Day 08: Macedon, NY to Clarence, NY

Total Distance: 71.2 mi
Moving Avg: 9.7 mph
Moving Time: 7:18
Climbing: 2150 ft
Elev Gain: 200 ft

Route Summary:
NY 31 W to 
NY 252 W to
NY 383 S to
NY 5 W

Well, NY 252 is the _worst road ever_. I was supposed to go on it for
much longer than I did, but it was just too terrible. It had no
shoulder, was under construction in places so it was "grooved
pavement", and it was through a strip mall. Except it wasn't a strip
mall. "Strip mall" implies linearity and lack of depth. This was a
strip area. For miles around me, all there was was outlet stores,
fast food, and department stores. Welcome to America. 

Other than that, the roads weren't that bad. I spent much of the day
playing Nick Navigates, with moderate sucess. In an interesting turn
of fate, when I was crossing the Erie Canal, I noted a little bike
trail running along it. I decided to follow for a moment, and lo and
behold there was a bike store right there. They didn't have the tire
I wanted, nor any smallish sized package of degreaser, but I did pick
up more lube. 

For most of today, the sun was out, but at the end of the day it
clouded over. It is slated to rain for the next few days. Eit. It is
disturbing how correleated my mood and the weather are. 

Also, my cell phone gets signal (main screen turn on) around
here. Yay. I missed a call from Jen by about 10 seconds because I was
listening to the radio (which I now have ziptied to my
handlebars). Eit. I'm not sure what I think about listening to the
radio as I ride. I'm not concerned about safety or anything (although
I would still not use headphones), I just think it may slow me down
by taking my attention away from riding. We'll see. 

Tonight is another motel night, although this one is really cheap. I
passed a campground as I was starting to think about stopping, but
something just told me no. Perhaps it was the "chance of rain" from
the weather report, or maybe I'm just fat and lazy and don't want to
camp. Likely the latter. Although, really I wouldn't have saved that
much over this motel. 

I tried getting internet via my phone, to no avail. I can't find a
decent serial terminal program on MacOS and I can't get Linux to talk
to the phone. I made the previous install of linux do it, so I know I
can make it work with effort. But really, I have better things to be
doing. Like sleeping. Or riding a bike. 

Oh, and one more thing. I'd just like to point out that modern bike
components are much much nicer than old ones. I noted that my rear
brake was dragging a bit this morning, so I stopped and adjusted my
breaks. There are screws for adjusting the spring tension! This is so
cool. It beats the hell out of fiddling with the tension through
plastic deformation of the spring. I mean, I knew that that is how
you adjusted these brakes, but the full glory of it didn't really
dawn on me till now. Everything else is adjustable that way too, it's
not just the brakes. It make the bike so easy to keep in tune.