Saturday, July 19th: Latham, NY
A good, gentle ride today, much of it on a bike path (not too many tree roots pushing up the asphalt)
following the course of the Erie Canal and/or the Mohawk River. The humidity looked like threatening again, but, as it turned out, it was fairly comfortable all day. I rode with Fred the whole ride, with CJ making it a three for the early section along Highway 5 East to SAG 1 at 50 miles.
It was shortly after SAG that the bike path really came into play
and took us along the Erie Canal to Jumpin Jack's Drive-In, where we arrived at a suitable time for an early lunch of cheeseburger, fries & vanilla malt shake (not in the same league as yesterday's at Woody's, so Jumpin Jack will not be troubling the scorers). It was only 18 miles from there to the end, so we really needed to slow down, or we faced waiting a lengthy time for the room at the Holiday Inn Express to be ready. A wrong turning at a bike path junction took care of that just a little bit, but we still got there at 1300.
Indeed our room wasn't ready, but rooms for folks still over two hours away were ready. Why do motels do that? Why don't they allocate the rooms as riders actually arrive, instead of hours/days in advance, thereby ensuring that riders who need the rooms earlier get the rooms earlier and those who don't need them until later have theirs readied later? It would also ensure that their lobby would not be untidied by the unprepossessing sight to other guests of hot and sweaty cyclists sitting around waiting for up to a couple of hours. Dinner tonight was at the Old Country Buffet, another feeding frenzy establishment.
Mileage today : 79
Cumulative : 3836
