July 9, 2014. Webster to Oswego, NY. 66 Miles.

When Bill filled our tires before loading the bikes in the car he told me that Dianne's front tire was very low. I told her about it a couple of days ago, but she thought it was OK... so this morning while getting ready to ride she had to change it. I loaded my luggage and went to fill my tires and found a slight leak in the valve stem on my front tire. So I had to change a tire too. Always something.

I was interrupted in my tire changing to line up for a group picture. One rider (Pat) is missing from this photo.

Dianne and I rode out of the hotel and missed the first turn onto the bike path, but no harm done. We started the day with a bonus mile. We were all warned at last night's map meeting that today was the most challenging day of the tour. It did not seem so bad at first, nice gentle rolling hills, a view of Lake Ontario on our left, fruit orchards on our right.

There was a SAG stop at Foreman Park, which was a terminus of the Underground Railroad and near the place where Joseph Smith found the tablets on which he founded the Mormon Religion.

The hills started getting steeper and more numerous after about 25 miles. I stopped to see the Sodus Point lighthouse, giving me another bonus mile. Dianne chose to go on without me, but made a wrong turn so she got a couple more bonus miles!

There was another SAG at around 40 miles into the ride. Tracy was there with cold water, and fresh cherries, cheese wedges, and sliced apples in addition to the usual snacks found on the SAG stops.

At one of our turns there were orange cones across the road, but a man from the County told us the road was not completely closed. There was a tree down partially blocking the road and a wire down. We managed to get around it safely and continue on our hilly way.

A large group of cyclists stopped in Fair Haven for lunch at the Hard Ware Café, which is housed in an old hardware store. Lunch was great, the tea was cold, and the waitress had on a Hard Ware Café T-shirt reminiscent of the iconic Hard Rock Café shirts,

We encountered more and steeper hills as the afternoon progressed. We were plenty glad when we arrived in Oswego around 2:30 PM. The van was parked down by the Oswego River and there was a sailboat tied up right outside our balcony. A delicious dinner was prepared by our chef, Sue and her sous chef Peggy.