Short day today only 82 miles.  Sometimes it seems the short days are the hardest for some reason.  I always struggle on this day and today was no different. 

Everyone got on the road in good order after a relatively late breakfast and seemed to be cruising fine enjoying the cool morning.  I spent the first half of the day in the van in a support role just bouncing back and forth checking on everyone’s progress until lunch.  As I was threading my way through for the last time, I came upon England Bob standing on the side of the road after a facilities break and he motioned an “OK” sign for me to keep going.  Just as I was cresting over the hill and out of sight, he noticed he had a flat tire...timing is everything.  It didn’t take long before for Jim our mechanic to come along and assist.  And a good thing too as he had a tire failure that required a boot to get him rolling.  By the time Bob got to lunch to change out his tire, he had a hole as big as my thumb in the tread of the tire.  I think he got the full benefit out of that one as his tread was cord all the way around the tire.  Bob wasn’t the only one who had “air seepage” today, but everyone got everything fixed in good order.  Today at mechanics, several riders were changing out their tires for the final assault on the beach.  Nice to know you have good rubber under you for the final few days.

After lunch, I rode in with Karen.  We had a couple errands to do before getting in as we’ve changed our route which caused us to have to have a new place for our lunch stop.  So we spent several minutes scouting out new locations for next year.  By the time we got through with our “chores,” we headed down the road.  I said I had a bad day today...well, I simply ran out of gas today...at one point I could hardly climb one hill...just no energy.  I stopped at a store and tried a couple of energy bars which helped me muddle through the last few miles.  I think the stress of the ride has finally gotten to my old bones.  I’ll recover in a day or two...Hmmm, I think a good dinner and some feet up rest will help too.  We’ll see tomorrow.

One thing was missing from our route today...we missed touring the Bicycle History Museum in Orchard Park.  We always stop in and visit with Carl Burgwardt who owns the largest private bicycle collection in the world.  The tour was always the highlight of our fast ride, but he’s retiring and relocating the collection.  We wish him and his wife Clare well and hope we see them again someday on the road.  We sure missed learning all the nuances of our sport from one of the most knowledgeable experts in the world.

Everyone got in safely today in spite of all the new roundabouts the DOT has installed on our route.  They always make our cues confusing since many of them aren’t on our route sheet because they weren’t there the last time we came through...and they changed the name of the motel since we got our reservations.  At least the route sheet was right on, it just took us to a Clarion instead of a Holiday Inn we expected.  I don’t know why the don’t inform us when they change names...oh well, it just makes life on the road interesting sometimes. 

Tomorrow we head toward Syracuse...Liverpool to be exact.  We have only 4 more days before we attack the beach.  We are striving to keep our focus on safety and our goal is to get everyone to the coast in one piece.  We have a few obstacle allusions between here and there, but we’re tough enough to take on just about anything.  See you tomorrow.  M