The first day of any tour can be a crap shoot. All sorts of issues can prevent a smooth and timely departure. This tour was no exception. There are six of us all rendezvousing from multiple parts of the country; 1 from the East Coast, 3 from the mid west and 2 from the West coast. One of the riders, Chris, was scheduled to fly from San Francisco yesterday (Thursday), but airplane mechanical issues prevented him from arriving until 10 AM this morning and by the time he arrived and had the bike ready to go and everything packed into our SUV, it was close to noon. Today's route was planned on being 65 miles. With the late start, we knew it was going to be a late finish.
So with the threat of rain and temperatures in the upper 40's we headed off. Of course everything is becoming more and more electronic and recently my biking buddy in California Richard introduced me to this nifty tool called "Epic Ride Weather". It will reach into your ride planning tool of choice and based on your start day and time, it will predict the weather conditions along your ride including temperature, precipitation and wind. Comparing the actual conditions and the "Epic Ride Weather" predictions, I would say that the predictions were very close to what we had experienced.
The late start prompted us to skip our planned coffee stop at 16 miles and continue on to our lunch stop in Lockport at 34 miles. We reached Lockport at about 3:30, too late for the planned coffee shop, but Chuck had found a restaurant called "Big Ditch Brewing Company". After a nice lunch, about 4:30, we headed off to Albion, our destination for today and about 30 miles. If we want to get there by dark, we would need to hustle. The road surface for the remaining 30 miles was packed gravel and with the recent rains, in some spots there were puddles that needed to be avoided, but still a fairly good surface to ride on, even with my road bike with skinny tires.
We were about 10 miles from Albion and the sun was getting low in the sky when we received a call from Chuck who was driving the SUV. He had arrived at the hotel and called us to say the there was a mix up in the reservations. The hotel had expected us yesterday, not today. Even worst, they did not have any openings this evening.
The plan was for the 5 riders to meet Chuck at the hotel in Albion and in the meantime Chuck would make some calls to find alternative rooms. A hard task at 7 PM on the Memorial Day weekend. By the time we arrived, Chuck has found a Motel in Brockport, about 15 miles further along the Erie Canal. After a couple of car shuttles and getting a bit to eat, we finally arrived at the hotel at 10:30. A late start and late finish indeed.
You count your blessing and tomorrow we'll get up, have breakfast and have another great day of cycling.
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