Day 46. 103 miles, Canandaigua, NY

Not every day can be the best day of the ride. Today wasn’t. So here, in the best Fox News tradition is a “fair and balanced” account of the day.

Good things:

About seven miles into the ride, we went a few miles off route to see the American Museum of Bicycling. It’s privately (and passionately) owned by Carl and is arguably the biggest collection of bicycles in the US, if not the world. Carl came in, opened early, and gave us an hour long tour tracing the history of the bicycle and it’s impact on American society. Did you know that Henry Ford worked on an assembly line in a bike factory before he “invented” the mechanized assembly line? According to Carl, the bicycle is responsible for women’s liberation (because their long skirts gave way to clothes that were more liberating and bicycle friendly, as well as the tandem, that made it impossible for a chaperone to tag along.) Many bicycle innovations migrated to cars: suspension, rubber tires, air filled tires, direct drive transmission, even the AAA was patterned after the League of American Bicyclists. Then of course there were those bicycle mechanic Wright Brothers, who made the planes that ultimately made us able to go to the moon. So every good thing can be linked back to the bicycle.

I completed my 14^th and last century of the trip.

Not so good things:

I missed the turn to 354 East, causing a nine mile off route excursion. At least it contributed the extra miles I need for the century.

It rained on me several times, not for long, but long enough to get me squishy. It’s better to just get caught in the rain and stay there. When the rain comes and goes, there’s the anticipation, the soaking and the drying out, repeatedly.

It hailed on me, hail stones twice the size of peanut M & Ms. I took shelter in a barn for a few minutes.

After finally recovering from the missed turn and catching up to the rear of the ride, I had a flat and fell behind for the rest of the day.

Your moment of Zen.
When the sun is on your right, and the traffic is on your left, the rain spray plume generated by every passing vehicle makes its own rainbow.