E. Aurora: cute, very cute!

Yesterday was a rather long day of riding, punctuated by the fording of the stream and we checked into the Park Lake Motel in Perry tired and ready for a good night's sleep. If only. After showering and walking to the town's "fine dining" restaurant via the very bad directions given us by a very nice lady, we had dessert and hiked back to the motel. We sank into the bed, turned out the light and drifted into a deep sleep. Until 40 minutes later when the fire hall across the street sounded the alarm. For 20 minutes. Truckes were dispatched, we assume the fire was out, and we went back to sleep. Until 20 minutes later when the group in the room next door came back from the wedding they attended, determined to continue the celebration in the next room. It was like a replay of Friday night, only louder, since our rooms were adjoining and the doors which separated them were VERY thin. We read for a while, but they showed no signs of winding down. When I went to the bathroom, I realized that in the bathroom/kitchen area, I couldn't hear the ruckus because of the air conditioner. So at 1:30 a.m. we rearranged the room, putting the kitchen table near the closet and moving our mattress to the corner of the kitchen. Success. But even though we slept until after 7:30, it was barely enough to get us through the rollercoaster riding of the day. It is worth noting that cycling in this part of New York State should always be north-south, but since we were doing a triangle, today as the east-west portion. We rode along the high plateau for a bit, then plunged down to Warsaw. Really down. Really steep and long down. We stopped for a drink to fortify ourselves for the inevitable trip back up, and that was the plan for the rest of the day. We climbed and climbed, then plunged, then climbed and climbed, then plunged. Rinse and repeat. No towns of note along the way, just a convenience store in Orangeville, and an old-fashioned general store in Wales where we had ice cream and got route advice from the owner of the store. It was such an old fashioned place that while we were there a man came in and gave the owner his card because he wants to use it for a movie. I seriously expected Sam Drucker to pop out any minute. Incidentally, a rousing recommendation for Hershey's Roadrunner Raspberry ice cream. From there we went up and down a couple more times and then rolled into E. Aurora. The teenage girl at the convenience store back in Orangeville had told us, "Oh,E. Aurora. It's cute, really cute. It's like a mini-city!" Which Orangeville was definitely not. E. Aurora is the birthplace of the Arts and Crafts movement, and the town is beautiful. The Roycroft Inn, which we had decided to splurge on, is stunning. We are on the first floor in a three room suite, the bathroom of which is bigger than our entire hotel rooms in NYC. Our bike is in a suite of its own across the hall, no locking it to a fence in the parking lot. The desk clerk wanted to make sure we had plenty of room. We are ever so glad for this decision, because this is probably one of the nicest rooms we have ever stayed in, including the Waldorf. And we're pretty sure the clientele will not be having loud parties. At least we know our bike won't be, and it's the closest other guest! Yay! Time for a nap and then dinner in town.