AAN day 43 rest day

Across America North - day 43 rest day - Niagara Falls, NY

 After two easy days, this rest day wasn't needed as much as the previous rest days were.  Still, it was good to get off the saddle for a day.  The big event, after sleeping past 5, was taking the Maid of the Mist ride right up to the falls.  I thought of Odysseus and the sea monsters (Scylla and Charybdis, I think) as I tried to use my phone camera.  LED viewfinders are really useless sometimes such as this.  I just aimed it in the general direction and could have closed my eyes with no effect on the pictures.

Then I tended to an errand at a medical lab a mile or two from the hotel.  It was a nice walk around Niagara Falls and the mission was accomplished. 

Tomorrow begins with breakfast at 6:00 am and luggage loading at 7:00.  As soon after that as I can manage, I'll be on my way to Rochester and a planned meeting of my sister-in-law who lives in Ithaca.  She was in Denver visiting her sister a very short time ago and I just missed her.

After some fiddling, my Garmin bike computer seems to be working again.  That's a relief.  Now I can navigate with the peace of mind found in modern GPS wizardry.  The Atlantic is becoming a more attainable goal now with only 700 miles to go.  About 90 miles tomorrow to Rochester and another 90 to Syracuse and so on and I'll be there.

AAN day 42 - Brantford, Ontario --> Niagara Falls, NY

Across America North - day 42 - Brantford, Ontario --> Niagara Falls, NY

The day started with a fine breakfast at the hotel in Brantford.  After some uncertainty about the possibility of rain, I decided to leave my raincoat in my bag and set out for Niagara Falls, 74 miles away.  The wind was with us making today the second easy day in a row.  I looked down at my computer to see speeds in the 20-22 mph range.  Sometimes I turned on the afterburners to reach 24-27 mph for a minute or two thinking, "so this is the speed of a pro training run".  It takes a 3% downhill or a howling tailwind for that experience.

Eventually we reached Niagara Falls and the Peace Bridge where we waited in line with all the cars and RVs.  Immigration took about 20 seconds once I got to the immigration officer and I was off to the Welcome to New York sign about 50 yards away.

While on the bridge, my Garmin computer quit and would not restart.  I lost all the data of my speedy ride and now the world will never know.  About 20 tries later, the Garmin still would not start so I reset it, which erased the data.  Now it seems ok and I'm relieved.  My anxiety on this trip would have been a lot higher and so would the number of my wrong and missed turns without it.  The Garmin computer is a great gadget.

On the way through Ontario, I saw quite a few signs opposing the installation of wind turbines.  After checking a little, I see that one main objection is that they lower property values.  Some signs assert the necessity of health studies before installation.  I wonder what harm to health they are thinking of.  There are complaints about the noise they make.  Other signs simply say NO.  Ontario produces about 2 GW of power from wind turbines now so their presence seems permanent.

Only 7 days more until the beach in New Hampshire. 

AAN day 41 - London, Ontario --> Brantford, Ontario

Across America North - day 41 - London, Ontario --> Brantford, Ontario

I hoped for an easy day and today was it.  I missed a couple of turns and got a few bonus miles but the day was still easy.  It rained on and off a little but it was still easy.

Tomorrow we'll be in Niagara Falls, New York and will get a rest day on Monday.  On Tuesday we'll start across New York on our way to Henrietta (apparently indistinguishable from Rochester) and beyond.

Upon entering Canada, Verizon was promptly sent me the schedule of roaming charges. 

calls - $0.89/min
data - $2.05/MB

When leaving Canada tomorrow, I expect another notice announcing my return to domestic charges.  At that point, I'll turn on the parts that I've disabled.

The poor guy who was denied a visa is still on his way around Lake Erie.  He rode about 156 miles the first day and 140 miles the second.  The last I heard, he was in northeastern Ohio and still heading for Niagara Falls.  He might even get a rest day.

<iframe width='465' height='548' frameborder='0' src='http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/349170659'></iframe>

No pictures today.  Rain isn't good for the camera.

AAN day 40 - Port Huron, MI --> London, Ontario

Across America North - day 40 - Port Huron, MI --> London, Ontario

The network is unreliable and I'm getting "connection reset" errors every time I blink.  I'll try again tomorrow.

We woke at 4:45 today to get ready for a 6:45 departure for the Canada border. Immigration already had our names and passport information so getting through customs was a breeze. Immigration closed the big bridge to traffic and we crossed together and lined up for a passport check on the Canada side.

We spent the day on pretty good roads in farmland as we did in Michigan. The only obvious difference was that the street signs were in metric units as they should be in the US.

I'm getting worn down. The next rest day will probably do wonders as did all the others so far. Talk turns more and more to the end of the trip and I'm more and more ready for it.

AAN day 39 - Birch Run, MI --> Port Huron, MI

Across America North - day 39 - Birch Run, MI --> Port Huron, MI

Today was a nice day --- very little wind, sunny skies, little traffic on most of the trip. I rode a middle section of about 50 miles hanging on to the back of a faster group so I went faster, too. They were kind enough to let me do that.

I've heard that it's not wise to get to the hotel too early because that means being there in time to unload the luggage. I view unloading luggage as an accomplishment. That means that I was fast enough to get there in time to do it.

Tomorrow, we cross into Canada for 3 days. Canada denied a visa to one person who is now riding his bike on the ultimate detour to Niagara Falls, NY. He's going alone around the US side of Lake Erie by way of Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo to Niagara Falls in 5 days.  Another person had an expired passport and managed to renew it in one day.  

I'm looking forward to going home.  It's still a good trip but it's gone on long enough now.  Breakfast is at 5:30 tomorrow and we'll be on the road at 6:30 to Canadian customs and an 82-mile day.  I could use some sleep.

AAN day 38 - Mount Pleasant, MI --> Birch Run, MI

Across America North - day 38 - Mount Pleasant, MI --> Birch Run, MI

The word of the day is wind - steady, relentless headwind. The wind made the distance seem much longer than 80 miles. (There was a construction detour that added 5 miles.)

I'm writing this a day late because I couldn't get a network connection. Some hotels just don't have a network that can handle the traffic of our traveling wifi torture test.

AAN day 37 - Ludington, MI --> Mt. Pleasant, MI

Across America North - day 37 - Ludington, MI --> Mt. Pleasant, MI

We're in Michigan now. The terrain is a bit hilly but very forgiving because the hills are shorter and less steep than those in Wisconsin. Tomorrow's ride to Birch Run will be the flattest day of the trip with only about 600 feet of climbing over 74 miles. Today's ride of 113 miles was fairly easy because of a nice tailwind all day and tomorrow's of only 74 miles will be easier still.

The scenery was beautiful as we went through game preserves for much of the day. The roads were usually good, too, and the traffic was light to none. I've heard it said that Michigan is boring but Michigan is generally regarded by the group as a good place to ride a bike.

We'll be in Canada on Friday and conversations turn increasingly toward the end of the trip. Adjusting to normal life is discussed and speculated about but for me it boils down to the difference between continuous novelty and a return to familiar surroundings and routine. With two weeks to go, I'm beginning to look forward to the familiar.