FLCC> Seneca Lake Ride Notes: the view from behind

[Misty McPhee]

As one of the moderates, I must second Bill's earlier email and raise  
a glass to John's skills as a raconteur.  It was a beautiful day, and  
a marvelous group of people - the perfect combination for a leisurely  
ride through the country.  I suppose we bypassed a chance at true  
adventure when we didn't join John for the Drain Tile Museum Tour,  
but as Bill said, it leaves something for us to look forward to later  
in life.

John, I'm glad you made it home in one piece.  We saw you leaning  
over your bike and we all said, "There's nothing John can't handle -  
he'll catch up shortly."  You obviously did handle it, and I'm not  
sure what we could have done to help, but sorry we left you at the  
prison!

Looking forward to this weekend's Cayuga ride -

Misty

On Aug 6, 2007, at 11:52 PM, John Dennis wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>
>
> Some folks are prone to zipping along at the crest of the lead pack  
> and a few of us even manage to drop off the back of the slower  
> group again and again.
>
>
>
> The Seneca Lake ride is an 85-mile, four-county romp going  
> Schuyler, Yates, Ontario, Seneca and then back to Schuyler.
>
>
>
> There was a great turn-out yesterday. The skies were absolutely  
> cloudless and the temps were pushing 80 as we rolled out of Watkins  
> Glen.  With apologies for misspellings and omissions, here’s my  
> listing of those present. The Elmira contingent included Bill and  
> Lula Lodico, Teri Barnic, John  Fessenden, Bill Fischer, Brian  
> Klotz from Painted Post, and Bob Nunnick.  It was great to see Teri  
> back after seven weeks.  The Ithaca contingent included six who  
> traveled over in Chris Koukourtis’s biodiesel van: Chris, Gary  
> Hodges, Jack Loveless, Matt Horak, and Ben Gray, and me. Others  
> from the Ithaca area included Ritchie Berg, Emmanuel Cisteros, Alex  
> Deymin, Vanessa McCaffrey, Misty McPhee, Evan Palmer-Young (who  
> rode over!), Levi Reed, Tom Sage (Cortland), Ruth Sherman, Don  
> Smith, and Don Tenkate. Others included Paul Dimmick from Lodi,  
> Tony Katyana (Towanda, Pa), Scott Zimmerman (also PA?), Doug  
> Carlson, Cliff Hood(sp?), Mark, and Tom.
>
>
>
> According to Gary, the lead group leaving Geneva was a five-some:  
> Doug, Ben, Matt, Brian, and Emmanuel. We’ll just have to guess  
> about their average speed, but having ridden with Ben, I’m sure it  
> was fast.  The next group on the southward leg was the two Dons,  
> Gary, Vanessa, Evan, Teri, and Mark (blue jersey, from Corning).   
> Evan, just to make sure he was totally pumped up for  his organic  
> chemistry exam today, also rode back to Ithaca.  Perhaps we will  
> have to give him the moniker, Stewart Jr.
>
>
>
> With 19 wineries on the west side of Seneca Lake and 13 on the  
> East, producers and their clientele now make up the most visible  
> part of the Seneca Lake economy. The stunning view of the lake from  
> the Rte 14 at Glenora Winery could almost pass for the view of Lac  
> Leman at Nyon, Switzerland.  Except that it is greener and less  
> congested, less manicured, less European, and, of course, less  
> expensive.  Neither the Amish nor the Mennonite communities that  
> farm large areas of farmland on the west side of the lake seem to  
> grow grapes, preferring cabbage, soybeans, winter wheat, and lots  
> of corn. Never mind that wine is a part of daily life in New  
> Testament narratives.  The white farmhouses, clothes lines mounted  
> on spindled pulleys, bicycles leaning against sheds, and the  
> occasional one-room schoolhouse, remind one that two very different  
> ways of life can be juxtaposed without much interaction.  I wanted  
> to contact the Oak Grove Woodworking shop, but their hours are M-F  
> and there was no telephone number in evidence.
>
>
>
> As usual, the very magnificence of the red sandstone church in  
> Bellona in itself makes the trip worthwhile.  OK, the Smith Opera  
> House at 82 Seneca St. in Geneva is a grander and finer piece of  
> work, but the church in Bellona is “still in its native element”   
> and what is architecture without its proper context?   I took a  
> brief leave of the moderates’ luncheon at the Parker to check on  
> the Halsey Building (completely renovated, but in a low-budget,  
> modicum of functionality sort of way), the Art Deco crescent-shaped  
> gas station (still teetering on the brink of demolition), and the  
> Arthur Dove Building (the entire east wall has collapsed, but it is  
> being rebuilt by its new owner, a woman who resides in England).
>
>
>
> Rounding the north end of the lake after our leisurely lunch we  
> discovered a headwind from the SE, passed the Rose Mansion, and no  
> sooner were we underway heading south on route 125 when I spotted  
> that the Mike Weaver Drain Tile Museum located at the John Johnson  
> House was open for the first time in 15 years.  Alas, not even the  
> professor of history (Cliff?) in our group was inclined to join me,  
> so I got a tour on my own.  The Johnson family, wealthy immigrants  
> from Scotland, started “Viewfields” with 112 acres and expanded to  
> 320.  Eventually Johnson had 72 miles of tile laid in his fields  
> which apparently contained a multiplicity of springs. The three  
> daughters sent to boarding school in Canandaigua never married, but  
> one daughter married Robert Swan of neighboring Rose Hill Farm, at  
> one time the pre-eminent farm in the state. My favorite tile in the  
> museum collection, which includes tiles from Mesopotamia, is one  
> with an arrowhead embedded in the clay.
>
>
>
> I then hustled south in the 20-22 mph range, savoring the pungent  
> odors of rotting cyanobacteria lying on the sunny east shore, and  
> finally catching sight of my group as I was most of the way up the  
> hill leading into Willard.  But then I stopped to fill my  
> fecklessly small camelback.  I could see my group waiting at the  
> intersection of the two roads that border the Willard Drug  
> Treatment Center, which is itself surrounded by a high fence topped  
> with multiple waves of shiny concertina wire.  Not wanting to keep  
> my group waiting a second more, I impulsively decided to “take the  
> hypotenuse” over to south-bound Rte 132.  Assuming that the bullet- 
> pocking in the asphalt ring-road just outside the concertina-wire  
> topped fence was a harmless by-product of one of those late-nite  
> rituals of guards trying to fight off boredom on a slow night, I  
> was riding across a rough grassy patch and only yards from reaching  
> the “patrol path” when my rear wheel locked up with an ominous  
> alacrity.  I dismounted in full-view of at least one (imagined?)  
> watchtower and was dismayed to find that my entire rear derailleur  
> had severed itself from the frame and taken up residence in my rear  
> wheel.   Maybe Mavic bladed spokes are sharp enough to cut metal!   
> Teeth were also broken from my two new derailleur chain cogs.  I  
> hastily stripped off the defunct derailleur, leaving it like a  
> miniature IED at the base of a nearby telephone pole, only to  
> discover that my bike was NOT rideable with so much loose chain.  I  
> was stripping out 12 chain links, when a patrol vehicle pulled  
> along side on the patrol path, “Are you OK?” asked a concerned  
> officer of the facility.   I explained I was dealing with a minor  
> mechanical.
>
>
>
> With my shortened chain mounted on the middle chain ring and mid- 
> way up the rear cassette, I found I had only one gear.  There was  
> not enough play to allow the front derailleur to function.  I  
> called ahead to Gary to inform him not to wait for me at Watkins  
> Glen.  I rode to Ovid where there is a traffic light, hitched a  
> ride to Mecklenberg, and then rode the rest of the way to Ithaca  
> feeling terribly neglectful of my companions but also pondering  
> some of the surreal work that some are involved in.  Did you know,  
> for example, that a female guinea pig, after being bred by several  
> males, can actually then choose which male’s sperm will fertilizer  
> her egg?    Or that it may be possible to detect IEDs using a laser  
> beam?
>
>
>
> Ride safe,  John
>
>
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