Day 3: Plattsburgh, NY

August 6, 2017

Miles: 45

Avg. Speed: 9.5

We woke up a little before 9am, dressed quickly and went in search of some breakfast.  Swanton is not a very large place, so we decided Cody's Cafe, the one and only diner in town, would be our choice.

Di with coffee and phone

Cody's was a happening place and we were lucky to get to only open table remaining in the restaurant.  I guess it pays to have a diner-monopoly.  Di ordered an omelet and, of course, I ordered the cyclist's special - pancakes and eggs.  I only ordered one pancake to go with my two eggs because the menu said three pancakes would be enough to feed a family.  I figured I had a one-third-of-a-family appetite, hence the one pancake.

Breakfast has arrived (are you getting hungry, Kate?)

I'm glad I only ordered the one pancake because it was bigger than my head (which is saying something considering I have been told on too many occassions that I have a big head).

That's a huge pancake!

The one and only (literally) Cody's Cafe

We finished breakfast and were on the road a little after 11am.  We passed a large group of kids being led by two adults, perhaps camp councellors, on their way to Montreal.  They were carrying more stuff than Di and me and had about 70 miles to ride to Montreal, so we wished them luck.  We didn't take any pictures of them, but when we passed a passel (group? herd? throng? bunch? messof?) of horse (which should be the plural, but sadly, isn't) .  Every time we pass horse, Di must stop and take pictures. 

A gaggle of horse

Striking a pose

It was chilly enough this morning to force us to wear our jackets, but by noon the sun had come out and it had warmed up a bit.  We stopped to put our jackets away and admired the countryside.  We admired the countryside because it was a very flat countryside, which is always admirable from a cyclist point of view.
 

Beautiful and flat countryside

Di is a heavy drinker when we are riding

When we left Burlington, we were riding on the eastern side of Lake Champlain.  Now we had reached the northern-most part of the the lake and were about to cross the bridge into New York.  Looking back we saw this sign:

Goodbye Vermont, thanks for the pancakes and maple syrup!

Looking ahead, we saw the bridge, which in person looks a lot scarier than in the picture.  I felt like I was going up a roller-coaster, and I hate roller-coasters.   We had no choice but to go forward, unless we built a raft and floated our bikes across the lake, but Di wasn't that enthused about that idea, so forward we went.

And we made it to the other side.  

Am I the only one that thinks "The Empire State" sounds ominous?

Even though we were now in New York, we had a pretty ride along the western shore of the lake.  We stopped for a short break at a Vietnam Memorial park and took the following picture:

They don't call it the Empire State for nothing.

Riding along the western shore of Lake Champlain

A country vista (albeit a New York one)

Mountains and lake in the background, cows and tree in midground, nothing in foreground

My brother Frank just bought his first John Deere.  This may be his future.

That's Di in the distance in this beautiful (read flat) countryside

It was around 2:30pm by this point and we had ridden over 30 miles without encountering a restaurant or store of any kind.  That's a huge drawback to beautiful countryside when you are cycling.  As a matter of fact, the sight of a store or restaurant would look far more beautiful than the boring countryside when you are hungry and thirsty.  We left the bike route for a short excursion into a so-called town, but it was one of those towns that doesn't really materialize.  I did see some folks working on their car and asked them if there was a store or restaurant around.  They told me Cafe Himalaya was less than two miles away in the same direction Di and I were headed.  Wahoo!  We were excited to get to Cafe Himalaya for some coffee and fried yeti, but when we arrived it was closed!  We ended up sitting at the one outdoor table and eating chicken jerky (Di) and a Kind Bar (me).   In case anybody is disgusted by the jerky, I want you to know Di only buys the organic kind.  Yesterday, she had me sample some and I thought it tasted just like cat litter.  But, organic cat litter! Di had a different type today and as she offered it to me said, "It tastes just like cow tongue."  I agreed, but still preferred the cat litter jerky to the cow tongue jerky.

So close, yet so far

We were only 9 miles from Plattsburgh,  so we pushed on.  Once we arrived in Plattsburgh, we rode around the town in an attempt to find a nice place to stop for a coffee or a bite to eat.  We couldn't find anything.  Who knew nice places were so elusive in Plattsburgh?  Actually, I must confess to a bias against Plattsburgh.  Whenever hotel rooms were unavailable in Burlington, one had to take the ferry across the lake to stay in Plattsburgh.  It was like being sent to Siberia.  Or, like being in school and going to the cafeteria and not finding any open tables and having to sit alone outside.  Plus, what's with that pretentious spelling of Plattsburgh?

There is a cool monument, the MacDonugh Monument, erected to commemorate the victory of Commodore MacDonough at the battle of Platsburgh.  Its really tall and we could see it towering over the town, so we rode over to check it out.

Sign allowing me to sound knowledgable about some obscure monument

Di snuck this shot of me

I wanted to take a picture of the entire monument, so I cleverly lied down on the ground so I could shoot upwards.  I needed to move slightly to my left, but when I began to move I saw there was a significant amount of geese droppings in that direction.  My instinct was now to move quickly to my right, but I was extremely dismayed to see an equal amount of geese droppings quite close to my head in that direction.  In fact, as I now surveyed the ground around me, I saw quite a high concentration of geese droppings in every direction.  It occurred to me in that moment that it probably wasn't that clever of me at all to lie on the ground for that picture.  At least not without checking the ground first.  And in case you are wondering, my clothes are drying on the line as I write.

Almost the entire monument in this (crappy) shot

View from monument towards Lake Champlain

We found the Hampton Inn, Di's home away from home, took a thorough shower, and headed to Anthony's for dinner.  Anthony's was recommended by the hotel clerk as being the best restaurant in Plattsburgh, and as I didn't believe such a thing could exist, we headed over there.  My Mom had given us money to have dinner on her and we thought Anthony's would be the place to do justice to her gift.  Anthony's didn't disappoint!  Di had the halibut and I the venison and I loved every morsel of my meal.  I mean literally, every morsel, because nothing was left on my plate.  Thanks Mom!

First course, salad and beer (bear swamp stout, yum!)

Main course, with their home grown vegetables

The waiter said the flower was edible.  I ate it.

Satisfaction!

Tomorrow we ride to Lake Placid.  Its supposed to start raining around noon, so we are planning to get an early start, perhaps as early as 7am.  Yep, that's the plan.