Medina to Fairport – 63 miles
Average Speed – 10.5 mph

We left our motel early and had breakfast downtown at the 24-hour restaurant. We re-traced our path back to the Canal Trail and headed in an easterly direction toward Fairport. We stopped many times along the trail to read the signs or chat with fellow trail users. We figured that we might find some maps and current information about the trail at the Brockport Welcome Center. The volunteer staff there is very friendly and the coffee was good, but the information on the trail was seriously lacking. Basically, there was not one single map of the trail, but there was a guide for boaters, which showed the distances between the locks. The patient volunteer searched hard to find the one copy of this that she had and made a copy of it for me.

It’s very difficult to understand why it is so incredibly hard to find any information. All of us have searched online several times for a good and current map of the trail. All of us came up with very general information that was hardly more useful than looking at a map of the US and trying to find a route.

We were thrilled to be meeting some folks along the way today. In Rochester, we met up with Scott and Pooja and in Fairport we were hosted by the Turners. Marcia was very eager to host us rather than ride a bike with us for a few miles.
We had ice cream with Scott and Pooja and then headed to Fairport and on to the Turner Bed and Breakfast. We really enjoyed our stay and considered moving in, but Portland is calling and we are trying not to answer the call.

As we get closer and closer to home turf, thoughts of simply stopping and finishing the last few miles at some later time, keep creeping into my head. I haven’t had a good night of sleep for a very long time, so we will be taking a day or two off in Round Lake before we hit the road again. I know that I won’t be doing any long trips like this again.

After dinner with the Turners we went to the canal and had ice cream with Sandy and Jessie.
We really enjoyed our short visit together, but bedtime came upon us quickly, so we retreated to our comfy surroundings for the evening.

Niagara Falls to Medina – 56 miles
Average Speed – 11 mph

Today we are meeting two of our children and our friend, Mary Ellen, who are coming from Albany to ride back with us along the Erie Canal. We won’t meet them until early in the afternoon, so there was no hurry to leave the motel. This was another place that advertises wireless internet that isn’t available in every room. The staff gives out expired passwords so that even if you get a signal in the lobby, you can’t get online.
Besides the internet annoyance, there was also the small problem with the springs of the mattresses of both beds popping through. This made sleeping so uncomfortable and nearly impossible. One of these days, I may get a restful sleep.

The constant noise in Niagara Falls seems to start early in the day. If you imagine an open-air video arcade, you might get a sense of the noise that bombarded us as we walked down Clifton Hill. We didn’t bother riding our bikes down the steep road, which is just a short distance from the Rainbow Bridge.

We entered the pedestrian crossing area to walk our bikes across and somebody appeared from an office and told us that we must ride across the bridge, which currently was backed up with traffic. The walkway is adequately wide for both passengers and bicycles and although we said that we had planned on walking the bikes over to the other side, the official said that “they” didn’t like bikes on the sidewalk. We didn’t like biking across the bridge, but eventually made it.

We had breakfast in North Tonawanda since we had some time to kill before the others arrived from the inconvenient Depew train station. Amtrak only takes bikes on certain trains at certain times of the day. That’s very helpful. Speaking of bikes and trains, ViaRail is doing a pilot project this summer promoting the use of the train and bicycles. This program is on the Toronto and Niagara route and if successful, will be continued. The unfortunate part of it is that few people even know about it.

We met up with the others in North Tonawanda and started heading east, using the poor canal route maps that we have. We had looked online at a county cycling map and wrote down the instructions for getting to Lockport. We passed right by Lockport. The canal trail did not start where it was indicated on the map. There wasn’t even a sign welcoming us to Lockport or directing us to the business section of town. We passed right by and ended up having to backtrack and get the trail in Gasport.

We had hoped to find some better maps at Lockport. Guess that Lockport isn’t too interested in attracting outsiders.

When we stopped in Gasport for lunch, a couple who had driven there for the beef on weck, said that they totally missed Lockport and had great difficulty finally getting there. At least, we found the trail in Gasport and headed on our merry way to Medina, our destination for the night.

Geese along the trail

Tomorrow, we head to Fairport and stay with friends.

Dunnville to Niagara Falls – 46 miles
Average Speed – 10.2

We enjoyed an egg soufflé and other goodies on the porch of the Lalor Mansion in Dunnville. We asked if there would be more to come and were relieved to hear that we had the entire entrée in front of us.
The size of servings brought up the topic of how many calories cyclists eat. For us, we don’t really eat significantly more than we would at home. Eating breakfast does add a few calories that we wouldn’t otherwise have eaten in our regular lives. But, unlike some cyclists who claim to eat 5000 to 8000 calories per day, we would gain huge amounts of weight in a very short time if we consumed so many calories each day. Many have commented that we don’t need to watch what we eat since we are cycling. That is so untrue for us. I have lost a whopping 12 pounds for doing hard exercise for at least 40 hours per week. Robert has lost closer to 20. So much for that calories in and calories out theory that does seem to work for some people.

We left with very full stomachs, which didn’t seem to matter as we once again battled a rather strong headwind. So much for being blown across the continent. Don’t know what we were thinking, although we met a guy at the ferry who confirmed that the usual winds are out of the southwest, but that lately, they have been from all other directions, including the northeast.

Our ride today should have been a simple one, but the wind easily changed that. The mileage we did today almost seemed as bad as doing an 80 mile day. We thought that we would finish early today, but that didn’t happen. Maybe it’s time to think about starting at the crack of dawn.

The highlight of today was the Port Robinson ferry, which crosses the Welland Canal and is specifically for pedestrians and bicyclists. Unfortunately, the route that we followed per some cyclist’s cue sheet left much to be desired.

We biked along the Niagara Recreational Trail, a less than ideal way to reach Niagara Falls. The path has sharp and hidden turns and is shared with multitudes of pedestrians as we appoached the Falls. Niagara shocked us. A natural wonder enhanced by hawkers and other tackiness that line the street.

I remember reading an article about somebody who found the hawkers in Saint Thomas offensive. I personally found the article offensive as I have been to Saint Thomas several times and never saw any hawkers and because some of her facts, like having to fly to Saint Thomas in an 8-seater plane weren’t entirely true. Now, Niagara Falls definitely has hawkers, who frequently have microphones with cords strewn across the sidewalk. I hoped that the weight of our bicycles would have shorted out the microphones for a minutes, but these people must have heavy-duty electronics.

Once again we are staying at a place that falsely advertises wireless internet. We can’t get a signal in our remotely located room. We do have a tv and the news just mentioned two car bombs in London. I couldn’t figure out why such a situation would happen in London, which isn’t too far from here. Duh. The news referred to that other London.

My sleep deprivation continues. Maybe tonight I will sleep without hurting my wounds or experiencing painful leg cramps. And maybe there will be a tail wind tomorrow.

Port Burwell to Dunnville – 80 miles
Average Speed – 12.1 mph

Once again, we started way later than we should have, but at least it wasn’t as hot and humid as it was the past few days. We tried to take a shortcut through a detour, but that didn’t work out at all and delayed us even more. Once we eventually were on our way, we made decent time, until we came to some killer hills, which required walking. The first hill was so steep that it was impossible to pedal at all. I only continued pedaling because my bike doesn’t weigh as much as Robert’s and because I was going so slowly that I figured that I couldn’t get out of my clips without rolling back down or falling over. I thought I had an aneurysm because my head hurt so bad afterward. Never did we expect these hills in the first place, nor did we expect to encounter several more walking hills. When I saw a hairpin curve sign, I thought it was a joke. A hairpin in Southern Ontario?

These hills don’t even compare to Lolo in terms of steepness. They have it beat in every way.
Part of the shock for us was thinking that we would be on the flats for our entire trek along the lake. We reached Port Dover and went to the info center to look for maps. The friendly staff there immediately fetched us some water and found the map that we sought. We really appreciated the info they gave to us about the road to follow. I was more than curious about the terrain. They said that there were a few hills a the beginning and then it would be flat. They were correct. They told us that in the winter, they put salt at the bottom of one of those climbs we did so that cars can make it up.

Port Dover Pig

We stopped for lunch in Port Dover and then headed out to do the last stretch to Dunnville. Because of the time, we decided to abandon the lakeshore route and took the most direct route into Dunnville.

We are staying at a wonderful bed and breakfast,The Lalor Estate, a real treat after a long and tough day of cycling. Once again we fought the wind, so were rather exhausted when we reached our destination. Our comfortable room and welcoming host quickly made us forget the travails of the day.

Shrewsbury to Port Burwell – 76 miles
Average Speed – 13.7 mph

Sleeping last night was not especially comfortable, thanks to my wounded arm and knee that screamed when anything touched it. We had a generous breakfast, which got us through the entire day. Early weather reports said that the heat and humidity would subside today. Reality indicated that it would not. It was too hot to even consider eating anything, but we made a few stops for ice cold beverages.

Shortly after that stop, we pedaled on and encountered a couple of self-contained cyclists heading in the opposite direction.

They were from Switzerland and heading to LA, which they planned to reach in November or December. They only had a few more miles to go for the day as they were averaging much shorter daily distances than we. What a luxury. I would have really loved to have reached our destination after 25 or 30 miles today. That isn’t entirely true because we are both getting antsy to get home and live a more stable life. Although we are thoroughly enjoying this trip and we both love to travel, we would like to spend a few days in the same spot.

My knee and arm constantly ached, but both suddenly began to really bother me. I put a bandage on both of them, although had hoped to let them dry out. It wasn’t until we stopped in Port Stanley that I realized what the problem was. I resembled basement concrete blocks with a bad case of efflorescence.
Salty Arm with Scrapes

Robert thought my arms were simply dirty until he tried to sample the white salty looking substance. I had become a human pretzel from sweating so profusely. It was that salt that seeped into my wounds and caused me to suffer.

Our big surprise of the day was several steep hills. Don’t know where they came from or why they are here. The southerly section of the Niagara Escarpment? Sounds good to me. The hill immediately out of Port Stanley climbed so steeply, that I gave up and walked it. Shortly after that, I pedaled as hard as I did up Lolo Pass to reach the top of an Ontario hill. Maybe I should have eaten something after breakfast.

We passed by a brand new wind farm, with 66 turbines in all.

We did have a semi- tailwind today from the SSW direction. The best that we can hope for these days is that one part of the direction has a W in it.

We arrived late in the day to Port Burwell, and checked into the Grey Gables B&B
, which is conveniently just one block from the main street and very popular with cyclists.

It does seem like everything here is located just one block away from the main drag. We showered and then set out to explore Burwell, which has Canada’s oldest wooden lighthouse, a very nice beach and a marine museum.

We even hit the laundromat as these hot days haven’t done much to keep our clothes fresh or even dry. We don’t want to have to worry about a mold problem in the panniers.

Leamington ON – Shrewsbury ON – 46 miles
Average Speed – 13.1 mph

Yesterday, Erik drove us to Leamington where the ferry for Pelee leaves at this time of the year. Biking from Toledo to Canada would mean going north of Detroit to get the Marine City ferry. It would also mean biking from Toledo to Detroit. We spent the day at Pelee Island and returned to Leamington where we spent the night at the Comfort Inn, which is the closest motel to the ferry and in the perfect spot for our route heading east.

We got a late start, which wasn’t so smart considering the temperature would be equally as high as the humidity. We took it easy so as not to work up too much of a sweat. Initially, we were concerned about riding along Route 3, but those fears were unfounded as the route is not heavily trafficked at this time of the week.

Dog Attack

In our over 2500, miles, we really hadn’t encountered any dogs until Michigan and those dogs stayed in their yards. Today, on the way to Wheatley, a dog came bolting out of its yard. As always, Robert takes the position closest to the edge of the road to deal with the dog. Today, the dog dealt with Robert. The dog didn’t respond at all to us shouting at it to stay, stop or go home. It bit into Robert’s rear panniers, growling the entire time and refusing to let go. A squirt of water at him had absolutely no effect on the menacing creature.
I considered bolting myself, but reconsidered thinking that the dog might see that as a challenge to chase me. The dog abandoned Robert’s rear pannier and ran up to me and bit into my front pannier. He totally took control of my steering and I veered into the gravel driveway of his owners, where I landed hard. I waited for the dog to bite my face or another part, but fortunately that didn’t happen. My head throbbed and my arm and knee burned. The road rash looked none too pretty. The owner, who had yelled at his disobedient dog when it charged us claimed that it always obeyed. Obviously a bi-polar dog, especially considering the fact that the officer to whom we reported the incident said that the dog laid by its dog house the entire time that he was there. I am not sure if the dog was chained or not.

Riding after the incident thrilled me to no end and I had to be very careful not to touch my arm to anything, which I accidentally did a few times. This evening, my head still hurts and I notice that I also must have fallen on my shoulder as it is very sore as well. Sleeping won’t be very easy tonight as the road rash is very sensitive to the touch.

Lake Erie was in view much of the day, but it was so hazy that it often blended in with the sky. I considered taking a photo of me dipping my wheel in the lake and simply saying that it was the Atlantic. Since photos don’t have a smell function, nobody could tell the difference anyway.

Should I dip the wheel?

On one part of the road, I smelled an intense aroma of strawberries. It is strawberry season after all and we shortly came to a pick-your-own farm. Maybe we can find some berries tomorrow. It would be rather difficult to carry berries on the bike. If the strawberries taste as good as the local tomatoes(Leamington is the tomato capital), we will definitely have to stop. I never really appreciated how good tomatoes taste until I moved to New York, which is definitely not known for its tomatoes, or any other produce for that matter.

We are staying at the Lake Erie Haven Bed and Breakfast, very close to Rondeau Provincial Park, which is on the Bay. Our kind hosts drove us to a new restaurant on the bay, which we especially appreciated because it is 6-miles distant. Riding my bike there wasn’t the first thing on my mind.

Tomorrow we plan on putting in a lot of miles if the weather is as cool and dry as predicted and if we can find a place to stay. Our travel dates through the area couldn’t have been more poorly chosen. Sunday is Canada Day and many people are planning extra long weekends, which means reserving rooms for Thursday night. We will just happen to be along the lake and near Niagara Falls.

We spent a few days in Toledo and did the touristy things that one always does in Toledo. We also met with family and friends, so our days off became busier than the days on the bike.

We drove over brand new I-280 bridge which just opened early that day.

I pimped Erik’s fence.

Before

After

We visited the glass pavilion.

We went to Pelee Island

We biked on Pelee Island.

Albion to Sylvania – 86 miles
Average Speed – 12.6

We figured that we could make it to Sylvania if we pushed hard. We did lots of hard pushing up the many climbs in the Irish Hills, knowing that once we approached Adrian, the hills would totally vanish. Although we have ridden in the area many times, we had great difficulty remembering routes that we used to do without thinking about at all.

Gravel roads controlled our route choices north of Adrian. This part of Michigan must have more gravel roads than any other part including the UP. We simply continued on a stretch of highway until we came to a paved road. Only twice did we ride on gravel in the interest of saving some miles.

One thing that we hadn’t forgotten was the Frosty Boy in Blissfield. We stopped for refreshments there before doing the final stretch into Sylvania. Shortly after Riga, a gust of wind nearly blew me into a deep ditch.

RIGA

Once again, the winds were from the east, which is not at all common for this time of the year in this area. We had hoped for smooth sailing with a nice tailwind. We still hope for that going across Canada.

In the distance, we could see the Sylvania water tower, so we knew that we could easily survive the remaining few miles. I had never paid too much attention to the signs welcoming traffic into Sylvania, but today, I took notice of them, although I don’t know why there was no welcoming committee waiting for us.
Actually, Erik had gone to the corner of his street, but since we came from a different way, we bypassed that committee of one.

Kentwood to Albion – 78 miles
Average Speed – 12.6 mph

Another unintentional late start resulted in a rather late arrival, but it isn’t as if we had anything pressing to do here in Albion. We got drenched between Kentwood and Hastings, but sought refuge from the worst part of the rain under the eaves of a caretaker’s shed in a cemetery.

We modified our route in Hastings and thank goodness that we looked at the maps again instead of relying on what MapQuest said. The printed directions sent us on State St. out of Hastings, when what we wanted was State Rd. Had we not caught this, we would probably be in Lansing right now.

In spite of the long day and some steep climbs, the day turned very pleasant when the rain subsided. We almost, but not quite, had forgotten about all the gravel roads in Michigan. We entirely avoided them by zigzagging across the street grid. As luck would have it, one of our zigs or zags put us right on the road where the motel is located. There really isn’t much here, but getting here didn’t compare to the chaos we encountered yesterday.

A for sale sign reminded me that when we were in Milwaukee, we passed by a religious goods store. We stopped in to buy a St. Joseph to bury in the front yard of the house that we have for sale. I had checked on a St. Joseph in Albany, but don’t know where the good religious stores are. The one I went to, which is a combination religious goods and screenprinting shop (hey, maybe they should also have expresso) had the home seller’s kit for $14 or some ridiculous price. It was basically the same 99 cent St. Joe that I just bought, packaged in a oversized box with a printed prayer included.

We passed by the world famous Turkeyville, located in the middle of nowhere, but right along our route.

We stopped and had milkshakes, which we rapidly burned off on the next few steep hills so regularly spaced on the route today. Guess we are kind of in the Irish Hills area. As we get closer to Toledo, the hills will disappear. The biggest hills in SE MI are highway overpasses.

Muskegon to Kentwood – 53 miles
Average Speed – Well, we walked a lot today

We had a nice breakfast at our bed and breakfast and chatted with the guests who were taking sailing lessons and the couple from Germany who were in the US for a family reunion. Breakfast started late as did we, but we really had no pressing issues in Kentwood.

We stopped at the e Bicycle Rack Bike Shop in search of a Bike GR map. The online one crashed our laptop because it is so huge. One guy kept his personal copy in a special place, but he wasn’t able to find it. Oh, well. We would hit the library that was right on our route and tried to find a copy since the website said they were available from both libraries and bike shops.

Ice Cream Stop on the Trail

The Musketawa Trail proved to be a quick route to GR. We met Alice and Dale on the trail. Dale offered his Florida map, which he had with him. That wouldn’t help us too much, but their suggestion of the Interurban Depot Diner in Marne proved very worthwhile. We deviated from the last few miles of the trail and beelined into Marne to try out this place.

We left lunch and found a library, which didn’t have the Bike GR map, but which did have two extremely helpful librarians who gave us a GR map(not the bike map) and called to find a bike shop that did have the bike map. It’s too bad that the city doesn’t make sure that all libraries have a copy of the map. Then again, after following the recommended routes on the map, maybe nobody should have a copy.

To put it bluntly and omit all the gory details: Getting across GR to Kentwood was not pleasant at all. It took us longer than it did to get from Muskegon to the outskirts of GR. I certainly wouldn’t recommend the routes that we followed, which were recommended in the map.

We thought that we were booked at the Holiday Inn Express on 28th St. in Kentwood. The idea was to get beyond the city so that we could head southeast toward Toledo tomorrow.
28th street is totally unsuitable for cyclists or pedestrians. We were each today. We rode through as many parking lots along 28th as we could and then walked where the pavement ended. There is absolutely no shoulder on 28th and the traffic definitely isn’t calmed.

When we arrived at the hotel, the desk clerk could not find our reservation. She finally checked the chain-wide system and told us that we were at a different hotel that was two-miles back in the direction that we had so carefully navigated to avoid the traffic. Fortunately, the hotel had a shuttle, which we took to the correct hotel. No way were we going to retrace our steps(and take that literally because we walked along the busy road) in the opposite direction.

It’s amazing how the Holiday Inns have improved since those soccer traveling team days when the brand seemed the worst option. Our hotel doesn’t compare to that Kentucky hotel in the least. We are very comfortable and could easily stay here a few days. Our few days off will come in just a few days when we reach Toledo.

We will try to get an early start to avoid some heavy traffic on Route 37.