4,000 Miles!!

I'm in central New York - and just west of Syracuse yesterday I hit 4,000 miles. I almost missed it but managed to watch my digitial odometer click from 3,999.9 over to 4,000 - but still can't believe it.

More good timing & luck: I'd already scheduled taking a couple of days to camp, rest & not ride my bike (though I always miss that... still love riding the bike!), and right now I'm struggling a little with either a pulled muscle or tendinitis, which is really irritating. I hope a couple of days break will improve things but either way I'm so close to the end I'll just ride through - it's just a lot harder to make it up these lovely rolling hills.

It's been raining all week, which is kind of fun to ride in but much more complicated for camping. Hoping the forecast for sun comes through, to ride into Albany and then Massachusetts - I'll be done in just over a week from today!

Back in the Empire State

Greetings from New York! After being stymied all morning I was just able to post a picture of the pedestrian & biker entrance to the US from Ft. Erie, Ontario Canada. It's so civilized, really, to be able to stroll across a bridge to get where you're going (unlike the border between Detroit and Windsor, which bikes are prohibited from crossing). Except earlier today the blogger posting thing kept crashing when I tried to load it...

That fed a temporary conspiracy theory among those of us vulnerable to such tendencies, because I got hollered at by the customs guy for taking photos at the border. You're not allowed, although there are no signs that say so - you're just supposed to know that danger lurks everywhere, apparently, disguised as a Beverly-Hillbillies-style bicycle tourist carrying a little digital camera. Since it just worked from here in Seneca Falls, I guess it must have been a problem at the place in Newark where I was before.

Had to show the bike path along the Niagara River in Buffalo (remember those lovely grassy parks on the Canada side?) - but to be fair, the Erie Canal towpath is really lovely.







But to then be honest, it's also muddy and full of puddles, and really slow to slog through - so mostly I have bailed on the canal path and am following Route 31 - which is also the NY State Bicycle Route 5 & even has official signs (first like this that I've seen anywhere) - although it's impossible to find a map of the route...

It's raining again today - third day in a row. I hope to camp at Cayuga Lake State Park tonight but it might be too wet... I just dried out my tent but it's starting to get a little raggedly from traveling wet - only a few more nights of camping on this trip, I just realized - so I want to take advantage.

It's been hard to find the internet, again, but I hope to have access on Tuesday night (in Ithaca, visiting Sheila, David, DC and Paul!)... we'll see!

And pictures, eh

Thought I should post my Canada pictures now - it was hard to capture the scope of the corn, I have to say, not to mention that specific agricultural scent... but I got a lot of other stuff. Besides the corn, there were tons of blueberry farms - and a few stands with pie, where naturally I stopped. The route followed coastal-ish roads - meaning Lake Erie was anywhere from a quarter-mile to a full mile away, which actually was a bit disapppointing. Thursday it got more interesting: river port towns in the morning, a functioning steel mill, and then riding right along the coast for a few hours. It was a glorious day, just about a perfect day of riding, but that's hard to capture on a little digital camera...


Also - I forgot to say: I saw yellow arrows again, from my Cycle America friends! I actually saw a few on one short stretch of road in Clare, MI last week, pointing them (and me) to the Pere Marquette bike trail. That was a total surprise and a blast.


I had an idea I might see arrows somewhere around Niagara, because I knew they were going through here - but I actually encountered them a couple of days ago on very rural roads near Port Stanley (a river port not far off the coast), and then followed them until Dunnville, when they turned north and I kept heading east. It was both fun and actually really moving to see them - knowing that group is reaching the Atlantic ocean and the end of their ride tomorrow (Saturday) - it must be so exciting for them, and yet also maybe hard, to be done... So often when I've found the arrows I have felt the companionship and affection for people in that group. Anyhow, here's to the Coast-to-Coasters! I'll get there soon!

And here are the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/Canada#

Joy Ride

I think this whole thing could be called a "joy ride," but today I got to leave all my stuff behind in a motel room and ride up to Niagara Falls, and that was especially fun. It's been a really lovely day - sunny but not too hot, after last night's thunderstorm (!!) cleared out the humidity. (I was safe in bed, yay.)

It's easy to make fun of the tremendously cheesy development around Niagara Falls - but the falls themselves are truly awesome. As in, awe-inspiring. I'm really glad I took the time to see them, and to just sort of hang out along the river.

I also noticed that the US side of the river doesn't seem to have so much green space... hmmm.

Canada, picnic table & grass; US, smokestacks...

I seem to spend a lot of time at laundromats, which is where I am now. I managed to ride across Ontario in just four days but used every stitch of my clothes to do it! So I'm stocking up on clean laundry, new tubes of toothpaste and sunscreen, and snacks to get me launched on the Erie Canal bike path starting tomorrow. I got to ride about 15 miles on car-free bike paths yesterday, which was fun, and I'm looking forward to the whole network of canal pathways. (Though I admit that today I rode on the road, instead of the bike path - I felt like going fast without my heavy load!)

I'm also re-routing myself, to end up in Boston instead of Maine. I realized since I'm going to visit my friend in Northampton, Mass. I might as well just keep heading east. What's shocking is how close Boston is! I'm going to get there in just a couple of weeks.

So I'm slowing down a little... dawdling across upstate New York so I can visit family in Ithaca, camp in some gorgeous state parks with Mr. Duncan (who's riding his motorcycle over), and hang out in Albany with Cyndi's sister Deb. Then I guess I'll dawdle across Massachusetts and around Boston (and Hull, and Cambridge...), and then some more lolly-gagging in St Paul before I end up back in SF. I guess that will be my summer vacation before getting back to work...!

Starting tomorrow I'll be camping again, so might not be online again until... maybe Tuesday, in Ithaca. Ithaca! Wow. This all still seems so impossible...!

O [ntario] Canada

I'm writing this from the library in Port Dover, Ontario. I was so excited to have access to the internet. One of the things I space out about while riding alongside corn fields is, What should I put on my blog? (Right up there with my next snack.)

This picture shows the Detroit River, as seen from a lovely park in Ontario. The opening in the distance is where the river reaches Lake Erie.



As I got further along and could see across the actual lake - that's what you see on the US side! (And that's Ohio, BTW not Detroit.)
US >>>>>










While as you ride into Ontario, this is what you see: a whole different approach to generating electricity. (Not to mention the solar clothes dryer.)
<<<<< Canada

Lest you think I am heavy-handed with visual editorializing, I have to say these windmills are everywhere! I've been riding in Canada for three days now and have seen them multiple times each day. On Monday, heading from Windsor eastward (along the northern shore of Lake Erie) I also saw lots of cool signs about bikes & cars sharing the road. Those disappeared by Monday afternoon, but people all along the route have been friendly and giving me room - none of these roads have shoulders, is the thing, and they're pretty narrow, so it takes some thought to make space for everybody.

The route I'm following is really lovely... the first day & a half of riding it was completely flat, and I had strong winds pushing me along, which was super fun. I found myself wondering, Am I going to get out of shape for climbing hills, if it's like this the whole way? How am I going to cross the mountains to get to the east coast?

Not so worried about that anymore (well, maybe about the mountains...) - today I hit hills. And the road is taking them the old-fashioned way: straight up. Or worse: straight down, with a hairpin U-turn at the bottom so you have to come to nearly a stop before the turn, thus losing all your momentum before climbing back up. It's mostly fun, except for when the wind's against you (as it was, bizarrely, most of today) or there's a big truck trying to pass - but it's going ok on the whole.

Now I'm looking forward to hitting Niagara Falls on Friday!! And crossing back into the US on Saturday, to hit the Erie Canal bike path... (Let's hope getting back in is less of a hassle than leaving: it took forever to get through immigration between Detroit & Windsor...)

I've also been thinking a lot about my destination(s). I've decided to end up in Massachusetts instead of Maine, but don't know exactly where or how I'm getting there... So if anyone has ideas about that, please let me know!

My sister rocks!

Well, both my sisters rock, along with my brother, his wife and all her family, my kid, aunts & cousins... etc.

But I have to give special thanks to my sister Peg, who has not only been supportive about my trip for the past several months but brought some friends into it (who routed me to their cottage in Hope, and then into Ann Arbor), and has spent the past few days driving up to meet me, carrying my stuff, finding a hotel & lunch spots along the way, and putting me up at her house. And driving me around to do a million errands. And is driving me to Canada!

Thanks!

Traversing Michigan - and pictures!

I can't believe I'm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, sitting in my sister's rocking chair (using her neighbor's wi-fi - thanks, dude)!

It always feels like a big deal to get on the several planes it takes to reach Detroit, so the fact that I actually rode my bike here remains - honestly - unbelievable.

We spent the morning doing errands, then had lunch with Bill Smith, our former neighbor who is the kind of family friend that simply becomes family. I also took my bike to the spa - Two Wheel Tango, my sister's favorite bike shop. Got a new chain & cassette (it wasn't urgent but would've become so in the middle of nowhere, most likely) but other than that, bike's in great shape. Yay bikey!

I was really, really tired after 8 straight days of riding - averaging over 75 miles a day. Monday was the only really hard day of actual riding, with all those hills all afternoon - but while the road got flatter, it also got hotter and more humid every day.

On Wednesday I had another round of crazy good luck - after riding in a light but steady rain the last 20 miles into the town (well, intersection) of Leroy I was pretty wet but enjoying the cool, when I got to town and found the only place to stay: Muddy's (aptly-named) Travelers Inn. About one minute after I pulled in, it started to pour - buckets of rain, for over an hour. There was flooding in much of central Michigan as a result - I just can't believe my luck with this stuff. (Not to mention that's a part of the world I find a little creepy; it's fertile ground for the Michigan Militia, and I didn't really feel like camping by myself in some deserted campground... much less in a pouring rain.)

The next morning there was a thick ground fog that took hours to burn off - and then it got really steamy. The heat really snuck up on me - riding creates a breeze so I wouldn't realize how hot it was (low 90s, w/high humidity) until I stopped, and then the sweat would be literally dripping off me. I ended up riding in what amounted to my underwear: a sport tank-top kinda thing and those bike shorts you kind of giggle at. Usually I wear a jersey & baggy shorts over that stuff - it just looks so silly - but it was too dang hot! No, I do not have a picture of myself in this get-up. But I thought it was fun to be out on the road in my skivvies.

On the road - following the Adventure Cycling Erie Connector route and then the Larry Macklem route (a friend of my sister) - I discovered a side of Michigan I'd never seen: the most amazing, gorgeous bike path I've found on this whole trip (the Pere Marquette trail) and the state's immense agricultural mid-section. Endless fields of corn, some sugar beets and then a surprise crop of sunflowers! That was especially exciting.

I broke my iPod so couldn't space out on music, so instead I spaced out thinking about... uh... ideas for more exciting road trips... how much I love to ride my bike (good thing!), how lucky I am to have so many people sending me their love & support, and, of course, when I might stop and have a snack.

One of my errands today (facilitated by my endlessly supportive sister) was going to see if they could revive my iPod. Alas, they could not. The good news is they gave me a new one! since it was still under warranty. I was bummed and also laughing at myself - that this amounts to the challenge & adversity of my trip, not really much of the actual riding (except for days like last Monday, which you develop a kind of amnesia over). Then the guy offered to load up all the demo music he had on his repair laptop, so I'd have something to listen to on the road! It's not necessarily what I would have picked but kind of like listening to some weird radio station... which I realize I can also do, so that will be folded into the adventure.

Tomorrow I am crossing over into Canada!! You can't ride across the Ambassador Bridge (from Detroit) so my sister is driving me into Windsor. I should be in Niagara Falls on Friday, and then get back into the US in Buffalo on Saturday and hit the Erie Canal bike trail to cross upstate New York.

I'll be camping this week and I don't know if I'll have internet access until Friday...

And as promised, here are pictures of the last eight days of riding, from Escanaba into Ann Arbor. Michigan is big, and was full of surprises - can't wait to see what I come upon next.

http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/TraversingMichigan#