Someone has guessed correctly what I was counting and has won a Frank Lloyd Wright design cell phone cover. I was, indeed, comparing the number of McDonald’s to Burger Kings. My winner was surprised by the low number of both, as was I, but we have to remember that we were riding through mostly small towns. The places that had a Burger King almost always had a McDonald’s nearby, but many towns could obviously only support one fast food burger joint, and in those cases they had a McDonald’s, proving the value of incumbency. I know that you will be disappointed to read this, but since we have a winner, I will stop counting. Thanks to all of you who joined in the fun!
As you all know, we have rarely been rained on. The parched look of western NY is testament to the lack of rain. Yards are brown, corn is stunted and dry and soybean plants are also significantly smaller than ones we’ve passed across other states. While we can’t complain about staying dry on our rides, we do feel bad about the farmers whose livelihood is suffering. Today as we were cycling along the Erie Canal, many farmers were pumping water out of the canal to irrigate their fields. We don’t know if this is normal or something that is just done when Mother Nature doesn’t do her bit to keep the crops watered.
Speaking of water, we have been drinking a ton over the course of the last few days as the heat wave has finally caught up to us. It has been hot and humid. And today add dusty to the list since we were riding on crushed limestone all day along the Canal. Our bikes, bags, etc. are gray with dust. We will have more of the same tomorrow until we turn off the canal and head toward Lake Superior, which we hope will be a bit cooler.
Today I made our reservations at a Bed and Breakfast near Bar Harbor, so the end of our adventure is nearing. We have only 13 more days with bums on saddles and 14 more days total until we reach our destination. As we looked at the map to plan our final days, we wonder why the American Cycling Association decided to end its Northern Tier Route in Bar Harbor since we bike north along the coast of Maine for a couple hundred miles before we get there. Charles and I discussed whether we should call it quits when we reach the Maine coast, but decided to soldier on. After all, what’s a couple hundred more miles? and we wouldn’t want to be accused of false advertising! 😇 So, with that said, we are now looking at riding into Bar Harbor on August 18 and flying back to Arizona around the 25th. Woohoo!
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