July 28
Today I had a few
biomechanical problems that plagued me most of the ride. My butt hurt the whole time, my knee hurt in
a different place the whole time and my legs in general were working like a
couple of pieces of lead. Slow in other
words.
I really wanted to get in from the ride
fast because I knew Paul would probably be at the motel by noon. But I just couldn’t get my speed up, I was
struggling the whole time. It was a
great sunny day, with low humidity and just perfect riding temperature. The scenery was again today interesting
and that made the ride a nice adventure.
We had both flat areas for a while and then some rolling terrain and a
few sharp climbs. Total elevation
climbed was 1,660 feet. The wind wasn’t
too bad, only a few stretches where we had to battle with it. We were kept off most of the busy roads
until just a mile out of Niagara Falls, Canada.
I saw quite a few orchards again
today. Apricot trees and (tart) cherry
trees. Fields of barley were being
combined and the straw baled in those big round bales.
Just on the outskirts of
Niagara, I stopped at a beautiful shrine.
It is the Shrine of the Little Flower. In memory of St Theresa. There was a Carmelite monastery there
too. Just as I was coming out on to the
road from it, Padre Jim rode by and I told him to be sure and check it
out. So he turned in to the road that
led up to the place.
It was just about a mile further and then
I turned down Murray Street that went right down to the Niagara Falls. There were millions of people on all the
sidewalks. I stopped briefly by the
Falls and had a picture taken. There
was so much traffic and so many zillions of tourists that I didn’t stay very
long. I continued to follow our cue
sheet and rode on up over the Rainbow Bridge and through customs into Niagara
Falls, New York. It was about another
six miles to ride out to where our motel was on Niagara Falls Blvd. They had a nice designated bike lane on the
street. That was great because the
traffic was really heavy.
Paul was in the parking lot and saw me
coming up the street. It was so nice to
see him! He had gotten there early and had
brought his bike along. He had planned
to ride out until he met up with me.
When Larry the luggage man showed him the route and the very long
one-way street we had to be on during part of the ride he figured just his luck
he would be on the one-way going the opposite way, and miss me.
Since Paul was here by noon, he helped
Larry unload the luggage truck and take all the luggage into the holding room
into the motel.
After dinner and route
rap, Paul and I went back down to the Falls.
The streets and sidewalks were as crowded then as in the daytime. The sidewalks were not wide enough in places
so people were in the streets walking along.
A real congested mess. But we
saw the Falls at night and saw it all lit up with the colored lights.
It is good to be back in the States. At this point in the route 10 new riders are going in the group
to ride the last stretch, this final week.