Niagara Falls Tourists
Niagara Falls
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Niagara Falls, Canada
Short entry today as I’m still taking some time off while I tour around Niagara Falls with my mom. First time since I started that I haven’t ridden for two days straight and, although it is a bit weird to not be on the bike and to be in the same city for so long, it’s been good to take a break and great to hang out with my mother and talk.
It’s an absolutely beautiful, sunny day today, the Clifton Hill section on the Canadian side of the falls has a great, completely kitschy tourist area – complete with a Ripley’s Believe It or Not “museum”, a Guinness World Records Hall, various wax museums and, for some unknown reason, at least a dozen haunted houses that have non-stop tape loops blaring all day and night about the “horrors” you will see if you dare to come in… Soooo scary…
It is also great to be able to get back to the site and drop in the many entries I’ve have put together while on the road. If all goes well I should be able to update the site with new photos as well – the miles and miles of corn and soybean fields I have been riding through for days on end are not as visually exciting as the southwest, but I’ve tried to be good about documenting the highlights of the route, such as they can be found!
Canada Crossing
Canada Crossing
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Fort Erie, Canada
Once again I have been racing ahead of a storm front but this time it finally caught up with me. I was moving along the south shore of Lake Erie as I have been for a few days now and doing well until I zipped into Buffalo, NY then it got ugly, got loud and I knew it was going to bust open. I was so close to crossing into Canada where I wanted to end the day and I was more or less in the middle of the urban wasteland of the Buffalo shoreline so I decided to to try to race ahead but, as luck would have it, the skies opened up right as I was going through the zigzag route over the border. It wasn’t really too bad in the beginning – until I got right over the Niagara River on the Peace Bridge and then it just came down in buckets.
As anyone who has done any riding knows, it is not fun to think about the possibility of getting drenched, and even less fun to get soaked, but once you are wet, you are wet so no worries after that – just keep going and make the best of it. In some ways I thought it was fitting as I was closing in on 4,000 miles and, just like the time I was closing in on 1,000 miles so long ago on my first real bike back in New York, it was pouring and I was loving it.
I Love the Weather Channel
Friday, August 20, 2004
Wenona, IL
I have been just crushing the route with great long, cool days moving along much, much further than I was when I was struggling in the heat in the West. No longer do I have to worry about how quickly I can out race the sun as in the beginning, where it would be 70 at dawn, 90 by ten in the morning and over 100 by noon. It is generally been cool, but that is also because there have generally been successive cold fronts moving in from the north. I’m not sure whether it is from living in San Diego for so long where we really don’t have “weather” – it’s either warm enough for t-shirt and shorts or cool enough that you only need a sweatshirt – or if I just never had to pay this much attention to the weather, but now that I am back in the east, the changing weather is definitely the biggest factor to deal with during the ride. In fact, if I could have one hi-tech piece of gear that doesn’t exist it would be my own handheld Doppler radar so I could “see” the weather patterns in front of me. That said, I guess you could patch one together with a good handheld computer, a fast wireless connection and access to a retooled PocketPC version of the The Weather Channel.
Five Days, Five Centuries
Pennsylvania Crossing
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Geneva-on-the-Lake, PA
The terrain in this section of the route has been fairly consistent – flat to rolling hills – and the scenery even more so with the sections in Indiana and Illinois more or less alternating fields of corn and soybeans for miles on end – so I decided to up the challenge a little bit and see if I could do five straight days of over 100 miles a day.
Along with the changes in scenery, I’ve made changes to the bike, reduced some of the gear that I don’t need now that I’m not camping and best of all, there have been changes in my body. My legs are killer strong at this point – I can ride for hours on end without a problem and without any strain or pain. In fact, it is somewhat surreal at this point – they are cranking away for the entire day and in some ways I don’t even feel them – they are just down there, doing what they are supposed to do. An incredible feeling that brought me at least just a little close to what it must feel like to be an athlete – the body does what it is supposed to do and it is the mind that can take it a bit further.
Farmer, Cyclist, Cool Guy
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Farm Field, Middle of Nowhere, IN
Today I had one of those great little moments that happens when you are riding long haul, one of those moments that makes up for all the traffic, all the close calls with clueless clods in cars, all the stress and strain on the body.
I was zipping along in the usual maze of corn and soybean fields that I have been going through for literally hundreds of miles here in Indiana and Illinois. The main cycling route very kindly drops you far from the interstate, where the only cars and trucks are those have people that live and farm in the area and I decided to go even further off-route just to see a bit more of the country. It is an endless grid of fields that are set in fairly simple patterns – generally corn on one side, soybeans on the other, but there are also many sections where it is nothing but tall corn on both sides and you ride for miles on end in an alley of tall, green corn. The land is flat so you end up riding though an agriculture alley – there is nothing to see on the right but field corn, nothing on the right but field corn.
Sailing Up the Mississippi!
Navoo Temple
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Navoo, IL
What a great day! I was a little concerned when I got up this morning as I was waiting for a new charger for my phone to be delivered (finally left some gear in a motel a few days back), there was reports of possible thunderstorms this afternoon and, if the roads into Illinois were as hilly as those into Hannibal, I was in for a rough day. But as happens sometimes when you need it, the cycling gods were with me today and it was a near perfect day.
For the first time since I started the trip the wind was absolutely, completely, entirely with me – I was heading due north and the wind was fully from the south – and it was a strong wind at that! I’ve faced so many of these from every side – killer headwinds that rush in your ears all day, crosswinds that push the bike all over the road and winds that shift around all over so you never really get in a groove. But today – man, if I had a spinnaker on the bike I could have put my feet up and flew up along the Mississippi river all day… I was doing anywhere from 20-25 miles an hour all day long! Unheard of and, after crawling up steep, long hills at 5 miles an hour on the way into Hannibal it was so great to be racing along again, making up for the late start and still getting in over 80 miles today. Rock on!
Sister Weeks, Nauvoo Mission
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Nauvoo, IL
I’ve been pretty lucky so far, but it looks like I will be dodging storms for a few days as a line of successive cold fronts move in from Canada. That’s good news in that it will be cooler, but there’s a lot of air mass colliding going on so I’ll be dodging thunderstorms for the next week or so.
It was raining just north of Nauvoo today and, since that is just where I was heading, I decided to stay here for the day instead of getting just ten miles out and getting soaked. Along with not being the most comfortable of conditions to ride through, riding in the rain is just too potentially dangerous for me. Obviously after so many miles I’ve learned to ride defensively and can handle most any road but, as they say, there’s nothing you can do about a bad windshield wiper… Having had a close call a few days ago when I was riding at sunrise and someone rushing to work apparently just didn’t see me and brushed by closer than anyone’s ever done – just inches away – and fast at that, I’m not interested in riding on shoulder-less roads in the rain.
They Should Have Bought a Squirrel
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
So after not seeing any touring cyclists for a few days (a combination of going “off-route” for awhile and now moving north along the less traveled “Great Rivers” trail) I saw a group of cyclists coming towards me soon after I headed out of Hannibal. Since they were the larger group (as is all groups in my case…) I crossed over to their shoulder well up in front to stop and say hello – and when they got up to where I was they just kept on riding by! I have to admit I was so surprised – I mean, this hasn’t happened in nearly 3,000 miles and many, many path crossings - that I just stood there not knowing what to do… I did end up saying hello to the guy in front, but he didn’t say anything and only two of the five said anything back – but all just rode on past! To make it even interesting (and more insulting) they actually all stopped about a quarter mile down the road where they needed to make the next turn. I just figured it takes all kinds and this group just rounded out the other end of the bell curve…
The Land of Twain
Mark Twain House
Monday, August 16, 2004
Hannibal, MO
Well I took an “off” day yesterday to see the sights here in Hannibal and I think I have seen just about everything there is to see. I stayed in the Sam Clemens Inn, visited Mark Twain’s home, took a ride on the Mississippi on the Mark Twain riverboat, ate at the Mark Twain diner, had some ice cream at the Huckleberry Finn soda fountain, visited “Becky Thatcher’s” house, and everything else that they’ve worked in, around and overdone with the writings of their most famous citizen…
It was great to sleep in for a few hours, to be off the bike for the entire day and to enjoy the great weather. That said, the great weather was a bit of a mixed blessing as there as I was enjoying walking all around town but couldn’t help thinking it was also a great day to ride – and it may not be tomorrow… In fact, it does look like a storm is coming through from the northwest this week. I think I will be able to get in a good day’s ride today but tomorrow looks ugly – thunderstorms in the morning (a bit unusual) so I may not be able to ride. Fortunately, the towns here are much closer together so I can start out without too much concern about being stuck in the middle of nowhere with miles in either direction. Still, I’m not looking forward to the inevitable rain rides that will be coming along as I move north and east.
Mississippi River, Heading Home
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Hannibal, MO
The combination of great weather, miles of “training” and shedding gear as I leave the west have added up to some great, high mileage days and here I am at the Mississippi River! It was so great to come down a winding hill yesterday afternoon and float into the small town of Clarksville and see this great river floating by. I just couldn’t stop smiling and stopped for quite awhile before I turned north for Hannibal just to take it in.
There have been so many geographic milestones etched in my brain as I’ve ridden along – first the deserts of Arizona, then the canyons of Utah, the Rockies, the plains and now the Mississippi – and when I finally make it to (or through) each one it is a great thrill. I have to admit that it is getting more and more exciting to reach each one as I head east and to ride along the Mississippi River, having reached it by pedaling from California is somewhat surreal and something I am proud of…