Habitat build site. We got to meet the homeowner there. Three of us put up insulation in the basement.


Today, we're in Lockport, so named because of the water locks in the canal which allowed ships to pass through. A bunch of us took a tour, where the guide showed us around and told us a lot of the history of the place.


In a tunnel made to channel water to power factories back in the day, in which we would later ride a boat.


UPSIDE DOWN BRIDGE!

There's so much more to write, but this library computer has a little clock at the top ticking away my time.

Later!

TOMORROW we're heading to Niagara Falls, and only have 20 miles of riding to do. Which means tons of time to spend in the city, so stay tuned next time for...

Theo Visits Niagara

Palermo, New York, next to Mexico, New York

These past couple days, I've been riding through some of the quaintest of the quaint towns thus far.


This is my bike parked in the parking lot of a Rite Aid in Boonville. Got my camera issues all resolved, so there shouldn't be a shortage of pictures anytime soon. As the photography shop person put it, Boonville was very Norman Rockwell, and looking at this picture now, I can kinda see it, with all the store fronts lined up.


When we get to the host site, in this case the Boonville Methodist church, we all take our shoes and biking shorts off and stretch, as demonstrated by Nick here.


Today, we had a lot of miles to cover. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures of myself, as today hurt, but the whole scenery can be expressed in a few pictures.

There were a lot of open areas with grass, lined with trees. That was the vast majority of the ride, save for the couple small towns we passed through.


Taking a short stretch/snack/drink break after a tough climb, which you can see in the background.

Early lunch! I was exhausted, and just sat on the grass til I was up for another go at the bike.


Closing in on the home stretch to the church, we mostly coasted down some hills through a lot of green til we got to the church.

Took this about an hour ago. At our host church, we met a few of the parishioners and some of their children brought their bikes for us to take a look at.

Now this post wouldn't be complete without my picture would it? Snapped this just now. It's yours truly using the littlest computer (thanks Ally) on a terrific internet connection (thanks Palermo United Methodist Church).

~T

PS With regards to the title, New York names a bunch of its towns just the most confusing names, including (but not limited to) Poland, Russia (which is actually East of Poland), Jamaica, and Mexico.

Second day in New York

In Boonville, New York right now!

So I heard that a few of my readers are family of some of my fellow Bike and Builders. How sweet of you all to join me! Now that I know this, this doesn't mean I won't stop bombarding you with pictures of ME, but I'll make sure to post more pictures of the others.

I'll start off by showing some I chose not to include in my past posts:
Jason and Physnick enjoying some New Hampshire ice cream.


One of our morning route meetings, where we go over the general plan for the day's travels.


A group picture of all of us. Jay looks ginormous.


So, today.
Today was pretty long (70 miles?). Luckily, no rain today (not the same story yesterday).

These past few days, I think the most amazing things I've seen would be being able to see the edges of the clouds' shadows and racing down the road to meet the edge, after which the whole world goes from cloudy and darker to clear and sunny. Maybe not that interesting, but I thought it was pretty awesome.

Someone even saw a bear on the road today. Wow.

We had an early, 10:40 am lunch because our leader Rachel found this beautiful place for us to take our break. It's a lake. One of at least eight, in fact. It's called "Eighth Lake". I've got something on my chin. Try not to look at it.


So until the point of taking this picture, I couldn't really tell you authoritatively that the Adirondacks were stunning, as most of the time, I was surrounded by some very tall trees through which I could only see glimpses of the surrounding beauty. There was a clearing here, though, and it was pretty rad.



So we were bearing down close to our host location. My legs hurt and I was kinda tired and my palm was sorta numb and I had to go to the bathroom. But then we crossed over this bridge with some beautiful white water underneath, and I had to take the time out to get a picture anyway.


To me, New York means Broadway and restaurants and STERN (heh) and all that stuff but today, I got to some of the other 99.45 percent.