Sentimental Journey to Keuka Lake

Total for this ride: 68.0 miles
Total for this year: 1868.9 miles

This ride was originally supposed to be a little closer to 60 miles... Roger will be turning 60 next Tuesday and he wanted to celebrate by riding 60 miles.  So I mapped out a route from Canandaigua to Penn Yan and back which came close.  But one of my students (and long time friend of the family), Dave, found out about our plans and invited us to meet him at his family's lake house just south of Penn Yan, on the east branch of Keuka Lake.  I knew this would add at least a few miles to the ride, but I guessed too low.  The detour to Dave's house added a total of 14 miles to the ride, so when we finally got back to Canandaigua, we had gone farther than either one of us had planned.  No worries...

I don't visit Penn Yan very often (the town was named by early settlers - it's an abbreviated version of "Pennsylvania Yankee"), but I really enjoy it when I do get down that way.  To get there you have to go through Amish country... there are quite a few in the area.  You often see them in their horse-drawn carriages, or riding bikes.  I got a picture of one while riding today, but I missed the one I should have gotten -- an Amish man hosing down his carriage.  I was already flying past him by the time I noticed what he was doing.  The one that got away...

When Roger and I rolled into Penn Yan I gave Dave a call just to get directions to the house.  I'd been there before, but it had to be at least 10 years ago, and probably closer to 12.  I knew generally where it was, but needed him to give me the house number.  As we got within about a quarter mile of the house, I noticed three people on what appeared to be bikes riding toward us.  One was Dave - he was actually on some sort of motor scooter.  Another was Joel - also a student in my department.  And a third was a girl, who I believe was named Steph?  I can't remember, but I think she was an RIT student too.  The three had ridden out to escort us the rest of the way home.

When we got there the place was crawling with people.  There were the three who met us.  Then there was Dave's twin brother Bob and a couple friends of his from Cornell.  And a couple more girls from RIT.  And lastly there was Melissa, Bob and Dave's mother.  After meeting everybody we went out on the dock to sip some lemonades and chat with the kids for a while.

Before long Melissa had set out lunch for everybody on a picnic table under some shade trees near the house.  Roger and I couldn't believe the spread - she had barbecued ribs, salt potatos, salad, carrots, bread, strawberries, and probably a few other dishes I didn't even notice because there was just so much food.  And it was SO GOOD!  Knowing we had a long, hard ride back I consciously avoided overeating.  I don't think Roger gave it a second thought.

It was so surreal, and so emotional, being back at the lake house after all these years.  It brought back some really good memories.  Dave and Bob had been best friends with AJ when they were all in elementary school, so we got to know their family well.  They had us all down to Keuka a couple of times, and I know at least once we spent the night.  AJ probably got down there a few more times without us.  But although we weren't there often, the times we had there were really really good times when the kids were young and innocent.  I'm glad I got the chance to relive some of those special times today.

Roger and I chatted for a while after lunch then excused ourselves so we could get back on the road.  Although we knew the ride back to Canandaigua would be a little shorter than the ride to the house, we also knew it was going to be significantly hillier.  And it was.  As the GPS profile shows, there were four long, steep climbs between Penn Yan and Canandaigua.  Although the first one looks like the worst (at least on paper...) I was really ready to be done with the hills by the time we hit the fourth one.

We got back to Canandaigua about 5:15 - too late for me to make it to the pig roast at Jill's boss's house (DARN!) but in plenty of time to go to the "Hang Around Victor Day" fireworks later on.  Joe and Molly came, and it actually turned out to be a nice little show.  Good way to end the day.