Letchworth or bust!

Our night's sleep at the Kelly House Lodge was not as restful as we'd hoped. We actually sank into bed about 9:30 and fell asleep, a side effect of the drive, the heat, the ride on Presque Isle, etc. about 10:10 we were awakened by the sound of PARTYING across the hall. The already big group in the bunkhouse across the hall from us grew by the minute, and one of the women found it necessary to greet each newcomer by squealing. Then, the smokers in the group clomped their way out to the back yard via the wooden walkway that went right past our window. We called the manager, but got voicemail. Eventually, we decided to walk out to the main house to see if she was awake. No luck there, but there was a couple sitting on the front deck in the same frame of mind as we were. We talked with them awhile, then a couple of the partiers came out to their car and realized why the four of us were sitting there. They apologized and promised to tell the others to keep it down, and for the most part, they did. We eventually fell asleep. This morning as we packed up, I looked for opportunities to have loud conversational exchanges in the hall outside their room, but I guess we are not naturally rude, and we've done this enough that we didn't really disturb anyone. The rain, however, disturbed us. It poured, enough to fill the plastic beer cups left outside with almost three inches of water. It was like a rerun of our Adirondack trip last year. We whiled the time away, waiting for the rain to at least lighten up, by talking with the rest of the family of the couple we'd met the night before. That included the mom of the woman and the coupke's kids. We mused later in the day that the ten-year-olds behaved like adults, while the "adults" across from us behaved like bratty ten-year-olds. In any case, after a pleasant conversation, we decided we really needed to get underway. We rode for a while in rather heavy rain, but it stopped after about an hour and the day turned beautiful. From there on, it wad bike trip heaven. As witnessed by last night's downpour, this area has not experienced the drought we have had at home. Everything was green and healthy, and the farmhouses and towns are just as pretty as we remembered them. Twenty five miles from E-ville brought us to Arcade, an inordinately busy little town with a great restaurant. We ate at Theo's, which was apparently owned by someone who is Greek. Bob had a gyro and I feasted on a chicken souvlaki sandwich. The giant baklava in the case were tempting, but Bob opted for peanut butter pie. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful until we reached an intersection about three miles from the entrance of Lechworth State Park, one of our main goals for the day. A bridge was out on the most direct road, and as we stood trying to decide which detour route to take, a man in a pickup truck came from the road we wanted to travel on and asked if we needed help. We explained our dilemma, and he said, "You could get across the stream; it's not that big." That was basically what we wanted to hear, so we headed down the road with the Bridge Out sign. At 1.7 miles we came upon the bridge construction site. There were two young teenage boys skateboarding on what will be the new bridge deck and we all put our heads together. (Shows how desperate we were to avoid the detour!) They showed us the best spot to get to the very shallow stream, which probably wasn't as shallow as usual because of the rain, but still passable. Feeling like intrepid travelers from an Adventure Cycling article, we waded across with our bags first, then returned and carried the bike. We were a little disappointed that our new friends didn't stay to cheer us on, but we made it. The bonus was that the road had very title traffic on either side of the bridge. A short time later, we were heading into one of our very favorite places on earth, Letchworth State Park. Bob had first discovered the place while on a trip with his high school buddies. The father of one of his riding partners was a geologist and told them to make sure they saw it on their first bike trip. We visited while in college and spent the first night of our honeymoon there. No matter how many times we return, it is still astoundingly beautiful and breathtaking. We enjoyed lunch at the Glen Iris Inn, for old times sake, and then walked down to the Middle Falls overlook. (Google the park and you can read the history of it.) We drank in the beauty of the place and reluctantly pedalled off to our motel in nearby Perry. After showering and settling in, we hiked about the town looking for a place to have a snack. Some bad directions eventually led us to The Lumber Yard where we had soup and dessert. A lovely day, a lovely evening. It was our long day, about 65 miles, but our adjustments the other day with Matt worked wonderfully. No saddle soreness, no shoulder pain, just a good ride. Life is good.