65.51 Miles / 3645.34 Total Miles
4118 Ft. Elevation Gain / 116,683 Ft. Total Elevation Gain
Today was like Groundhog Day–another day of being soaked by rain–all day long. And it was a long hard day in the saddle, with a lot of miles and a lot of climbing, in the form of endless hills. When we started out, we rode along Racquette Lake, and I got to see some the other scenery around the lake.
We took a short break at Blue Mountain Lake, ducking under a gazebo, to get out of the rain, for a few minutes. We rode through numerous high-end resort areas, as we ambled down the route. Are there enough of them to support all the people in the northeast US who night want to enjoy a quiet lake vacation? I doubt it.
In Long Lake, we stopped for second breakfast at The Park. We were soaking wet, but the rain had slowed, briefly, so we could sit out in the open, but it was chilly. If we had known this was going to be the last food we would see for 5 hours, we would have bought more than beverages and/or ice cream. Later, I was starving, and towns with food were non existent. Mind you, I always have cookies, Sweet & Salty Bars and M&Ms, in my feed bag, but after a while, I need some REAL food, as in protein, fruits and vegetables.
While waiting for Chris and Ed to finish their break, I started getting cold, and the owner of The Park saw me shivering. So she offered to let me come into the kitchen and stand by the stoves to get warm, and I took her up on her offer. It was a little awkward, but I sure did appreciate her kindness and the warmth of that stove.
Somewhere in the hinterlands that we rode through, there was a little tiny market on the side of the road. Ed and Chris buzzed by it, but I was hungry and thought that maybe, just maybe it would have something simple to eat, like a hot dog or a frozen burrito, so I pulled over. Remember, it was still raining, and I was soaking wet, when I walked in the place. It was maybe 14′ x 14′, inside, and there were only a handful of items for sale–things like a few cans of food, fancy gourmet chocolate bars, and soft drinks–nothing of substance. I spoke to the gal, who was the owner/operator, and she told me that the only food between there and where we were staying, was a gas station convenience store about 25 miles up the road, and Paradox Brewery another .5 miles further.
Ed circled back, to see if I had scored any food at the market, and I told him about the food up ahead. He sped off, and I didn’t see him again, until I pulled into that gas station convenience store. Remember, we were all soaking wet, and it was still raining. Ed and Chris were just as hungry as I was, and they had bought food for now and food for dinner at the motel. I went inside and did the same, then we pulled out of the parking lot together, with just a couple of miles left to go, to get to our motel–so we through.
About a mile down the road, we ran into the Paradox Brewery, and believe me–it was a paradox! Standing, in the middle of nowhere, was a large multi million dollar building, with its own very large outdoor party tent, equipped with big screen TVs. The huge parking lot was packed with cars, and inside, probably 80-100 people were eating pizza, drinking beer and other beverages, playing board games, or just hanging out. Unbelievable! Unless these people were all local, how did they even know about this place? And if they were local, where did they all come from, and why were so many of them hanging out in a brewery in the hinterlands in the middle of the day?
It didn’t matter to us. We took off our wet rain gear and drug our wet bodies into the place, and even though we had just eaten, we ordered the biggest pizza they had–an extra large buffalo wing pizza and beverages. The pizza was tasty, but super greasy. We chowed down on it anyway, and now we were REALLY full. After donning our wet rain gear, we continued down the road another mile to our motel.
Each of us had a separate room, so we could have space to dry all out gear, and with the owner’s permission, we used her hose to wash all the grit and mud off our bikes and gear, before takin them into our rooms. I borrowed a hair dryer, at the front desk, to dry the things that were really REALLY wet, like my cycling shoes and the insides of a couple of my paneers. Once I was clean and warm, I climbed between the sheets and took a nice, long nap, then woke up and worked on my blog for a while.
Living Our Bucket List 