Cycling the Erie Canal, Final post

These are Bea Joyce, Lynn Kalfelz, Lamar Martin and Art Wagner as they finished the Erie Canal Ride, 400 miles in eight days. A great ride except for the one day we took a hotel suite of rooms due to heavy rain in Central New York (over 4" in fact that day, broke that days record in Central New York). The day of not riding allowed us to get clothes washed and dry everything out that had gotten wet the previous night of rain. This is a unique event and I believe all our group would recommend it to others. Our method of a van supporting the riders and taking a canopy for shade and rain protection was a very good idea. Those who rode a bus to Buffalo and the only way back to Albany was by bicycle couldn't carry these things and suffered badly in the rain at Syracuse.

Cycling the Erie Canal

The last days ride from Scotia to Albany was only 40 plus miles, so since I had broken my bicycle and had to drive the van, I took the opportunity to visit an old neighborhood that my family lived when I was employed in Albany. The house located in Clifton Park near Saratoga Springs, appears here that we purchased new about 40 years ago. The next owners planted trees in the front yard and they are now mature and it really makes the home look better. The many tons of blue quarry stone that I laid to build retaining walls in front and the side on the home are still standing!

Cycling the Erie Canal

Disaster strikes on the fourth day into the ride!
After arriving in Seneca Falls, setting up our tent site on my day to drive the van, I got directions to a store that sells wine in order to replace our wine supply on instruction from the other four riders. Told to drive the way I came to the camp site, cross the main street, go down a hill and cross a truss bridge, the wine store will be found at the top of that hill beyond the bridge. Watching my directions carefully and looking for the wine store, I did notice the seven foot clearance on the old truss bridge and the bridge tore off my bicycle, roof rack and the Yakima Sky Box from atop of the van.
Everything was laying in the middle of the bridge and my first thought was, "If I can't get this repaired, how in the heck are we going to get all our gear back to Georgia!"
After talking the rack apart, loading it, my bicycle and the Yakima Sky Box into the back of the van (it barely fit), I went to the wine store, bought the wine and told the clerk my troubles. She said there was a good bike shop in Seneca, about 12 miles away, I called them, they had the parts and I was back in business with the roof rack and the sky box, whew! The sad news is ... My bicycle fork broke and it could not be repaired, so I drove support the remainder of the week for the other four people on the ride.

Cycling the Erie Canal

The third night we stayed at Nazarine College in Pittsford, NY which is a suburb of Rochester, NY. I rode the last 22 miles and near the college was a shopping center known as Schoen Place, a very up-scale and quaint village along the Erie Canal. I stopped here before ending the days ride and had lunch on the balcony overlooking the canal at Alladin's Natural, a sorta health food restaurant and had a great chicken salad salad wrapped in a pita bread ... along with a very cold Samuel Adams beer. Nice view, good food, great weather ................... but dressed a lot different from others, as I had my bike clothes and bike shoes, helmet hair and a little sweaty!

Cycling the Erie Canal

These pictures were taken at Lockport, NY where the trail begins again from this Lock. The canal drops in elevation by over e300 feet and this lock was about a 40 foot drop. From tshe point, Lamar, Bea and Lynn took a boat ride through the lock and up-stream for a while, then returned through the lock for an elevating experience. Thats me with the silly grin, and the camera is looking down stream.

Cycling the Erie Canal

Taking one and a half days to reach Buffalo from Savannah and having enough time to visit Niagra Falls before we pitched our tents and got our ride packets, we enjoyed this wonder of the world very much! The first picture is the "Horseshoe Falls"; Second, is the Maid of the Mist that takes tourist in this boat almost under the falls, each tourist is wearing a blue raincoat. The one picture of Bea and Art in a restaurant named Top of the Falls where we had lunch. Next picture is Lamar, Bea, Lynn and Art standing near the rail overlooking the Horseshoe Falls .

Cycling the Erie Canal

Four friends (Bea from Florida, Art from Savannah, Lynn from Savannah, Lamar from Vidalia) and me will leave my home in Rincon, GA this Friday for Buffalo, NY where we will join about 500 other bicyclist on Sunday to ride our bicycles from Buffalo to Albany, NY along the historic Erie Canal, one of the earliest towpaths built in USA. Taking eight days, we will camp at high schools and colleges, creating a tent city every night. Our group will have a nickname of "GOOBERS", which means, "We Get Off Our Bicycles Every Rest Stop". We have t-shirts and a sign that will announce our silly name for fun. Stopping overnight in Pittsburgh, we plan to arrive in Buffalo in time to pitch our tents, pick up our ride packet and take a quick trip in the van to see Niagra Falls. On the return to Georgia, we plan to stop in Washington, DC overnight and try to get a bicycle ride around the Capital in the morning to see some of the sites before finally getting home on July 18th.

Florida cruise with friends

A nine day cruise on the Inracoastal waterway from Daytona, Florida to Ft Lauderdale, Florida and back with friends in this very nice 41 foot yacht was a great get-away for this busy person! Docking each night at a classy marina and staying three days at Bahia Mar Marina in the heart of the beach area of Ft Lauderdale was quite an experience. Good food, good friends a lot of relaxing and gaining a nice golden suntan was a rare pleasure. Only the last day did we experience a few light showers while cruising and only one night of thunderstorms after we had docked.
The greatest surprise on this trip was the wealth shown of homes along more than a 100 mile stretch along the waterway. Most likely nothing less than a million dollars a home and the one shown here maybe $6,000,000 plus. While some were built 30 years ago for far less than a million, nothing is available for less than a million today. Some homes had 100 foot yachts like the one shown here in the top picture.