Day 6 - Rome to Canajoharie

Up at 5:20 - not raining! Packed up and waited around for 6:00 breakfast. Turned out to be a little inadequate. Cold cereal, mini-muffins, bagels, etc. Small room and nowhere to sit. Grabbed 3 mini-muffins and a coffee and bolted at 6:10am. Janet from Albany was somewhere ahead of me. Light sporadic rain as I rode roads to get to the Canal Trail, and it continued all the way to Utica and beyond. Downed tree at one point blocked the trail completely. Wet bushwhack w/bike to get around it. Turn for downtown Utica got missed somehow - not sure it was marked yet. Wound up on Rt 5 and stopped at Burger King for breakfast. I had passed Janet earlier, and she pulled in a little later and joined me. We both decided to just stay on Rt 5 all the way to Nelliston, where the official route crossed over to Fort Plain. High headwinds and threat of more rain made it a no-brainer to just get to Canajoharie ASAP. I skipped the St. Johnsville rest stop after the one in Little Falls was deserted. Too early. Arrived in Canjo, as it's called here, around 1:30pm. Had stopped in St. Johnsville library and emailed a few. I was the first to arrive. LONG hill from village up to high school. Set up, mostly dried out, and all is well.

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This day went much better than I had expected, both in terms of weather and endurance. Forgot to mention the second breakfast at the Waffle House in Herkimer (a full combo), and a great sandwich in a local Canajoharie deli. I also did less than the 67.1 miles of the official route, and despite the winds, Rt 5 is a great route. Hills were less daunting than expected, but the headwind more than made up for that.

The numbers:
61.34 miles (329.9 total)
12.3 mph average
25.5 mph max
4:57:11 riding time
7:30 elapsed time

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Brooks BBQ for dinner. Good Mohawk Indian speaker and so-so bluegrass band. Called Holly - in bed @ 9:30.