Tuesday October 2: Crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to make our return to the US. Checked our e-mail and voice messages and discovered that Marty's last remaining aunt, Weezie, passed away on Friday. We decided to keep riding to let it sink in and let him decide if he would like to fly to British Columbia in order to attend the funeral on Friday. We rode that afternoon for a while and made it halfway to Rochester. We stayed the night in Albion at another overpriced motel after a decent dinner with a young waitress who could have been a hoosier. Total miles ~45.

Wednesday October 3: Got up and went to breakfast in town. Marty left before his food came to help set up his flight to B.C. which he decided would be a good thing. He set it up so he'd fly out of Rochester on Thursday, so we made haste to get to Rochester and on our way we stopped at a bike store to see about NY bike maps and discovered the Erie Canal path which was just awesome and after a few choruses of "Rollin'...Rollin'....Rollin' on the Erie Canal!" we were in Rochester and settling into a night of laundry and goodbyes at the Motel 6 by the airport. It was sad, but Mart left on a good note. We had never got on each other's nerve too terribly and though Marty had more people he would have loved to have visited, it seemed like as good a time to split up as we could have imagined. Total miles ~35.

Thursday October 4: Marty got up at 5AM and I slept in. I left around 10 AM and kept on the Erie Canal path, which I was assured would take me all the way to Albany if I wanted to take it that far, until it totally disappeared in Palmyra. So I kept going on 31, which was relatively flat and I decided that there was actually a good chance that I could make it to Syracuse to visit my cousin Kelsey, who's a freshman at Syracuse University, by that night. So I peddaled all the way to Port Byron for dinner by 6PM and with only twenty to twenty-five miles left to go, I was pretty confident that I could be to Kelsey's dorm by 10PM. Well, switching from route 31 to route 5 in Weedsport turned out to be chock full of nasty hills and it only got a little better on route 5 into Syracuse. But the show-stopping mistake was continuing on 5 when it became four lane divided highway. While it was certainly exhilirating going nearly fifty miles per hour downhill on the freeway in almost pitch blackness with my puny bike light illuminating only about a half-second's worth of pavement in front of me, I thought it would be smart to get off at my earliest possible convenience. So while stuck without a detailed map of Syracuse and imagining even more terrible hills to navigate in the ten miles left to the university I managed to flag down a passing pick-up to ask directions to East Genesee St. which is the local extension of five which I wanted to take me into the city. Well as soon as Tim the Good Samaratin construction worker found out why I wanted to know how to get to E. Genesee St. he immediately offered to throw my bike and bags into his truck and take me to the University. At this point it was about 9 PM and I had done over 80 miles of the 91 from Rochester to Syracuse, so I decided to take him up on his generosity and maximize time I could spend getting to know my cousin Kelsey, who I don't think I had ever even met prior to this night. We arrived on campus within fifteen minutes and Kelsey met us at the door while I clumsily tried to offer Tim some monetary recompense for his help and time. Tim sped off and I followed Kelsey up into the maximum security dorm room scant blocks from a bustling crack-head ghetto (to hear Tim speak of it). I showered and then talked with Kelsey for a while before retiring to the floor lounge for my puerfunctory eight hours.

Friday Oct. 5: Had vegan pancakes in the amazing dorm that is part of the greater dorm complex of Syracuse University, amog other delights that morning as I stocked up on food for the journey ahead. Tried to contact my friend Erin HEgg who goes to Bennington College in Vermont to see if she would like to play this weekend that I could maximize time spent with her. I rode lackadaisically for a while and eventually got back on the canal and went as far as half-way to Utica before contacting Erin who was delighted to hear from me and we arranged for her to pick me up right where I was the next morning. I couldn't wait. I set up camp in a patch of thick wild chive, which was as tought as bamboo in a small grove of trees just off the Erie canal. Put up rain fly and slept fitfully from 8:30 PM until 7AM.

Saturday, October 6: Got up and packed up soaking wet everything. Despite the canopy of trees I had nestled in, everything had been punded during the night and my rainfly was soaked. Tent and tarp weren't too wet until I took the rainfly off as the rain continued to fall. It was cold. I had on my windbreaker and jeans and wode for a bit until deciding it absolutely necessary to stop and pull out my sweater and poncho. Continued and cursed my lack of fenders as my denim pant legs soaked up all the moisture I could throw at them until I came upon a gas station where I warmed up with an egg and cheese bagel, doughtnut and juice while watching the weather channel and not being enthused by what I heard and saw. Eventually said my farewells to that gas station and made my way up to the rondezvous point which was another gas station, but closer to the highway so Erin and her friend Patti could pick my sorry butt up. They rolled in while I was reading Walden in the rain and it was glorious. The ride back was uneventuful, but I got to know Patti (aka Beef as she's a vegetarian) and all was right in the world as my still rain bedraggled feet and legs warmed up in the heat of the car. We stopped in Bennington proper for lunch at the nation's only five star diner, the Blue Ben. Lunch was great, though not as substantial as I wanted, and made our way back to campus where I was shown the studio space that Erin and Patti shared which was huge and wonderful and normally an MFA studio space. Then a blur of unpacking and talking and eventually dinner at the cafeteria which was all decked out for Monte Carlo night. Met a few more of Erin's friends including Jen and her cute beyond cute sister Sarah. Got to bed relatively early as that has been my wont. Total miles ~5.

Sunday October 7: The day is a haze, but I remember late breakfast and great dinner at Erin's sometimes place of employment "The Perfect Wife" where I deliberately ate meat for the first time in five years (I had a nibble of her crabcake sandwiches which were quite delicious). Total miles - totally zero.

Monday October 8: Thought of leaving on Tuesday squelched by the great talks that ERin and I had later in the evening. Departure pushed back to Wednesday.