Day 83: Century Through Niagara Falls

When Dan left for work I headed to a cafe to get a bite and wake up. It was then that I realized I had forgotten my phone charger in his living room but thankfully he and the landlord were able to coordinate with me and the landlord opened the room. Now I was ready to ride and hopefully make it back to the States. I back-tracked quite a bit until I came to the river with the stairs where I took another route to head to St. Catherine. I ended up riding the Waterfront Trail for a long time which was nice to be able to just follow arrows rather than pull out the phone or stop for directions. On and on I just kept pushing and keeping up a decent pace. Recently on long days my knees have been getting a little sore but usually I find that a change in seating position alleviates it so I just have to keep shifting. Finally I got into the city of Niagara Falls, ON and came upon a scene I had not at all expected. Before I could get to the gorge was a touristy area like SF's Pier 39 on crack. There were at least 2 wax museums, Ripley's Moving Theater, all sorts of souvenir shops and the standard restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, etc. I sped right through and got to the parkway along the falls gorge. The scene I came upon was spectacular in every way that word can be used. The railings lined the 165+ foot deep gorge and provided fantastic views of one of the most awesome displays of nature I've ever seen. Niagara Falls has more water plunge over its face every second than any other waterfall in the world, and being next to the clear blue water and hearing its power was truly inspiring. I strolled the parkway and felt the spray shooting up from the bottom of Horseshoe Falls and watched the more able tourists getting soaked on the catwalks far below. I asked a lady to take a picture of me and she asked how long I had been out and where from, etc. With so many people on the parkway I soon had 8-10 people crowded around asking questions about the trip, all very supportive and excited. It was probably the closest I'll ever get to celebrity and it was fun to share my own excitement for the trip with so many others.

After a bit I crossed the Rainbow Bridge to the US, passed through customs, and setup my camera for a Welcome to NY sign. I had already put the jorts on before the falls, but in order to complete Frank's challenge I'm supposed to take my jersey off. Normally this is not a big deal since I'm on the side of some highway with cars flying by. But this time there was a huge flow of slow moving cars coming out of customs and tons of people walking around. I paced back and forth a bit and after probably 10 minutes decided it wasn't going to get any easier and I was burning daylight, so off came my top. I got several weird looks and a couple cheers as I stood there waiting for the camera to snap, then sheepishly grinning I ran back to the bike and robed myself again.

After a convenience store stop and a ride upstream along the Niagara River I found the KOA on Grand Island, made some food, and caught up on emails and mapping now that I'm back in the land of cell service and easy routing. I knew it had been a long day and was confirmed of the fact when my odometer said 105.7 miles today. It was a day where I felt that, if I want to ride 100 miles I'll do it, plain and simple. I wanted to reach the US and spent the appropriate energy and effort to get it done. Days like these tend to make me feel like a machine in the good way of being able to crank out the miles without much hassle, but also in the bad way of feeling like I'm not stopping to enjoy the areas I speed through. I'm glad that over the next week I only need to average 65 miles per day. This will allow me to take my time and really soak up the last leg of this trip.