Saturday July 20:  Little Falls, New York to Latham, New York
Distance:  76.8 miles
Total time:  6 hours 55 minutes
Riding time:  5 hours 24 minutes

Today was another pleasant ride through upstate New York.  The weather was sweltering, probably the most humid day we've encountered thus far, but again overcast skies most of the day kept us from really feeling the heat.  It was probably in the mid-90s when we pulled into Latham, but it could have been worse.

We got off to a very slow start today, and in fact covered only seven miles in the first hour.  We normally get 13 or 14 miles in the first hour, but today we had puncture issues, a long slow climb, and we stopped for awhile to look at Lock 17 of the Erie Canal, supposedly the highest lock in the world.  It is indeed high.

Here's Jamie atop the lock so you get a sense of the scale.

We cycled along this bike path along the Canal off and on during the day.  We often remark on how few cyclists we've seen over 3,600 miles, but we saw a lot more today, including long-distance cyclists.

One of our running jokes is that we always hope to see some little kids running a lemonade stand, but we never do.  But today we found something better - two Amish girls had parked their buggy by the side of the road and were selling homemade maple ice cream.  Needless to say stopping there was the highlight of the day.  The price was right - two dollars for a large, full cup.  Homemade donuts and pastries were a dollar each.

While we photographed the buggy with their permission, we were careful not to photograph the young ladies themselves.  That's me in green being a big spender and paying for ice cream for my teammates.  Here we are relaxing and enjoying the moment.

The bikes took a much-needed rest as well, but no ice cream for them.

We rode again for much of the day with Sean.  There's no doubt we ride faster when we ride with him.  Here he is enjoying the ice cream.

It was a pleasant ride but there's no doubt the heat, and especially the humidity, took a toll on us.  You can sense the heat and fatigue in this picture taken at the second SAG stop.  That's Allan in the middle with two water bottles.

Jamie, Michael and I sought refuge from the heat in an air-conditioned diner in Scotia, New York.

Jamie took this picture in the diner of two American icons.

For much of the day we rode along the Mohawk River.  The Mohawk Valley is beautiful countryside.

And on various occasions we were able to ride for significant distances on bike paths, for the first time since Utah.  We probably rode for close to 30 miles today on paved and shaded bike paths, that looked like this.

We joined back up with the Brits for a nice ride along this path.  That's me in the green jersey chatting with Allan.

Dinner this evening was at times a solemn affair as everyone contemplates the end of the ride.  We have three days of cycling remaining.  Tomorrow is the second highest day of climbing of the entire trip as we face a 10 mile uphill into Vermont.  The Green Mountain State may be tiny on a two-dimensional map, but it's that third dimension that exacts the toll.  We're about 250 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and the end of the road.