This is More Like It

To Scottsville, New York -- 47.8 miles, 12.9 mph, 1375 ft

Ahh. Finally. Today was actually had a pleasant day for biking! (Perhaps, not the best assessment of the last eight days). First, I think we are starting to get stronger, and (dare I say it) I just barely felt my knees today (touch wood). But even better, there was real, honest to goodness sunshine!! Awesome. The roads were smooth, the grades were moderate, and we only had 45 miles to go.

Saying good by to our awesome host, Anne

Paved portion of the Erie Canal Bike Trail

This morning we woke up in the beautiful home of Anne and Carl. Though Carl was away, Anne agreed to host us and treated us wonderfully: farm fresh eggs, local sausage, and home made jam for breakfast.

We learned a ton about what it takes to run a sustainable farm. They are still in the early stages with chickens and ducks, but will soon be adding geese, cows, goats, pigs etc. We went out with Anne this morning to collect eggs, move the coop to a new section of grass, and bring out the ducks (still sleeping in the garage) to their pen. The plan is to rotate the animals around the farm and put in the right mix of plants and trees to eliminate as much of the external “inputs” -- fertilizer, feed -- as possible. If done right, the labor is minimized, and, of course, a healthier and more natural food supply is produced.

As I mentioned at the start, the day turned out to be a good one, temps in the low fifties and plenty of blue skies. Our destination for the day was Scottsville, just south of Rochester.  Glenn and Terry, our fabulous friends in Sudbury, where we started the ride, have a daughter, Jackie, living here with her boyfriend, Jeff, and a couple other housemates, Hillary and Marie. Terry had written ahead to introduce us and they enthusiastically invited us to stay when we passed through. Even better, Hillary, is a massage therapist trying to get her license in New York, so offered massages to any and all. You can bet Meg was first in line.

Ah, warmer temps!

Jackie and her house mates are all deaf, so we used pen and paper, a wall mounted white board, and typing on Jeff's laptop to communicate. They were fantastic hosts and very interested in our story. Jeff, in particular, is just big "kid" and was excited to play games with Dex, Kylie, and me, while Meg was getting worked over. Ok, it turns out he's a very smart, big kid as he's studied Bio Chemistry and is now working on a masters in BioInfomatics -- writing software to mine and understand biological and genetic information. Sounds complicated and really cool.

Dex and Kylie playing games with Jeff

When Jackie made it home from work (she's an advocate for victims of domestic violence), we had a grand fajita feast. It was a ton of fun to spend the evening with everyone and so great to meet Glenn and Terry's daughter. It was funny that Kylie mentioned later that she was tempted to speak Spanish when we were having trouble communicating. I have to admit, I had the same compulsion a few times as that was most recently the solution to language difficulties, i.e., in South America. During dinner we learned signs for a few important words: please, thank you, numbers from 1-10, cheese, sour cream, tortillas, and good night. Now, at least, we can hold a simple and useful conversation ... "Please, cheese and sour cream. Thank you. Good night!"

Jackie, Jeff, Hillary, and Dex

I joke, but it was a fantastic evening and we are incredibly grateful for their hospitality.