FLCC> Cayuta Lake Ride notes

[John Dennis]

It was a louring skies day in Central New York. Dark and at times black
cloud masses rose to such heights that only a narrow band of bright lights
lurked at the horizons. It was as if the Higher Power had gotten up on the
wrong side of the bed and decided to visually impress upon us insouciant
bipeds that we are little more than a miniscule side show in the larger view
of the heavens.  Henrik Spoon, we need more rolling observations on the
cosmos! Where are you? We promise not to go back to Bear Swamp. 
 
A soft rain was falling with light winds in the low 50s, as Terri Barnic
(silver Merlin), Gary Hodges (blue Felt), Don TenKate (silver-black Fuji
Roubaix), David Sahn (black something bot on the net), Jim Millar (grey
Trek), Evan Palmer-Young (blue Trek) and I (white Fuji Marseille) left on
the 56-mile Cayuta Lake ride to Odessa and returning via the west side of
the Finger Lakes National Forest and crossing back over to T-burg on
Spearsburg Road. Andrejs Ozolins (black Bike Friday) was with us at the
professional building but--possibly due to our slow pace in getting
ready--opted to go for his own ride. 
 
At Mecklenberg, we caught up with Dave Elliott, Anna Sapozhnikova, and
Michael (Feinstein?) who had ridden from Ithaca.  Unfortunately, Anna,
spooked by a dog running into the road, had taken a spill near the start of
McIntyre Road/CR 6.  This section of south-bound road proved to be my first
opportunity to watch anyone using power cranks.  Dave Elliott would
occasionally shift from the normal offset pedal position to parallel
strokes, reminding me of a swimmer doing the butterfly. He says there is a
huge (re)learning curve when you first try them. 
 
I know it's gauche to push product on the FLCC listserv, but Gary was
passing out ProBar's Apple Cinnamon Crunch power bar. Made with organic
ingredients, it's the tastiest power bar I've tried.  But coming out of Park
City, Utah, I suppose you could say there's a fossil fuel after-taste
compared to a bar made closer to home from more local ingredients. We saw
wet corn being harvested along Iradell road and soybeans ready to harvest,
but, alas, corn and soy do not a power bar make. 
 
 Centripedal forces, first surfacing with Andrejs, pursued our ride.
Southern Jim, feeling under the weather dropped back.  At the T with the
cemetery (where CR 6 hits CR10), the Elliott-Sapozhnikova trio went right
for a 40+ ride.  The rest of us rode down to Odessa, but Big Don and
Enigmatic Evan kept riding after a brief stop.  Inside the Take-Off Diner,
Terri, Dave, Gary and I settled in to do the diner thing.  Our waitress,
Jessica Blaha, a spry 18-year-old with French- manicured finger nails, is in
her first semester at Corning College.  She started off bringing us copious
amounts of tea and coffee. We were at that point decidedly damp!  Jessica
explained that it might be hard to find spinach for our Greek omelets--but
they did--and that she had already--a month into the semester--decided to
switch from a math major to business.  
 
But it was really the sleep demographics of the 11 dogs living in her
household that became the focus of our questions.  What started off as five
chihuahuas all sleeping in her sister's room became six when she added in
the chihuahua that belonged to her sister's boyfriend.  The shelty roams
about the house during the night sleeping in various locations. The
keeshound sleeps in his cage.  The German Shepard and the male shepard mutt
sleep in the bathroom. The female shepard mutt sleeps in a dog bed in front
of the TV. She's the intellectual of the group. We got the distinct
impression that the six cats were second class citizens in this household.
[You say there were no significant cycling accidents on this ride?] 
 
Climbing out of Odessa, we were soon on Lower Foots Hill Road and we later
reached about 45 mph on one steep downhill where CR 7 tees into CR 8.
Crossing 79, we followed CR 4 to Searsburg Road where the cattle grazing
landscape begins to look like it could be in southern Montana.  Being
aimless types, we repaired to Gimme T'burg for more liquid sustenance, and
eventually reached the professional building about 4pm.  We had seen at the
intersection of Falls Road and Taughanock Park Road, the only example on the
trip of a barn still having ancient wooden shingles on a portion of its
roof. Our little group had not a single mechanical during the trip.  Thanks
to Glen for having repaired the broken spoke in my rear Kysrium wheel
yesterday. 
 
Ride safe,   John
 
 

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