One Hundred Days

Day 100, July 10, 2011, One Hundred Days

Route from – KOA Kampground to Lewiston & Youngstown, NY

_miles, averaging mph

Worst Moment – I love campfires, but don’t like smoke.  It’s a dilemma.

Best Moment – Breakfast at Tom George’s Villa Coffee House, was an all time great.  When we arrived, Tom, a gentleman probably in his mid-sixties, greeted us himself.  When told that we were a party of four, he told us that he only had a table for 5.  Neita asked him to join us; and he said that was the answer he was waiting for. 

I don’t know what he does differently, but the breakfasts were wonderful!  He told us that his mixed eggs and his pancakes were his father’s traditions and that; no we couldn’t have the recipes.  We ordered both, and he was right they were so good – like nothing else.  He’s been doing this for over 40 years.

We went into Youngstown and Lewiston this morning to find a place for breakfast.  They are both quaint old villages on the Niagara River.  Lewiston has a statute along the river indicating that it was a terminus of the Underground Railroad.  We were expecting there to be many eating-places on the water to cater to the summer tourists and boating crowd.  There were surprisingly only 2 bars.

One of the really interesting things that happened in our search for a breakfast place is that we went into a beautiful old hotel – The Barton Hill Inn.  We had seen people on their upstairs balcony eating breakfast and thought that they might serve the general public.

We were greeted by a small young boy who, when told what we were looking for; said that, “breakfast was being served upstairs and he would be glad to show us to the elevator.”  Then he walked us through the huge lobby to where the elevators were.  Upstairs, there was a breakfast buffet set up.  There a woman, who appeared to be in some kind of management role, told us that fresh eggs were on their way out to please have a seat.

When we inquired about the cost of the buffet, she told us that it was for the hotel guests and that they didn’t price it separately.  We told her that we weren’t staying at the inn.  She said that since we were there to please sit down and enjoy.  We felt a little awkward about that and decided to look elsewhere for a place to eat. 

When we returned to the lobby and again, we were greeted by the young boy.  We asked where we might find a breakfast place in town and he told us about Tom George’s giving us directions.  He certainly will have a place in hospitality, or perhaps in entertainment for his Dickenesque appearance.  We felt we were looking at Oliver Twist.

After Kim and Lindy left us, Neita embarked on a potential new career.  We have been trying to find a place to have Duncan groomed for the past 6 to 8 weeks.  All of the groomers want us to bring Duncan in and leave him for half a day – not easy if not impossible to do with Ruby as our transportation.  Finding mobile dog groomers that aren’t booked has also been difficult. 

Neita purchased clippers, watched the video on dog grooming that came with the kit and decided to give Duncan a haircut.  I helped a little by holding Duncan.  I think she did an admirable job – here are before and after pictures. 

We spent the rest of the day just chilling out, doing laundry, napping, and reading.  It was a good day off.

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.