Day 15: Monday, 16th July. Destination: Econolodge, Brockport, New York

Another long day in the saddle for us, at 75 miles. We left our B&B early after breakfast and cycled a short distance before pulling in at the general store & gas station in Pultneyville. I’d though we’d just be picking up snacks and heading on, but Ewa had other ideas and was next seen heading towards the seating area clutching large beakers of coffee. Up to this point our snacking/resting/eating routines have been remarkably in-synch, but with only 10 miles on the odometer and a long day ahead I was eager to press on, and so I fidgeted grumpily as E&E took their time chatting to locals and sipping their drinks. They eventually relented, and 21 miles later we arrived at the Mormon town of Palmyra, a distinguished red-brick Main Street setting it apart from many of the places we’ve been through lately. We ate ice creams in a corner shop and a guy took our photo for the local paper.

Palmyra marks the point where we join the Erie Canalway Trail which takes us 91 miles to Lockport, 20 miles east of Niagara Falls. We dropped down out of hot sunshine into the welcome cool shade of a tree-lined towpath which took us all the way to Fairport on the outskirts of Rochester, at a population of 219,773 quite the largest place we’ve come through so far. Here we found a fabulous place to eat, ‘Alladins on the Canalside’. Falafel, pita bread and hummus! Such a welcome change from fried food. We’d been looking out for it since Matt the cyclist we’d met in Ticonderoga had said how good it was. There were ducks waddling about on the towpath and Fairport locals keeping the place busy. Ewa took a photo of Edward & I sitting with our plates in front of us, and our faces glow with the kind of anticipation normally reserved for Christmas Dinner.

The next part of the day took us through the historic industrial areas of Pittsford and Rochester, now pretty quiet with wooded parks to wind through and rusted bridges to cross. As the afternoon wore on, we returned to countryside where the slowly curving Canalway Trail took us steadily to Brockport, our progress being measured by road bridges crossing us at approximately 1 mile intervals. Brockport was a welcome sight, and looked promisingly interesting from the canalside. But the place had little in the way of groovy alternative places to eat. What was I thinking? Alladins must have gone to my head. We had to cycle a couple of miles back from the canal to reach our motel and couldn’t really summon the energy to do more than watch TV and sleep. Well, it had been a long day, but tomorrow takes us to Niagara Falls and our final rest day together.