Day 22: Buffalo NY to Evangola State Park, NY

Gray Cliffs and Frank Lloyd Wright Videos
Sunday July 8, 2007, 33 miles (54 km) – Total so far: 1,011 miles (1,626 km) 33.36 miles

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Click Here to Visit Previous Page: Day 21: Buffalo, NY to Buffalo, NY
Click Here to Visit The Next Page: Day 23: Evangola State Park, NY to Erie, PA

We got a late start leaving buffalo. We stopped for breakfast at the diner and then went over to the grocery store to stock up on food and snacks. The grocery store was kind of shady so Jamie waited outside by the bikes. The homeless guy harassing people for spare change told Jamie that he was in Alaska 2 weeks ago working as a fisherman.Riding outta town there were a million turns getting outta buffalo and of course we got lost. The ACA maps are always disasters coming in and outta cities. The sky started to turn black and the headwind was getting really strong.

When we were riding through Lackawanna we saw Greg and Fran who were riding eastbound. They have been on the road for 4 months and are zig-zagging their way all over the country. We had a great chat with them on the side of the road they were filled with energy. It’s always really exciting seeing other riders on the road. Greg and Frans’ journal exists at: http://www.mytripjournal.com/GFDream.

We stopped at Tim Horton’s bakery place and drank a lot of tea and ate our sandwiches while we watched the tall blades of grass blow with the wind that we have to ride into.  There were like 2 people in Tim Horton’s but there was 10 girls behind the counter all working really hard.  We watched the girls working for a while wondering why they were working so hard, the place was empty.

We also chatted with the locals as we procrastinated with getting back on our bikes.

The headwind looked worse than it really was. Soon we hit the Frank Lloyd Wright house. It’s called the Gray cliffs and is the summer home to the Darwin Martins whose house we saw in Buffalo. It was $14 for a tour of the Gray cliffs. We told the nice people working there the sob story how we’re riding cross country and we just graduated architecture school and we only want to take a few pictures of the exterior. The nice girl working there gave us a quick tour of the gray cliffs and a lot of history and answered all our questions. It was nice of them.

After we saw the house we took a long break in front of the gray cliffs Chuck got into a long conversation with one of the ladies that works there. While we were packing up getting ready to go Jamie said ‘Ya know, Frank Lloyd, He was Wright!’ and we all lost it.  Jamie took a lot of great video at the Gray cliffs. http://www.teamnortherntier2007.blogspot.com/2007/07/trip-to-graycliffs-derby-ny.html and here is Chuck with Frank Lloyd Wright. http://www.teamnortherntier2007.blogspot.com/2007/07/chuck-meets-frank.html

From Gray cliffs it was 20 miles to the state park. Upon arriving at our campsite we noticed there were all these hot blondes wearing bikini’s playing Frisbee across the way. They were far enough away to not really be able to see what was going on. After talking about it for too long Jamie took out the video camera and we zoomed in real close so we could see what was going on. Turns out the hot blonde were in her 50’s and she didn’t look that good when we zoomed in, the other blondes were really young. Too young. False alarm.

Even though we brought food with us the people working at the office gave us a good tip about the food at the snack bar. The kid working there gave us a lot of food for really cheap. I ordered a giant ice cream cone that cost  $1.80.

We went back to the campsite, talked about cooking food but just worked on journal stuff. The state park police officer drove by. He waved, then did a double take, backed his car up and pulled in right next to us. He got really excited when we told him that we were riding cross country. His name was Rick and we talked to him for about 20 minutes about Kyacking, Bar Harbor, traveling and cameras. Rick was hilarious and he had us all laughing really hard. As he was leaving he looked at us and said ‘Ya, know I have 2 daughters who love young guys, I’m real happy to know you guys are leaving town!’ and we all laughed as he drove away.

Even though we brought food with us the people working at the office gave us a good tip about the food at the snack bar. The kid working there gave us a lot of food for really cheap. I ordered a giant ice cream cone that cost  $1.80.

We went back to the campsite, talked about cooking food but just worked on journal stuff. The state park police officer drove by. He waved, then did a double take, backed his car up and pulled in right next to us. He got really excited when we told him that we were riding cross country. His name was Rick and we talked to him for about 20 minutes about Kyacking, Bar Harbor, traveling and cameras. Rick was hilarious and he had us all laughing really hard. As he was leaving he looked at us and said ‘Ya, know I have 2 daughters who love young guys, I’m real happy to know you guys are leaving town!’ and we all laughed as he drove away.

45 minutes later Rick drove up in his police car and pulled over next to our campsite. He got outta the car and said ‘Boy I’m glad you guys aren’t sleeping!’ and he opened the back door and pulled out a hot pizza for us. Rick said it’s still hot because he has sirens and lights.

He said he knows what it feels like to be traveling and on the road. We never actually cooked dinner and it felt great eating that pizza. We all went to sleep with big smiles on our faces.

Click Here to Visit The Table of Contents
Click Here to Visit Previous Page: Day 21: Buffalo, NY to Buffalo, NY
Click Here to Visit The Next Page: Day 23: Evangola State Park, NY to Erie, PA

 

 

About the author

Michael Riscica

Hey, I’m Michael Riscica and I live in Portland, Oregon with my Labrador Retriever. When I’m off the bike, I make my living as a Licensed Architect and also write a architecture blog at YoungArchitect.com.

I took my first bike tour in 2003 when I rode from Boston to New York City, and at that time I learned about cycling across America. My life was forever changed. I have successfully ridden and blogged about Coast2Coast bike rides during the summers of 2005, 2007and now 2016.

Thanks for following along. I would love to connect with you on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Linked In! Also check out my new project Young Architect Gear, designing architecturally themed gifts and products.

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