Day 45 - Singing "15 Miles, on the Erie Canal" We Make our Way to Liverpool NY (aka Syracuse)

We began the day's ride on a bicycle path that followed the Erie Canal.  There was a song that Don and I learned in elementary school, "15 Miles, on the Erie Canal" that was all about the drudgery of driving a mule pulling the barge carrying cargo along the Erie Canal.  There was no drudgery found there today, although the series of locks along the canal are very similar today to what may have been there yesteryear.

We came upon Lock 32 early in the morning.  It was marked with a boat made of pipes on the edge of the canal, and more official signs at the canal itself.

Don climbed an overlook to show a shot of the lock gates closing and water pouring in.

Here's a shot of Don taking a shot!

Lastly, we were fortunate to see a tug pushing a god sized boat along the canal.

Our course took us out along the highway that criss-crossed the canal many times throughout most of the day, but these early morning shots were by far the best.    On the road again, we passed through the town of Palmyra, which is where Joseph Smith supposedly had his vision that lead to the formation of the Mormon Church.  While the only evidence we saw of this was a storefront claiming that it contained the history of the Mormons, we did see evidence of many other churches.  On one main street corner, we found four beautiful churches, one on each corner.  Keep in mind this is not a very large town.  The churches:

Baptist -

Methodist -

Presbyterian - 

And Episcopal.  The Episcopal church appeared to be the oldest and made of beautiful stone.  While we were there, its bell tower chimed the hour and followed that with playing a hymn.  The church foundation said the original building was built in 1872.

We finished the day's ride with another bike path that traveled along the edge of Lake Onondaga and stop at the local Hot Doggery, Heid's.  Here's the lake, which we believe to be one of the New York Finger Lakes that are a travel destination for many.

We thought twice about including pictures of the things we had for lunch at Heid's, although we did follow that stop with one at the local produce market across the street from our motel.  As we are getting toward the end of the trip, the appetite is still quite ravenous, but we are attempting to taper on the amounts of ice cream, burgers, and other not-so-healthy things........starting tomorrow!