6/09/19

Spencerport Wesleyan Church, where we spent the night provided us a full breakfast and sausage at 7 a.m. They made more than we could eat.  Ed missed breakfast because he was going to church in Medina which was 34 miles down route.  This was a special place for Ed since this best friend was married there 45 years before.

Most of us started out at about 8:00 a.m. and most of the ride today was along the Erie Canal.  One thine good about riding along the canal was the ride was mainly flat.  The bad thing was the bike path was in a state of renovation.   Some of the ride was very rough with rocks, gravel and hard pack rutted trails, but the worst was packed sand.  The sand would just suck your tires in and bring you to an immediate stop.  One time that happened to me and down I went to my knees.  The sand took the scab off my right knee and so I once again had a bloody knee.  Another couple of weeks and I won’t remember having a skinned knee.  All the riders were affected by the sand trails, but one told me he fell 5 times.  I believe this was the record.

We rode the first part on the day in a fairly large group.  Some of which I hadn’t ridded with before.  After the first and only rest stop, in Albion, I separated from this group and waited for Ed to catch up after Medina.  Here is one of the draw bridge and this one just happened to be at our rest stop.  We got to see this one raise and let a larger boat through.

Coming into Medina we saw an unusual site.  A river went under the Erie Canal.  The river created a water fall.  It is hard to see from the picture.

It was a strange site.

After Medina we encountered the thick sand again and it continued to just before Middleport.  At Middleport Ed and I stopped for lunch and regroup.  When we hit the trail after Middleport we had hard packed dirt trails the rest of the day.  This was a relief.

Once we made it to the First English Lutheran Church we were taken to the local YMCA for a great hot shower.  It makes up for any difficulty we had during the ride.  The church is also providing us we dinner.  The perfect way to our heats.