Canada part one

Phew! Made it back to the states!

The best parts are in part two of Canada. :)

Wednesday, May 21 (Day 5)

Distance: 59 miles

Average speed: 9.5 mph

Max: 23.8 mph

Total: 258 miles

After a few unpleasant encounters in Niagara Falls on the US side, I was happy to cross over into the Canadian side, which was quite pretty.

I had more miles to go than I realized and risked missing my campground, again! 

As I was riding past him, an older man told me to take care, which reduced me to tears after being so stressed about not having enough food and arriving late. I made it though, and fell into bed exhausted.

Thursday, May 22 (Day 6)

Distance: 24.9 miles

Average speed: 8.6 mph

Max: 15.8 mph

Total: 283 miles

After a terrifying night of thunderstorms, I was ready to be done with my tour. I was just about to take off when a man came over from his RV and invited me to breakfast with him and his wife! Their names were Jim and Giselle and they made scrambled eggs for me and have me more food than I could eat (but I did, second breakfast). It was a good way to start the day, and they were a very sweet couple. They were testing out their new RV and finding all sorts of problems with it.

My knee was hurting pretty badly, so I only rode 25 miles, but they were on a really beautiful bike path.

When I heard the camp site was $40 and there was no faucet to refill my bottles, I had a bit of a meltdown. I think the receptionist could tell because she sent the security guy along to my campsite later with a bottle of water, yogurt, and a cookie. There are incredible people everywhere! 

After setting up camp, I spent my afternoon plotting my escape from Canada on my maps and then I took a shower. When I came out, Remi was in the campground! He shared my spot with me and we planned to ride to the border together. It was so nice to have company. Spirits were high!

Friday, May 23 (Day 7)

Distance: 84 miles

Average speed: 10 mph

Max: 30.7 mph

Total: 366 miles

Big day of riding! I finally stocked up on food and found these amazingly calorie dense Dutch cookies (that's a good thing). I kept forgetting I was in another country, and little thing would remind me, like milk in bags.

We ran across a touring couple headed in the other direction, around Lake Erie, and they were very excited. They told us there was another guy about 10km ahead of us! We didn't run into him though. 

I was really struggling near the end of the ride. We thought we only had 80 miles, and the last four were windy, steep, and exhausting. I was so glad to have Remi in front of me, so I could have a target to follow.

Sleep was great. I can't stay up past 9:30 anymore, I'm out like a light.

To be continued...