Tour is a GO!

September 1, 2018

The early morning flight was a success and I made it to Syracuse. A quick über and I’m at the hotel, picked up the bicycle box, and dragged it to the room.

Here it is, all I need for the week, exploded over the hotel room. I’ll assemble the bike and pack it up later in the day

First things first after check-in. I head down to the Erie Canal Museum to (a) tour the museum which I missed during last year’s canal tour, and (b) score a walking map of downtown Syracuse. There are a lot of historic building in the city and it’s a nice diversion prior to assembling to bike.

The canal museum is housed in the original weigh station for the canal. It’s the only remaining building of its kind in the world. The boats would pull into the weigh station, the lock doors closed behind them, the water drained lowering the boat onto cradles attached to a scale. The boat would then be charged a toll according to the weight of the boat.

One thing I really like about my GoPro is it has a super-wide angle lens and I'm able to capture the canal boat inside the museum

The canal boat housed in the original lock which weighed the boats and charged tolls according to weight

The canal museum is on Water st. Why does that matter? Well, Water street was so named because prior to it being paved for automobile traffic it WAS the canal running through the center of town. Clinton Square memorializes this with a fountain in the original location of the canal.

Fountain in Clinton square denotes the original location of the canal through the city. The buildings to the left and right of the canal were banks, made rich by the commerce generated by the canal

I’m not going to include pictures of all the building I passed because this is a cycle touring journal, after all, not an architectural city tour. There are a few of note I’ll include here.

Jefferson Clinton Hotel. The facade makes it look as though there’s no hotel behind the windows. But there is!

Niagar Mohawk building. An un-be-lei-va-ble example of over-the-top Art Deco architecture. It’s a sight to behold. Even the statuary is stainless steel

Finished up my day assembling the bike in the hotel room, realizing I forgot a water bottle, riding downtown to a bike shop to pick one up, and then getting a BBQ sandwich at Dinosaur BBQ, I’m ready to go. Very good stuff. I’m ready for the day ahead tomorrow. Ithaca, here I come....

But wait, there’s more. I went out walking as the sun set and passed the Niagara Mohawk building, shone in its night lighting splendor

Pink is the theme for tonight’s display...

Today's ride: 2 miles (3 km)
Total: 2 miles (3 km)

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