Auggu0st 24 - syracuse

another beautiful morning on the canal.  night temperature is cool.  paul slept well, though he's looking a little tired and i make a vow that we'll find him a bed for the night.  two other cyclists came into the lock area to sleep last night and  i notice by the gear and bike that one of them is jacob, the kid i rode with in ontario..  but he's still asleep by the time we leave.
we ride 20 miles this morning and arrive at lyons (pronounced 'lion').  google says there is a meg's cafe downtown, but they've moved a couple of blocks just a month ago and are now rosie & meg's.  a family run restaurant, mother and daughter now, they're in a much bigger place and doing a great saturday morning business.  while we're at breakfast, we have success lining up a warmshower on the otherside of syracuse.
after breakfast, we head up to the small farmer's market that is in the downtown.  one vender gives me a couple of peaches, one gives paul a couple of pears.  a woman sees my knoxville marathon shirt and starts talking to us about her son who worked in oak ridge for several years.
when the canal was originally built in the 1830's, it was 24' wide and 4' deep at he bottom.  it was deepened and widened twice.  when this happened, it also was moved to a new route in some locations.  the final barge canal still operates, locks, bridges, the whole thing, mostly for pleasure craft.  where the canal moved, the old canal is over grown, filled with stagnant water, or maintained as a nicely manicured historical remnant.  the path is often dirt.  it reminds me a lot of the c&o canal along the potomic that karen and i rode 4 years ago.
paul does well until around 50 miles or so and then his sciatic kicks in.  he says his right leg just burns at that point.  he doesn't get much enjoyment out of the physical riding, but he gets a lot of satisfaction out of the accomplishment.  our destination is at 75 mi.  by the end of the day he'll have completed the most he's ever ridden, a little over 200 miles.
rick, our host, guides us through syracuse where the canal trail pretty much disappears and the route is on city streets.  once we get the directions straight, it's pretty smooth, flat, and low traffic.  a shower feels great, clothes get washed, and dinner at a local southwestern style restaurant is just the perfect finishing touch.