August 6, 2018 Niagara Falls ON to Geneseo NY

Today’s ride was routed for 83.6 miles with 2710 feet of climb; however there was a construction detour on the route which was not there yesterday when Ed and I routed it. This detour added an additional 1.4 miles making the day 85 miles.  The miles are not the story of the day though.  The story is really the heat, humidity and thunder storms.

Luggage loading was scheduled for 6:45 Am this morning as breakfast was not until 7:00 am.  I handed my luggage in at 6:32 am and was the very last to load luggage. I just don’t get it.  Anyways, I left the KOA where we were camped and rolled down to the Best Western where we were having breakfast and stood around with everyone else until breakfast was served at 7:00 AM.

 Auzzie Bob had his phone stolen yesterday in a café. He turned around to get a stir stick and in 10 seconds his phone was gone. So Bob had gone off to Walmart to get a new phone and I was on my own.  

From breakfast it was down to the falls to take the obligatory photo and then roll across the Rainbow Bridge to US Customs.  Being early morning the line was short and the US Customs officer was just scanning passports and waving cyclist through. 

The ride through Buffalo was interesting glimpse into a much grittier side of America than we have been seeing.  Pots holed streets, run down and abandon buildings, giving way to shuttered industries.   This was a short glimpse however as within 10 miles we were out in suburbia and beautiful country side.

Picnic came up at the 43.4 mile mark and I filled up on Jim’s cucumber salad which was great.  He says the secret is Japanese vinegar. He also had radishes in it which gave it an interesting tang. I am going to have to try this on my cucumber salad when I get home.

The heat and humidity had been building all day.  It had been in the 80’s since 10:00 am however by 12:00 am it was really hot. I was at about the 50 mile mark when a gas station came up and I knew that ¾ water was at around the 63 mile mark so I thought I should supplement my hydration with a coke.  The owners were really nice and we chatted while I drank my coke and cooled down in the AC.  They said that the temperature on their little weather station said 93 F but with the humidity the heat index was 104 F.   I don’t know how heat index is calculated but it sure was hot. 

I could see the thunder clouds building as I got closer in to Geneseo.  At about the 70 mile mark the first big rain drops were coming down so I ducked into a driveway which had a bunch of big trees.  Just got off my bike when the sky opened up and down came the rain.   After 5 minutes it had let up so back on my bike.  I could see that about 1 mile up the road was getting hammered and I could hear the thunder.  By time I got there it had moved on down the road.  The rain had taken a bunch of the heat out of the system but the black asphalt was steaming.  It was a very strange effect and I had caught Irish Mike and he had never seen anything like it either.  We followed the storm all the way into camp.  I grabbed my tent and put it up as fast as I could.  Just as I threw the last bag in the rain started again.    I was probably one of the few riders who never got soaked.  Everyone is coming telling horror stories of being caught. 

I guess I could have bragged about conquering todays hills but I will leave that for tomorrow when we have 5000 feet of climb and 94 miles.   

Terry