Day 53

JULY 31 Ithaca to Fulton, NY

Leaving Ithaca, it felt great to be back on the bike... there was a certain sweetness in my legs as I pedalled, a very contented, eager feeling. Unfortunately, large purple clouds were building on the horizon, and a few scattered drops fell from the sky. In my bags, I carried the latest batch of letters from Aunt Kathy's first graders, one of my most prized possessions on the trip, and I was terrified they'd get drenched. After a few tense minutes, dad spotted a solution: a post office. We sent the letters home, along with a few extra items we decided to purge from our bags. Of course, when we walked out to our bikes after mailing the letters, the sky was perfectly clear.

The rest of our ride that morning passed easily along the eastern shore of Lake Cayuga, until that afternoon, we rode back onto the Adventure Cycle route. A few miles shy of our destination, dad spotted a vegetable stand by the side of the road, advertising "Sweet Corn" on a fading wooden sign. He paused a second, staring at the sign, then turned around and rode back to the stand. Before we even stopped, the woman behind the counter had two cucumbers in each hand, "Here, take these, they have a high water content... a good way to stay hydrated." Thanking her, we took the gifts and stowed them in our bag. Three dollars later, we had enough corn, potatoes, zucchini, and broccoli for dinner for the next few days.
I proffered our water bottles, "Do you think you could fill a couple of these for us?" I asked.
"Sure!" she said, taking the bottles behind the counter and filling them with ice water from a small refrigerator she had to store produce. "And take some of these!" she gave us some packets of Crystal Lite powder to add to our water.

We set up our camp then rode into the town of Fulton to use the computers in the library. As I wandered in, clad in lycra, my bike cleats clicking faintly on the floor, a red head at one of the computers looked up, "Are you biking across the country?" she asked. I nodded, surprised that she had guessed so easily, "We are too!" she said, then glanced around her, "Well, I'm the only one here... I'm riding with my two sisters."
"Are you staying in the campground just outside of town?" dad asked, "We saw you ride in... but you were unloaded, so we didn't figure..."
"Oh, our parents met us for a couple of days, and they carried our bags. It's been so nice for our knees... but they're leaving tomorrow." she grimaced, "I'm not looking forward to riding a loaded bike again."
By now, dad and I had both settled down in front of a computer, "You should come over this evening," dad prompted, "It'd be great to hear about your trip."
"Oh, definitely." the girl agreed, turning back to her computer screen.

Back at camp, we showered, ate dinner (which was excellent thanks to all of the fresh vegetables), then went out for ice cream at a near by store. When we got back from our ice cream run, I wandered off to the bathroom while dad looked around the camp, making sure everything was put away. Returning to camp, I found it empty and assumed dad had gone to bed. I crawled in my tent and began writing in my journal until it was too dark to see the page. Just after I had closed my journal and slipped inside my sleeping bag, dad walked into camp, "Oh, hey." I said, surprised he wasn't asleep, "Where were you?".
"I was talking to those girls." He said, "I ran into their dad while I was taking pictures of the lake, and then we started talking, and then...." he grinned, "Well, you know how much I can talk. I finally decided it was time to leave when it started getting dark. I think they're planning to stay the same place we are tomorrow night, so you'll probably get to meet them then. Good night!"
"Good night, dad." I replied as he climbed into his tent and went to sleep.