OUR FINGER LAKES RIDE IS COMPLETE!

Joan's View

Finger Lakes bike trip summary

Miles ridden: 390
Elevation gain: 13033 ft.
# of flat tires: 0
# of times the chain fell off: 2
# of bicycle light malfunctions: 1
# of diabetes monitoring device malfunctions: 1
# of people asking us about the tandem, taking our picture, yelling out positive comments: hundreds

Our greeting puppy

So many cattails & wildflowers

We are back in Sidney as I finish the Finger Lakes section of our blog. Like Tony mentioned yesterday, we decided to shorten our trip, and to do so Tony had to rework the route back to Lockport. We did a 59 mile ride, and because of that, we hit the road early. We started with our usual gigantic, steep climb, then settled in for some slow climbs for about another 8 miles. We knew from the GPS that one more big one was coming, which we apprehensively anticipated to be another "wall." The original hill that we called the wall was the previous day, and it was breathtakingly steep. We struggled our way to the top of that one just to rest in someone's yard. The owner arrived home and said, "It looks like you made it up Cardiac Hill". We laughed and said that someone sure named that hill correctly. 
Approaching yesterday's hill, we saw it from the intersection, along with the ominous extra slow lane for trucks, so we made our refueling pit stop (cherries, trail mix and a potty break), and we started off. This hill was actually a lower percent grade than what experience had told us. Either that or we were definitely in better shape by now. We huffed and puffed and nailed that "wall", and from there on did some pretty smooth cruising all the way back to Lockport. We saw some of the biggest, most beautiful cabbage, carrot and sweet corn fields that I have ever seen. We saw an apple orchard with rows that seemed to have no end. We saw some really memorable buildings. One old barn was bricked in the front and looked almost prettier than the house. We rode through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge and enjoyed seeing some bird watchers doing what they enjoy. We made it back to our truck that was pleasantly awaiting us

We did it!

Thanks you Reid Group!

with almost valet service in front of the The Reid Group thanks to the extra kindness from Bonnie. We did our high fives and loaded the truck. We grabbed something to eat at the nearest Crosby convenience store (owned by the Reid Group) and made our 6 hour drive back to Sidney.

Traveling by bicycle, you really get an understanding of the local culture. One of things I learned on this trip is how many of the New York State residents would like to remove New York City from the state and "give" it to New Jersey, or even just split the state into 2 states. Because the population of New York City is so big, it carries a majority when it comes to voting issues in the State, thereby using "city" mentality on issues that affect rural New York State. New York has the toughest gun control laws in the country, and we passed hundreds of signs all along our rides supporting repeal of that law. In addition, the rural New Yorkers seem to feel that they get the burden of additional New York city taxes.

The other big takeaway is that many of the residents feel that the State's image is dominated by the New York City. The people of Finger Lakes region are lovingly proud of the area, and feel that many Americans think of the State or New York the same as New York City, and there is so much more!

We enjoyed our ride. Hope you enjoyed our blog. 💗

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them” – Ernest Hemingway