Old Forge, NY (2)

"Still I wonder, who'll stop the rain?"  (CCR)  Well, it seems our luck with the weather has run out.  For the past 6 days we have been riding in warm, muggy, threatening weather, but we always managed to avoid the big rains.  Sometimes the rains would hit when we were inside a restaurant eating, sometimes they would hit when we were in our tents at night.  No more.  The rains have unloaded on us the past 2 days, and today in north central New York they have been heavy for hours.  Everything we own is soaked.  We are currently sitting out the rains in the lobby of the Old Forge Best Western Motel and have taken this opportunity to update our blog.  It's been awhile.

So here are the numbers:  After 45 days we have cycled a total of 3223 miles, an average of just over 71 miles a day.  The past days through New York have slowed us down due to weather and hills and flat tires.  We are optimistically hoping to be in Bar Harbor by Friday August 1, but may be delayed by a day if the weather doesn't soon improve.

We owe a debt of gratitude to: the Macedon, NY, volunteer fire department who let us camp for free in their pavilion and use their showers; Brandon Furber and Jana House in Fair Haven, NY, who let us pitch our tents in their back yard and fed us dinner; Joe Sarcone and Kim Burch in Osceola, NY, who let us tent camp and eat in their restaurant even though they were closed (Mondays and Tuesdays, as Pat mentions in his blog); and Elaine, the manager here at the Best Western Motel who is letting us use her computer and use their lobby for shelter.  People continue to be very helpful and friendly.

I might also mention that we cycled through Niagara Falls last weekend and, even though the falls were a spectacular sight, we did not enjoy the crowds of tourists and the urban blight around the city.  We were glad to be out of the area and glad to get past Rochester, another rough large population center.  Suffice it to say that we are now much happier being away from population centers and up in the remoteness of the Adirondack Mountains.  Now if the rains would just stop.......

Bill Jenkins