Day 12

Thursday, August 5th: Little Valley, NY -> Stow, NY on Lake Chautauqua
Dist: 46.35
Ride Time: 4:32h
Avg Speed: 10.1
Max Speed: 84.8 [1] (Yay!!)
Trip: 566

[1] I stopped at the Jamestown Cycle Shop, at which they helped me do some work on my bike, so they had it lifted up in a bicycle stand turning the rear wheels at maximum most difficult gearing - what speeds are possible when the limitations of Mass, road Friction or Weather/Wind are removed!

Heavy rain overnight, my crappy "waterproof" pannier covers are turning out to be not especially waterproof - the small outside pocket where I store my wallet and cell phone wasn't able to shed the water and keep it out, but did wonderfully at holding a small puddle of water inside it! Argh!

The milk I bought in Wellsville has curdled overnight, but I stubbornly eat it with the granola: to eat granola with water, or to eat it with clabbered milk? That is the question.

I really like this Railroad Crossing warning sign:

Between Randolph and Kennedy, along State or County Route 394 there are many trees uprooted or snapped off, the trunks splintered and sheared, a dairy barn with sheets of tin roofing peeled back like the lids on a row of canned anchovies. I pass two municipal road crews clearing trees, and I learn that about two weeks ago 3 funnel clouds touched down in the area, one of which was on the ground for several miles more or less following the river bottom that parallels the road.

Apparently it's hard to convey what a forest looks like when half the trees are twisted apart, but this is the best I was able to capture:

I encounter a quarter-gobbling payphone in Jamestown when I try to call the bike shop where I ordered parts to. Twice in a row I dial "6" for the first of the 7 digit phone number, each time "Unable to complete call as dialed" before I can hit a second button and "Clink!" away go my quarters. The third time I try area code first, "7-1-6-6" -"Clink!" and once again unable to complete. Grr! I keep riding for another mile or two and find another pay phone that doesn't partake in highway banditry.

The two mechanics at Jamestown Cycle shop, Mike and Justin, were fabulous. I walked in with my bike and within 5 minutes they were working on it, switching my 12x25 cassette for a 11x28, replacing my smallest 30-tooth chainring with a 26-tooth, cut a new chain for me, and they checked the tension of the spokes on my rear wheel.

Back on my way I go up a steep, probably 10% grade hill into the center of Jamestown and I am able to pedal along merrily at a cadence of 75 [revolutions per minute], going 6 MPH! Yay! 3 more teeth on the rear cassette and losing 4 on the front chainring makes such a significant difference!

I goof up which road I leave Jamestown on so I end up taking the southern route around Lake Chautauqua, when the State Park I had hoped to camp on is on the northern side. Oh well. At a hill overlooking the massive interstate bridge which arcs above and across the lake I finally remember to eat some lunch - at 4pm!

I pass by a private campground located right off of the road I'm following, I decide that I'd be tempting fate to ignore a campground when one is placed right along my route and decide to stop for the night - waiting so long before eating much for lunch has also left me feeling not so energized over each mile I've ridden since Jamestown. Another experience of campground-extortion when I am charged $27.50 for a picnic table, 20'x20' of grass, and access to flush toilets and a shower. Riding to my campsite it's evident that this campground does mostly seasonal rentals to folks with RVs and mobile homes, many of home have built them up as their "second home on the lake" with wooden porches and other semi-permanent accouterments.

Have orzo [pasta the size of large rice grains], cheese and summer sausage for dinner. Over 15 minutes, the sky starts to darken, wind starts to gust, and then it starts to downpour rain - I scamper around to get put away all the things that I've spread out over the picnic table. I feel greatful for all the rain over the past three days for the fields & forests.