We rode all day today. And we got good miles in. It was a little cooler again but we were close to water for quite a while so that explains a lot. Also, we are moving further north. I hope we have enough warm clothes!

It’s getting hillier as we go and there was a lot of wind today as well. But we prevailed and made it to a pretty cool campground. This guy’s dad turned their dairy farm into a campground back in 1980. They are on our route and yes, they get a lot of bikers every summer.

I hope you’ve had a happy Mother’s Day today whether you’re a mother or not. Every day should be another opportunity to have a happy day! But his happy day is winding down. This body is bone tired and ready to fall asleep.

Thanks for checking in!

We dropped our RV off at 8 this morning (May 13) and then decided what to do with our day. As luck would have it the tire shop was just off of a bike path.

What could we do but ride to he nearest town? And I’m just going to say it. Fairport, NY is a lot more bike friendly than it is car friendly. I was lost several times there yesterday.

We stumbled across a farmers market! So much fun. I picked up a few souvenirs and you won’t believe what else. A new plant that we will never ever leave unattended. It’s orange mint, which is different and interesting. I have a couple other kinds at home and when we get home at the end of this trip this plant will go with those. For now that’s where it will ride. In the hole that the sink covers make. Should do fine.

We got started with the ride by 11:30 or so and did get 60 miles in, so that’s not bad for a short day.

Tomorrow, being Mothers Day could be a tad shorter too, time will tell.

Until then, thanks for reading. We’ll probably do this again tomorrow!

Ok, I’m going to start driving in the left lane at all times and just run people out of the way when I’ve got to turn right! Congestion in Rochester forced me to touch the curb again, barely, but it was enough to ruin that brand new tire.

This morning’s tire place was not bad at all. Super friendly, helpful with suggestions for killing time, less expensive than we had feared. I think we were on the road again shortly after noon. Closer to Rochester, close to the weekend, everything was much busier. But it was a beautiful day, if on the warm side.

I don’t know what else to say though. We are dropping off our ride tomorrow morning early and whenever they can free someone up to fix it they will. We may, or may not be riding tomorrow.

Why does life have to be so hard?

It’s not the fault of the Erie Canal. That’s where we’re riding now and will be tomorrow as well, with a little luck. Despite everything, we did alright mileage wise today (May 11).

Michelle got a flat tire near the end of her first segment. The sealant didn’t work and neither did the dart. So she found a bike shop not too far away that was open while I rode my first segment. The canal trail is pretty great, but it is mostly gravel. Some areas have bigger, sharper rocks like the one that took out her tire, but other places it’s fantastic.

I rode for a bit with a guy who was riding Buffalo to Rochester. Retired, just getting some miles in. When I got to my stopping point I googled nearby restaurants. And like magic a guy from the next town over pulled up. He rode with me to a nice family type place and we visited while waiting for Michelle to get back

When she got back she was sporting a new tire, thicker. It should do her proud.

She rode her next segment, then I was ready for mine. Only thing is, we kept missing each other. She was busy making a camping reservation so I got ahead a bit. And it’s not easy trying to get around in a 29 foot RV that can’t do a u-turn just anywhere. so I rode a little further and a little later than anticipated.

And on the way to get in after loading my bike what should I see? A blown out tire! I’d rubbed a curb pretty hard in a too narrow turning lane the other day and I guess today the potholes were too much for it. We called a few tire places that were open late but nobody worked on duals. So we limped back to our campground.

Looks like there might be a place not far from here that can do it, but we really won’t know until morning when they get to work. Tomorrow we may be flying by the seat of our jeans. Who knows when we’ll be back on the bikes!

It was just a lot of stress in one day.

This blog has had a little down time. And this time there is not an excuse, it’s an actual reason! I don’t have an international plan on my iPad. This is our first campground up north that has Wi-Fi, so catch up time it is.

We saw Horseshoe Falls today and it was truly awesome. And I don’t use that word lightly! Tomorrow we see Niagara Falls so we’ll see how that compares. It was a great day to ride plus mostly trails, so we couldn’t have asked for more.

However, there is also a crime to report. We brought a plant along, it fit on the step for driving and we put it outside at campgrounds. It had basil, oregano and mint in the planter. We left it at the campground this morning knowing we’d be back to the same spot. Plus we put a note on it saying we would be back. Yet when we returned it was gone. We’re hoping someone will return it overnight. And I thought Canadians were nice. Humph.

Did you know that this is wine country? They can’t export to the US but there are maybe more wineries here than there were in Walla Walla Washington! We did a couple of tastings and they do make good wine. Queenston Mile stood out. It was an amazingly friendly and very good winery that we stumbled across. We loved it there. One of their taglines is something about upscale meeting down to earth. And it’s fitting.

Tomorrow I’ll try to update again, from the good old US of A. Where I wouldn’t even consider leaving something unattended at a campground. That being said, at least pictures are more likely to download from my phone to the iPad so ay least there will be that!

This morning the plan was to go to Niagara Falls for a little while, then ride. What we realized was that it’s not appropriate to spend only a little time there.

First off, we were still on the Canadian side this morning. Anyone who goes to Niagara Falls and only sees it from the U.S. side should have their head examined! Both are breathtaking but if I could only see one it’s the one where they’re flying the Canadian flag!

It was harder to find parking on the U.S. side though. Weird.

Tonight we are camping fairly close to the falls and really will get on our bikes tomorrow. The weather forecast is good and it’s time to put some road behind us.

For a while we had wild delusions riding early and riding late, putting in 120 mile days when we could. We’ve since found that our battery ranges are closer to 40 than 60 and the generator isn’t that dependable to fully charge the battery of whoever is driving. But we did meet the day 2 ride goal of 90 miles!

That put us in Port Dover, just 79.6 miles out of Fort Erie. We’re both liking Ontario but our mission is Maine. With a good day of riding we should make it to Fort Erie. Then it’s just a short day to Niagara where cross back into the US.

Today (May 7) we are taking a rain/laundry day. It was raining earlier and all along our route the forecast says rain likely throughout the day.

A word about the e-bikes. I’m positive we wouldn’t have gotten this far and I for one wouldn’t feel this good without them. But it hasn’t made for a walk in the park. We’ve mostly had wind, plus a lot of hills. I hate to admit it, but I had to walk up one particularly steep hill that I wasn’t geared right for. There are shifting issues with Michelle’s bike, which stinks. But we’ll find a bike shop, maybe tomorrow.

We are once again getting used to living in such close quarters, but I’m sure we’ll get that all figured out within a few more days.

Life is good. We’re doing this thing!

Lessons have been learned today. Number one on the list for me is butt butter is my friend. New saddle, no real riding for 2 years. A person gets out of condition!

Another lesson: Charge the battery even if you think it’s pretty full. I didn’t quite run out, but could have bumped the assist up in the wind f there had been a better charge.

When in another country get some money right away. I was able to make a flying trip to a Royal Canadian Bank that had an ATM only a few kilometers out of the way. And I got there with 7 minutes to spare before closing! There are a lot of campgrounds that don’t accept credit cards.

It’s been a great day and I’m looking forward to hopping back onto a fully charged bike tomorrow.

This morning I found my iPad. No post yesterday because it was lost. And when I found it, it showed me that the last post hadn’t uploaded. Not sure It has now or not, but we’ll just keep calm and carry on.

We have crossed over into Canada 🍁 we didn’t exactly know what to tell the guy at the border about how long we’re staying, but thought it would be about 3 days. He was fine with that. We are considering driving home mostly through their fine country so it’s good to know they seem pretty easy going. This crossing was much easier than e one’s I see on To Catch a Smuggler.

When we got to the campground he bikes came off the rack! There’s a nice bike path along the river so we went out for a few miles. We both have kinks to work out on our e-bike learning curve but they are going to be a game changer.

It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day to ride. With any luck there will be an update tonight to let you know how we did.

We’re a day and a half into the trip! I’m not saying that Michigan is a bad state, but they really need to do some work on their roads. We rattled down the road so badly that one of our cupboards broke. Yep, split the wood and all our cleaning products from under the vanity flew everywhere. Bummer, but we have duct tape.

We’ll probably get onto our bikes tomorrow. Not necessarily on our route, but maybe just somewhere near the campground to get a feel for the bikes.

We think we’re still pretty much on schedule overall, assuming we have good riding weather once we get there. By Friday we will definitely have to get onto the route. 😁