Clarence to Avon, NY

51.5 miles. At the moment we are sitting outside on the patio of a bar in Avon (pronounced "uh Von") drinking beer and eating fried dill pickle spears (you will love 'em, especially after a few beers), so you know right away it was another good day.
Today was a beautiful day, but a stiff wind was blowing while we were riding. Thankfully it was more or less at our backs most of the day. The countryside looked great - gently rolling terrain, lots of trees and mostly agricultural (yes, even in New York) although the route today went through quite a few towns and the city of Batavia. We are following Routes 5/20 across central New York. Tomorrow we will ride into the Finger Lakes region, which should be beautiful although I understand there are some hills.

Nothing unusual happened today although we noticed that the further east we go the less people seem to be curious about our trip. We stopped at a McDonald's and a couple of C-stores today and there were plenty of people around, but no one asked where we were going, etc. Maybe it's that New Yorkers are used to seeing odd things, but you would think that the sight of a gigantic tandem loaded down with stuff and pulling a trailer would provoke some curiosity. We did at least get some encouraging comments from passersby on the sidewalk in Avon as we struggled up a very steep hill into town.
I think they were sincere, although at the time I was mostly focused on trying to keep pedaling as we were close to the magic 3 mph speed when you are going so slowly that: (a) we are in serious danger of falling over; and (b) we might as well walk the bike, since we can make about the same amount of progress that way. We will be facing a lot of those kinds of dilemmas soon once we reach the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, which are filled with very steep but mostly short climbs. It should be challenging.