There’s nothing like family

Lyons to Rochester NY Tuesday, April 27, 2021

When you get a day like this, where everything goes right and there is such a a surplus of fun experiences, you almost wish you could save them up and distribute them to the more challenging days.

For the first time in eight days, I had an actual tailwind. Just a mild one, but what a difference, the miles just seemed to fly by. I had to be careful I didn’t arrive at my destinations too early. The sun was out, in the mid-60s, I was able to strip down to short sleeves and sandals, and everything was right in the world. Boring to read about, but wonderful to experience.

Anne served me duck eggs and a multigrain oatmeal to die for, topped with raw milk and maple syrup from their own trees; she even gave me a sample to cook up on the road. Carl was quite intrigued with my fancy bicycle, and we geeked out on bike tales for quite a while.

The stone dust towpath was in great shape, always within sight of the canal, whose waters seemed a placid river to draw me along. I was too blissed out to stop to take a picture.

I managed to connect with Beth, the sister of Pam from my first warmshowers night, who had biked across the country and also up the entire East Coast. Over cappuccino and croissants, we talked for over an hour about our experiences and the joys of bike touring, and I gained some valuable tips.

Then the pièce de résistance: seeing my dear cousin Lindsay, the first familiar face for seven days. Lindsay is a professor of theater arts at Nazareth College, herself an actor and renowned director; her husband Bill just retired as a paleontologist specializing in fossilized mouse teeth, he has a desk at the Rochester Museum, where he continues to do his research. Bill made a great chicken dinner, and we stayed up as late as we could talking about our families, many of whom I will be visiting in the coming months, if lucky. Lindsay is president of the faculty senate, and is up to her ears in end-of-the-academic-year stuff. Nazareth, like many independent small colleges, is profoundly challenged by the pandemic and the national reconsideration of the return-on-investment role of a college education. This was not the best timing for me to visit, but Bill and Lindsay opened up their home (and washing machine) and made me feel so pampered.

It will be weeks, perhaps months, before I see a familiar face again. All along, I have been blessed to meet such interesting and kind people who have shared a bit of their lives with me, but in the end, there’s nothing like family.

Distance 38.5 miles, 445.9 total. Time 6 1/2 hours with stops. Elevation gain 594 feet.