Day 46 Seneca Falls to Binghamton NY Actually I'm just north of Binghamton on US 11. There were motels here and I didn't remember seeing any farther south on 11. I'm at a Days Inn where they initially wanted $85 for a room, but backed off to $58 when I asked for my credit card back. It is a nice Days Inn and a big room and it is in NY where everything is more expensive, but it isn't worth $85. OK they would give me 10% of that for AARP, but I bet taxes are more than 10%. They did save me money for supper since they had free pizza for some occasion and I took two slices which, combined with some food I had with me, made an adequate supper. Tomorrow I'll be in Pennsylvania where things are cheaper! I had a pretty hilly day today. I'd estimate at least a mile of vertical in 95 miles. I haven't done this much climbing since eastern Tennessee! Some of that vertical was at a 10% or better grade, but most was much gentler. I actually used my lowest gear (17 inches or so - less than 4 mph at 80 rpm) for half a dozen blocks in Ithaca. That is one hilly town, or a better description, a town built on a substantial ridge. It makes for a georgeous skyline and for serious climbing from downtown (definitely DOWNtown) up to Cornell or to head out of town east on NY 79. NY 79 has a lot of hills, but the only other seriously steep one occurs after Richford. That is another mile or so of 8% grade. A good hill, but not quite as good as the hill on 79 in Ithaca. This morning, I crossed the river in Seneca falls and rode east on what was initially River Rd. and later Bayard St. It is nicer ride than 20 - it goes right through the downtown on Seneca falls - and then it goes over to Bridgeport which is on NY 89. NC 89 runs right down Cayuga Lake to Ithaca and is some great bicycling. It has a good shoulder, light traffic, lots of views, and no services other than a large number of wineries. To be fair, about twenty miles down you could go a mile or so down to the lake (a fairly substantial down) or over to Interlaken to get something to eat. I had bagels and applesauce with me, so I stayed on 89. 89 starts pretty flat, but gets hilly in the middle and has some serious climbs and descents in the last ten miles before Ithaca. A very nice ride! At Ithaca I decided not to stop downtown - it was a zoo with too much traffic and tricky (on a bicycle) one way multilane streets - but to ride on following 79 and to stop near Cornell for lunch. When I got most of the way up that steep hill, I discovered that I'd have to leave 79 and climb a different hill to get to Cornell. I decided to see what I could find on 79 instead. At the top of the hill I realized I wasn't going to find anything in Ithaca. My water bottles needed filling and I need some info on what to excpect farther east on 79. I saw a car pulling into a parking area in front of a house just ahead of me and I stopped beside them to ask for help. I lucked out, the car contained a family whose father had done serious bike touring. They invited me in for a popsicle and a visit. Nice folks - he works at one of the Cornell libraries, and they have two kids (a boy about ten and a girl about six). I also met their twenty year old cat. After visiting I headed east, only to find a wallet on the shoulder about 100 yards down the road. This was the first time I've found a wallet on tour. It would have been rather awkward (I didn't want to ride back into town!) if I hadn't just found some really nice people as well. I took the wallet back to their house and left it for them to deal with. It belonged to a 19 year old girl with a Pennsylvania drivers license, hopeflly a student there, and it had a key, money, and credit cards as well as her drivers license. I hope my new friends are able to get it back to her. Riding 79 wasn't as much fun as riding 89. For one thing, 79, unlike 89, is a major traffic route. For another, it is hillier than 89 and my legs were already tired from the earlier hills. Neither traffic or hills were a serious problem. The shoulder was good almost all the way - the last few miles to US 11 have a very rough shoulder - and the hills were doable. In fact they were mostly pretty enjoyable. That big hill out of Richford wasn't really fun, but I had the gearing to handle it so mostly it was just hot climbing. There was a bit of a tail wind most of the day, and climbing that hill at 5 mph with a 5 mph tail wind didn't give me a good way to get rid of the heat I was generating. The Temperature was only around eighty, but it felt much hotter on that hill! I better get used to it: I have lots of hot riding coming up. I stopped for lunch at a sub and ice cream place near Slaterville and again to drink a quart of gatorade and eat a bagel near Caroline. All that gatorade made me feel too full, but it seemed to help on the remainder of the ride. I had it in my head that 11 was relatively flat north of Binghamton. Boy was I wrong! It is as hilly as 79 and even has one long hill (half a mile or so) that slowed me down to 5 mph. A few years ago I got on 11 after riding through western Pennsylvania and over to Winchester VA on Alt route 40 which is very hilly (two miles of vertical in a hundred miles, much of it at 10% grade or steeper) and I thought 11 was pretty flat. Flat is relative. 11 is hilly unless you've just been riding some serious hills! My ride reports from that trip show a mile or so of climbing in each hundred miles, which is about what I experienced today. It is only about half as hilly as the Blue Ridge Parkway or south western PA, but it as hilly as anything on this tour.