Visiting the Jefferson County SPCA

After grabbing some breakfast grub, we rolled into the Jefferson County SPCA in Watertown. The place is run by a family with mom, Lauren, taking us on a tour while YNN reporter, Amanda, tracking the discussion and waiting patiently for the chance to interview us about Pedaling4Paws.

In our discussion, we learned that the SPCA greatly appreciated our support and that they need more than just cash donations. They said that they have a “wish list” which typically includes blankets, newspaper, food (cat/dog food, mostly), and non-clumping cat litter. Like most non-profits, the depend on the kindness of local businesses and individuals and liked the idea of local bike clubs, businesses or other groups helping to collect any and all donations with one person then delivering the donations to their location. They also greatly appreciate these donations and any volunteer or “voluntold” hours people can offer to help with running the facility. Amazing stuff!

Like all shelters, they have many, many beautiful animals to adopt and would love to find them all great homes!!

Oh, and as soon as YNN publishes Amanda’s report, we will update the blog and website, so stay tuned!

We made it to Ogdensburg,NY

We arrived around noon into the Ogdensburg,NY area and then headed to the border for the obligatory photos.

After the border, we headed off to Yves Dupont’s place for a shower and to warm up (yes, the rain got heavier and the temperature got colder, and we were not quite as happy as in previous days’ riding). After the shower, we headed to the St Lawrence Valley SPCA.

We had an amazing reception at this SPCA. They had received help from their Pepsi distributor in creating an awesome “Welcome Pedaling4paws Riders” banner. They also fed us a great variety of excellent wraps, fruit, cookies and drinks. After that reception, we visited their very impressive facility and chatted for about an hour. Our hosts (see photo, from left to right) were Karen Cunningham, Ingrid Baltradis, and Carolyn Filippi. Many other staff members but as you can imagine, the needs here are the same – more supplies, more money and more volunteers! We were very pleased to hear that our fellow cyclists from the Canton Bicycle Club made a significant donation. That started the ball rolling for other local businesses and individuals. The result – the St Lawrence Valley SPCA is receiving great benefit from Pedaling4Paws! For that we are very greatful but do acknowledge that the local newspaper, television and poster placements (the SPCA put our poster in local businesses and common areas to promote Pedaling4Paws) were invaluable to the positive results.

More stats and photos later or more likely more after we return to PA!

Thanks to all for the support and for following along!

Viktor, Mike, Gary, and Ellen (our organizer and blog mistress extraordinare.

Brief Break North of Alexandria, NY

Quick break at a parking area on the side of the road. Some raindrops starting…

Day Five Starts at 6:00AM

Mike has this blog entry…
What? I’m not quite through my first cup of coffee…

Okay thanks Mike.

We ended up at a Denny’s and ordered some Slams. Once Mike perked up, he mentioned that today is basically a metric century.

Before we leave Watertown, we will be visiting the Jefferson County SPCA. After that, we hope to meet Yves Dupont, former WCCC member and now local resident in upper NY. Je will ride with us to the St Lawrence Valley SPCA in Ogdensburg.

So a short but busy day!

Day Four is Done’

We completed Day Four and another 101 miles, a corporate visit and an SPCA. Great weather, somewhat windy but still a good day and over 16 mph for our average speed.

We caught up with a few riders and missed an old friend due to a misunderstanding on the route. We also rolled into Watertown around rush hour (5:15pm) and then had a mix up at the hotel (which I hope gets cleared up before we check out), but otherwise a good day.

After a quick shower we went out looking for food and found a local Applebees which was a bit noisy but a good end to the day.

And how was your week?

Ainsworth Memorial Library in Sandy Creek, NY

Our good Samaritan today is Donna Jacobs at the Ainsworth Memorial Library in Sandy Creek, NY. We stopped here around 3:00pm largely because of the nice shade tree, but then thought we should step in and use the washroom.

She also told us of the County Fair that starts here next week. So for those in the area, please visit and know that their local SPCA is the one we visit with tomorrow!

Also we met up with a fellow cyclist, Dave Fuller who returned to his home town of Hastings for a ride. Cool.

Lunch at the Akropolis

No we did not actually ride to Greece, but we did stop just north of Central Square at a little family-owned restaurant called the Akropolis.

The stop was a bit early because we got hungry. The extra wind in our face was a bonus to the decision.

The good news / bad news is that we already met our SPCA friends earlier and we don’t have any others to visit with until Watertown and that is tomorrow morning. So now we just ride and from the GPS estimates we have about 50 miles to go.

The weather looks a bit ominous at times but so far, so good

Welch Allyn and the Finger Lakes SPCA

We were welcomed at 8:30am by the folks from Welch Allyn and the Finger Lakes SPCA.

Mike works at Welch Allyn and they gave a very generous donation to the Finger Lakes SPCA and let Mike take a couple of days off to do the ride.

Better still, Dave Allyn and Cassidy were there with us and though Dave isn’t riding with us today, he does ride and promised to join us next year.

That’s a promise we will help Dave keep!

Though Dave could not ride, Andy Clapper, another Welch Allyn employee.

Day Four, so it must be Skaneateles

We woke up to fire whistles. Earlier than we wanted to but that’s okay they also went off in the middle of the night. A busy place for firemen…

Just to prove Mile really lives here, I took a quick photo of the couch Gary slept on.

Mike lives over a bakery so the smell of fresh donuts hits you as soon as you step out the door. It smells good – very good. So, we had breakfast… As I sit here clicking away trying not to misspell too many words, we discuss the day ahead.

The weather seems perfect with low 70s and no noticeable humidity. We are expected at Welch Allyn at 8:30, to meet with the WA folks and with the Finger Lakes SPCA and possibly the local paper, but I won’t blog that until lunch so we can hit the road.

Time to eat. More soon!

An Evening in Skaneateles

Our ride finished at 5:00pm as we rolled into Mike’s apartment on Lake Skaneateles. A very nice, quaint town that is a place for the NYC crowd to head to (if they aren’t heading to the Hampfons, I guess). We ended up at Joe’s Pasta Garage, which used to be a working mechanics garage before being renovated into a restaurant. As it is across the street from Mike, the commute was easy! Our waitress was Amanda.

After the last blog entry related to the rain, we did roll past the lake on our way in. I am including some photos so you can get the idea but like most images, they don’t do the real place justice.

Tomorrow, we meet with Mike’s people from Welch Allyn and the Finger Lakes SPCA and then we head to Watertown. We hope the wind is not a factor, and the weather is supposed to be great with mid 80s and low humidity. Hopefully West Chester will have power returned by then – they had a wicked storm and high winds too. Good luck all!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

If you plan to ride a 485 mile, 5 day. 14 county (in 2 states) ride, you have to be very lucky not to get any adverse weather, especially when then temperature is around 88 and the humidity around 90%.

Well, we got wet… just after Cortland on Rte 41A towards Skaneateles. Only about 15 minutes of solid drenching rain but it does give you that wet poodle look.

Fortunately, a 15-20 mph headwind dried things quickly. Did we mention that the Stillman Volvo is a godsend? See Gary’s new, dry jersey?

Check it out…

The Humane Society in Binghamton

Our first NY state animal shelter was The Humane Society in Binghamton. We met up with Karen Matson (short hair in photo) and Tarah Tripp (long hair) and they had a great feast ready for us! Additionally, they gave us a tour of the facility and the animals they are currently taking care of. It’s great that we can help such super places and hope all the folks reading this blog cam help them too!

As a great bonus, we were interviewed by Nicky Hickling, a reporter from Action News 12 (WBNG) television station. Nicky did a 5 minute piece that should air today, so hopefully more of the local people can hear about the cause and help. We had Angie a 6 week old puppy as our mascot and when asked why we created Pedaling4Paws, we just held up Angie and asked, “Are you kidding? Just look at Angie!”

Priceless.

Check out the photos…

Lunch in Whitney Point, NY

After departing from the Binghamton Humane Society we got a phone call from Doug Williams and Mona both very active members of the Southern Tier Bike Club. They were both in Whitney Point and said they would roll south on Route 79 towards us. When I heard Doug say, “Oh, you are that far south”, we picked up the pace and did 20+ mph for about 30 minutes. Here’s a photo of when we met up and another of our lunch place in Whitney Point!

We hope to see more STBC riders and some of the OCC and JCBC folks in the next day or two!

Rolling, rolling, rolling…

Quick break in Hallstead

We are a few miles south of the PA-NY border in Hallstead,PA and are heading up towards Binghamton and the local SPCA. More soon!

Day Three Starts at 6:00am

We work up a bit after the sun started shining and a quick look at the ground reminded us that there was rain overnight but the sky was nearly cloudless. A good sign, but we’ll have to be careful as we start our descents down towards the NY state border (only 20 or so miles away).

Breakfast today is bagels in the room but Mike got his coffee, so he is ready and if he’s ready, the rest of us are too!

A couple of quick photos and we should be off around 7:30am.

Thanks again for the hospitality, Rocco and the good folks at The Vacation Inn!