Update #6 - May 12th, 2001
Orchard Park, New York - 1847 miles

The ride from Syracuse along the Erie Canal went okay. I had a good time and made some good friends especially in Macedon and Middleport. Yesterday, I finished up NY 31 and cycled into Niagara Falls. I haven't been there in about ten years. While riding through the Central Section of downtown Niagara Falls, I was amazed at seeing all of the closed stores. For every one open, there were five shut down. This was a really depressed area. From this section, it was about a mile and a half to the Falls. I didn't stay too long at the Falls since it was cold and windy. There were not too many tourists around. Most of them must have been over in Ontario, Canada where all of the tourist attractions are.

From Niagara Falls, I headed south towards Buffalo. A lot of the time was spending riding along a really good paved path (the Riverwalk) along the Niagara River. I wish that it would have gotten me closer to downtown Buffalo though. In a neat twist of fate, I met a guy who used to be in bicycle touring when he was younger. He invited me to spend the night with him and his family in Lancaster, which is a small town east of Buffalo, so I did 77 miles yesterday.

Today was cold and miserable so I only pedaled 10 miles to some other friends of mine in nearby Orchard Park. At least, I missed the rain showers that fell earlier in the morning. I've got about a day and a half of riding in New York along the shore of Lake Erie left before crossing into Pennsylvania. The section of Pennsylvania I'll be in has miles and miles of grape vineyards (both for wine and grapejuice). The biggest city in the area that I'll be cycling through is Erie.

If all goes well, I'll be crossing into NE Ohio sometime either this coming Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll be riding through some Amish country. I'll try to post and update when I get into Ohio.