Elizabeth's Cold

It sadly had to happen.After a couple of days fighting of a cough,today Elizabeth obviously had caught my cold.But first to yesterday evening.We had a meal bought into the hotel from a caterer,Chicken,steak,salad,vegetables and fried potatoes.Some of the carrots and potatoes were a little undercooked but it was a pleasant meal,at the end of which Nan played 'Happy Birthday' on her whistle and we sang and ate a large birthday cake and profiteroles and strawberries,so a good repast.

Bill kindly bought some beers and summer shandy so we were both well fed and well watered.

The morning was bright and cool with only a light breeze.Ideal cycling weather and Elizabeth keen to be on her bikeThe terrain quite up and down,but most of the ascents were gentle ,although we came to one little brute of 10%.The worst part of the mornings cycle was a length of road being prepared for resurfacing.The old surface scraped off leaving a ghastly bumpy mess,which makes 5 miles feel like 50 and turns the legs to jelly in no time.Fortunately at the end of that section we came to the first stop,so could refresh ourselves with an ice cream and some more of yesterday evenings profiteroles and fruit.The only problem that we encountered in the morning was an upset to Elizabeth when she saw that her home country had been downgraded.

Our ride today was almost entirely through residential areas,there was the occassional stables ,with fields and horses but little in the way of agriculture.During the day we passed the 3000 mile mark.

There were a lot of beautiful trees,but one thing that I found odd was the large number of houses that had a large tree or trees just in front of the house.Not a thing that  would  be encouraged by the insurance companies,but ? for shade or privacy, I do not know.

Anyway Elizabeth and I left the first stop and proceeded up a few more hills at a steadily dwindling pace.Once we were down to 20 Kph I hailed Paula in the car and put Elizabeth in for a rest.There were only about 16 miles to go to the second stop and she agreed she was in need of a break.To my good fortune I soon caught up with Peyton and so could hitch a draught behind him.Thus we shot along for the 20 Kms to the next stop,I did lead for about 4 Kms,but as we overtook first one cyclist then another,I began to wonder whether I would be able to hang on up to the stop.Nobody managed to hang onto our coat tails,and the stop arrived,Phew.

 Whilst waiting for Elizabeth I chatted with four cyclists who were cycling to New York City,they had 600 miles to go and 8 days to do it,but they were fully laden with tents and sleeping bags,so would have to work hard.

 Elizabeth arrived and we popped into a Pizza land for a slice of pepperoni pizza and a Pepsi,then back onto the bikes for the final 23 miles.There are a lot of barns here abouts and all have a common style, a few have been into homes but most are presumably still in use,but they are very large.

Once again I marvelled at the huge front lawns that so many houses have and the amount of work to keep them tidy,as I know to my cost.But they are very tidy and it is very rare to see a messy frontage.There are also a huge number of shops selling mowers,or repairing them!!

The other point of note today was that a lot of the small rivers had little waterfalls ,very attractive,below was my best example.

Elizabeth was fine to cycle to the hotel,and eat her dinner so hopefully she will be restored for the morrow.For the record we are now in Victor NY and have completed 3030 miles and 90493 ft of climbing and remember Everest is only 29029 ft high.