Hot time in the old town:

It is hot here 90+(add 10 degrees for being on the pavement), the humidity is 38%, and Little Falls is an old town. It was a huge cheese making center in the early 1800's and at the time of the civil war was supplying over 50% of the USA's cheese. There is something in the rocks that gave the grass a special mineral that was transferred to the cheese that made it especially good. In addition there was a huge supplementary cheese industry here in the making of cheese making equipment and dairy supplies. However like all good things the industry died out as new methods of cheese making were developed. Little Falls is right on the Erie barge canal and in this valley along the Mohawk River making it a very pretty little town. The census reports the 2000 population at 5100 and gives it a per capita income of only $15k compared to the national average of $21k.

Today's ride started out at around 70F but got warm really quickly so I was trying to put some miles under my belt before it turned to hot and steamy. The road was good and bad and in between. There were sections which had huge shoulders and sections with no shoulder. There were places where I didn't see a car for 20-30 minutes but there were some sections were I was in the middle of really bad traffic. As I was cruising by myself today I rode as hard as I wanted, some times just loafing along and at other times driving hard. By 9:00 I was at the first rest stop, 32 miles in but the temperature was already at the top end of the green. Some of the riders and Tracy were skipping rocks in a pond but it was too competitive for me as I could hear the voices getting high so I pushed on. An hour later I came upon this little plane that landed in a field right beside me, turned and took off again. It was really neat. However the temperature is now well into the yellow and getting hotter by the minute. Pushing on the country side is very pretty with lots of smaller farms and little villages. By 11:30 I am considering stopping for lunch but the temperature is well into the red and if I stop it will be almost impossible to restart, so I grabbed a 24 oz iced tea out of a convenience store and pushed on. At 12:16 I passed a sign that says the temperature is 90F. This is at the 73 mile mark and the steam is blasting out of the over flow valve, as I over heat. Looking down I see I have 1/3 of a bottle of water (250 ml), about an 1" of apple juice and about 1" of Gatorade. Not very much however I only have 12 miles left. I have to turn over the route sheet so I stopped. When I turned over the sheet I see that the hotel is at 79 miles. It is the happiest moment of the ride. I gulped the last 1" of 90F Gatorade (yummy) downed a gel and jumped on the pedals. So I managed to make it in with an average speed of 16.6 mph and an elapsed time of 4:47 As I rolled into the motel my bottles were empty, and there was no more steam as I had boiled dry.

Well I have to go now as I have an appointment. There is a transmission shop across the street and I am having an axillary transmission cooler installed. It will bolt to my helmet with flexible hose to quick connect couplings on my neck. Hey it fixed the over heating problem on my 1969 Ford.

Today's picture is a shot of one of the factories coming into town. Little Falls in addition to making cheese was also known for making fine papers. As I saw the big factory sign it was obvious what they made. Then when you look lower in the picture you see the other sign "Sitter" which is a little less clear what they sell. Then when you look a little closer you see that it is used. Does Sitter sell used tissue? Well, I thought it was funny when I rolled into town but then I was over heated and tired.

Make sure you scroll down and catch some of the other pictures from the day in the supplemental picture post. Jim and I went and had a great lunch in the old town railroad depot, and I took a few pictures around town.

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments.

Getting close now!

Terry