Back on the road....to Hamburg New York

After a sleep in yesterday the wake up call at 5:20 was a rude jolt back to reality. However, the hotel put on a terrific breakfast - even Starbucks coffee - and by 6:45 we were ready to roll. One of the things about heading to Boston is that we leave early enough that the sun is just rising over the horizon - or the buildings depending on where we are. But no matter it is always in our eyes for the first several miles. This morning we were moving  through fairly light traffic but city traffic nonetheless and I went out in a group of 5 led by one of the British father/daughter combinations. At the third stoplight (we had caught  every red light to that point) I was blinded momentarily and almost  missed the fourth red light. Five minutes later our leader missed a turn due to the same sunshine and we went a couple of blocks too far on a one-way street...nothing to do but get up on the sidewalk and return to the right street. Five miles out we came upon a bridge out and had to cross over some private property and a small wooden bridge and then wend our way back to the street and continue on our way. No more mishaps but more than enough drama to start the day.
We came into New York, now my second state crossing, at about the 20 mile point and, of course took the requisite photos. I often wonder what passing motorists think when they see 6 to 10 brightly garbed folks all standing around a pretty ordinary state marker sign - maybe some sort of strange cult that dances around highway signs and performs exotic rituals upon entering into new territories.
The route today pretty tracked Lake Erie for the first fifty miles or so. We would get glimpses of the lake through the homes and trees that line the shore and occasionally a wide viewing area of blue water. Although Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes the view from the road is akin to seeing the ocean - blue water as far as one can see broken only by an occasion boat far offshore. And on both sides of the road for miles and miles were vineyards one right after the other - the totally replaced  the soy and corn we have been seeing up to this point, The roads were good today as was the weather and there were hills but not anything close to what we had seen earlier in the week.
With about twenty miles to go we left Route 5 and the Lake Erie and headed more to the Southeast and toward Hamburg. We went through one area that is apparently the locus for the Seneca Indian tribe. For five or six miles all the gas stations offered tax free gas (not that cheap, best I saw was $3.22) and cheap cigarettes and tobacco products. Just a few miles shy of Hamburg when I was kind of feeling we were out in the middle of nowhere we passed over a beautiful gorge that is pictured below. I'm sure it has a name and story but could find no one to enlighten me.
With the lack of wind and hills today was another gorgeous day for cycling and while I stopped a few times there were moments I was really flying. For the day it was 80 miles (did I ever think that I might be calling that an easy day?) at about a 15.5 average speed. A very good day.