TODAY'S TALES: 

We all woke to the promise of an exciting day...get on our bikes and ride back to the states.  We've enjoyed riding in Canada as the terrain has been really easy and the roads have been pretty great.  The only downside was the weather was a little damp today, but we all handled that without too much trouble.  But undeterred this morning, we set off fully expecting our efforts to be rewarded with beautiful views of Niagara Falls before we reentered the US at day's end...we weren't disappointed.  Then it was WELCOME TO NEW YORK!

Today's route was another pretty good ride.  We rode out on lonely, Sunday morning streets for 3 miles; then we turned into quiet Canadian back roads.  At one point last year, Karen and I rode off to explore another option on a parallel road and found it to be even better than where we were riding.  Only problem, it was so lonely, it would bypass the only store we were riding by all day.  That route would make the ride over 60 miles without passing anything that even resembled a refreshment stop other than our SAG vans.  We really liked that option, but we deferred to our present route that took us past a little civilization.  But no matter how backroadsy we rode into town, there was no way to avoid the busy congestion that we would experience close to our destination.

As you might imagine, in contrast to the lonely country roads we rode most of the day, when we entered Niagara on the Canadian side we were in the middle of wall-to-wall traffic and tourists.  "Wall-to-wall" is hardly an overstatement.  The area is congested with towering casinos, hotels, tourist shops; balloon, helicopter, boat, and bus rides/tours;  restaurants galore (some such as the Hard Rock Cafe blaring music), and both people and vehicle gridlock.  It resembles Las Vegas on a parade day more than anything else.  But, it was great fun to people watch and to listen to the language polyglot.  Plus when the traffic is in gridlock, it's easier to get through on a bike anyway or just get off and walk.  Once were were there it was fun watching the interesting and colorful tourists and families from all over the world picnicking on the lawns along Falls Avenue and taking in the sights.  When Karen and I arrived we walked around a bit to view the falls before we ventured across the bridge into the US.  At one point I went into a food joint for a bite.  It took quite a while for me to return and Karen commented that she hadn't heard anyone speak English since I'd been gone.

After the riders spent the required time to do the touristy stuff on the Canadian side, it was time to take on the challenge of crossing into the states.  It didn't take long but we finally managed to navigate through the traffic and tourists while inching our way across the Rainbow Bridge and through Customs.  It was probably the least busy I've ever seen it on the bridge...maybe the gas prices have slowed down the tourists.  Our motel is just a block from the bridge on the American side which is really convenient for tomorrow's day off of sight-seeing and easy to roll into late in the day.

At rap this evening, we said good bye to 3 of our family...Ken, Wayne, and Cathy.  They'd all joined us in Sioux Falls and only rode falls to falls.  It's always tough to say good bye to people who've ridden a time with us.  It was great getting to know them and we wish them tailwinds as they go their separate ways.    

After getting through with rap, dinner, and maintenance, we had a little time to go watch the lighting of the falls and the fireworks.  They put on a pretty good light show as you can see from the photo to the right and the fireworks were also pretty impressive.  It was a nice finish to a hectic day.

I didn't get this page done until Monday, I just took the night off.  We had one new rider join us and usually we do orientation and bike assembly on our day off.  Tonight we processed Barbara, Jim's daughter, so we will only have our normal chores to do and them we may get some time off ourselves.  Maybe we'll go do some sightseeing ourselves. Tune in again Tuesday to meet Barbara and to join us on our last week . . . we'll be the ones in tight, black lycra.  See you then. 

Copyright © 2009 by Bamacyclist  
All rights reserved. 

Smileys provided by Smiley.com