Today was a bad day to wear a black jersey. Jezz it was a furnace and made the 70 miles feel like 170.  Other than the heat it was uneventful. We did ride through the town of Waterloo, the birth place of Memorial Day. It seems a good number of towns laid claim to this tittle, something like 20 of them however Lyndon Johnson finally declared Waterloo officially. It was ironic after yesterday’s post about all the American flags. That town was flag central for sure. See photos. 

Another thing we saw was portions of the original Erie Canal at an area called Camillus. I never really saw a town but we stopped at a cool museum. Honestly the stop was to get water and the old timers there talked great story so hung there for awhile. Unfortunately the longer we hung the warmer the oven got. See photos. The water looked pretty slimy and gross but it was a piece of history 

Our best stop was at a cool coffee ice cream kind of barn place. The owners wanted to build a ice cream stand but they built a really nice market kind of place. After waiting about 40 minutes for 4 lattes we figured the ice cream was a better bet. So we hung and again once we left the oven temps increased a lot. See photos. From that point all the way into Syracuse it cooked and hurt. 

So once we got close to our hotel we stopped for burgers. Bad Idea. The burger joint was in a closed down McDonalds building. We should have known. But we met the owner who was the ” cook”. He came out of his den of grease to meet us. One look at his tee shirt and pants was enough to turn my stomach. I hoped his kitchen passed the board of Health inspection. But every bite of burger tasted like old dirty tee shirt I swear. 

We got to witness more driving marvels again. We had a gap with one rider ahead by maybe 50 yards. Then about 4 of us. So Mr bonehead Jersey plates dude threads the needle between us !! Unbelievable. Every single driver elects to pull out in front of us like we’re a marked gang. It’s incredible and what’s it save these NASCAR wanna be’s anyway? And this was in a Sunday when the roads are quite. At our route meeting tonight we’re told we leave in the AM thru and industrial area where the commuter traffic is bad. Oh boy ! 

Another highlight was seeing Lake Oswego which we were told was once the most polluted lake in America. Apparently GE and a lot of industries trashed it bad. So in the clean up efforts the bottom was found to be covered with a giant layer of Mercury. Somehow they ” capped ” the whole lake bed bottom. Yeah nice job on that clean up, or cover up !! From what I’ve seen so far they can cover up Syracuse. It’s dirty and grimy but maybe it’s got some nice areas so I won’t  judge. 

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Tomorrow we ride to Herkimer, if we get out of rush hour.