Saturday, July 16, 2011

SnR UGRR Tour 2011 ~ July 15 Ride Day 30

As Promised, Niagara Falls, NY

I awoke first again, almost for the last time of this tour. I'm sure I'll awake first Saturday morning, as well.  I walked through the wonderfully creaky and beautifully spacious home of David and Molly and set myself up to blog.

It wasn't long before Rich was up to join me. After a few pleasantries and light conversation we were nose deep in our work. Rich doing his thing and I, mine.  Shortly after, Bob arrived and talk of the day's events, politics, religion, and "Sarah Bachman" were in full swing.
The 30 min Goodbye

It wasn't long before bets were laid as to when we would actually be ready to leave our gracious hosts and head to Niagara Falls. It was now 08:30am. Bob placed the time at around 10:30am, I said 10 and Rich gave no opinion. Later, Bob modified his guess to 11:00. We actually left at 11:30.


The flipped egg breakfast was cooked up by Rich and garnished by Molly with  fixins of craisins, walnuts, english muffins, butter, cream cheese, donuts(?), juice, water, milk and of course, Quaker Oatmeal. The breakfast was comparable to, if not better than, any hotel restaurant could have provided. As a matter of fact, come to think about it ( I said it before to someone else along the route) we pretty much had a Bed and Breakfast Tour almost every day of this tour. As for the food, it was delicious.

It is now 11:00. We are outside gathering our bikes together and mapping the route to Niagara Falls. There's supposed to be a route that we can take that is pure bike path. Bob didn't think it was possibleand chose not to lead the ride for the first time. So, for this day Rich lead the team and I brought up the rear. We were using Google Maps to get us there. No tried and true Adventure Cycling maps were available.

The bike path was nice. It rode along the water and gave astounding marina views. We were having a great time enjoying the comfortable ride with even pavement and nothing to worry about but other cyclists also enjoying themselves.

It wasn't long before Kyvon ran off the path. We giggled as this has become a staple in the rides. His falling off his bike is like the sun rising in the morning. You know its going to happen even if you don't always know exactly when.  Five minutes later he was flying over his handlebars because his foot became stuck in his front wheel spokes while trying to fit his foot into his pedal stirrup.  We all rushed to his aid to ensure he was alright; he was. With that relief laughter rose from everyone; Kyvon included as he explained what occurred.

The boys who were lagging behind sped ahead as Rich suggested that they take the lead. They were confident that the ride would be all bike path so they zoomed ahead only to return a short while later to inform us that the bike path would end a few hundreds yards up. Now, we had to double back.

We went back far enough to see where we should have made a right turn. This took us off the bike path and onto the surface streets of bicycle friendly Buffalo. Soon we found ourselves winding our way around people, sidewalks and trolley cars until we got back to the Marina. There the bike path picked up again and we thought we were home free. But that ended, too.

Back on surface streets we road the sidewalks of Buffalo and Takawanna. By the time we checked the GPS we realized that we were still 20 miles (by bicycle) away from Niagara Falls; not even approaching Grand Isle, yet. We've already been on the road for 2 hrs. This was turning into another LONG day.  We pressed on. This was not turning out to be the Grand Finale of the tour due to the mishaps we were having. As we moved forward as a group word came that Kyvon had fallen behind and Chris was with him. As I doubled Chris told me that Kyvon's spokes had broken.  After inspecting the damage I assessed that there were three spokes broken and one bent. He could not continue with this amount of damage.

After calling Suepinda to come pick us up I asked how did Kyvon's spokes become broken. Chris confessed that his pedal touched Kyvon's back wheel breaking the spokes.

After Suepinda arrived we packed the van and headed into the Falls by car. Not as momentous as we would have liked but arriving in Niagara Falls, nonetheless.  As I stayed in the van working and watching the bikes the Youth Cyclists had a fantastic time at the Falls. The took the tour of the Maid of the Mist and enjoyed EVERY dripping moist moment of it. The collected souvenirs and came back to tell me of the joys they had.

Leaving Niagara we went to eat at Cheeburger, Cheeburger. You guessed it, a burger restaurant.  Everyone had a great dinner and finished it off with a delicious shake that had 1001 combinations!

With everyone fed we moved on down the road to get as far as we can before taking in a hotel/motel for the evening. As I type it is 2:30am and we are bedded down in the Days Motel in Meadville, PA. I'm done for the day/night.  I think I've finally caught up to this blogging thing.

Thanks to the National Park Service for assisting us in making this happen. Our wonderful and many donors who gave generously and from the heart. We are forever grateful to you. Thank you to the webosphere and families for your support, comments and following us on this magically adventurous trek through middle America. An America they refuse to show us on the ID 10-T box. Your America. My America. And the wonderful, kind and giving people in the stretch of land that has been labeled the Underground Railroad.















Spoke 'n Revolutions Youth Cycling UGRR Tour 2011 ~ Visit the nation's National Parks
 Let's Move Outside!

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations, it's been wonderful reading about your journey. I think you all helped the young riders discover who they are and what inner strength they have inside themselves.

    Well done SnR!

    Ken Johnston
    Holyoke, Mass.
    (suppoter of Marshall)

    ReplyDelete