A rain day
We knew we couldn't completely avoid rain today. Rather than try to start late and wait out the rain, we left at our usual 8:30 starting time in the lightest of drizzles. For a while there was some debate about whether this was an official rain day or not, but in the end we all agreed that this was rain day #7 for team S, and #8 for team A.
We continued to see fruit orchards along lake Ontario. A smattering of peaches, nectarines, cherries, grapes and blueberries, but overwhelmingly apples.
We noticed an irrigated alfalfa field. Irrigation is not common in NY. The grass in yards is green, and the crops look healthy to our untrained eyes. But a local farmer told us they have not had enough rain. The drizzle today was not enough to help the farmers much, in fact he was still planning to go ahead and cut 30 acres of hay today.
Our first rest stop was at a convenience store with baked goods. We saw some teenagers vaping in the parking lot. I immediately formed a negative impression of these kids. I'm sure vaping is much better than smoking cigarettes, but it seems like a bad habit to fall into at an early age. 11 miles down the road we saw the same kids. This time they were hard at work harvesting a field of string beans and my impression of the kids was much improved.
We passed a commercial dairy operation. The calves looked cute in their little houses. Later on, Jeanna explained that the calves are separated from their mothers at birth and don't have any physical contact with another cow for their first 2 months. This seems cruel, but I also wonder about the economics of this practice. It's hard to believe that a calf in those conditions would grow and thrive as much as a calf with more natural social interactions.
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Ontario Canada was full of wind turbines. We saw lots of signs saying turbines are not welcome in NY (and one single pro wind energy sign). We didn't get a chance to ask the locals what the objection to turbines was based on.
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Dollar General stores are small enough to pop up in places that don't have existing shopping option beyond maybe a single gas station / convenience store. That may be bad news if you are the guy who owns the gas station, but it's good news for just about everyone else.
Enough with trying to sound even handed. The real reason I like Dollar General? They all have bathrooms, and they let cyclists use them. That's important in Pennsylvania, where even stores that serve food often don't have public bathrooms, and send their customers down the street to pee and wash their hands at Dollar General!
5 years ago
When we left Lake Ontario, the climb up the Niagara escarpment was surprisingly easy. We ended up back in Lockport.
Across the street from the beautiful county courthouse was the historic county clerk's office, built in 1856. Since it now houses public defenders, there's a good chance it has not been remodeled since 1856.
We saw a tree that made Viktoriya nostalgic. In Russian it is called ryabina, we have no idea what the English name is. The leaves fall off, but the berries remain on the tree all winter, providing food for the birds.
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