On the Home Stretch!

Today we began our last week of riding! Like most experiences of this kind, the time has really flown by, and yet it seems like it has been going on since I can remember. At certain times of the day (usually between the last sag and the motel, I look at the empty road ahead, the endless corn fields, feel the endless heat, and vainly try to find some redeeming value in each mile I have yet to ride. Of course, the real value is when I realize the vastness of this continent, and think of those who trod those same miles before, and realize how easy I have it compared to some of them. You just can't get the same depth of that feeling in a motor vehicle. I remember back to my journey out to Astoria, and the "problems" I had getting there. How trivial they now seem, compared to the daily grind of the ride. Even with those "problems" it took but one day for me to fly serenely over the terrain I have traversed now for over 43 days.

The ride from Niagara Falls to Henrietta, NY, was a day where that kind of questioning pops up like a "whack a mole" game at the state fair. The terrain: flat and featureless. The main crop: weeds, or maybe corn. Heat: hot and humid by 9 a.m., sweltering and oppressive by noon. Our destination: a motel with no pool in the middle of a hot nowhere called Henrietta. Maybe by tomorrow morning I will find some gem of value in Henrietta, other than just another "Here" on the way to "There". At least we had a stiff tailwind much of the way.

Last night many riders had put their bikes in the window boxes of their motel rooms. Had there been any passers-by on the US side of the falls, they might have thought this was a four-story bike shop with window displays.


This morning, our prime enemy was soon spotted and photographed.


There seemed to be a bumper crop of weeds everywhere, including these intruding onto the bike lane.


Other places, the crops stayed where they belonged, like these cabbages.


The owner of this barn must have entered the "Reddest Barn Contest" My bike looked pink by comparison.