Day 2 - Niagara Falls to Rochester, NY - 76 miles - 1263 ft of gain

Our routes take us from one hotel/place of lodging to the next, so when planing it’s key to find lodging within a reasonable distance along the proposed route. Sometimes hotels have no availability or are priced out of the budget, which then requires reworking the route. To ensure we get to our destination in the allotted time we have some longer days in the saddle dotted throughout the trip, and it just worked out that we needed to jump from 14 miles on day 1 (visit the Falls) to 76 miles on day 2. So basically we are going from zero to GO!

We left the hotel at 8:33am and were on a 4 lane road for the first 6 miles or so, thankfully it was Sunday and not many cars were awake yet. The entire day was quiet on the car front, which made for some really uneventful riding. Most of the day was spent on back roads through farm country. You may be wondering about the title of today’s ride “Waving from the front porch,” well, a lot of people were out on their porches or in their yards and we’d exchange a wave as we passed by. The weather, the breeze, the clouds, the lack of cars, and the amount of nicely paved roads, made today an idyllic bike ride.

Some of the things we saw today:
- A dog driving a truck (maybe the man underneath the dog was driving, but it was really hard to tell)
- A deer eating the corn until she saw us and jumped into the trees
- A pine forest that smelled amazing
- An onion field
- Two goldfinches (although I’m not a birder, so maybe just yellow birds)
- A bus rear section turned into a storage shed of sorts (it was more odd than cool)
- A giant hand with peeling fingernails that served as a lawn ornament (why?)
- A road closure that we ignored (a benefit to having a bike)

Four of us on the trip completed a Gran Fondo ride in Allentown a month ago or more which had several sections of gravel roads that traversed hills, I think these sections are to mimic the cobblestone streets of European bike races. It was ironic then that shortly after this conversation we hit a gravel section of road, which was flat and short, but did give some challenge to keeping the bike upright. Oh and we rode on the Erie Canal Trail for a short section, which is the trail two other LIFECYCLES boys’ teams will hit later this week. We wished we could have left them a message, but it wasn’t really possible. I messaged someone on each team and told them we may or may not have left them a surprise. It’s like a hide and seek game without the find part, I’m sure they’ll love playing!

Our hotel is near the Rochester airport, so the planes fly right overhead on their way to the runway. I’m hoping their landings take a break over the sleeping hours, but its not too loud from inside the hotel.

I typically ask for recommendations for dinner from the hotel staff, especially since we are a large group, it’s important to find a place that can accommodate us. Last night the hotel staff didn’t have many suggestions, but tonight he knocked it out of the park. We made our way into downtown Rochester to try a barbecue place called Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. I drove the van with the gang all loaded in and dropped them off in front of the restaurant to get us a seat. Then I went in search of parking with Al as my co-pilot. We found a space just down from the restaurant, but it required my deft parking skills and Al’s guidance on the distance from the other vehicles. Let’s just say it falls into my top 2 parallel parking jobs. And no, the cars did not move before we were ready to leave, but I managed to extract the van! We returned to the hotel for a little “get to know you” game and a devotion from Mike. I suspect everyone is going to sleep well tonight, after a good meal and a long day in the saddle. Tomorrow is another 75 miles!