The last week of the trip is usually an easy cruise through flat upstate New York in the early summer. Today was 92 miles along Lake Erie with strawberry shortcake at the first SAG and ice cream at the second. Because of the Lake Effect, however, the weather on the eastern edge of Lake Erie can be wet. It was today. We had intermittent rain and steady headwinds throughout the day. The shortcake was very good, but only a few of us (me) were hardy enough to enjoy ice cream in the 55^o rain. To add insult to injury (really injury to insult, in this case), flat tires were back in vogue. Much of the road has been recently repaved with a blacktop surface that contains innumerable bits of hard, sharp, glassy rock that looks like flint or obsidian and goes right through a bike tire. I had 2 flats, most people had at least one, and Mark B had 4. Tomorrow promises to be better, at least weather-wise, as we ride to the Rochester, New York area.

Today I learned that the Great Lakes are considered “non-tidal”. They have tides, but at most these reach 5 cm and are insignificant relative to the water level changes from the weather. They do have large wind blown waves called seiches which oscillate from one end of the lake to the other with a period of about 6 hours, making them act like tides. Go figure.

Tomorrow we pass the 3000 mile mark. We’ll soon be done.