Ride Day 137

I left the campground at the crack of dawn and despite feeling cold, especially my fingers, I hit the road without even drying my tent. The ride was more boring farmland but this time with more curves and hills in the roads, still not much excitement to see or any pic ops. I rode for a while and then stopped for a 3 egger and some coffee. I ate a Sub sandwich later instead of my usual third breakfast. The roads were a bit bumpy and there was almost 10 miles of construction where I had to ride over either gravel or freshly scalloped road surface. My tires took another severe beating. I hope they last me to at least Bar Harbor. More new tires would hurt my budget which is already broken beyond repair I think. Canada and the East coast are both very expensive compared to traveling in the rest of the country. Hotels, motel, food and campgrounds are way more expensive. Basically I can’t afford to be in either of those places on my tight budget. But I have to find a way to stretch it so I can finish this ride. I crossed the Rainbow Bridge from Ontario to the American side. I sat on the bridge in the hot bright sun for well over an hour waiting to get through to the American side. I was sweltering in the heat. I drank a whole bottle of ice water and then half of my second bottle while sitting in the traffic jam. Finally I made it back to the US and immediately headed north east to get out of the even more expensive tourist place that Niagara Falls is. At about 70 miles I lost my get up and go. I needed a campground so I stopped to ask some fire fighters that were out admiring their brand new ladder truck. They were helpful with directions but then one of them said why don’t you just stay here, I will go ask Mike. Mike came over and after asking me some quick questions said sure put your tent up behind our building and join our birthday party that we are having out back for Elmer who is 100 years old. I told him thanks and put my bike out back. Mike showed me the shower so I could get cleaned up before joining a large group of people. My clothes were all covered with white salt residue from sweating so much today, mostly while sitting idle on the Rainbow Bridge. After showering and some clean clothes I joined the party. I had a great time talking to Elmer the birthday man and all the rest of the wonderful people. There was a ton of great food with a potluck and a lot of catered food also with cake and ice cream at the end of course. I filled up for sure with all the food and desserts. Lots of the people were interested in my ride and I explained it to them and then later showed a few pics. They took my blog address and told me they would look it up. I enjoyed the party tremendously. You watch the news on TV and it sounds like the world is full of nothing but assholes and axe murdering wierdos but I find that there are so many truly wonderful people around that the news is seriously misrepresenting the current state of the world, especially here in the US. After the party I helped clean up then put up my tent and rested. Tomorrow I head to Holley only about 40 miles away. A guy there told me he wanted to ride with me so I am going to meet with him to see if we would be able to do that. It would be good to have a fellow rider along for a while. More later….