Saturday, May 20th
I started the morning at Dave’s Diner. A eight or nine mile hilly detour to the town of Manlinus. I’d found it on the map the previous evening and felt I needed to break up the routines I’d already developed just a few days into the ride. I also wanted to go to an authentic, small town American diner, of course there would be no shortage of these to come but it felt like it was overdue. The alliterative name sealed it.
It was as I had hoped. I sat at the bar next to locals with orders than the waitresses already knew, down to how brown the toast should be or how firm the eggs. I still was unsure what ‘over easy’ meant.
People ate a lot. It was cheap and good. I ate toast, two eggs, bacon and fried potatoes. Then more toast, and I took some oatmeal to go. I had three cups of coffee refilled for me and gave a generous tip. Although the waitresses made it seem easy – the taking of orders, making and dispensing coffee, delivering and clearing food, it looked like hard work perfected over the years and I wouldn’t cope a minute with the pressure they were under.
I picked up some supplies from CVS and a supermarket on the same lot then left town. At a traffic light I shared an exchange with a guy with his window rolled down. When people found out where I was aiming for their reactions were somewhere between shock and admiration, those more travelled seemed even a little proud, perhaps that you’d chosen their country to explore.
The next stop along was Syracuse. A college town. It was Saturday and the whole place felt like a campus at the weekend – clean and quiet and empty. Bike lanes were well marked in green paint and led me quickly through the city. It felt like after passing through some slightly less well off places I was coming to some wealthier county again where the grass is well manacured and the cities had luxuries like public art and bike lanes.
I stayed on roads out of the city until I reached the canal path again. The next town along was Jordan, about 11 miles which passed quickly. It was more overcast today and rain was forecast later too.
At Jordan I took a break and painted ‘NY > BC’ on the back and front of my helmet with white correction fluid. I’m not sure it’s big or legible enough for anyone to read from distance but thought it would be nice to have it there for any curious and alert eyes.
From Jordan I took countryside roads through to Clyde. It became more overcast and the roads were long, winding, and deserted. I passed farms, a small cemetery, occasional houses or tiny communities in isolation. The up and down and up and down of the hills took its toll on me and I was relieved to reach Clyde just after 4. It was a small attractive town which felt like where the clock tower scene is shot in back to the future. I stopped in the Central Park and ate three cookies and checked the weather again. I put on my waterproof jacket and braced myself for the rain.
On the way out of town I picked up two slices of pizza for my dinner, and hoped the would stay dry in the styrofoam box bungeed to the back of my bike. Perhaps some time in this trip it would be good to stay overnight in a place like this. Go to the local bar in the evening. Meet more people. But right now I feel happiest just continuing cycling and not looking back too much.
The rain was very light, almost non-existent, but it was still very overcast to the point where it was hard to know what time of day it was. It was later than I thought, but I had a decent amount of the day left still, enough time to make it to Lock 30 where I hoped for a similar situation to the previous two nights – free camping by the water.
Back on the path to my right was swampy forest, half submerged in water, on my right the canal had widened and houses were dotted along the water, some with small boats or canoes bobbing outside. It was hard to picture the place under snow in the winter, but it must be transformed – signs for snowmobiles and cross country skiers have some indication of how deep it must fall.
The last 10 miles dragged again, I passed some decent camping spots but held out for Lock 30 and the Macedon canal park, I had a feeling it would be like where I had camped a couple of nights ago – free and legal.
Thankfully it was as expected. I ate my cold pizza and put up my tent and enjoyed the feeling up putting another 90 miles behind me.
Map
