May 21 -- Batavia NY to Syracuse NY

Syracuse. Another day is done. Actually I think that we may be in Liverpool -- or at least we stopped for ice cream about a mile away ...

It was a very pleasant day today -- cool, but dry and sunny. Actually it was pretty cold in the a.m. -- there was frost on a school bus parked at the hotel. But ... with the proper clothing it's not a problem. For the first time I wore the little skull cap hat under the helmet -- that helped quite a bit -- and then when it started warming up that was the first thing to come off.

We followed route 5 most of the way here. Of course we were not supposed to follow route 5, but we did anyway. Jerry navigated and being a point-to-point man he saw that we were still on route 5 until well over 100 miles ... so we missed the hypotenuse to the triangle and rode through Auburn NY. It was only 1.9 miles more, but we must have stopped for at least 20 lights. They are very close together and all nicely timed for car speeds -- not bicycle speeds.

We got in about 3:15 -- 8:00 elapsed time; 123.6 miles; 7:03 rolling time.

The scenery is upstate NY -- 5 follows the Erie Canal at least part of the way and by the finger lakes region. We went by the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge -- something that I have seen from the NY Thruway 1 mile north -- large swamps and millions of ducks and geese during migration season.

I was trying to explain over dinner last night the types of things that you see on these routes vs the Interstate highways -- well did you know that LeRoy NY is the birthplace of Jello ? (and did you care ?) -- all these little towns have little bits of Americana associated with them -- birthplace of a president ? boyhood home of a president ? a winning team ? birthplace of Jello ? -- they will all let you know as you enter town. Another town along the route today was the birthplace of Memorial Day !

Seriously though, many of these towns are very well kept, lovely old homes, antique shops -- and they have all contributed in one way or another to American Industrial, Political or Sports history -- they are proud of it and they let you know.

I'm finally going to change my chain tonight. I was too tired last night. That means that I have to be down at the mechanics van at 5pm to retrieve my "stuff". We have RAP at 6pm and then we'll likely walk down the road and find someplace for dinner.

Three more days to go -- it is hard to believe. With any luck it will be dry -- but we'll take whatever we get. If I can trust the weather.com forecasts for Syracuse, Amsterdam, Keene and Amesbury it will be dry and gradually warmer. Keep your fingers crossed for us ...

I am confused -- up until today I would have said that Super 8 motels were the low end of what we've stayed in -- that is certainly true for some of them, but this one is quite good -- clean, up-to-date, well furnished --hey, I've stayed in Holiday Inns and Best Westerns that were in worse shape. It just goes to show you that you cannot lump all the hotels together from a single chain.

What else do I have to say today ? -- I'm brain dead. I don't know.

Oh -- breakfast was at the Bob Evans by our hotel this morning. Everyone was delighted with breakfast -- but then they were comparing it to the breakfast the prior day.

Now -- what would you expect of a breakfast at a Clarion hotel -- a nice buffet, freshly cooked food ... not. Picture pancakes that are all exactly the same size that if you picked one up and held it by its edge, thumb and forefinger top and bottom -- and it would stand out straight like a frisbee. People had to cut them with steak knives. They must have been frozen and then dried out in a microwave as they were warmed up -- I don't know. Can you buy pre-cooked frozen pancakes ?

Remember Goldfinger (James Bond) where that stout oriental guy with the razor-sharp brim on his hat threw it across the yard like a frisbee and cut the head off a statue ? -- you could do that with these pancakes. This group normally fills itself up on pancakes -- carbohydrates -- and a few of us have oatmeal. Barb had told the staff that we needed about 10 oatmeal -- well, they kept on bringing out tray after tray -- and it took 5-10 minutes to prepare each tray -- going through at least 40 bowls of oatmeal. Those who would normally have multiple helpings of pancakes had multiple helpings of oatmeal.

Well, the only funny story about today's breakfast was that on our special menu, at the bottom, it said "fresh fruit" -- well, as I was leaving -- and about 1/2 the people had left at that point -- they started bringing out the individual bowls of fresh fruit -- I wonder who ate them ?

The contrubutions from Sue, Flory, Sandra and Corky were out at the first and second SAG stops today. This group attacks anything that is different, and they were well appreciated. Although Barb manages an excellent spread, she does have to work within a budget and while we generally have apples that she cuts and bananas -- other fresh fruit is too hard for her to keep and she needs to be able to bring along enough for all -- but special donations, like mine, don't follow those rules and are devoured. Late arrivals ? -- well, they never know what they missed out on.

Oh oh oh -- I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that about 10 miles after leaving Dunkirk we came upon a Tim Horton's -- well, of course I stopped and had an apple fritter -- fresh and still warm. I was walking out and in came Bob Papineau -- he had spotted the TH as well and wanted some of their coffee ... I'm not a fan of their coffee, but a lot of Canadians are, eh ?

Oh -- part of the conversation at dinner last night was about the Sabres loss to the Senators. I don't exactly follow the NHL but when we got to the Clarion hotel the other night the game was on in the bar with many people crowded around.

That's it for now ...