Chapter 10: Upstate New York Small Towns

The pride in New Yorkers' history is shown in many towns as evidenced by this mural in Jordan, west of Syracuse.

Our entry into New York did not impress us, with abandoned and burned out buildings along the highway. And many towns we passed through seemed to be struggling to survive, with vacant buildings on tired main streets. However, as we traveled through the state we were struck by both the diversity of the people, the pride they took in their history, and the effort they put into showing off the best of their towns and cities.

For example, the bike trail took us into a rundown area in Amsterdam. We were looking for a place to stay for the night and only found one very expensive historic hotel and two cheap motels on the edge of town that even the police officers we talked to didn't seem willing to give a good recommendation. We settled for one of the cheap motels. But in the morning we discovered a beautifully landscaped park along the river with sculptures, a playground, manicured lawn, benches, and a picnic shelter. From there we saw there was a larger city but without easy bike access we chose not to explore further.

We passed through L. Frank Baum's hometown of Chittenango where the downtown sidewalks are painted yellow.

We found this mural in the town of Montezuma where half the storefronts were empty.

On Friday, June 22, we had a long stretch of 26 miles without a break. We came to the outskirts of Clyde, tired and hungry. We stopped at a historical site with a picnic table and grabbed some food from our supply. But what we both really wanted was some ice cream. 

We rode a block into town and found this cafe.

The cafe had the milkshakes that were exactly what we wanted. Rob always goes for strawberry. I love chocolate, a malted if possible. They had malt. As we were finishing, the owner came by to talk to us. He was intrigued with our story. I played a couple fiddle tunes for him and he gave us a couple of his homemade donuts. They were delicious. When we told Anne, our Warm Showers host that night, about our stop, she said that she and her husband hadn't expected the Kee Kee Run to survive with the prices they charged in that part of the state. But the business seemed to be doing well.

In addition to the Kee Kee Run cafe, the town of Clyde is home to this lovely park.

Ten miles past Clyde is the town of Lyons. (We spent the night outside the town with a Warm Showers host. )

We took some time to hunt down the historical murals that decorated the town.

Lyons was once a large producer of peppermint.

Less than ten miles past Lyons is the town of Newark which hosts this beautiful park on the canal. They allow boats and bicyclists to spend the night here. Notice the mural under the bridge in the distance. There were others under a bridge behind where I stood to take this picture.