May 20 – Old Bicycles and Cookies

Today got off to an inauspicious start. The weather channel could not provide any local weather. It was better to open the window and determine that it was raining and in the 40’s. Breakfast was a buffet; it was good with the exception of the pancakes that had to be cut with a knife, preferably a steak knife, even after syrup was liberally applied. The pancakes would have made good Frisbees.

Our ride today was only 84 miles, 87 with a necessary detour. It was divided into two nearly equal parts. The first 40 miles was from Dunkirk to Orchard Park where we toured the Pedal Power Museum. The world’s largest museum dedicated solely to bicycles and bicycle memorabilia. It has a remarkable collection of bicycles from the earliest bonebreakers and ordinary bikes (ones with one large front wheel) to bikes of the 50’s and 60’s. As owning a bicycle in the 1880’s was as expensive as owning a car is today, the degree to which bicycle motifs were used in everyday items is amazing. I have included a few pictures. I have heard a few riders commenting during the ride about whether anyone has ridden across the country on a fixed gear bicycle. I knew it had been done but didn’t know when. In the museum there was the first ordinary that was ridden across the country in 1884. It took about 100 days and in many places in the west there were no roads! I am glad that I waited for improved bikes and transcontinental roads before doing my ride.

The 40 mile morning ride to the museum was cold, temps in the 40’s, with wet roads and a little bit of drizzle. I got one flat from a small wire that though my tire needed to be steel belted. The 40 mile afternoon ride to Batavia NY was cold, temps in the upper 50’s, with wet roads, periods of rain and headwinds. I got two flats. Well, I got one from a piece of glass and a second one because the tube I used had a slow leak from a patch I put on before. I also made a wrong turn in the afternoon, in part because I was so frustrated with my second flat of the day. I am not sure which part of the ride I liked better but there was one ray of sunshine in the afternoon. Shane, our mechanic, was driving sag with his nine year old grand-daughter. When he fixed my second flat of the afternoon, his grand-daughter offered me a chocolate cookie from a palate of cookies her mother had made. I am no fool, so I thanked her and had the very good cookie. I was the last rider and about 10 miles from the end of the ride Shane waited at a turn to make sure that I made the right turn and that I had enough water. His grand-daughter offered me the last cookie from the plate. I told her I couldn’t take the last one but she insisted; then said that there were more. So I had a second cookie. When I finished the ride I told her that I only made it to the end because of her second cookie. She may be nine but I don’t think she was naive enough to believe that.

Our motel is a Days Inn, however the other half of the same building, just down the hall is a Motel 8. We have experienced motels that have changed their names between the time the organizers book the rooms and the time we arrive. But I have never seen one motel building with two different motels. I don’t know but we may have caught a motel in the act of changing its name. Unfortunately going back to Batavia NY to check out if one motel is being converted into another or if this is a stable situation is not high on must do my list, so we may never know.