Day 10: Liverpool to Little Falls, New York 79 miles

The broad channel of the Erie Canal.

The Erie Canal is everything to these towns along it's length.  Murals like this one celebrating the canal and all the business associated with it are common.

Yesterday, I rode with Gene.  Today, Gene and Jane, his wife and another of our ride leaders, asked me to ride with them again.  Riding with the Emborsky's can sometimes be a matter of trading off the speed of their pace line versus seeing the sights.  Today, we got to do both.

And this has to be one of the strangest sights ever.  Billed as "The World's Smallest Church," they offer non-denominational services, but only have space for two people!  Then again, crossing over the scum-covered pond is no great invitation for prayer.

We spend much of the day riding along or around the Erie Canal.  Some of the riders, especially those with wider tires, chose to ride along the elevated tow path during one section of the ride.  Those of us with thinner tires would have had trouble on the gravel path.

We had a number of delays today -- a detour due to a bridge being closed for repairs, a funeral procession that showed the deceased was quite popular and this extremely long freight train.

When not along the Canal, we were riding through farmland and got to see some extraordinary sights.  Maybe one hundred feet in front of us on a long country road, we witnessed a young hawk do a very slow glide crossing the road and landing on the grass of a farm.  As we passed by the hawk, still standing there in the field, it just stared back at us.  No prey in sight, just taking a break I guess.

Our lunch stop today.  Part of the joys of this ride are the experiences of sights, sounds and smells we have along the way.  Tasting what's around locally is a huge part of this ride.

The local landscapers call this place home.  So you know the barbecue is good.

The ride through the countryside afforded us some unusual sites today.  But by the afternoon, we were facing a strong headwind, so having three of us taking turns pulling each other in front of our pace line was a blessing as we fought to cut through the wind.

Gene and Jane at Mondi's.  You can't see it, but right behind them is a condiments counter.  Besides the usual suspects, ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, there's also a can of WD-40.  Is that the special sauce Mondi uses on the chicken?!