Today was a purposefully short day of only 31 miles. Jim is still easing into touring, and there was an extended climb, where we crossed from the Lake Erie watershed into the Allegheny River->Ohio River->Mississippi River watershed.
Here's Jim grinding up the hill.
I can't do my usual long distance zoom for this shot because I'm using an ancient backup phone, a Pixel 4. Maximum zoom is 2x. It doesn't have 5G capability, so it's been all LTE since my regular phone died. For days, I was amazed about how backwards Canada was, still using LTE everywhere, and then I realized it was my phone.
It turns out the short day was a good thing, since there was heavy rain mid day from about 11:30 to 1:00. We hung out at the motel until checkout at 11:00, and then went across the street to this might fine pizza place next to a bowling alley. Big bonus was there was a sheltered area to put the bikes out of the rain.
After we ate our pizzas, we got to look at the rain out the window for an hour.
We are staying at this ginormous Indian Casino in Salamanca, NY.
I hate casinos, and I avoid them, but the only other option is a dive motel where the only food nearby is Burger King. And the fancy Seneca Casino is not much more expensive. Our room is really, really nice, with a great view.
The food was OK but not great. It's Monday night, so the steak house option was closed, the bar was closed, the buffet is under renovation, which left a cafe (with a long line to wait in), or an Italian place with a short line (which turned out to be longer because all the "premiere members" got to go first, ahead of us regular people). My lasagna and wine was good, but overpriced, and rubbing our nose in the fact that we are not premiere members is obnoxious. I hate casinos.
Jim went for a walk after dinner to get some beer instead of paying $9/can at the casino. He came back with a six pack of 3 Floyds Zombie Dust, We are big 3 Floyds fans. And he was amazed that it was only $9 for the six pack at the beer store up the road, the same six pack costs $17 at his beer store in Catonsville.
I said that's because we're on the res, and the Seneca beer store doesn't have to pay tax. Jim now wants there to be a res near us in Maryland somehow.
The town of Salamanca is pretty much a dump. It was once a huge railroad town, served by both the Erie and the B&O. The main railroad business was lumber. The entire town is on Seneca land. Only tribal members can own land, everyone else (including the railroads, historically) has to lease their land from the tribe. This has obviously been a disincentive to investment, by everyone except the Seneca Nation. The town is heavily subsidized by casino money. About half the businesses are marijuana dispensaries. I gather there is a lot of bickering between the Seneca Nation and the non-Seneca local government. In Canada, I rode through a lot of First Nations towns, which are also subsidized by casinos and dispensaries, but they are much nicer than Salamanca.
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