Tour de Not France

watkins glen, ny-- Sunday was the last day of the Tour de France; we celebrated accordingly.

I donned the Euskatel riding jersey that sleuthy Karen tracked down for my bday. [Not in the know? Euskatel is a Basque telecom company that sponsors a team]. We threw the bikes on the back of Jeepy (a simple 9-step process), and roared down the road to Watkins Glen.

About halfway there, we spotted a saw a sign for sour cherries at a local u-pick. What?! Sour cherries?! We thought those were done. We flipped a screeching u-turn, scoured all the cherries off the trees-- to the annoyance of some cranky tourists who pulled in after us-- then resumed our journey.



Once in Watkins, Karen dutifully checked out the Famous Brands werehouse sale for some work clothes, then we hopped on over to the hardware store in search of Swiss chard seeds. The clothes were all hideous and the hardware store was closed because no one does home improvement projects on the weekend.

But no matter! We were here to cycle. The village terrain is superflat and so not at all like the Pyranees, thank god.

Tour de France riders sip champagne as they glide into Paris on the final day. We sipped Fanta Orange. Revved up on high fructose corn syrup Karen zipped away through the streets of the town.



We found this inviting bike trail situated between a marina and wetlands.



But look! It's an area of multiple uses!



Hmm. Pedestrian walkway, bike trail, public hunting grounds. One of these things is not like the others. Who decided these were compatable uses? A planner, no doubt.

Some Canadian geese flying above the trail/hunting grounds. They'll be dead soon.



We survived without any bullet wounds, so I treated Karen (with her $) to some ice cream at Tobe's, the ice cream stand she visited some 20 years ago with Eric, back when she hung with real cyclists and spent her days circling the Finger Lakes.

Here's Tobe's menu.



I commented about how all high school girls go through the phase of adding curlicue serifs to all their letters. Karen looked at me quizically.

I love my new bike bag! Next time we are stuffing it with snax!



It's good to have a bike that knows me better than I know myself...