Today I biked 43 miles, often in view of Lake Ontario or of the many orchards in the area. There were some rolling hills, but no gut busting climbs like I experienced in the White and Green Mountains, or in the Adirondacks. This entry is a bit late because I stayed in a bed & breakfast tonight that had no Wi-Fi–more about that momentarily.

My route from Fair Haven, NY to Pultneyville, NY took me through the town of Wolcott (pop. 1,700), where I sat on a bench on Main Street around 11 a.m. and had a snack. Across the street, I noticed a rather unusual fountain and decided to take a closer look. I learned that this fountain was constructed with the proceeds of a fundraising campaign conducted by a local newspaper publisher in 1912 to build a public drinking fountain. The fountain, with its statue of Venus, was completed at a cost of $897. Made of cast metal and originally a “muddy, ochre hue,” Venus was painted in 1948. A plaque under the statue informs us that “today, Venus is sister to only a few remaining statues in the USA, but unlike her sisters she has the distinction of being the only one with a light.”

After my snack and opportunity to visit Venus, I noticed a barbershop nearby, and asked a guy sitting on a bench in front of it if he got his hair cut there. He said he didn’t, but heard the barber was pretty good, so I decided to give it a try.

Bob Reed, the barber at the Wolcott Barbershop, is a retired Navy vet who got into barbering as a second career. He is from Wolcott and moved back there after a 25-year absence so his kids could get to know their grandparents. He seemed to enjoy hearing about my trip and said his brother-in-law has taken some solo bike trips like the one I’m on. I had Bob guess what my hair looked like six weeks ago and he said he had a pretty good idea and would take it down about that far. As it turned out, he took off a fair amount more than that, and only charges $10 for a haircut, so it appears I got my money’s worth.

When I got out of the barbershop, the guy sitting on the bench was still there. I asked him what he thought of my haircut, and he said he thought it was pretty good. He asked where I was from and when I told him Minnesota, he said he once spent two weeks at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester where doctors were finally able to figure out a medical problem that no one else had been able to successfully treat.

This is a view of Lake Ontario from a park in Sodus Point, NY (pop. 900) located on Sodus Bay.

I learned something rather interesting about Sodus Point. It was the site of a POW camp for German soldiers during World War II, and there were several other such camps in the surrounding area as well. One reason the camps were located here was to help with a severe labor shortage during the war, when POWs were used to work in the orchards or canning facilities in the area. According to a sign marking the site of the Sodus Point camp, prisoners were paid an adequate wage, and had their own barber, Lutheran prayer leaders and a German doctor who was in charge of the infirmary. For recreation, the prisoners were allowed to play ping pong, soccer and horseshoes, and swim in the lake. The sign notes that “it is a testament to the good treatment of the prisoners during their stay at Pine Camp that after the war ended, several prisoners returned and settled in the area.” According to the sign, there was one attempted escape by two prisoners, but they were apprehended in less than 24 hours, and the escapees attributed their quick capture to the fact that “the country is too large and the police are too efficient.”

My stay tonight was at the Raked South Garden Bed & Breakfast in Pultneyville (pop. 698), in a home built in the mid-1800s. Here are a few photos of the home, which was quite charming and full of antiques.

One drawback to this B&B is that it has no WiFi service. The owners simply haven’t found they need it. However, my room actually has two antique rocking chairs in it, and I guess all things considered, that might be a pretty fair tradeoff.