Thursday, July 10, 2014

July 10, 2014. Oswego to Sackets Harbor, NY. 51 Miles.

I was so glad today was a short day! There was not much I would eat in the hotel breakfast room, so I had toast and oatmeal--not such a good idea. It would have been better to have some protein. We rode away from the shoreline this morning, but still had substantial hills. There was construction on CR1, and they gave us plenty of time to navigate the newly paved road.


We saw this sign at about 18 miles into the ride and stopped to take photos. Karen (from MN) went into the store to see what it was all about. We also passed an Amish man hooking up his team to his buggy.


The first SAG was at about 20 miles. Caryn was there serving pie!


There was construction again after the SAG, but again we were not held up long. I'm not sure if they were expecting us or are always that accommodating to cyclists.


 

We passed some "bike art" outside an antique store. The second SAG stop was across the street from Westview Lodge, where many of us had lunch. Below are Dianne, me, Mary, Jo and Julie. We were along the lake shore again by then and the view was spectacular.


After lunch it was 8 short miles to Sackets Harbor. I had much more energy after eating! We are staying at Ontario Place Hotel, an old hotel with no elevator. They don't allow bikes in the rooms so we had to haul the bikes down to the basement and haul our bags up to the third floor. Climbing all those stairs was harder than climbing the hills!
 


Once we recovered from all the stair climbing we walked out to tour Sackets Harbor. This was the center of American military operations on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812.  There was an important ship yard here at the time and the military base was in use until after World War 2.


The harbor is full of sailboats now, and I saw a trimaran coming in from the lake--it made me nostalgic for our own boat. I'd like to do the harbor hopping routine in Lake Ontario one of these years...

I walked to the old Madison Barracks and saw the water tower/observation tower and the stone barracks that are being renovated into apartments. This whole village was in serious decline until the historical society began renovating the old buildings one at a time in the 1970s. Now it is quite a treasure.



Dinner was superb, as usual. Here we are in line for our food. Even though we sit on plastic chairs in the parking lot, the food is top of the line.



Above are the women from Minnesota: Deb, Barb and Karen, who rides her bike year round IN MINNESOTA!  She also was the brave soul who ventured into the bait shop to follow up on that unusual sign we saw this morning. Here she is showing us the "10 inch spotted dick that glows", which is being sold to raise funds to rescue "wiener dogs". I did not make this up.
 


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