Today the forecast was for showers at 30% but the sky's were looking good when we got up and we did not get any rain today. We loaded the luggage at 0645 and then breakfast was at 0700. Some of us ate at another restaurant-coffee shop at 0530 so we were ready to depart when the luggage got loaded. We left and it was cool, 60 degrees and the wind was out of the east all day at a steady 10-15MPH which was either in our faces or crosswind all day. There was only one rest stop today and that was at mile36. They told us last night that we had to eat all of the fruit, as it is not allowed across the border. I ate 2 bananas and had some peanut butter sandwich and salmon sandwich that Toronto Marks' wife had made for our stop today. She was also at the rest stop when I arrived and I thanked her once again for all the homemade thing she had arranged for us on this leg and also in Casper when she visited Mark there. As we were going down the road, she waived with her convertible top down as she went by.
The road was busy with a very small shoulder for about 20 miles until we turned to the north for a short time and then back east and we were once again on small rural roads. As we went on and got closer to town at about mile 52 we started to get into some nice downhills followed by uphills. At mile 58 or 59 we hit 2 hills that read 17% on my gar min which was something we had not seen for along time. Maybe they were getting us ready for the Vermont hills at are coming up. Not sure but everyone survived and it was the main discussion at Rap as to how much each persons gar min showed as far as the % grade they saw.
We then started to get into the busy part of town with allot of traffic and may turns before we made a right hand turn at mile 70.7 and we went downhill and at the bottom of the hill were hundreds of tourists and we got our first look at the falls from the Canadian side. The falls are really magnificent if you have not seen them before, (I had not). We stopped and took pictures of the falls on the Canadian side, the falls on the American side and the bridge that goes across the river to the USA and New York, State. After we took pictures of the bridge we went up the street that took you across the bridge and we fell in the line with the cars for the slow journey across the bridge and to the customs booths that we had to pass thru. Rick and I went across the bridge together and when it was our turn to clear customs the agent was talking to 2 other agents in the booth next to them about what days off they had this week. After they finished their discussion the agent looked at our passports and asked us about our trip, where we started, how many days and where we were ending. We were cleared and then we saw the New York State sign and once again it was time for a picture and then we went to the Hotel. We are staying right downtown in Niagara Falls and within walking distance to everything. This will be very handy as we have our last rest day of the trip and we can all do the tourist things tomorrow.
I did my laundry when I got a shower so tomorrow is all for relaxation and seeing the sites. After the rest day it is back to the bike and we move east to Henrietta, NY.
Niagara Falls was really pretty! Thanks for the pictures. You did great on the ride with all the climbing, etc. I couldn't believe the climb you had to make today. Great job! Now you kinda wonder what lies ahead....lol. You will do great as usual. I would imagine by now everyone has told you about making headlines in the newspaper. Nice pictures and a great interview.
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