We had a fabulous day off the bike this weekend. For those of you who missed the news – we figured out I was severely undernourished on Saturday afternoon. That’s a condition bikers call “bonking”. You can’t exercise anymore and you don’t think too straight. We should have gotten food into me an hour before we shopped at the store. As it was, when we got in the grocery, all I wanted to do was put my face down in the hot tater tots they had for sale. Once I got some food I was fine.

We had a lovely time with our friend Grace, ate lots of healthy food including our first Thai meal in 2 months. We also witnessed a terrific lightning storm with torrential rain from the comfort of her living room. So nice to be safe and warm and dry. She delivered us back to the Niagara Falls, ONT starting point at 5:30 AM today so we could start our ride.

The ride began with a trip to the Minolta Tower to have breakfast on the 26th floor. There was a sweeping view of the falls. You can see the tower at the far right of the picture we took from the Rainbow Bridge. The food was just ok, but the view was sensational.

We crossed into New York state (our ninth, not counting Ontario) with the early morning sun. After we got out of town, we started picking up followers for a little paceline. George, Bob, and Sarah stayed with us until after picnic. The roads varied in quality but we were able to keep a hot pace. It so helps to have some reason to ride! We always want to perform better when we have people on our tail.

It also helped that the weather was so cool. Most of the morning it was in the 60s. Blissful! We saw this painted buffalo in the town of Clarence Hollow.  We were moving so quickly that we actually got to picnic just after the picnic truck arrived to set it up. They’d been much delayed at the border crossing because they had Canadian produce on board. I think all the trucks had problems with the borders because things seemed to be running late today. But we had a good rest and set off again with our little group. The three of them are all new to the tour this week. The tendency is for new people to group together and cross-country riders to group together. But we were pleased to have found riding partners who were happy with our pace after 7 weeks.

But Bob blew out his tire, not his tube, about 5 miles out of picnic. We had to wait for a mechanic truck for 15 minutes, so Sarah took off alone. About another 10 miles down the road, we ran into a series of steep rollers which completely broke up the group. We just can’t climb as fast singles and they can’t descend like we can.

The last half of the ride was delightful. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of challenging roads and satisfying descents to reward you. And the temperatures remained cool! It’s so wonderful to not be drenched in sweat as soon as you step on the bike. We got in early enough to get all our chores done well before dinner. It was a fabulous day.