RA81: Along Lake Ontario

Sodus Point NY to Port Ontario, NY – 64.4 miles

In Sodus Point NY Jack and I hit a place called the Hot Spot for breakfast, which may have been the only place in town serving.   Decent food – the grits were my favorite.  We then took off on the quiet streets and took in the beautiful coastal scenery created by the marina and Sodus Bay.

As expected, we encountered much of the same rolling terrain as yesterday afternoon.  Nothing overly steep or long but it kept the derailleur action lively.   Jack says the landscape here is one he is really used to, having lived for years in Syracuse.  It sure is different even from the plains of southern Ontario.  Here we’re getting rolling hills, deciduous trees, and a wider variety of crops.

We hit Fair Haven NY for a beverage, then rode east into Fulton NY for lunch.  Jack has been amazingly compliant finding vegetarian food, and so I like to suggest Subway at times because we both like it and he can get a really hearty sandwich.  The one here in Fulton was right next to the Cayuga Community College so I started using their open wifi line for a while.  I think someone over there finally cut me off, though, because the connection disappeared after about an hour.

From Fulton we made nice progress north on backroads through Volney and New Haven toward Lake Ontario.  Weather was outstanding, 85F-ish with minimal breezes.  For twenty-something miles the only things of note were the dog chases .   Jack passed one group of three, they started to bark, but their owner called out “NO!”, to which they obeyed.  Until I rolled through.  Then the littlest one bolted out, followed by his two big friends, all while the owner was screaming his head off in protest.  They even entered the highway, but I got away with a push on the pedals.  Such encounters are common when riding the backroads.

We reached our goal town for the evening, Selkirk NY (practically in Port Ontario NY).  The guys found Bears Sleepy Hollow RV Park and had already secured a sight, so Jack and I joined them.  Roger was selling “Ethiopian” beer (to go with an Ethiopian flag he’d found) for a buck a can, which was really a six-pack of Red Dog he’d purchased, so I joined him for one.

After setting up Jack and I rolled a few tenths down the road to Cherry’s, an ice cream place that also served burgers and such.  The food was pretty decent but took forever to come out of the kitchen.  We also sampled some of their ice cream: ultra creamy stuff.

Now back at camp, I am devoting a solid block of time to catching up on blogging (when I really should be sleeping).  But if I let the blogjam get any worse I’ll be hopelessly behind.  Alas, the RV park’s wifi is too slow to upload photos or post, so I can only compose sitting here in my tent.

Today’s ride was about 65 miles, really a nice distance.  These hills have hopefully warmed us up for tomorrow, when we’ll head due east, away from the lake and straight toward the Adirondacks.