The day’s plan was to cover 48 miles between Boonville, NY and Pulaski, NY, and get an early start to avoid as much as possible of the rain predicted for that afternoon. By late afternoon, I managed to cover the 48 miles, which included 1,300 feet of climbing, but spent about 70% of the day in the rain. The rain got really heavy at one point, so I got off the bike to loiter for an hour at the Redfield General Store in Redfield, NY around 2 p.m. More about that in a moment.

About eight miles into my ride, I crossed the Mohawk River, which this sign says is historic. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the river valley was the route through the Appalachian Mountains for westbound pioneers, was the home of the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (including the Mohawk) and was the site of major battles of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.

About five miles west of West Leyden, NY, I crossed paths with Patrick and Andrea from Switzerland, who had started a cross-country bike journey on the west coast. We had a nice chat for about 10 minutes. Like me, they are using Adventure Cycling maps with a few variations. They visited Yellowstone National Park on their trip and did part of the Lewis and Clark Trail, and are headed for Portland, Maine to conclude their journey. They passed through Minneapolis, and said they thought the folks there were very friendly. Here they are, in the last photo of the day I was able to take before the rain started falling.

About an hour later, I crossed this peaceful creek off Osceola Road, which I thought was very pretty, even in the rain.

The rain continued before and after a lunch stop where I joined Trudi at the “World’s Famous Osceola Hotel” bar in Osceola, NY. The rain was intermittently light and heavy. Around 2 p.m., it was really coming down, and I stopped at the Redfield General Store in Redfield, NY, where I hung out for about an hour.

At this point, I was quite soaked and shivering, but thankfully the General Store had hot chocolate, where I downed a couple cups and a pack of Oreo cookies. I shared the cookies with Joe, a twenty-something motorcyclist who had also stopped in due to the heavy rain. Joe said he stopped when the rain was coming down hard enough that it “started to hurt.” We had a great conversation for about 45 minutes before he got a friend to pick him up. Joe grew up on a farm in the area and told me he has had six concussions over the years, including a time he was thrown from a horse, and an occasion where he cracked his eye socket in a football practice. He said he thought he had mostly recovered from all of these.

The cashier at the General Store was a 17-year-old who will be a senior in high school this Fall. Her father is the sheriff of Lewis County (population 27,000) who recently won a primary contest for the general election this Fall. She is also planning on a career in law enforcement. At one point, she sought to entertain Joe and me by waving a sign with a snowman riddle/joke, which she then mounted on a stack of pizza boxes.

I passed through several communities with Amish families on my way to Pulaski. I waved to an Amish man in a horse and buggy coming the other way in Richland, NY and he waved back. In some online research, I learned that New York has the fifth-highest Amish population in the country, and the second-highest number of Amish settlements (55, tied with Pennsylvania, behind Ohio at 61).

Pulaski (pop. 2,365) is pronounced by the locals with a long “i” at the end. It is named after General Casimir Pulaski, a Polish military commander who has been called the “father of the American cavalry.” Pulaski fought in the Revolutionary War at the invitation of Benjamin Franklin, where he became a general of the Continental Army and was fatally wounded while leading a cavalry charge against British forces. The town of Pulaski is on the Salmon River, where salmon run the river each fall.

Trudi is leaving for Buffalo and a return to Minnesota tomorrow, Sunday, but for now we are hanging out at an Airbnb in Pulaski, where I will take a day off from biking to rest for the week ahead, which will include stops along the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie.