Niagara Falls! Yahoo!

I was a little concerned about how I was going to feel, after yesterdays trip to the hospital, but I awoke feeling totally refreshed and in great spirits. So why waste a moment? Lets go for it!
We had a great 75 mile ride today along the north Shore of Lake Ontario into Niagara Falls. The route took us right along the shore though all be summer beach cottages which line the north shore. It was beautiful. Ed and I stopped at a number of for sale homes but there were no prices listed. I guess if you have to ask the price you cannot afford it. We were making good time and we picking up Klingon's on a regular basis. Picnic was at the 50 mile marker and by the time we were about 6 -7 miles out Ed and I must have had ten or more Klingon's riding our wheels. It was getting a little bit scary as there was a lot of jocking about and people cutting in and out and passing on the right and just plain showing poor judgement. In these situations you have to either drop off the end of the pack or blow the pack away. I chose to blow the pack away to I jumped on the pedals and flew on into picnic. I think that Philippe and Ed were the only two who stayed with me.

So there we are at picnic at 10:00 Am with only 20 miles to go so we just headed on into town. We crossed the welland cannel on this little ferry boat,which was off a bike trail which was fun. The great tail winds which we had shortened our journey even more and Ed and I were eating ice cream in Niagara Falls by 11:30 AM.

With the ride over and a day off looming us in the face I headed on down to see the falls with Patrick and Tom. We chose the full tourist pack to see all of the attractions of the falls. We elected to do the walk under the falls first. It was really fun as they hand you this yellow poncho and then you go down this tunnel which takes you down and behind the falls. There is a viewing platform which is right beside the falls which is an absolute maelstrom. Then there are some portals which are behind the falls. The scale of the falls is beyond the imagination. Then we did the 3D film thing which was a lot of fun but pale in comparison to the real thing.
We headed on out for supper and found a micro-brew pub which was out of the tourist zone where we sampled several of the different brews and found them all to be excellent. I had the fish and chips which where exceptional.

To day was a big day and a very exciting one.

Terry

In the hospital

To day we are started out on a 97 mile ride which is across the Niagara peninsula. It is billed as 1000 feet of climb so this is about as flat as it gets. When you looked at the route map it looked like we were going to be following the north shore of Lake Erie so I expected a lot of beach cottage country and tourist towns. However it was mostly out in the country riding with farms of corn and soy. I was riding by my self but I was making good time so picnic which was at the 54 mile make came up pretty quickly. In fact I was at picnic before 10:00 Am. I had realized on the ride that taking pictures of riders in action was great but it was very tough work as you have to charge past a rider get set for a shot then jump back on your bike and do it again. So it takes a lot of hard riding to get a few shots and then it is of a limited number of riders. A better plan would be to charge up to picnic then walk back to a good position and then take shots as they come into picnic. The plan was formulated.

Picnic was on the beach where there was this historic light house which served as a perfect back drop for rider photos so I took a lot of rider pictures while at picnic. It was a lot of fun catching the riders rolling into picnic. They were all so happy and smiling as they roded in.

After lunch I teamed up with Ed and the two of us we just eating up the miles as we flew down the road to Port Dover. The road was perfectly smooth and the temperature was about 75F. Our bikes were being buffeted back and forth by 15-20 mph tail winds which didn't hurt. We got to about the 82 mile mark and decided it was time for a root beer while some thunder clouds moved though and then we headed off. About 5 miles later a wasp flys into my jersey and stings me three times on the right side before I can get ahold of it an kill it. The thunder clouds have solidified and it is starting to come down so I jumped on the pedals with Ed right behind me. I averaged 22mph into town.

I jumped in the shower but by now I am not feeling too good and I am covered in hives. I come out to set my tent up and Earnie comes over and see that I am not doing so well and sets my tent. Earnie then gets Chris to drive me to the hospital. I guess that I was worse than I realized. Of course this turns into a four hour affair. I am checked in but sit there for two hours before a doctor comes by. I am now feeling much better and am ready to leave but the doctor now has to administer some medicine via iv and keep me for two hours for observation. Within minutes of the medicine being administered the hives are gone. So two hours later I am released and Chris and I go have supper. Thanks Earnie for your concern and work on this and thanks Chris for driving me and sitting patiently in the hospital for four hours. I now have one of the insect bite injection things.

All's well that ends well!

Terry

Starting With A Bang Aug 5

Breakfast was 25 minutes late this morning. The folks putting on breakfast never showed up until 6:30 Am and by the time it was ready it was 6:55. So we are behind schedule but as there are no climbs and the ride is only 75 miles no big deal. After a quick bite I am off down the road but not very far before I hear this huge bang. I have heard that sound before and it is not good news. I pull over, and yes I have a flat rear tire. However this is not just a flat but my second brand new Armadillo tire is has blown out the side wall. Now this isn't just a little hole but an eight inch rip in the side wall. I can't believe it. My first Armadillo got only 1500 miles, but I was over some incredibly tough roads. I ground up 5 miles of fresh chip coat to a mountain pass and then down some really bad gravel roads and over lots of construction. This tire has less than 1200 miles. So I walk back to the school where John, who is one of the mechanics pulls a tire off of Greg's bike and puts it on my bike. OK now I am 2 hours behind schedule and the forecast is for hot and humid.

At the 20 mile mark we take a ferry across the St. Lawrence River and cross into Canada. It is a quaint little private ferry which takes about 20 minutes to cross the river. I was wearing my Canadian jersey so there is no mistake at the boarder as to what is going on. The customs guard has seen lots of cyclists this morning and is very friendly. In the Calgary airport the customs agents wear flack jackets. Here they are in short sleeves.

Once in Canada the road is straight and flat, with a good tail wind so I make good time down to picnic, which is at the 45 mile mark. At picnic I am too late for the water melon but there is still lots to eat. As it is now getting hot I have to hurry, however my stomach is starting to send me signals that it is upset. So I rolled into a store and drank some ginger ale hoping to settle it down. Luckily it worked and was off again.

About 6 miles out Steve the rider from Wales is pulled over and is working on his tire. I could see that he was having trouble with it so I pulled over and helped change his tube. I have this great pump and can pump a tire in no time. I figured I had been helped this morning so it was time to pass it on.

As I rolled into West Lorne where we are staying I could see an ice cream shop on the corner. Now I had been promising myself a milk shake for the last 15 miles so now it was time to make good on my promise. They didn't make milkshakes but they did have huge ice cream cones so I had a two scoop cone which was great.

The school were are in has the weirdest showers which are either all on or all off and have to be turned on somewhere in the mechanical room. So Greg is waiting for a number of riders before he turns them on, so I go set up my tent. The showers are now on and I have mine. When I come out there is a quick cloud burst. I went out to my tent and crawled in it was so nice and cool so I just laid down and had an hour nap. It was perfect as I was exhausted. The nap was just the thing I needed.

When I was in Frankenmuth I was in one of the tourist trap stores which specialized in dog stuff. They had a sign which said "LIVE LOVE BARK" I thought it was a good attitude to have.

Terry

Hoover Pulls a great one!

Today started out nice and cool with a low mist hanging in the air. It was really welcome as it kept the temperature down. We had 85 miles to cover and I wasn't looking forward to doing it in temperatures in the 90's with 90% humidity. On the positive side there was some cloud cover, and some wind out of the west, with a very flat course. On the negative side we had 90's for temperature, with 90% humidity, and no shoulder and relatively busy roads.
I blitzed out of breakfast as soon as I could and was intent on making as many miles as possible before the morning mist left. One of the riders who is from this part of the country says they only have two kinds of weather here. Hot and humidity, and cold and damp. There wasn't much for scenery just corn fields one side of the road and soy beans on the other. So I am wondering what am I going to put in the blog. I took a bunch of pictures of buildings in the various little towns we passed through. I have been impressed with how nice the old Victorian homes are. San Francisco gets all the credit for having beautiful Victorian homes but there are a lot of them in the little towns we are riding through.

A couple of miles from camp we turn off on a beautiful little bike path and I am so glad to be minutes away from camp. It has been along hot day. I am all in. Then I come around the last bend in the path and there is Hoover standing beside the path, and beside him is a cooler. One guess what he has in the cooler! Hoover who is one of the fastest riders has gone into town got a cooler filled it with ice and beer and the walked from town back to the path to hand out beer. It was so cold and so good, I cannot describe it. Hoover had picked up 24 beer, so I went in and grabbed another 18 as it was obvious this was going to be a big hit. A couple of other riders went in and came back with another, 30 beer. A party breaks out as more and more riders roll in. Everyone is laughing and sucking back cold beers. What a supper ending to the day. Hoover, I salute you.

And so ends ride day number 40 with 15 more ride days.

Terry

Frankenmuth Christmas Store

Frankenmuth Christmas Store
So how big is the worlds biggest Christmas store? It is big maybe twice as big as a Walmart Super Center. Frankenmuth lays claim to the worlds largest Christmas store so I just had to see it. It is located at 25 Christmas Lane. The outside has everything you can imagine for exterior decorations. Thirty foot Santa's, Nativity Scenes, coloured light displays, the works. In side the store it is organized according to the type of decoration. There is a section for lights, a section for Christmas villages, a section of animal decorations, decorations by occupation, a section devoted to stacking dolls, and on and on it goes. The roof is arched and above the ornaments is displays of Christmas scenes. Naturally there are Christmas carols being played over the intercom. I wandered for over an hour and saw 5-10% of it. I am going to let the pictures tell the story.

Terry

Frankenmuth - Tourist Trap or Barvarian Village?

This morning was great! I rolled out of Falwell after a great night's sleep, and feeling on top of the world. My new bike computer was working fine and every thing was looking good. We had 82 miles to cover and I was on a roll. There was 5 miles of narrow road where they were working on repairing the shoulders of the road. However it was early and the traffic was light.

After that section was passed I turned off on to the Pere-Marquette bike path. It was the finest bike path I have ever seen. Yes I have said that before however this one is the hands down winner. The path was completed in 2008 so it is brand new. The pavement is soooooo smooth it just seemed to make the bike roll on it's own. Wait maybe that was the tail wind we enjoyed. The edges of the trail were mowed, there were toilets every few miles, beautiful road crossing markers, little turn outs were you could look out at the scenery, benches to sit on and rest, it had everything. Sailing along was great the only sounds were the birds and the hum from my tires. I could have stayed on that path all day. However around the 40 mile mark we were back on the road but only for 4 miles and then it was picnic.

I vacuumed up a bunch of fresh fruit at picnic and headed off. The wind had picked up and even though the road was really busy, sailing along with a tail wind was great. However, that came to an end when we turned south and now the wind was hitting me at about the 2:00 o'clock position. The road deteriorated and it was getting hotter all the time. However as there was only 23 miles to go it was time to just grind it out.

About 12 miles out I came up on Micheal and he was hurting the wind had done him in. So there was only one thing to do and that was to get him on my wheel and pull him in. Micheal could only do about 12-14 mph so that's what we did.

The town of Frankenmuth was originally founded by fifteen German ministers who came to convert the natives. Later the the town was settled by German immigrants. If you Google it you can get the whole history. Wikipedi says it is 98.6 % white with only 1.4% minorities. There is something like 53% of the people are of German heritage. So the town is built to look like a Barvarian village. There are quaint towers, fancy shingles, wall murals, etc. Frankenmuth also lays claim to having the worlds largest Christmas store. I don't know but it looks like a tourist trap to me, history and population notwithstanding.

Lets Ride!

Terry

Nintey Five Miles Closer To Boston: Aug 2

To day was the start of week seven which is the second largest week in terms of mileage on the tour, and we started it with a 95 mile ride into Falwell, from Ludington. We started in the dark as we just crossed into a new time zone so crawling out of the tents was with your head lamp on. However by the time we were rolling down to breakfast it was light enough to ride.

Breakfast was at the Old Hamlin buffet downtown and they put on a good spread with lots of fresh fruit and of course my favorite - bacon. The ride it self a pretty straight forward ride though the country side with virtually no hills. There were a few small rollers but nothing to speak of. So I made good time. However my bike computer was acting up and so I didn't know how fast I was going or the distance travelled. Picnic came up pretty fast at the 42 mile mark beside a very pretty lake. The special of the day was some sort of tofu salad so I had a ham sandwich and rolled on out of there. After lunch was a 19 mile paved bike trail which took us off the busy road and it was probably the highlight of the day. It was so peaceful rolling along with a slight tail wind. The only noise was the hum of your tires on the pavement and the birds singing in the trees. I liked it. I even took my own picture. These bike trails are old railway lines which have been converted to bike trails and they are great. We were really lucky with the weather as it was overcast to day and so it never got very hot. I am not sure but my guess would have been in the low 80's. The humidity is close to 100% and it could have been a real baker.

I pulled my tent out and set it to dry while I showered. As it turned out that was a really smart move as the school has only two showers. In the three or four minutes I was in the shower there was a huge line of riders waiting to shower.

I had a spare bike computer with me so I swapped out my bike computer. Hopefully that will fix my problems.

While it was a pretty uneventful day we are now well over the 3000 mile mark. It may have been uneventful but it was still a great day. Perfect weather, great breakfast, wonderful path to ride on, and 95 miles closer to Boston.

Lets ride!

Terry

Ludington A day Off

The sun was up by the time I got up and things sure did look a lot better than they did last night. So I put on my running gear, set my Garmin and was off for a run. It was a beautiful, run though a residential neighborhood to the downtown. Lots of beautiful painted lady Victorian homes, which have been loving restored. I managed to get a 45 minutes run in and covered 3.8 miles so I felt pretty good about that.
A quick shower and I grabbed my laundry and headed off to the laundry to wash clothes. With my laundry done and yesterday's blog written and the pictures down loaded. I am in great shape.
I get back to the school campground and when I turn around there is an old friend, Craig from the West Coast trip I did four years ago. So Craig and I hung out for the afternoon. We went downtown and wandered around the town. We stopped by the local gas station and got some beer and wandered down to the beach and drank beer on the beach. It was great to catch up on all the rides he has been on and having fun renewing our friendship. Craig is on for the next three weeks.
After we got back to the campsite Earnie shows up, and I got to meet his wife Betsy which was great as we have all heard so much about her but nobody has ever meet Betsy.
The bike got cleaned and oiled in there some where, laundry is done and supper has been eaten. It looks like tomorrow is a 93 mile day so I need a good night sleep, but that is tomorrow and on this trip you only worry about today. In fact I never ride further than picnic.
Lets ride!
Terry

The Longest Day Of The Trip

The rain started at about 4:00 Am and continued on until my alarm went at 5:30. By then is was just the big drops from the tree hitting my tent. I guess that meant a wet tent to be rolled up I thought but at least the ride will be in the sun. When I crawled out of the tent that thought was gone as I saw that we were surrounded by a wet fog. The rain started coming down again as I folded my gear and got ready to roll. I lingered a breakfast until after 8:00 AM hoping for the rain to stop, and when it did I was off. It was only 38 miles from Plymouth down to Mackinwoc, where we would catch the ferry to Ludington Michigan, so there was no panic to get down there. We were to be on the ferry dock at 1:15 PM so it was an easy ride.

Most of the riders had left by the time I got on the road so I quickly caught a number of riders and we all rode along together in the rain. The rain wasn't really cold so it was kind of a fun ride once you got rolling. There was a paved bike path which paralleled the road so at least you weren't blasted by the spray from cars and trucks. At the 22 mile mark we came up to the shore of Lake Michigan. The fog had lifted enough so you could see the shore line. There were lots of beautiful homes along the shore and it was quite pretty despite the rain.

Picnic was at Carol's house. She is a long time friend of Cycle America and she always hosts the lunch before the ferry ride to Ludington. It was a great assembly point for the ride down to the ferry.

I had no idea what this ferry was like other than I assumed it was some sort of typical car ferry. As it turns out the S.S. Badger was launched in 1952. It is about 350 ft long and it is a coal fired, steam driven ship. I was shocked to see this thing. So at the appointed time of 1:15 PM the bikes are lead on to the Badger. All the while the coaling is underway which is quite an operation as 6 semi trucks of coal are backed onto the ferry and the coal is emptied into the bunkers. The ferry is suppose to leave at 2:00 PM but doesn't leave until 3:00 PM. It is a four hour trip across Lake Michigan. So arrival time is now 7:00 PM, but we lose an hour so it is really 8:00 PM. By the time we are rolling it is 8:30 and in camp by 9:00 PM.

The trip was exhausting and by time I had my wet tent set it was 9:45. The heck with supper I crawled in and when to bed.

Tomorrow is a rest day!

Terry