So the ride starts. Breakfast today at the hotel followed by packing the car at 8AM. We were on the road by quarter past the hour heading the the start of the bike path less than a mile away. On the way photos were necessary, first with Nikola Tesla statue and second with the Shark Girl. You need to take a look that the photos to understand.
I was then on to the location where the Erie Canal meets up with the Niagara River. Three WWII ships are docked there as well as a WWII submarine. It was then off to Albany.
It was a good thing that yesterday I had scouted the way out of town. Based on the experience from yesterday, we were able to navigate easily through the various turns before we exited the city limits and were on the bike path.
We had a wonderful tail wind that pushed us North beside the Niagara River. The sky was a overcast, the temperature was 78 degrees with a 30% chance of rain.
A typical biking day is start the ride, about 15 miles in, find a place for coffee. 30 Miles, lunch stop then ice cream at 45 and a beer at the end of about 60 miles. Today’s coffee stop was in the town of Tonawanda where Coleen had find a place that besides having coffee, also had a selection of scones. I had the pineapple coconut scone. Never had heard of such a scone, so of I order one up.
Onward we road. The surface was asphalt and in good condition. With the wind still to our backs, we made some good time to lunch in Lockport. Coleen had set up the stop in the parking lot of Steamworks Cafe. Sandwiches, fruit, drinks and other snacks were available. After lunch we followed the route that took us just feet away from the canal for the rest of the day. Other bike traffic was not excitement.
As you ride on, you start realizing the engineering challenges of building the canal. We had just left Lockport where multiple locks raise the height of the boats. The part we were currently riding, the canal banks needed to be were incredibility level for the water to flow correctly. In 1817 when the locks were designed, the tools we use on a daily basis, had not been invented. Neither were the power machinery we use in building today. Every thing was manual.
Happy Biking,
Brian
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