Staging area - Day 86: Chautauqua to Buffalo, NY

As with most hills, the ride down was better than the ride up. The slope was steep enough that I felt more comfortable in the lane than on the shoulder, and I blazed past light Sunday morning traffic to stop in a nice farmer's market in Westfield. I got a free peach by bothering someone who was only selling them by the carton, and bought some delicious Amish snickerdoodles. I like the idea of natural, wholesome food, but in retrospect I'm not entirely comfortable supporting Amish business. As far as I'm aware they don't go out of their way to make trouble for others and have a respectable work ethic, but they're pretty oppressive internally when it comes to gender roles and demonizing sexuality. Anyway.

Takahashi and I both had problems today. For me, it was my knees again. They'd been getting better overall, but the stop-and-go of Cleaveland combined with last night's climbing set them back a bit. We didn't plan to ride together today, as Takahashi meant to go off-route to find a bike shop. However, he passed me frequently during knee breaks, after which I'd pass him again as he stopped to fiddle with his back wheel. Neither of us were making rapid progress, and we were both passed by an older couple doing a nonchalant 16-18 mph on matching fully loaded bikes. We only had something like 50 miles to put in today, though, so I don't think either of us were too worried.

50 miles was a very approximate figure, because neither of us had a plan about where we'd stay in Buffalo. I had contacted some WarmShowers hosts, but this being labor day weekend, all the outdoorsy sorts that liked to host cyclists were off camping. Takahashi just didn't make many plans, period. He mentioned sleeping in places like McDonald's and Wal-Marts when necessary. Finally someone said we could camp in their backyard, so I communicated this to Takahashi at one of our many encounters throughout the day and texted him the address.

The ride there involved some pretty views and took me through a Seneca reservation, apparently popular for something to do with their tobacco. They also sold grilled cheese sandwiches with deep-friend cheese sticks in the middle, which provided the majority of my calories for the day. After arriving in Buffalo, meeting a terrified and ineffective guard dog, and setting up camp in what we hoped was the right backyard, we took a trip to a local pub and I introduced Takahashi to my opinion of good beer. We stayed in the pub until the mosquitoes had likely gone to sleep, sharing stories as best we could with Google Translate as an aid. This included the story of Takahashi taking a two-day trip on a stand-up paddle board, watching hammerhead sharks swim around below him. Eventually, I paid both our tabs, we went back to actually meet our hosts who were returning from a pub crawl of their own, and then got to sleep.