August 30 – Middleport to Rochester

Camping along the Canal was quiet and restful. I took my time packing up my tent and hit the trail at 10 a.m.

Within a few miles, I was overtaken by a large group of teenage cyclists. Most of them were riding mountain bikes, so i didn’t think this was a hard-core training ride. I asked a passing cyclist about their group, and he said RITFO or something like that. This didn’t help to further my knowledge, but fortunately another large group of cyclists overtook me. I pumped up my own speed and asked more about the group. It turns out that this was part of the freshman orientation for the Rochester Institute of Technology. They had biked to Niagara Falls and were currently on their way back to the school for the main orientation.

The group I was with soon caught up with the previous wave of freshmen and I ended up talking with the group and making them some balloons. They were really a fantastic group of students.

Throughout the rest of the morning, I kept on seeing parts of the orientation and they invited me to join them for lunch at Subway. I ended up talking a bit with one of the group advisors, Cha Ron, who was riding a Trek 520 and was from Chicago. She gave me a great list of things to check out in Rochester.

After lunch, I saw the students on and off for several more hours. I also saw the boaters from the previous day floating down the canal.

Eventually I stopped to watch the one of the bridges raise up and the last of the students passed me by. They were a great and energetic bunch.

Once I was on my own again, I reverted back to my casual pace and stopped to get some ice-cream in one of the canal towns. While I was sitting outside the grocery store next to my bike, an older woman passed me by and asked about what I was doing. When I told her, she seemed extremely offended. When she came out of the store, she asked me some more questions and I told her that I was having nothing but good experiences. She kept checking out my bike, then walked away saying that she was glad I wasn’t her daughter. It was probably one of the coldest experiences that I’d had so far. However, this was tempered by a group of teenagers who actively applauded for me when I got back onto the bike trail.

By 5 pm, I was heading into Rochester. My first stop for the evening was getting to meet with Larry Moss, one of the leaders in the balloon industry who calls Rochester his home. We met at his studio, Airigami works and went nearby to get some tea and pizza. He’s an amazing artist and has created some great projects with his partner, Kelly Cheatle. He also helped me with a place stay so that I could attend a balloon workshop on Thursday.

It was getting dark, so I headed over to my WarmShowers host, JP. He had been so accommodating to host me at the minute and even when my plans were fluctuating. We grabbed a quick dinner at a nearby pizza place with delicious coal fired pizza.

By the I was showered and ready to sleep, I was beat and slept so well.