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05/30/2003 Entry: "Amherst, Mass (not the overnight)"
Hello folks, Greatings from Amherst, Mass. I'll be doing the entry reguarding Baldwinsville to Illion to Scotia, and Mike will be writing about our adventures from Scotia to Dalton to Amherst. We're not staying in Amherst tonight, however, we're moving on to Ware (Where are we going? Ware. Where? Exactly. What?) Jesse may be doing a simultanious update from Northampton so if lots of entries show up at once, don't be scared. They won't hurt you. The excess will simply pass right through, like Vitamin C. (And yes, these entries are good for your immune system as well.) I pity the fool who don't click the more button to read the rest of mah entry! Huah!
Baldwinsville, NY to Illion, NY - Somewhere around 80 miles This was a sweet ride. Confusing, but sweet. See, we had these New York Bike Route 5 maps that we were using. They consisted of a map and a second sheet saying mileage between towns. There are also signs on the roads denoting that you are on New York Bike Route 5. The mileage sheet and the signs agree, but the map sure doesn't. The map has a taking a completely different route from the signs and mileage sheet. It was a confusing day. Luckilly, we are all fairly adept nowadays at un-losing ourselves, so we made to Illion unscathed. We didn't all take the same route to get here, but we got here. Pretty much as long as you stayed going East within site of the giant canal and didn't do something stupid like climb 1,000 feet out of the valley you couldn't get real lost. It was a nice ride. In Illion we stayed a Marina on the canal. Some of us even got showers. We did a small show for the people there during a break in the rain. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. It's still raining. It's rained every day except for today and the ride into Rochester since the middle of Ohio. I'm so used to it I figure it goes without saying. Here's a wonderful little story that will give you and idea of what we've come to think of as "typical roadshow luck." In Illion I decided to replace my front brake pads. A fairly simple operation that I shouldn't have any problem with. Well, some things went wrong and the screw that holds the spring tension on my right front brake fell off. What this means is that my left front brake was completely loose and my right front brake was pressed against the wheel. This was no good. I ended up fixing the problem by replacing the screw with a spare allan wrench held in place by 8 zip strips. (there should be a picture eventually) Typical roadshow luck. Stay tuned for more examples... Illion, NY to Scotia, Mass. This was another good day of riding. There were a lot of mechanical problems, some group tension, and, of course, lots of rain, but it was still a good ride. We were re-introduced to hills that day. A good warm for the small mountains we are riding through now. In the morning we climbed a really large hill. It was a rude awaking, and punctuated by a gigantic fat rottweiler (I don't really care if I spelled that right, I didn't like the dog) at the top of the hill that came barrelling after us and would probably have caught us if were hadn't already started down hill. It was pretty quick for a fat dog. I think it was fuelled with Evil Power, much like RV's and headwinds. Due to the map problems of yesterday we all took different routes to Scotia. Some of us managed to stay on a bike route for much of it, and others stayed on busy roads with cars. No one got lost, thankfully, but that's to be expected since all you had to do was follow the canal, again. Yay for easy directions. We did experience some more "typical roadshow luck" that day. In the morning my frame broke where my rack attaches and I had to attach it in a different spot. I also had to tweak my front break a fair amount. (stupid allan wrench) Jesse and Paul had some large problems with tires and them exploding that caused them to need to find a bike shop. Due to the bike shops hours they had to spend an extended amount of time in Scotia and then decided to stay there for the night based on local information saying that they wouldn't be able to find a place anywhere else. (stupid Albany was near) We had originally intended to ride 10 more miles that day. Mark, Mike, and I called them from Scotia a while later while hiding from a rain storm and heard that we were staying there. It was lucky we called, or else we would have gone 10 miles past where we were staying, again. This caused some group tension that night, but it was all worked out. That night we stayed in the Scotia Methodist Church, where we did wonderful things like laundry and finally dried out our shorts. It was quite wonderful, and despite some bad luck, it was a good day. The library is closing now, hopefully Mike will be able to finish his entry. Thank You, please drive through. (WE'RE ALMOST DONE!!! and.. uh.. MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW! YAY!) ILYQ
Replies: Leave us a note! (2)
Happy Birthday to the man who's journal entries always make me laugh!
Posted by Amy @ 08/13/2003 10:08 PM CST
When Seager said it's rained every day since the middle of Idaho he really meant Ohio. That darn Seager is always getting those states confused. :)'
Posted by Josh (roadshow rider) @ 08/13/2003 06:56 PM CST
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