When I woke up today, I was feeling unmotivated. Part of it was the fact that my muscles felt weak. Somehow I felt like I wanted more of a rest from yesterday's ride, and yet I knew that I had another 70km ahead of me. I also realized the limitations of tenting - namely, that I cannot charge my phone, which I heavily use for directions, and require to be operational for emergencies and help.

My phone helped me a lot today. I played music, and I never got lost like I did in the first two days of my ride. On the other hand, it keeps me bound to civilization. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I find that I don't really have any temptation to use my phone, but it's still annoying when it buzzes every time I get Toronto-related e-mails. I have an external battery pack for the phone which I bought at Niagara falls, and didn't get a chance to charge it. I'm hoping that this will allow me more freedom in the future of the trip.

My laptop is always on me, in one of my side-bags (wrapped well, don't worry). I mainly brought it with me as the easist way to bring it to Boston, but I am also very happy that I have it, as it gives me a chance to write out these blogs properly. I think that this makes it worth bringing.

My GPS is perfect, and I love it. It has great battery life, it beeps a lot, and it's got just enough features to feed my data fetish, but not enough to make me play with it too much. It's an M7 GPS Wireless Bike computer, and I got it for like $40. It's got horrible reviews online by one guy who treats his commute to work as something meriting a GPS, and some other guy who expects something more than position tracking from a GPS. Though I do admit that extracting data from this guy is a bit of a pain (I'll make a full guide on how to do it, including sample files and a GIS tutorial if at least two people tell me they are interested. GIS is an amazing tool that I will be using in Boston to do my redistricting research).

When I first set out, I thought that I would be the limiting factor in how far I go. I thought that I would be sore, and that if I pushed harder, I'd go faster. I first learned that I was wrong yesterday when I could not bike on the crushed stone of the Erie canal trail due to my bike's thin wheels.

I learned this again today with more flat tires. After repairing another flat tire today, and having a third busted inner tube, I decided to take my bike to the shop. In truth, I stopped by the side of the road after about 40km, thinking about how miserable my day is going, when someone pulled over and asked me if I needed help. He suggested I go to the bike shop in Spencerport. Anyway, the shop owner pulled out a staple lodged in the tire, put a puncture-protector inside the wheel, and informed me that the wheel itself was slightly crooked. That explained the bumps I kept feeling.

All of this made me understand that I'm not travelling alone, and that while my bike is a tool, it sometimes needs as much care as I do. I've been fortunate this trip. I got sunburnt a bit on the first day, and that's it. I haven't had any dehydration worries, and overall I've been making good speed. I guess I now know a bit more about tire maintenance, and I'm becoming good at replacing inner tubes. However, there is still much ahead. If it rains, I'll get wet, and I'm ok with that, but how will my bike react? I need to start being more careful with how I treat the bike.

I started my day by packing up my dewey tent, and saying goodbye to Rhonda. I ate some crappy breakfast at McDonalds as an excuse to sit down somewhere and charge my phone. I got bored of that really quickly, and decided to set off anyway.

I actually did not take many pictures today, since most of it was spent on the road in long stretches of monotonic upstate New-York greenery. I mainly spent my ride thinking about why people here mow their lawns so much. Or rather, I thought why they had so much lawn to begin with?

Continuing my trip around the world, I revisited Sweden:

I honestly don't remember why I took this picture, but it's the canal, and pictures of the canal are always treasured on this blog:

My phone ran out of battery around Brockport (whatever that is), so I sat in a hotel lobby charging it. I got bored after a while, and started biking again, only to encounter a sign for a European city I will not be visiting today:

I continued to Rochester, where from a distance I saw the first skyscrapers I had seen in a long time!

In Rochester, I took a picture of the NOT ERIE CANAL, but the Genesee River! Look at all of those flat bois!

I then passed by Egypt, which was a surprisingly nice little town, actually. 10/10, would pass through again.

By this time, I was starting to get tired, but I still wanted to push for 120km. It was around here that I decided to stay the night at Newark. On the way, I stopped for some dinner in a beautiful park in Palmyra along the canal:

I ate a sandwich I got from before Rochester, and some solid energy:

Of course, I also took pictures of the goslings I saw. This time the big geese didn't hiss at me.

I continued biking along highway 31, which is also known as the million dollar highway, because back when it was built, it was a good investment of taxpayer money. I passed through downtown Palmyra, and stumbled across a unique intersection. See if you can figure out what's so special (sorry my finger got in the way):

I got a stomach ache, and my knees started hurting after leaving Palmyra, and the last 15km stretch to Newark was very scenic, but also very hard. Still, I couldn't help but take one last picture...