Day Five – Wednesday, September 10

Expectations: This is our short day. Only 28 miles (est). If we go to the next place that has lodging we would have to go another 28. I’m not doing close to 60 miles in one day! Perhaps a good chance to find something interesting to do in Syracuse to kill time and relax?

After breakfast at a nearby restaurant we will head out through the towns of Jordan, Peru, Memphis, Camillus, Fairmount (where we will have lunch), Solvay, Syracuse (right smack through the southern end of the city and things could get tricky here), East Syracuse/Dewitt, where we will bed down in a motel.

Leaving Weedsport, we will be on-road for about a mile before picking up the canal pathway and it’s stone dust surface. We will stay on that until just outside Syracuse where we will once again be on-road right through to DeWitt on the east side of the city.

We woke up with the alarm clock at 7 a.m. This was the best night’s sleep so far. The Best Western had wonderfully comfortable beds and, I guess, a little exhaustion helped. ☺ Kathy opened the door and the sun came streaming in. Oh, my!!! It’s 45° out there, but it’s sunny. You don’t know how happy that makes me.

It was time to do laundry. We walked to the laundromat before breakfast and put our stuff in to wash while we went back to the motel for breakfast. After eating we packed up. I reminded Kathy to make sure she collected her shaving equipment. That became a joke. Equipment? Shaving equipment? According to Kathy: Construction companies have equipment. Hayfields require equipment…not legs! That is, of course, dependent on when the legs were last shaved! ☺☺ We load up our bikes and head for the laundry to put our clothes into the dryer.

While we were waiting for our clothes to dry, we got to talking to the nicest older couple. They were very interested in what we were doing and very supportive. Kathy and I went over our maps of the day’s ride and were ready to set out for DeWitt. This should be our shortest day, estimated at 28 miles.

At the gas station next to the Laundromat, Kathy is changing into warmer clothes. So far we have found two gas station/convenience stores that are bike rider friendly. They have no public rest rooms, but let us use their Employee Only facilities. At this station they really want 75 cents for air. I don’t need any, but Kathy put air in her tires. No free air in NY as in CT.

We weren’t quite sure how to get back onto the canal pathway. What we were looking at on the map didn’t look like what we were actually looking at. We stopped at the Fast Track gas station and asked directions. The guy we asked told us to go right to the light, take a left and past the school we can pick up the stone dust path. That sure saves us time having to hunt for it! It’s not what the map looks like. The couple we met at the Laundromat turned up at the Fast Track and told us to go across the street and pick up the trail behind Arby’s. Huh? They were absolutely right. However this is a section of the natural, unfinished path, but it’s not bad.

We saw a big choo-choo train. Two engines (one going forward hitched to one going backward) and 68 cars—Kathy counted 69—and the disagreement is on! Add engines and we had 70/71. Kathy wanted a caboose. It was a freight train, Kathy. Freight trains don’t have cabooses!!!

At mile 4.54 we stopped at Lock 51 (part of the original canal) in the town of Jordan. It’s dry and out in the middle of nowhere. It still shows the two sections where boats could pass east and west at the same time helping to keep canal traffic moving. The section of the trail from Lock 51 is so pretty with it’s arch tunnel of trees. We may eat sooner than I had planned. The trail surface heading out of Jordean is so bumpy…because horses are allowed on this section.