Thunder claps woke us up this morning. Actually, we were very pleased to hear them so early; maybe the harsh weather would pass before we left. And it did. By the time we were ready, it was still raining but we had not heard thunder for a couple of hours. We set out, choosing to take the road rather than the canal trail. Unpaved & rain seemed a bad combination. A little over a mile out, my bike started to feel unbalanced. Before I had time to do anything, I felt the unmistakable roughness of yet another flat tire. The front this time, less than a day after I had replaced the rear. We walked around the corner to a sheltered side street and began to change the tube. A guy came out of the house we were closest to and offered help. We said we were ok, but he stayed to talk. He couldn't quite imagine our trip. He's a hybrid rider - typically 10 miles - and a runner. He couldn't picture doing all the climbing. I said, oh, well, you live in a flat place. Then I spent the rest of the day wondering what he'd thought. We started hitting small but continuous hills as soon as we got back on the bikes.
Before we had covered many miles, the rain stopped and the sun appeared briefly. Another great day on the road. But then I saw that Bruce's rear tire was a little soft. That's the one he changed last night. He never could find anything that had caused his slow leak, but it was clear something was still in there. It was a slow leak again, so we kept stopping to pump until we reached Pultneyville (right on Lake Ontario - another Great Lake sighting!) and found a nice deli for lunch. We ordered sandwiches & Bruce began one more time the process of replacing a tube. This time he asked me to try to find the problem and I managed to spot a little wire that had done it. By this time there was a group of three at the next table who had gotten interested. They were all local cyclists & the woman had done an Ironman. They offered to help, but had limited access to supplies as they were just moving to a new house. They asked about our ride and were quite startled by the answer ("We thought you'd tell us about a nice day ride..."). Anyway, we had fun chatting and were easily distracted from the frustration Bruce felt as yet another tube went flat. I suggested patching as his supply of undamaged tubes was getting small. I figured sitting around a deli with a bunch of other cyclists was a good place to spend a little time figuring things out.
We were so easily distracted that it took a loud rumble to make us realize the next weather front had arrived. The deli had outside seating under a little tent, so none of us really cared when the rain began. Eventually, though, our new friends took off after leaving us a phone number in case we needed help. Bruce kept patching.
Soon, two more cyclists arrived wringing wet. The storm was getting pretty close by that time. They are from Ontario & were riding out to the Boston area. One of the had ridden the Pacific coast route from Portland south, and also the Adventure Cycling southern tier route. They were camping. I am glad we are not today! Ok, every day, but especially days like this. We kept chatting, eventually moved inside to eat a bit more. Bruce got his tire all fixed - it is still holding air beautifully - and we just had to wait out the weather. It poured. I wondered if we'd need scuba gear. I pulled this little tablet out & found the Doppler radar image & was very happy to see the system was almost past us. Sure enough, after another few minutes the rain slowed down.
Meanwhile, Bruce had begun to dream of taxis. We are now in a B&B where we had arranged to get dinner, but it was still forty miles away. It was after 3:00. The hills were still continuous, and some were getting quite steep. Little walls. But I refused to be lured to a car. We put all our rain gear back on and rode out one more time. And one more time the rain eased & stopped. And no more tires went flat. The terrain didn't go flat either. Oh, well.
At about 6:45, we spotted the sign. Two large dogs came barrelling out barking ferociously; it was all an act. As soon as we walked in they were fawning on us, bringing us pinecones, wagging energetically. Also just as we artived, the next weather system burst. Very lucky timing. We had called to warn our hosts we would be late, so they and their other guests had started to eat. We got cleaned up and joined them for a German dinner. We actually were the only ones at the table who did not speak German, including the thirteen year old from New Jersey. It was a nice change.
Miles today: 68
Total miles so far: 3738
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