Lots of adventures Aug 12

The morning started out great with a wonderful breakfast.There was no bacon but there was breakfast burritos which were excellent,but it was the pastries which really turned the difference between a great breakfast and a wonderful breakfast. I am a baked goods fanatic and after the first two, I knew it was trouble and managed to get out the door with only a few more.

There was a lot of cloud cover in the morning and no haze which was a change from what we have been riding though for the past few days. I had teamed up with Ed in the morning a we were making good time. The area was much poorer than what we have been through so there wasn't much in the way of photo opportunities. We were 25 miles down the road by 8:15 and with only 17 more miles to picnic we stopped for a coffee. After coffee we were riding along and steadily gaining on a couple of new sectional riders. So I said to Ed, "Time for the big dog bark". I jumped on the pedals and we were right behind them when I started into the barking. It sacred the heck out of both of them. Everyone had a huge laugh all the way to picnic.

Picnic was at the Southwick Beach State park. It was a beautiful white sand beach along Lake Ontario. The beach was completely deserted and stretch for as far as you could see. I didn't go swimming as I didn't feel like riding another 30 miles in wet shorts. If it had of been warmer then your shorts dry and it is OK. The wind had come up and was now bordering on being a nasty head wind. So it was time to roll, so Ed and I were off. About 5 miles later we caught Jim who had a flat. So we stopped to help. Before I could get the pump off my bike Ed had the old tire off and was sticking a new tube in. I pumped the tire and the whole thing was over within under 5 minutes.
We had some excellent pavement and it made up for the head wind, however we had no sooner commented on how nice the pavement was than we were routed though Henderson Harbour. It was a beautiful beach community and we had a good time rolling through. I had been saying that we have to stop and get some apples out of one of the orchards we have been passing however we had run out of orchards. Ed spots a couple of apple trees in a yard and yells to stop so we had some apples of the tree. They were perfectly ripe and very tasty. We were no sooner on the bikes when we spotted two ladies walking a huge Golden Retriever. So we stopped to meet him. His name was Buddy and was the Henderson Harbour mascot. It was pretty neat getting to meet the mascot of Henderson Harbour.

The route took us through Sackets Harbour, which played a key role in the war of 1812. The fort there prevented the French from controlling in important supply point along the south shore. In the state park we saw a re-enactment. It was a beautiful little town with a lot of tourist art and craft shops. We didn't stop but it would be fun to explore and wander through.

We had caught up to Chris who took me to hospital a few days earlier so the three of us rode along together and stopped for large strawberry milk shakes.

The route sheet had the ride from Oswego down to Watertown scheduled for 71 miles but I think it came in closer to 80 miles. Although I was wonder what I was going to write about as the scenery was a bust there was still a lot of adventures.

Terry