Happy Birthday Elizabeth

The day commenced with Elizabeth's birthday wishes and the summer solstice,although there was not a lot of sun.An overcast morning,but dry and the forecast promised no rain.The main part of the ride took place along the southern shore of Lake Eyrie,although we only saw regular glimpses of the lake.Most of the time it was hidden by the treeline along the shore.Surprisingly,to me, there is a great deal of viticulture along the southern shore,so a lot of the time we had vineyards on our right,houses and the lake to our left.
 The Great lakes between them cover an area about the same size as the UK,and the area of the lakes and the land they drain is equivalent to the size of the UK and France combined.Lake Eyrie covers 9910 sq miles,so it is not surprising that a whole days cycling of 80 miles only covered a small part of the shoreline.The lakes are all interconnected(this fact had passed me by)with lake Eyrie and lake Ontario connected via the Niagra river and Niagra falls.All the water eventually drains into the Atlantic via the St Lawrence river.So I could get my bike to the Atlantic on a boat from here!Perish the thought.
 A lovely day for a cycle,good temperature,very good road surface to start-and most of the way-a flattish terrain and a light following breeze.A good combination to celebrate a birthday.After 16 miles we left Pennsylvania and entered New York state.

The road became increasingly residential,mainly quite smart houses.At the days only stop we were treated to fresh (Paula made)strawberry shortcakes,very tasty,and then sped on.Had to stop at the small port below for Elizabeth to use the restrooms-she is not too keen on the trees!

I am not sure why there should be a lighthouse at that point,but there is! There are a lot of small rivers running down into the lake and with heavy rain overnight they were running fast today and delivering a lot of silt,as well as water,into the lake.This gave it a two tone appearance near the shore.

Later there was a lovely little gorge 

Again bringing down it's fair share of silt.A last view of the lake 

and then we turned off the lakeside road and onto US20 which was a much faster road but one with a good wide shoulder.This led us to our Holiday Inn for the night in Hamburg,and after a quick beer ,courtesy of Charlie,we set a record for Elizabeth for this trip,when she volunteered to get back on her bike and cycle to a subway for a sandwich.The first time this has happened.Popped up there,only 0.6 mile ,with Linda and Bill and Sohrab.Mission accomplished and into our hotel for a shower and change-birthday celebration this evening.