The Loveliness of Rome is of Another Day
Remember yesterday when I said today was probably going to be a rain day? Well we woke up this morning to a slight drizzle in Rochester. After checking the weather radar for Clyde and Utica we decided to see if we could get some miles in. It was difficult leaving our friends in Rochester but we felt the pull of our own beds calling us.
As we left Clyde there were a few spits of rain but nothing serious. It was nothing that would deter us from riding. I don't know if I mentioned but after yesterday's ride we decided that the Canal Path would slow us down and we stuck to NY Bike Route 5 which is an on the road route.
We were pretty satisfied with our progress and stopped for lunch in Clay, NY after 45 miles. We were averaging about 14.5 MPH. Good but not great. While we saw many threatening clouds we had no rain.
After lunch we went through Cicero, NY. There were a lot of traffic lights that delayed our progress. Then we hit some open roads and started flying. We going about 17+ MPH. At one stretch it had rained fairly recently and there was some dirt on the road. I was right behind Thom and my bright yellow jersey became spotted. It was funny and Thom and I had a good laugh.
At one stop earlier in the ride, we ran into Joshua who asked us some interesting questions about the trip. It's always nice to have a new fan.
Well I bet you think I choose the title of the blog post because we are going home to our city (or town) by the bay. Wrong! It's because when we hit Rome, NY it didn't start to rain, it poured!. So the loveliness of Rome, NY is of another day.
Thom and I stopped our bikes and decided to call Claudia for a rescue. Sometimes when I stop quickly, I trigger my incident detection alert on my Garmin. If I don't turn off the alarm and say I am safe, the Garmin will automatically send Claudia a message saying there has been an incident. It was raining so hard that my phone was soaked and I couldn't unlock it to turn off the incident alert. It took several minutes for me to unlock the phone and indicate to Claudia we were safe. She showed me her phone later and it was fascinating to see the number of messages and emails she received.
Thom and I made it to the Rome Veterinary Hospital and found a tree to hide under. The customers at the Veterinary Hospital had quite the show watching us wring out our clothes and taking off our shoes and socks. Of course the rain stopped and the sun peaked out a little while we were waiting for Claudia. There was no way we were going to continue.
It was a little frustrating to finish our ride 15 miles short of our goal but it looks like we are on track to finish on Sunday. Yippee!
Here is the ride on Strava:
After showering and getting dry clothes on we had dinner at Zeina's Cafe in Utica. It was great food in a relaxed atmosphere. After we finished we ended up talking with the husband and wife who own the restaurant and their daughter who was our server. They really enjoyed the stories of our adventure. That may have been the last night the three of us eat out together alone. How appropriate that it was one of our better meals.
Remember yesterday's media event? You can check out two of the news stories here:
Homeward Bound! Yippee! Loved the local news coverage from Rochester! Where was the superstar SAG driver?
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