Day 13: Booneville, NY - Port Ontario, NY - 65 miles - “Mark’s Last Day”

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. Today was the last day Mark and I rode together. Tomorrow he’s headed South to Syracuse to take a bus back to Portland. As for myself, I’m continuing West back to Cleveland. Staying with cousins in Buffalo, and a friend in Chautauqua. It’s going to be a long haul. I have 90 miles planned for tomorrow.
Riding with Mark has been really great. Mileages were good, he did all of the itinerary work which was flawless. But more importantly, we really clicked. I looked forward to every day traveling with him. We oftentimes didn’t ride together together on the road. He was a smidge faster than I, his lead compounding over miles. But he always waited at the intersections, ice cream and coffee shops, and cafes. We could talk endlessly, or cease communication and dive into our phones (I oftentimes to write these posts). No hard feelings. It was great. On the other hand, I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip back home. It’s hard to be optimistic staring down the barrel of a 90 mile day, but I think once I’m over that, I’ll have a blast. The trail follows quite a bit the Erie Canal Trail which is gravel and non motorized. Now, back to today.
Really unremarkable. Rolling country, check, flat, check. Three thing that made it bad was it was the heat. It was so hot! It should cool off tomorrow. Mark and I stopped at a gas station for pizza, breaking our pact to eat the English muffins and peanut butter that we had. Nothings new! Upon arrival into Pulaski, much to our dismay, we found another dead, nothing town. It was truly underwhelming. We kept on to Port Ontario, just a few miles away and where the AirBnB was. Mark took a swim in Lake Ontario, and we kept on to dinner. Fish fry sandwich. Good. Finally, after dessert, we headed black to the AirBnB for a good nights rest and an early start to the next day.
​TM: 5:30, AVS: 11.6, DST: 64.32