Day 5 – Syracuse to Rome, 42.7 miles

This morning was pretty amusing.  As I was getting Daxton all suited up – fastening his helmet and helping him to put on his biking gloves he looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well, it’s time to go to a new hotel.  It’s going to take a long time.”  Guess that just about sums up this experience for our 4 year old.  He has been remarkable this entire trip so far and we’ve been somewhat surprised by how engaged he has been on the ride.  In general our mornings start like this, 2 trips to bring all the bikes and gear down from the rooms to the parking lot.Getting out of Syracuse was easy enough if you count having to cross a major intersection (think highway on ramp) with no crosswalk.  Thankfully it was light controlled.  It was two miles until the start of the trail you see below.  We only had 38 miles to go to get to Rome.  We just had to beat the rain forecast to begin in the afternoon.Most of the trail was again the chipped rock surface we’ve been riding on and off the whole trip.  The only real difference was that for some reason it was incredibly dusty.  Poor Dax was covered in white dust.  But then again, so were the rest of us.  Stops were brief, again due to the pending rain.  We ate lunch in Canastota at a place called The Toast.  They were fantastically quick and we were back on the route within an hour.  After that it was two more quick stops, one at a park just to refill water bottles and then again at this lock just outside Rome.It got a little exciting coming into Rome.  Terran just barely clipped a post as he rode past it but it was enough to send him off balance and he had a pretty good spill.  He’s fine and we’re teasing him now, because if he hadn’t fallen we would have made to to the hotel by 3 (our goal) but instead we pulled into the lovely Quality Inn at 3:07.  The good news is that while we did see a bit of rain, it was mostly a light sprinkle and we absolutely beat the worst of it.

 

I took the following picture on the way to dinner because this is pretty much what I see all day, except they are on bikes, of course.  Good ol’ mom, she brings up the rear most times.  Dinner was a caribbean joint about a quarter mile from the hotel.  A very slow quarter mile.  My quads are so tight even Dax was making fun of the way I was walking.  It was worth it though as the food was just the kind of comfort dish we were needing.  So now we’re back at the hotel, doing laundry and watching yet another Harry Potter movie.  Dax and Bruce are playing a 4 year old’s version of checkers and I’m sitting her updating the blog.  Across the street there is a free concert and some fireworks but in the end we opted out.  Tired legs are tired and we’re enjoying the rest.  Tomorrow is another short day but with a fair bit of riding on the road in the morning.  For that reason alone we’re glad it’s Sunday.  Hopefully we won’t see a lot of traffic.