Days 25 - 27: Upstate New York, Fourth Quarter, Boston or Bust!

Day 25: Niagara Falls, NY to Palmyra, NY

Neeewwww Yoooorrrrrk!

What a great and beautiful state!

Our morning greeted us with clouds and cold though. 

That may seem to cancel out my previous statement, but the day turned around and became awesome!

See!?

We started out on the New York 31. It is also known as the New York Bike Route 5.

Good shoulder and good ride.

Even met a few friends along the way.

 

Also got to see the Erie Canal on a pretty decent bike trail.

This is one of the days that we were looking forward to.

We were dedicated to head to Palmyra. Founding location of the LDS religion.

New York has been one of the prettiest states. Especially once we get to the hills part.

Although we really didn't like the hills. After all, we were used to flatland.

Today was also a sad day.

We had a casualty we all hoped didn't happen.

Matt got his first flat.

He rotated his tires a few days earlier and just a few miles outside of Palmyra his back tire went buh-bye.

We were all hoping both his tubes and tires would make it to Boston.

How amazing would it have been if those tires went 3,300 miles with out getting a flat!?

Sadly that wasn't to be our tale.

Still...

We made it.

And changed from riders to tourists for our evening.

We visited the Smith Family Farm, the Sacred Grove, The Grandin Printing Press where the Book of Mormon was first published, and finally the Hill Cumorah.

I gotta let the pictures tell the rest.

Please, enjoy!

The guy with us in the second picture is Elder Howell. He was our tour guide through the log home and the frame house built by Joseph's older brother, Alvin.

Some of his original work can still be seen in the frame house.

And its fireplace was one of the first hiding places for the Golden Plantes.

After the tour we spent 30 minutes, each alone, in the Sacred Grove.

The feeling is overwhelming and incredibly peaceful.

It was an extremely nice break from the ride.

In almost every way.

So we had a little photobomber at the Hill Cumorah.

The guy's son who took the photo just ran on in and Lance and I were in such a good mood that it didn't even bother us.

The more the merrier.

We hopped in the van and headed south to Canandaigua for the night.

Which was southwest of Palmyra, so we actually backtracked a few miles before we headed out the next day to Waterville near Utica.

Day 26: Canandaigua, NY to Waterville, NY

Another cold morning to start us off.

It's freaking July and the mornings are in the 50s!

With our drive south we were no longer on the 31, but now on the 20 heading east toward Waterville.

Early in the morning we had our first break near a beautiful lake.

Then we went to the next town of Skeneateles, NY that had another gorgeous, clear lake withe beautiful surroundings.

The white house on the other side of the lake in the distance is beautiful and enormous!

A little later down the road we met a man named Jeff.

We had met several characters on our trip and decided that we needed to start taking photos with these good people.

Jeff gave us a little knowledge about the road ahead, which consisted of our old friend hills. And was just a great guy.

When what we hear most is a lot of just bad news, it's so easy to forget that there are many, many, many good people in the world.

Especially in the promised land of the USA.

And we got introduced to our old friend hills again.

Eastern New York is filled with valleys that run North-to-South.

Every big hill in between we had to climb.

Remember that post a while ago that said we went up and down and up and down.

Well this made that look like a cake walk.

On this side of the Rockies we came close to climbing 8,000 feet total for the day!

We also estimated that some of the monsters we climbed had anywhere from a 13% to 14% grade!

The point of the mountain in Draper has its steepest at 12%.

And that hill sucks.

As our theme is though, BOSTON OR BUST!

Still had a pretty ride.

And Big Kev enjoyed his lunch break in luxury and style.

No accidents or mechanical mishaps today.

Just really exhausted by the end of it all.

We finally made it to Waterville.

Because of the lack of hotels we had to drive a few miles north to Utica to spend the night.

We woke up early the next day and began the ride back in Waterville where we left off.

Day 27: Waterville, NY to Albany, NY

We were all in good spirits today.

Even with the knowledge that we had another day of rollercoastering with the hills again.

Another day blessed with no accidents or mechanical mishaps.

And great scenery, yet again!

Even got to see an Amish buggy!

I knew Amish lived in upstate New York, but I don't know the areas.

It was a sweet surprise to see it! We also passed a store that advertised their homemade Amish fudge.

Sadly we didn't stop in for a sweet bite.

Today, we also became tourists for our lunch break.

Why, you may ask?

Our ride on the 20 takes us only 10 miles away from Cooperstown, NY.

For those that don't know, Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

I have no idea when we'll be back in New York, especially Cooperstown, so we had to take this opportunity.

How could you not!

This is an adventure! You gotta do things that get you life points!

The ten mile ride south into Cooperstown went by Lake Otsego.

Absolutely beautiful lake.

And then we had our day in Cooperstown.

I'm calling my shot like the Sultan of Swat.

The Colossus of Clout.

The Colossus of Clout.

Baaaabe Ruuuth!

The Greeeat Baaambiiinoo!

A lil' Sandlot partial quote for ya :)

I though I was safe.

But apparantly I was out :(

Then put shorts over our bike pants and went to the Hall of Fame and Museum.

 That's Henry "Hank" Aaron's locker.

I have a lot more pictures, but only putting up the really good ones for now. I can show some to y'all later too :)

I'll also put them on Facebook after the trip.

After our excellent day in the museum we, naturally, had a hot dog for lunch.

There was a stand set up outside a shop where Pete Rose, MLB All-Time leader in Hits, was signing autographs.

At $60 a piece...no thanks :)

Then we visited Doubleday Field.

Cooperstown is where the Baseball Hall of Fame is because this is where the game was first though invented back in 1839 by a man of the name Doubleday.

This town is where the Little League World Series can be held most years.

We got to see Double day field. THE birthplace of the game.

Now as most of you know, I never really played baseball. But I love sports and love going to MLB games.

It was so awesome getting to see all of it!

With the release of 42 and other racial controversies in the mix, I was most excited to see this guy in the Hall.

And my Dad's favorite player.

After our break in Cooperstown we continued on our way over hills and through valleys to Albany, NY to rest our burning buns and thighs.

A great day.

We are in the last two days of our ride.

Tomorrow we cross into Massachusetts.

We expect to be in Boston on Sunday. That is our pledged goal.

We will ride through anything now.

After all...

BOSTON OR BUST!!!

-Jordo