Following our rainy morning, we arrived in Buffalo, NY. I knew that Buffalo was an industrial city and one that was suffering from the de-industrialization of America. What I didn’t know was what that would look like. While there were some nice buildings to see and surrounding communities, the center of Buffalo seemed dingy. That may not be the most illustrative word, but I think it fits. As it tries to remake itself, the infrastructure is still heavily industrial and most of the buildings are very plainly built. Bricks and concrete with little flare don’t give much of a skyline, but what Buffalo lacks in skyline, it makes up for in people. The people we met, from the gas station mechanic to our hosts Marc and Erin, were very kind and down to earth.

A fun coincidence for me was that after escaping the rain and stretching out in a library parking lot, I found out that we were parked next to the church that my mom had grown up attending. We’d just stopped at the first library we saw. Between a place to dry out, work on the bikes, internet and bathrooms…we were set. It wasn’t until I called my folks and described where I was that I realized. This church was only about a block away from her childhood home!

I installed the ‘Powerlet’ adapter while everything dried out. It was a fairly easy process of connecting a cigarette lighter type adapter to the battery. The only tricky part was snaking the wiring through the chassis. I also turned my tank bag around which allows me to use a ton more of the space it has AND not worry about everything falling out.