Days 50 and 51: Sylvan Beach to Fair Haven, and rest day.

91km/56.5m, 4hrs 31mins, 20.1kph/12.5mph, 532m/1630ft of climbing.

Dreams really can come true. Just a day after fantasizing about vegetables and wondering if I'd ever see another, I arrive at my destination in time for lunch to find a salad table groaning under the weight of artichokes, beans, shredded carrot, olives, peppers etc. etc. Bliss. I swear I could feel the vitamins perfusing my system while I ate.

I am at Fair Haven, NY. It is a charming little village on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Largely populated by people who come here for the summer (the hotel-keeper says the population falls from over four thousand to less than half that in the winter months), it's a very attractive place. Pictures. And the Pleasant Beach Hotel, where I am staying, is well worth a visit. Small, purpose-built as a hotel in 1910 and still very much of that era, decent restaurant. An ideal spot for a rest day, in fact, which is what I am having today.

Bonanza day for cycle tourists yesterday. I spent the afternoon having a drink with a group of three Americans, one man and two women, touring New York and part of New England. Two of them were very experienced tourists, having ridden across America last year and done various other big trips. And I also came upon a family, parents in their thirties with a seven-year-old daughter, riding a bicycle made for three from Wisconsin to Maine. Fantastic. The little girl seemed to be having a great time, too.

Finally, I should note that I have been corrected via e-mail about the Springsteen song I referenced in Utica. The lyric is not " All the steady jobs are going, boys..." but " Foreman says these jobs are going, boys...". Interestingly (interesting to me, at least) it wasn't my memory that was at fault, but my ear. I had always heard it as I quoted it. One for kissthisguy.com