Retirement trip
Charlie Scaife, professor emeritus of chemistry, and his wife, Priscilla, last week rode their bikes the length of the Erie Canal, a five-day trip.
“We were looking for a good retirement trip and decided this would be just the thing,” said Prof. Scaife, who retired last spring.
The idea was prompted by the College's celebration last fall of the 175th anniversary of the waterway. The Scaifes had perfect attendance at all the events connected with the celebration, the professor noted.
The couple, known widely for the science shows they do for elementary students across the country, averaged a little over 50 miles per day on their Erie bike ride. Their mileage on one day approached 70.
The Scaifes brought a vial of water from the Niagara River in Buffalo to the Hudson River in Albany, just as the first canal boaters did.
But they also did something the first canalers couldn't have imagined: they got their back tires wet in the Niagara and their front tires wet in the Hudson.