 I'm Ryan and I'm Ali after falling in love we decided to ride bikes across America collecting love advice along the way. This is Love Cycles. No flatties, no weddings, no crudgies. Thank you guys so much for the best. We are back on the Erie Canal. Yeah what a great night huh? Yeah it's very restful, peaceful. Yeah good people. Yeah John and Jan are awesome. They've been in my life since I was a child. I mean she taught me art and although I'm not an artist today you know she taught me the wonder of creativity. I think I'm kind of creative. You're an artist? I don't know about that. I make videos. I don't make pinch pots anymore. I don't make clay masterpieces. Your life is art. That's right. Anyway so thank you John and Jan. You're very special and near and dear to us. So we just crashed the drone or I should say I crashed the drone. It just went right into that tree and tumbled down probably a hundred feet. Only one broken blade but the camera doesn't look happy. We shall see if we have any more drone shots for you. The Erie Canal was the most important of America's inland waterways. It facilitated the opening of the American frontier and provided a route west for tens of thousands of settlers and immigrants. Villages, towns and cities were born along its route while commerce spread from the Hudson Valley to the Midwest. The Erie Canal transformed New York into the Empire State and the nation into an economic superpower. Almost two centuries later its name is still synonymous with American industry and ingenuity. The Erie Canal keeps evolving. Put into service in 1825 it was enlarged from 1834 to 1862 and again in the 1890s. The canal finally underwent its last and largest expansion opening as the New York State Barge Canal in 1918. Each era reflected demand for larger barges and bigger cargoes. Introduction of self-propelled boats in the 20th century allowed the path of the canal to be changed utilizing in New York's many lakes and rivers. As the nation changed the canal adapted. By the 1960s the canal could no longer compete with modern modes of commercial transportation and the St. Lawrence Seaway and lost its economic viability as a commercial corridor. Although it is still used commercially recreational use has become its primary function. Steel fabricated oil barges have now largely been replaced by tour boats, pleasure boats, canoes, kayaks and Ryan and Allie. Excuse me, excuse me. Really you're just gonna sit there? I thought you were gonna move. Aren't you cute? They are not scared at all. Our clothes smell so bad we're just gonna not wear clothes anymore. Just kidding. There's a nice light rainy mist and there's no reason to get our shirts all wet so we just took them off right? Feels good. That's right. It's like riding through a mist machine. Feels really good. We're at this little ice cream stand and we ordered medium cones and this is what came out. So then we said maybe we should get a small for the next one. I'm guessing the small is still gonna be huge. That is a small right there. I don't know I've always loved New York. Now I really love New York because if this is as big as ice cream is everywhere this is awesome. We don't really need to eat lunch now we're just gonna eat ice cream. This is insane. Cheers. Cheers. I do this every time but I eat way too much ice cream and I just ate probably the most ice cream in one sitting that on this entire trip. I ate too much. Allie how are you feeling? It's just not fair when they give us cones that big. It's like what do you expect us to do? That was more than a find of ice cream. Oh my god I feel horrible. We still have 40 miles to go today. It'll be a minute of slow biking. Yeah we're just gonna be chilling out. Flows through an area of hills, valleys, flatlands and rivers. Locks of the canals, elevators, raising and lowering boats between these different levels. Water flows into and out of the lock chamber by the force of gravity and not by pumps. This flow of water is controlled by the valves at both the upper and lower end of the lock chamber. We just met some new friends here on the Erie Canal Trail. They're riding all the way every state right? Awesome. All right you tell us about this. It's cool. We said about 15 years ago we wanted to ride our bikes around the U.S. across the U.S. and then Hank said why don't we just ride around the U.S. So never tour to my life. I was a runner, a marathoner and he's been 20 years. I was in kind of health care leadership and I traveled a lot from my work and stayed at the Marriott's and Hilton's and business suits and then suddenly two weeks after I retired I'm you know living out of a bag. Yeah we raise the kids and it's our time and we need to do it what we show healthiness but really for us to to have this time together it's almost like we had six years before we had children and we had that time together where it was just our time and then life takes its toll and it's not that we didn't remain close but we want to make sure that we always have something in common down the line. You see so many couples once the kids are grown they look at each other and say who are you and we never wanted to be like that. We always want to have things in common that we do together and this bike trip has brought us even closer. It really has. Rain's back, shirt's off. It's really refreshing. It feels good. It's a little cold and chilly. You get the whoo when the rain hits your body but man it's kind of nice. It's evening now it's like 5.30 p.m. So it's a little bit chillier. I'm riding in the rain. I'm riding in the rain. What a glorious day to ride in the rain. Take your tank top off. It's casual Friday. That's what I'm talking about. Not only does the rain have a cooling effect, but it also has a cleaning effect on my body. This is kind of a spooky part of the Erie Canal. The canal looks like a freaking swamp and there's not really any people on this part of the trail. Hi there, do you have any rooms available tonight for two adults? Whatever is cheapest. Oh man, look at that bed, look at that alley. We splurged on a Hilton, which was kind of expensive, about $150, but we don't care. This is the Friday night and we wanted a hotel. We wanted to be comfortable. Now we're gonna have a hot date. We're going to the movies. Yeah, we've been wanting, we've been wanting to go to the movies the whole trip, but we're usually camping or in the middle of nowhere. So we're really excited to be here. Who? Christopher Robbins. No. That's a silly explanation. Why, thank you. We are very well rested. It is after 10 a.m. We didn't wake up today. We forgot to set an alarm. Whoops. And who are we gonna meet today? Oh, we're gonna go meet my sister. My sister is the one who first told us that we should take this trail and she's so excited to come out and ride with us. So you'll get to meet her too. But first, we have to ride all the way through the big city of Syracuse. A lot of people have been telling me about a famous Erie Canal song. I do not know the song, but I'm gonna look it up and I'm gonna put it into the video right now. What's your name and what do you do out here on the Erie Canal? I'm Dave Kellogg. I am your ambassador to the canal. Now you do know that last year was the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal. Also the 200th anniversary of the invention of the bicycle. And look at this. There we are. We're on our bikes. A lot of people love coming here. Oh, I think it's the heritage. You've heard of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, the scarlet letter, another... He was commissioned in the 1830s to write some magazine articles about this new Erie Canal. And he was going on this section. Thomas Jefferson didn't think this was possible. Now here's the guy with vision, right? The Louisiana Purchase. We had all this land out west and no way to get there. If you look at the topography of the United States, the Mohawk Valley is the only route for wagons going west. And that was why the canal was put in this area. Older sister Shiloh. We found her out here on the trail. Actually she came and biked to find us. And she's actually the one who turned us on to this trail. So it's really cool that she's down here and riding it with us. Wow. This right here is a very beautiful section. Riding right through the forest here. I don't know where the canal is, but we are deep in a deciduous forest. On the right side and the left side we have pine trees. Man, this trail just keeps on getting more and more beautiful. Last week we were in London and Scotland. And now today, right now we are in Rome. This is quite the European tour. These cities aren't as pretty as the European counterparts though, I got to say. Oh, thanks for riding. What a great day on the trail. I realize I haven't talked much about our camping gear. It is very minimal. We both have one of these thermoresse pads. And we share a sleeping bag. We just zip it open so it's like one big blanket. We have this cool thing, which is a coupler, so it puts our thermoresse sleeping mats together. So it's kind of like one big mattress. And then this is the tent. It's very small. It's pretty much just like a mosquito net, but it is the perfect size for two people. And that's about it. If it rains, we have a rain fly. And we love it. We were just saying that it's going to be hard to go back to real life sleeping inside of a house. We're just so used to sleeping outside. We really love it. At the beginning of the ride, we had two sleeping bags and we zipped them together. But now that it's not as cold, we are just packing one. We sent the other one home. And here along the Erie Canal, there are actually official campsites. We are at lock 20. And they have picnic tables and little barbecue areas. And it's very nice of them to supply this camping. And it's free. Welcome to our little home. Yes. So this is it. There's enough room for two people. Very cozy. And our favorite part is that you can see the stars every night. This is what we love most at night time. It's a luxury. It's a little Amazon Kindle, 60 bucks. And we watch our downloaded Netflix shows on this. We've been watching Glow. We love it. Makes that tent extra cozy. Yeah. So we go to bed. We watch this for like half an hour, 45 minutes. And we go to sleep. Our camp spot comes complete with its very own dock out to the Erie Canal. And it's Saturday night. So we should take a little dip. And the sun is breaking through for the first time today. This is great news. That's deep. Erie Canal.