Friday, May 9, 2014

In Rochester, almost home!

Wow, I can hardly believe that I am just about done walking the Erie Canal Trail. It has been all kinds of things. Up and down, horrible and great. I have seen a lot of amazing sights. Hopefully I will get my pictures on here soon. It may not be until I get home and can use a better WI-FI connection. I will try later today though as the WI-FI seems good and I am taking today off so should have some time to play around with it.

Last night I stopped in Fairport at the Budget Inn. There was a guy, Frank, checking in ahead of me and he asked me to join him for dinner. We went to the Golden Phoenix on Route 31 in Fairport. It was really good. The menu was huge (and heavy). I had Vietnamese Shrimp with lemon grass. It was a little spicy with and then with the cool of the lemon grass was just a perfect flavor combination. It was loaded with at large shrimp and served over shredded lettuce with tomato and cucumber slices. It was great to have the company for dinner. We had some really great and in-depth conversations about science, God, Jesus, history. There was a lot we didn't agree on, but we both listened to each others opinions and respectfully debated back and forth. I really enjoyed the conversation.

From Fairport I traveled to Rochester. I actually ended up on the far end of Rochester (closer to Buffalo) in Gates. I was on the Canal Trail the whole time. Except for a few detours because the are working on the trail. The section when I left Fairport was totally beautiful. It reminded me of the North Tonawanda/Tonawanda section of the trail. A lot of houses and docks lining the trail with lots of people enjoying hiking and biking the trail. It was a peaceful, but not secluded feeling. The motel I stayed at did not have breakfast and there was no place really close by so I ate a Kind bar and started out. At one point about 3 miles out, I had to detour because of the trail construction and went through a really cute village in Fairport. I went to the Dollar Tree and loaded up on a few supplies and asked around to find out where I could get a good breakfast. The one woman I spoke to told me Ricki's. It was really good, fast and inexpensive I had an omelet with bacon, peppers, mushrooms and onions. It had gotten close to 80 degrees out and there wasn't a lot of shade. It was hot, but oh such a beautiful day to walk. The canal trail brought me right through Pittsford and by then I wanted ice cream. There was a place right off of the canal that sold gelato, so I had a mango and pineapple gelato and a bottle of water, found a shady bench by the water and sat, watched the people birds and ducks and cooled off and relaxed a bit. Sometime before I had entered Fairport the trail had gotten difficult. It was all stone. Not the crushed limestone and dirt, but more of the big stones the size of marbles and golf balls. Now that I have the jogging stroller, I really don't mind the gravel/dirt paths, but the on the ones with the larger stones I tend to keep twisting my ankles, so I was sore and hurting by the time I got to my room. Even though, it was a really enjoyable day. The weather was amazing. There were lots of friendly people on the trail and I walked through some beautiful towns. I really think I want to come back to Pittsford sometime and spend a few days. It was loaded with cute little shops along the canal.

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