America by Bike Riders - Entering Ontario, Courtesy of http://www.bamacyclist.com/Journal2009/North09/p36.htm
From Bamacyclist…….http://www.bamacyclist.com/Journal2009/North09/p37.htm - August 1 2009 – Brantford, Ontario
Hello everyone! It’s Day 42, Sunday, Aug. 2, traveling from Brantford, Ontario, Canada to Niagara Falls. We did 73 miles today, and I can say this day was extremely eventful for many, many reasons.
First of all, we started off in kind of drizzly, cool weather. It was sort of misty and we weren’t sure if it was going to clear up at all. It was never a real clear, clear day until the very end, until we got into the Niagara Falls area. For most of the 73 miles it wasn’t a rainy day, but it was a misty, wet day because it had always kind of rained before us, so the roads were very wet and there were lots of puddles. It was misty out and at times it did sprinkle and at times we did have to put on our rain gear. In particular, one time about two-thirds through the ride for me, I happened to get hit within one of the rainstorms and it was just a total downpour for about 10 or 15 minutes. Then I kind of came out of that and it cleared up and got warmer and the sun gradually came out, as I said, by the time we got to Niagara Falls.
At the beginning of the ride I rode with Cindy and Russ Sage, who are just a wonderful couple on the trip. I’ve really enjoyed all my times of riding with them, and it was a great time of riding with them up to the first SAG. At that first SAG, the church that was across the street did let us use the facilities, which was really nice. On the second half of the ride, I was with Ken and Cindy and Russ, and then after a while I was just riding with Ken.
Going from Brantford until we got out of Canada into the area of Niagara Falls to come back into America, the ride was really pretty as far as the roads. Going through the countryside in Canada was absolutely beautiful, lots of pretty towns and really nice areas. One of the things that was really interesting for me was after the first SAG stop, which was at 35 miles, just in a little area across from a church, we went through some other little towns, the town of Bismarck and little towns, and we got into this little area called Maple Comfort. I stopped off at a little deli store there, and there was a woman in there who I was talking to. We were talking about Canada and how I used to travel into Canada when I was a little girl into a little area called Newboro, Canada, because I used to have cousins that lived in the Kingston area, and I still do have family members and cousins who live in the Kingston, Ontario, Canada area. We used to go and stay in one of our cousins cottages in the Newboro area. We did that every year for a week, and I really loved it. It was very rustic, we had an outhouse and we had to go across the locks to get our fresh water. I was telling this to the woman in the store and lo and behold, didn’t she have a relative who used to work those locks. So it was amazing, she not only knew the area, but we both had family members who had that experience. Her name was Marge, and I got a picture of her with the woman who worked in the store. It was just a real fun camaraderie with someone in Canada who could really identify with that experience with me. I said how I used to go in the rowboat out around to one of the Thousand Islands and row around, and also we used to go uptown with my cousins, we called it uptown, to get ice cream. And Johnny Barker from Pearl’s Lodge who used to work there, he was the son of the woman who owned it, I thought he was the most handsome young man in the whole world. He was about three years older than me, when I was like 14, he was 17, and I just dreamed for Johnny Barker. So all those fun little teenage things that we go through. They were just fun memories of being there and being in Newboro. Thank you, if you read the blog. I gave them a card for OLT. It was really wonderful to meet you.
As we left that area, we were kind of going up and down different roads. Some of the roads were pretty steep down and pretty steep up, as far as a rolling ride, and parts of it had deep canopy of trees that made it really dark, from the rain and from the mist and from the wet roads. It was beautiful countryside, but still it was very, very dark. I was going down one of the hills and as I went down I was braking to be careful, and I kind of hit a steep upgrade and my gear wasn’t in the right gear. I switched from my second gear down into my lowest gear, the granny gear as we call it, and I was in the middle of the hill and my chain fell off. I fell off my bike, and fortunately when I fell I rolled with it very well and my feet actually stayed connected to my pedals and I was able to protect my bike to come down on me instead of on the ground. So it protected my bike, my bike was absolutely fine. For me, I skinned my knee, but I was grateful that I was fine and I got back on my bike and got going. The only thing is is that I lost my confidence in riding the hills. We didn’t have many hills after that, so it really wasn’t a problem, but I’ve noticed I have a real fear of putting my gear into the granny gear, and we’re starting to do a lot of climbs again. I know I just need to get over that fear and use that granny gear and trust that my chain isn’t going to fall off and that I’m not going to fall off my bike. It’s not so bad that I fall, it’s that I fall into traffic or fall into someone else or fall in a way that could really be hurtful. That’s something that’s really heavy on my mind as I’m doing climbs for the next couple of days, and that’s where it all began, from that fall. Please keep that in prayer for me, I’d really appreciate it, for my strength and my ability to do the climbs coming up.
Ken was with me when I fell off my bike and when we went through the rainstorm, so it was nice that he was there to help me out, thank you, Ken, you were great in helping me. I’m glad I wasn’t by myself when I experienced those two difficult times.
As we continued on to Niagara Falls after my fall, I just kind of kept on going and doing really well. All of sudden that’s when I got the huge downpour of rain, got soaked for about 10 to 15 minutes. It was so bad I almost stopped pedaling, but I kept pedaling through it. It worked out okay, but it was a huge downpour that I got hit with. I just continued on, and it warmed up and cleared up and I sort of halfway dried off. We came into a very, very busy section of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which was absolutely gorgeous. The falls were astounding, magnificent, superior, just every single superlative word that I can think of, it was just absolutely incredible. It was beautiful to see the Niagara Falls, and the Canadian side shows all three of the falls all at once. There were lots of people, very, very busy traffic. We had to be extremely careful coming in up and down the hills, because it’s pretty hilly, to approach the Rainbow Bridge on the Canadian side to go over into the United States. I was with about 10 of my teammates, Sarge and his whole group, and Richard from England, and Ken from Illinois, and a bunch of us, we were all together up there on that bridge walking our bikes across on foot, handing our passports to the authorities for us to cross into the United States. It was really a remarkable experience to be walking the bridge with our bikes and entering into New York State. We got our pictures with the New York State sign, and into the hotel, which was really just awesome coming in.
The other eventful thing about getting into Niagara Falls, my room wasn’t ready and I knew that I was going to have the joy and the excitement of my boyfriend Raymond and Jonathan, his 16-year-old son coming to see me, so I was really looking forward to that. They were supposed to come after dinner, which they did, and that was exciting, and I was really, really thrilled to see them. But the other thing is, as I was standing at the counter of the hotel, booking to go on a whirlpool jet tour that Cathy and Wayne on our trip were scheduled to go on this whirlpool jet boat tour in Lewiston. She was celebrating her 50th birthday, being on the trip for just one segment, like the eight or nine days that they joined us. They were going to be getting off in Niagara Falls and they wanted to go on this jet boat tour with two of their friends. They asked us if we wanted to go, so I booked for Raymond and Jonathan and me to go, and as I was booking it, I turned and there was my brother-in-law, Bob and my sister Jane and their two boys, Bryce and David. They showed up to Niagara Falls and surprised me, and that was an awesome surprise, thank you, thank you! So we ended up booking them to go on it too for the next day. They had a car to drive us out to Lewiston so that we could go on the jet boat tour.
At the end of the evening, as if the day wasn’t really long enough with all this excitement, we went out to go see the light show for Niagara Falls and the fireworks for the evening. It was beautiful and it was fun and I was just so happy that I had enough energy to do the whole thing. It was a very tiring day, a long day, but a very rewarding day with all the events within the day. I thoroughly enjoyed that, it was wonderful.
It was great to meet Garth’s wife Sally, who came in. I actually had dinner with them and it was delightful to have dinner with them. They’re a wonderful couple and Garth has been just a fabulous friend on this ride. So many wonderful people who are doing this ride with America By Bicycle, and I’m just thoroughly enjoying being with everybody whenever I get a chance to be with any one of the people in this group. It’s a marvelous group of people, I have just a high respect for everybody on it, and I just can’t say enough of what a blessing it’s been to be riding with them. It’s a real honor to be riding with all these people, it has been really great.
The fireworks show was beautiful, Janie and Bob and Bryce and David, and Raymond and Jonathan, I introduced them to as many people on the ride as I could as we saw them as we were out around the park, the Niagara park. We had a great night. Raymond had his room with Jonathan and he went in and got settled and I got settled in my room, and it was just great to go to bed, because it was a long day! It was a wonderful day.
I just want to say, we are such an honored, privileged country. It’s wonderful to also see Canada and know that we have neighboring sisters and brothers who are living in another beautiful country. It’s a blessing to be neighbored with Canada. They have always been peaceful with us and good, good people, kindhearted, you can tell they take a lot of pride in their country, and they should because it’s a beautiful country. I thoroughly enjoyed being in Canada, and now we’re back in the United States, my home, sweet home, looking forward to tomorrow’s day of rest in Niagara Falls.
God bless all of you and God bless America.
