Day 1 – Buffalo to Medina

Around 8 PM last night when the sun started sinking and the air turned cool, we suddenly realized the sleeping bag somehow didn’t make it into the duffle we’d so carefully packed. It wasn’t as if we were totally without cover but a single cotton sheet just didn’t seem like enough. Fortunately there was a Target about a mile and a half down the road so we hopped on our bikes and returned just before dark with a cozy fleece blanket. Crisis averted.

Remember when I said we scouted out a place to pitch the tent away from annoying lights? Yep, that’s right. A big bright light suddenly turned on about 15 feet from our tent, illuminating the inside like a hotel bathroom nightlight. After some experimentation I found that bath towel draped between the tent and the rain fly is a great tent-darkening shade.

With all that settled, we slept pretty well if you don’t count the freight trains, occasional sleep talker and guys next door who stay up way too late talking really loudly.

It really wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I felt great when we got up around 6 AM, dressed, packed up our gear, loaded it on truck #1 and joined our fellow cyclists for breakfast of eggs, sausage, hash browns, waffles, croissants, scones, yogurt, fresh fruits and veggies, oatmeal, juice, milk and hot coffee.

After breakfast we hopped on our bikes, loaded the route on the Garmin and took off. It took a few minutes to find the right balance between watching the map and navigation prompts on the Garmin, looking where I’m going and noticing the route markers painted on the pavement. Once I settled into a rhythm it was nice to just enjoy the ride. We rode through a beautiful Japanese Garden and followed the paved path along the canal and through a really nice neighborhood for awhile. The route followed the canal on a mostly paved bike path with occasional sections on the road. I’d say maybe a third or better of the 49’ish miles were on the road. The route was well marked, flat and easy to follow. The sections of bike path were mostly paved or crushed gravel. Geese also love to use the path. We had to navigate through a few goose obstacle courses this morning.

With such an early start, we made it to the morning rest stop at mile 17 by 8:30 AM. I wasn’t hungry but those port-a-johns were a welcome sight after having 3 cups of coffee with breakfast. My relief was short lived. Stepping out, I slipped and smashed my knee against the rigid plastic doorframe, leaving a bleeding gash on my left knee. Fortunately first aid was nearby and they fixed me up with antiseptic and New Skin liquid bandage. Naturally, Riley immediately snapped a photo and posted it on Facebook before my new skin had time to dry.

The weather was great for the first half of the ride with overcast skies and mild temps. It was barely after 10:00 when we arrived in downtown Lockport, too early for lunch and too early for our favorite artisan ice cream shop to be open. Bummer! We settled for hot coffee and shared cinnamon raisin bagel instead.

Downtown Lockport is pretty cool. You can watch boats traveling up and down the canal through a series of locks that fill with water to raise the boat high enough to drive into the next lock and then it closes and fills to match the level of the next. Last year we rode a boat through the locks but today we were happy just to watch a gondola make it’s journey.

A light drizzling rain started falling about the time we left Lockport. The trail was mostly crushed gravel and followed alongside the canal to the right and farmland to the left. It was very pretty. A steady light rain was falling by the time we got to the PM rest stop in Middleport. We stood under a tree to eat some delicious watermelon with the bagel sandwiches we brought from Lockport.

Tonight’s overnight was just a few more miles down the trail at Clifford H Wise Middle School in Medina. I was surprised to find we were one of the first riders to arrive. Tent City, the sea of rentals for people who’d rather have someone else do the dirty work, was still under construction. All of the bags from trucks 1, 2 and 3 were unloaded and lined up in long tarp covered rows.

Carefully, we lifted tarp after tarp, often spilling rivers of collected rain water off the sides until we finally found ours. With a light rain continuing to fall, we opted to pitch the tent before retrieving the other bags so we’d have a dry place to put them. It felt nice to have things all set up, ready for another evening.

More riders trickled in as we explored the campus. One lady was covered head to butt in mud slung up by her rear tire. Even her ponytail was crusted in dried mud. Ugh, so glad we were at the front of the pack before the trail got wet and muddy.

We scouted out the site and decided to move the tent closer to the showers, food and indoor bathrooms. I really don’t want to risk another port-a-john mishap in the middle of the night! Now that I’ve discovered the room-darkening towel trick I’m not so worried about close proximity to street lights. Also, it’s pretty much impossible to find a dark spot on a school campus anyway.

One benefit of arriving early is no waiting for the shower. Since middle schools don’t have locker rooms, the shower truck is the only option tonight. They’re actually cleaner and nicer than most locker room showers, it’s just that there are fewer of them. It feels great to be warm and dry again.

I’m sitting at a table in a hallway of the school charging my phone and catching up on writing while Riley takes a nap in the tent. Lots of people have opted to bring their sleeping pads and bags inside to camp in the hallways or gymnasium so I’m constantly being asked questions like, where is the men’s room? and what time is dinner? I guess they all think I work here.

When sleeping beauty wandered in we joined the rest of the crew for dinner. Once again the catered meal was pretty good. The pasta and meatballs were my favorite, probably because it was warm comfort food.

The internet service inside the school is pretty dismal so I think I’ll call it a night and share more photos from today later on.