Day 45 Erie, PA to Hamburg, NY
All the rest days are now behind us and there are only about 600 miles of biking remaining. Hard to believe that 600 miles seems like a "small" amount, but we've already covered about 3,200 miles thus far.
Although we'd heard that there was a slight possibility of rain, the skies were clear and the wind off Lake Erie was either a light cross wind or a tail wind. We rode along this beautiful body of water for most of the 81 miles, leaving Pennsylvania behind around the 30 mile mark. I biked about half the day with Darryl and Doug and a little with George.
One of the most "exciting" parts of the ride was a detour around some bridge construction. Unfortunately, my personal ride was still more "exciting" when I had yet another flat tire. Right after carrying my bike on my shoulder across a trickle of a stream, I checked my tire and, sure enough, it was soft. With muddy hands, feet and everything else, I changed the darn tire.
After the rest stop at 46 miles, I rode alone and tried to catch Tim who left the stop as the rest of us were arriving. He had a 15-20 minute jump on me so I knew my work was cut out for me to catch him. I never did track him down, but I got close as he rolled into the Comfort Inn a couple minutes before I did.
As I was checking in, I checked my voice mail and Scott Terpstra had left a message. He asked that I check into getting a rental car so a bunch of us could drive the 30 miles to nearby Niagara Falls. Seemed like a good idea. With some help from the front desk, we reserved a mini van at Budget and headed out to first drink our milk shake. From there, we rode down the highway 6 miles, picked up the van, loaded up our bikes and headed back to the hotel. Small footnote--we stopped and took our picture outside the Buffalo Bills stadium which is in Hamburg, not Buffalo.
At 3 pm, we picked up Larry, Scott, Tim, and our 3 Brits, David, Bill and Alan. With this lively crowd, we drove the 30 minutes to the falls and had a marvelous time. Since Larry is still suffering the effects of his groin injury, we walked a little and took the trolley ride all along the American side of the falls. Just exploring this side took us about 2-3 hours so we were not able to go to the Canadian side. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and saw many of the views that continue to be breathtaking even for those of us who have seen this site previously.
The ride home was a navigational challenge, but reasonably direct to our dinner location of The Olive Garden. You've never seen guys use those salad tongs so aggressively on the all you can eat salad. It was another incredible day on this incredible adventure.
Although we'd heard that there was a slight possibility of rain, the skies were clear and the wind off Lake Erie was either a light cross wind or a tail wind. We rode along this beautiful body of water for most of the 81 miles, leaving Pennsylvania behind around the 30 mile mark. I biked about half the day with Darryl and Doug and a little with George.
One of the most "exciting" parts of the ride was a detour around some bridge construction. Unfortunately, my personal ride was still more "exciting" when I had yet another flat tire. Right after carrying my bike on my shoulder across a trickle of a stream, I checked my tire and, sure enough, it was soft. With muddy hands, feet and everything else, I changed the darn tire.
After the rest stop at 46 miles, I rode alone and tried to catch Tim who left the stop as the rest of us were arriving. He had a 15-20 minute jump on me so I knew my work was cut out for me to catch him. I never did track him down, but I got close as he rolled into the Comfort Inn a couple minutes before I did.
As I was checking in, I checked my voice mail and Scott Terpstra had left a message. He asked that I check into getting a rental car so a bunch of us could drive the 30 miles to nearby Niagara Falls. Seemed like a good idea. With some help from the front desk, we reserved a mini van at Budget and headed out to first drink our milk shake. From there, we rode down the highway 6 miles, picked up the van, loaded up our bikes and headed back to the hotel. Small footnote--we stopped and took our picture outside the Buffalo Bills stadium which is in Hamburg, not Buffalo.
At 3 pm, we picked up Larry, Scott, Tim, and our 3 Brits, David, Bill and Alan. With this lively crowd, we drove the 30 minutes to the falls and had a marvelous time. Since Larry is still suffering the effects of his groin injury, we walked a little and took the trolley ride all along the American side of the falls. Just exploring this side took us about 2-3 hours so we were not able to go to the Canadian side. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and saw many of the views that continue to be breathtaking even for those of us who have seen this site previously.
The ride home was a navigational challenge, but reasonably direct to our dinner location of The Olive Garden. You've never seen guys use those salad tongs so aggressively on the all you can eat salad. It was another incredible day on this incredible adventure.
posted by Steve King at 2:54 AM
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