We're Here!! At the END!!! Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

The five who rode all the way.



WE MADE IT! Our adventure ended today at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. After thirty days of riding with six rest days, and 1,943.5 miles, we reached our final destination. Mike, Preston and Angie, were there to greet me. Wow!!! It's over! Our ride today was the shortest one of the trip, just 28.8 miles. Anne's husband, Ben, rode in with us. We stopped for lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Mike, Preston and Angie met us there. After lunch, I rode on to the hotel with Anne and Ben. Preston was waiting with camera in hand as we rode into the parking lot of the Hilton Garden Inn, and took the pictures (above) of Anne and me, and Laurie and me. We had our closing banquet in a restaurant on the 26th floor of a hotel overlooking Niagara Falls. The view was beyond wonderful! After a great dinner, and my last day of calorie splurges, Laurie closed the trip with a few wild and crazy awards. Over the last five weeks, she has gotten to know us pretty well, and her awards were hilariously appropriate. I got the "Minimalist" award for being the only one without a huge handlebar or trunk bag on my bike, for biking with only one water bottle, then dumping any extra water I had in the last few miles, and a few other things I did to keep my bike light enough to ride up all those hills. We ended the evening with a few songs that some of the riders wrote, and sang to us. Vickie's was my favorite--"Oh, I come from Alabama ......"
I'll be back in a few days with some closing comments on this bike ride to Canada. Mike, the Davidson's, and I are going to be tourist before we fly back to Monroe on Wednesday. Thank you for following along with me.
The top photo is of the five of us who rode every mile of this 1,900+ mile adventure.
Today's ride 28.8 miles, Total miles 1,943.5, 30 riding days, 6 rest days

Hamburg, New York to Niagara Falls, Ontario

Crossing the Peace Bridge into Canada





Me, Kathy, Judy, Jennifer, Anne

Today we rode into Canada. It was a short day, just 45.6 miles, but it was Combat Biking for the first 20 miles. Almost every one of us got lost leaving Hamburg. The cue sheet had a miscue! It was rush hour, traffic was bad, and no one we asked could tell us which way to go. We finally got back on route, then we had to bike through Buffalo. That is where we entered the Combat Zone--but remember, we're tough now, so we made it through. We crossed the Niagara River on the Peace Bridge, and entered into Canada just before noon. We all had passports ready, but after being directed, then redirected where to go, the border agent hardly looked at them. He was more interested in where we had come from and where we were going. Jennifer had made plans and gathered everything we would need for a Champagne toast after we crossed the border, but things were still so crazy that we postponed it until we got to the falls. One of our group bumped into another and fell, we couldn't find our first street because of road construction, and we were all getting really hungry. Everything got better, though, when we found our bike path, The Niagara Recreation Trail, and began our ride on into Niagara Falls. The path ran along the river for the next 17 miles. It was actually a good way to approach Niagara Falls. We watched the river as it divided, then became swift. We could see the spray from the falls, we heard the roar, then we saw the rapids. Our first view was of Horseshoe Falls, and it was just awesome. We made pictures, made our toast (with Coke in our plastic wine glasses, and just looked at one of the Wonders of the World.
Today's ride - 45.6 miles, Eight States, and now CANADA!