July 7, 2014. Off to Upstate New York.

When I signed up for this bike tour around Lakes Ontario and Erie, it was mostly due to the fact that Bill was planning to be gone on a motorcycle trip. I thought: why not? no one will even miss me! After I committed to doing the bike tour his motorcycle trip was cancelled. So here I am!

Dianne flew into Detroit Metro Airport last night, arriving at 8:34 PM. We left in the car this morning around 8 AM expecting a 7 hour drive (actually 6 hours and 47 minutes per MapQuest). About 30 minutes into the trip, and just past an exit, suddenly the traffic on southbound I-75 came to a screeching halt. I turned on the radio traffic report and found out that several miles ahead of us the road was completely shut down due to a rollover accident. I shut the car off to save fuel and we sat there nearly an hour.

Finally we moved forward again, had no trouble through Toledo, and got on the Ohio turnpike headed east. When we got near Cleveland I continued east on the turnpike (I-80) instead of going east on I-90. I was driving and Dianne was navigating with only a MapQuest printout and no real map. Bill had offered me the GPS but I declined, since the last time I tried to use it (in South Dakota) I had trouble with it. It took a little while to realize and rectify my error, stopping for lunch in the meantime. By then I was wishing I had taken the GPS!

There were several sections of highway that were restricted due to construction, but we carried on. As we got close to our destination (the Rochester, NY area) we decided we were late enough that it would not make sense to go to the hotel before dinner. We had plans to meet my friend Beverly (from my Cross Country Bike tour in 2008) so we drove right to the village of Pittsford, NY. It was a delightful little place, right on the Erie Canal.

We walked around town a little, then went to Aladdin's to meet Beverly and her friend Bob for dinner. She looked wonderful and we had a great time catching up on each others' more recent adventures. Dinner was delicious and there was never a moment of discomfort among the four of us. It was like we were all old friends becoming reacquainted!

I hated to be the one to break up the party, but I wanted to get to the hotel before dark.... we did not make it. What should have been a 20 minute drive turned into an hour when we called the hotel for directions and made a wrong turn anyway. We stopped twice more for directions, finally arriving here after 9 PM! And I surely do wish I had brought the GPS.