It is wonderful to ride for hours a day with Gloria. She can talk the entire way as she motors along never short of breath. Well, almost the entire way. This evening as we entered the town of Albion – our stop point – her second battery died. She was a little winded but stoically finished without power.
Everything is blurred because the lens was wet, my glasses were wet, and pretty much everything was wet. However, I can’t complain as we only road for about an hour in the rain. The weather predicted rain all day. The trail was wet and sometimes muddy, but we enjoyed relatively good weather as it was cool – and mostly not raining. Amazingly, in the last 1/2 mile of our day there was an auto parts store where I bought needed drivetrain cleaning supplies and a car wash next door. We feel blessed.
We need to find Gloria a new rain cover for her helmet or someone is going to offer her a job on Saturday Night Live with the coneheads. Who are the other people? Just some of Gloria’s best friends since about 2 pm today. They were headed east and we are going west but we stopped to talk. The lady in the redcoat is from Alberta – of course. After about 20 minutes of talking, I thought we probably should get riding so we didn’t finish in the dark.
An endless trail is not a bad thing for me. I’m mindless enough that I can ride and just look around for miles and miles and hours and hours. Three hundred and fifty miles of the “same” Erie Canal might seem boring, but I find every tree, every bend in the canal, every new town, simply amazing and can’t wait to see the next one. Gloria, tolerates my endless/mindless miles, but much prefers making best friends with anyone that will stop and talk with us. She is disappointed when other bike packers don’t stop and talk even though it is now obvious that almost all of them are simply riding from Buffalo to Albany. There might be a little more to the other riders “stories” but “going to Albany” is how I see them. Gloria could talk to each of them for hours.
The other great encounter we had today was with my niece Rachel in Rochester and her son Clark. Her husband blew us off with some lame excuse about being busy with his ENT residency program – sure. Rachel took us for a wonderful lunch, gelato, and Italian pastries. I might have burned a few thousand calories on the 60 mile ride today but I likely consumed far more calories for lunch. The company was even better. Although we didn’t have much time, we had a great time hearing about their lives in Rochester and the good they are doing in this area. Maybe we’ll get another chance to visit longer if we bring our family on this trail for our next family ride.
Grumpy Grandpa's Great Bicycling Adventures 
Sounds like Gloria really enjoyed meeting her fellow Canadian along the trail. I am sure Rachel enjoyed the visit as much as you guys did. I told you that you would find many good Italian bakeries and restaurants in upstate N.Y. enjoy.
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