We stayed at Riverside Motel and Campground in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada last night  and were just a few miles from Niagara Falls which we went to this morning. It is a very awesome sight and quite amazing. Hard to get a good picture because the mist from the falls was very heavy like rain. We got soaking wet looking at the falls as well as my camera which I am not sure works right yet.

We rode 84 miles today and are staying in Brockport, New York tonight. The goal is to stay at at a camp sight on the shores of Lake Ontario called “Lake Bluff” in Wolcott, New York after pedaling 85 miles tomorrow. The weather today was very nice warming up a bit to the low 70’s.

this morning after we saw Niagara and crossed back into the US and went through customs we were riding on a rode and then we went down a very steep, 8% grade and long hill. We got to going very fast for a long time. We got to the bottom and stopped at a light,  and John Said, “Boy, that was fun, but I hope there aren’t any hills like that ahead that we will have go up”. Then he looked up at the road sign and said, “Woops, we missed our turn, we have to go back up that hill”. My response was”You got to be kidding me”, which he wasn’t. I grumbled all the way up the hill, and told John that I forgave him because Jesus forgave me, and that is what I am supposed to do!!

with just 7 days of riding left I have developed a very painful case of shin splints in my left shin. It hurts like the dickens to push down on the peddle so I do most of the pushing with my right foot only. It slows me up considerably. I have ice on it tonight as I write this, I am taking Aleve, and I bought one those compression stockings, the kind old people wear, to wear tomorrow to help keep it from getting any worse.

The picture above is the Erie Canal and we rode on the trail next to it for half the day and will tomorrow as well.  The only problem is the trail is gravel and is way harder for me to pedal in. It is very pretty and historic and no traffic.

7 more days!!!!

love you all very much. Dee

This is a picture of us crossing the “Peace Bridge” into Canada from Buffalo, New York.  This was a super scary experience! Thee sidewalk that we rode on was 2 feet wide, the wind was blowing sideways to us at least a bazillion miles per hour, the trucks roaring by created monster back drafts besides shaking the bridge like a major earthquake, but we made it across, Hallelujah!!!

Wow, my, oh my! Look at that picture. I have lost all my hair on this bike trip!! Must be the traffic. And look at that, the bicycle helmet has made grooves in my forehead! Boy, I hope those go away after awhile.

we rode 80 miles today, and it was a very pleasant day with sunshine, but cool, with just enough tail wind to make pedaling relatively easy.

The traffic in a Buffalo was very heavy, but we got through it with no bad experiences. A school bus pulled up next to us at at a stop light, opened her door and started asking about our trip, happens all the time. I was thinking we should have made shirts that had ” From Oregon” on the back in big letters and “To Maine” on the front. We stop and check our maps regularly to figure out where to turn and when we do often someone comes up and offers to help us. John usually says, “we are fine”, but I say, ” we are lost!”. Today a very friendly lady offered to help and she noticed my peeling nose and she put her finger on the end of my nose and said, “you be sure and put some sun screen on that nose” and I dutifully promised her I would. John said he thought she was hitting on me , whatever that means.

8 more riding days left!!! We called a bike shop and made an appointment for them to box our bikes per airline requirements for $50. They are close to the airport and getting a taxi from there with our bikes and stuff will be easy. We are planning on going out the night before we leave and having Lobster for dinner. I will take a picture of the big boy before I eat him!

love you all very much. Dee

Here we are on the “Peace Bridge” crossing into Canada. This was one scary experience! We had to ride on the sidewalk which was 2 feet wide and the wind is blowing a bazillion miles an hour sideways and the trucks are barreling across creating major draft and the bridge is shaking like a big earthquake from the trucks! But we made it, hallelujah!!

my oh my! I have lost all my hair on this bike trip! And the bike helmet has made grooves in my forehead! I hope those go away after awhile!!

We rode 80 miles today and it was a very nice day. Sunny but cool with a nice tail wind most of the day. Getting through Buffalo wasn’t to bad and customs was easy as we talked to the lady about our trip more than about what was in our panniers. We were riding through the busiest part of the city and stopped at a light and a school bus pulled up next to us and the lady driving opened the door and started asking questions about our trip. I was thinking I should have made a shirt that said “From Oregon” on the back and “Going to Maine” on the front. We stop and look at our maps frequently and most of the time someone will come up and offer to help. Today a very friendly lady came up to give us directions as we were checking our maps and noticed my peeling nose and put her finger on my nose and said sternly, ” you put some sunscreen on that nose!” I promised her I would. John said he thought she was hitting on me, whatever that means.

8 more riding days!! We called and made an appointment with a bike shop to box up our bikes per airport requirements for $50. They are close to the airport and we will take a taxi from the shop with our bikes and stuff and be there 2 Hours before our flight leaves. The night before we leave we are going out to dinner and have Lobster! I will take a picture of him for you 🙂

love you all very much. Dee

Oregon Antiques. Not sure what was in the store, but I bet it is expensive!!

This our camp and just past those trees is Lake Erie, very pretty. Super windy and cold. Finished eating my freeze dried dinner, took a shower and in my warm sleeping bag by 7 pm.

We entered into Pennsylvania today, and then after about 5 hours of pedaling we entered into New York. Road through the entire State of Pennsylvania in 5 hours, is that fast or what! Well the State is only about 45 miles wide at the top of the State where we crossed. Oh well, still seemed impressive to me 🙂

we pedaled 75 miles today with a fairly nice tail wind for part of the day so we got to our camping spot before dark which hasn’t happened for the last week. We are at Lake Erie State Park and right now the wind is blowing very hard. If I weren’t in my tent I am sure it would blow away. We are only a few feet from the lake and the sound of the waves created by the wind is very loud along with the wind howling. Sounds kind of cool!

tomorrow we are planning on camping at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Campground which is 3 miles from Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. We will have to bicycle through Buffalo, New York which I am not looking forward to. I am hoping there are a lot of designated bike lanes.

We have 9 ride days left until we finish the course! Single digit number of days left. Won’t be long now until this Mountain is climbed! The forecast is for nice sunny weather for the next week where we will be riding. That will be a very nice way to finish the trip!

love you all very much. Dee

We biked up to this sign yesterday, and then had to decide what to do. If we turn around and go around we will add at least an hour of bicycling time and it looked like we were going to get to our destination right at dark the way it was. If we go through the sign we run the risk of getting yelled at or shot at by angry road workers or blown up by road mines. 🙂 my imagination of course! I was nervous but John said it is Saturday, there is no one here to even see us so off we went biking on fresh asphalt that no one had ever been on before. One nice thing was there was no traffic, we had the whole road to ourselves for several miles, and the only negative thing that happened was puzzled looks by people who lived next to the road, we smiled and waved!

when we are finished with the  trip in 12 days we will have actually pedaled 4,000 miles. The original estimate was 3,800 but with off route camping sites and getting lost etc we will be a few miles over 4 K. As of this moment we have gone 3,204 miles so we have 800 to go.

Today is our last rest day. We are canceling our last one because we lost a day because of rain and we are so close to the finish line shear excitement of going home will carry us for those last days. We are sitting in a very old motel, with a very old TV, but the toilet flushes, the beds are soft and the cost per night is $56. We slept until 10 am and are watching Football  now. We were going to try and go to church, but the closest one to our fine Motel was 8 miles away and we really didn’t want to bike 16 miles on our rest day so we are reading our Bibles extra instead.

when I was 50 years old I was 250 lbs and had very high blood pressure, my cholesterol level was close to butter, and I was border line diabetic. I started running, lost 20 lbs and ran my first Marathon. It was to that point the most difficult thing I had ever done physically, and when I got to the finish line I got super emotional. I am thinking that when we get on the airplane and I settle back in the seat and I start thinking about this trip and all that has happened and that it is over I will start crying like a baby. If I do I am not telling anybody.

love you all very much! Dee

This is the sky line of Cleveland, Ohio, and Lake Erie from a bike path that we road on this morning. I was really nervous about riding through a huge city like Cleveland, but several things made it a very good day. Our “Warm Shower” host offered to ride with us and be our guide through the city, and that was a huge blessing as he knew all the back streets and low traffic routs to go. Also there were a number of bike paths in Cleveland that we were able to take with zero traffic as well as many of the streets have designated bike lanes, I love bike lanes almost as much as tail winds. We rode right by the stadium that the Browns play in and through the middle of Cleveland. It turned into a fun tour of the city from a bicycle seat.

we were looking at google maps on my iPhone to figure out where to turn, and I saw the street we wanted and also saw that there was a Dairy Queen on the corner of that street and we would go right by it. That is all that we needed to be motivated to stop and get a Sunday for John and a Blizzard for me.

we rode 88 miles today which is our fifth day in a row that we pedaled over 80 miles. I am so glad that we are having a rest day tomorrow to recuperate my tired old body.

Love you all. Dee

We rode 84 miles today and most of it was along the shores of Lake Erie which is very much like the Oregon coast in the sense of tourists, traffic, and continuous  towns and shops. Most of the roads had zero shoulder to ride on so you just ride as close to the edge as you can without riding off the edge. Because of my lack of balance and proneness to wobble I get super nervous in those situations and grip the handle bars super tight and pretty soon my arms, neck, and hands are killing me. Ibuprofen really helps a lot in the evening to ease the tightness and ache. I came close to having a wreck today.  My front tire hit a pot hole and It caused my tire to jerk hard to the right and I hit the curb on the side of the road and the result was a major gyration of my bike with me on it. My thought was, oooooh, I bet this is going to hurt, but I managed to keep upright and to get everything under control. I had to stop and do some deep breathing exercises after that!

We are staying at a “Warm Shower” host home tonight in Cleveland. Young 25 year old college guy who is living with his grandmother who works as a bicycle mechanic part time. He is a music major and a very nice and personable young man. I was very impressed with his skill at asking good question and showing sincere interest in me and my stories about kids, grandkids, and Patty. He had about 6 friends over for a party which we joined, but we left early and they are still going.

Tomorrow we continue our journey up along the shores of Lake Erie and I expect more of the same stress for me. We will be doing another 85 mile day, and then we are going to stay in a motel for two nights as we have our last rest day for the trip. Our rest day will be on Sunday so we are going to try and find a church to go to and then watch football all afternoon. Sounds like the ultimate rest day to me 🙂

love you all very much. Dee

We biked 84 miles today and we battled a head wind all 84 of them resulting in a really long day. We got to Freemont, Ohio at 8:30 pm and we rode the last 30 minutes in the dark and in heavy traffic! Whooooeeee that makes me nervous!! It looks like from the weather report we are going to have a 5 mph head wind all day tomorrow as well. We will be staying at a Warm Shower host tomorrow on the shore of Lake Erie. Talked to the guy on the phone tonight and he is excited to host us and chat about our adventures. We are going to try and get started by 7:30 am so we don’t end up on the dark again at the end of the day. We will be in the Cleveland area tomorrow with lots of cars trying to run over me! One of the sorta funny things is that while riding in bigger cities in traffic when I stop at a red light people in the cars next to me start talking to me about our trip when they see all the bags on the bicycle. Usually starts with “where you going?” “Maine?!” “Wow” “where ya from?” “Oregon!!””you gotta be kidding me!” Then the light changes and at the next light the conversation continues. Hard enough for me to navigate in that traffic with my wobbling tendencies without having to carry on a conversation as well! Well, I think I will call it a night. Super tired tonight. Love you all. Dee