It was a warm and windy morning as we back-tracked our couple miles to the tow-path. With the wind behind us our only resistance was the cinder trail grabbing more of our tire than the normal pavement.  So we sat back, pedaling enough to progress, and enjoyed the wind-assisted ride, the water and the changing of leaves.Interrupted this guy in the middle of his graffiti, not sure if he wanted to join us or if he was chasing us away from his masterpiece.

On our approach into Rochester, the canal split and the tow paths multiplied.  We choose the one away from the water, through a beautiful park, up and down three different bridges and miraculously on the right course.  Stopped early for lunch, taking advantage of the pretty stop and several choices of restaurants.  It was a rather lazy afternoon along the river and even the duckies seemed to be taking a siesta.Met Roxy and Linda from Alaska doing our same route, only faster.

About 2:30 we headed north away from our wonderful path.  Off course (to get to the only motel available) and we are immediately into rolling hills.  That was not the concern….out of the canopy of trees, we saw how the storm forecasted for this evening was growing…..fast!  We were hoping we could pump out the 12 miles necessary, but only managed one.  It started with a drop, two, three then a torrential downpour.  In the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go but forward, we pedaled hard against the driving rain.  We emerged from the rain a half hour later, a bit cleaner from our dusty path and cooled off from the earlier heat.  Still dripping when we pulled up to our motel, but after 72 miles, we did not care we were ready to be done.