Day Nine - Middlebury VT to Westfield NY – 501 miles
We started fairly early in the morning and it looked like rain. We started south on VT30 down to Cornwall where we picked up VT74 down to the Ticonderoga Ferry (KMZ) across Lake Champlain. It had begun to rain; not hard, but still not the way we wanted to start the day. We reached the ferry a half an hour before the ferry was to leave but we were fortunate as the operator was already at his post and willing to take us across. We were the only passengers and we struck up a nice conversation with the Captain who was a biker as we crossed. We reached the NY side and proceeded into the town of Ticonderoga where we stopped for breakfast. After breakfast we continued west on NY74 where we picked up I-87 south to NY8. We went south/west on NY8 to NY28. This road was on the heart of the Adirondacks and wound around nicely with big sweepers. Through the town of Chestertown and to the south of Loon Lake we rode west. We rode through Adirondack Park and over the Hudson River before we reached Wevertown. We caught NY28 there and turned north following the Hudson. The rain had mostly stopped and we were travelling at a pretty good clip. NY28 goes along the south side of Lake Adirondack and crosses the Hudson once again. We stopped along Raquette Lake (KMZ) at a bridge that crosses the lake for a quick rest. NY28 then progresses down the east side of Eighth Lake and east of south of Seventh Lake. Next came Fulton Chain Lake which we rode on the north side and on westward on NY28 which had now turned south. We saw a dam and some falls off the side of the road near Forestport where we decided to make another stop. This stop was along the Black River. It wasn’t the most scenic but it served a purpose. We continued down south on NY28 where we connected with I-90. The rain began again but we just set our sights on the north shore of Lake Erie somewhere around Erie. We rode hard through the rain to get to our destination. We exited at Dunkirk and began to follow the shoreline. We found a little bar along the lake where we stopped for a brew. We continued along the shore looking for a nice mom and pop motel that met our needs. We stopped a couple along the way but they didn’t meet our fairly low standards. Finally as we approached Westfield we passed a motel that seemed acceptable but we continued on to the town of Westfield. There we asked someone their thoughts on the motel and we got the low-down. We went back east to the motel and checked in. It was an older motel, the Theater Motel (KMZ) that used to have a drive-in in the back lot. The drive-in was no longer there but it was a motel right out of the 50’s. It was perfect! We ordered some chicken wings from a local restaurant that delivered. We listened again to the Reds game and called it a night.
