Day 1, Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Niagara Falls, NY to Henrietta, NY
(82.3 miles) 5h 11m 31sec

Up at 5:30, pack and organize, 6:15 load luggage, 6:30 breakfast at Denny's - Grand Slam pancake selection - excellent, very filling. 7:15 on the road.

It was forecast to be a hot, windy and humid day. It started out coolish, but not for long! It took us about 30 minutes to get out of downtown Niagara Falls and into the country. There were a lot of turns and short rides on country roads. Some of the routes we traveled today were 62, 429, 93, 77, 237, 262, 19, 33, 36 and 253. So for someone familiar with this part of New York State, they can see that we were on rural country roads a lot. There were 2 SAG's today - one at 29 miles and the other at 60 miles. We really look forward to the SAG's. In addition to topping off our water bottles and consuming energy snack foods, we get off our bikes for a bit, stretch our legs and get out of the sun. These stops are usually in the shade of a tree. I didn't see much for photo opportunities today.

I arrived at our hotel, a Super 8, at 1 PM, checked in to my room, and then joined several other cyclists and went to get lunch at a "Tim Horton's". Route rap is at 5:30, so I used my time to start my journal. One of our cyclists heard a comment on local TV stating that as of 1 PM the city of Rochester (Henrietta is a suburb of Rochester) broke a 30 year record of 92F. Today at 1PM it was 98F with a heat index of 108F! The heat, wind and humidity today was very unpleasant. It really sapped your energy and stamina.

We had dinner tonight at a "Country Buffet".

Garden Salad - lettuce and spinach greens, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, cukes, black olives, red onion, grated cheese and blue cheese dressing. seafood salad, three bean salad, cantelope.

Main course - baked fish, fried fish, fried shrimp, shrimp alfreado, french fries, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, shrimp scampi, spaghetti and meat sauce, roast pork, brussel sprouts, mash potato and gravy, string beans, carrots, corn and 6 glasses of coke.

Dessert - carrot cake, country apple crisp, hot fudge sunday cake, old fashioned peach cobbler and vanilla soft serve ice cream.

Tomorrow is an 88 mile ride to Liverpool (a suburb of Syracuse) and the weather is supposed to be just like today was.

SAG 1

Purple cabbage

Interesting mailbox

Soybean plants

Purple and white cabbage

Cute farm house

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