Fort Erie and Niagara Falls

Russ and Dean at the Locks

July 25 - 62 miles to Fort Erie

Niagara Falls

July 26 - 46 miles to Niagara Falls and New York.  After spending most of the day at Niagara Falls, we crossed back into the United States.  The Canadian side of the falls were beautiful but a lot of tourist.  We were all glad to have a rest day today in Lewiston, New York.

July 28  - 54 miles to Holley, New York.  Had our 3rd thunderstorm last night.  We are still surprised how the storms light up the sky and the thunder seems like it is right overhead and how it can rain so hard.  When we got up and started biking, it was a drizzle but after an hour or so it started raining harder.  By the end of the day I was pretty cold.  Five flats today, Russ had one.  By mid morning, a few of us decided to book a B/B for the night.  The town of Holley is small but did have a diner for dinner.  This morning, no rain.  We are refreshed, dry and ready to ride.

We are along the Erie Canal for two days.  To wet yesterday to ride the canal so we stayed on parallel roads but today it may be dryer.

July 29 - 54 miles to Palmyra, New York.  Today we biked on the Erie Canal.  This is the second time that we have biked the canal.  We watched the bridges rise as boats went down the canal and even watched a boat go through a lock.  It was a perfect day for biking.

Pictures

New Mascot

Excited to be in Canada

Rumored to be Elton Johns House on Lake Erie

The Perfect Campsite

Oh Canada

After a rest day in Marine City, we boarded a small ferry and crossed the Saint Claire river to Canada.   Luckily it was a short ferry ride because Johnny missed the boat!  We all got a good chuckle out of that and "Johnny Come Lately" still is being razzed.  We had to wait about a half hour for John to get across.  On our 56 mile to Morpeth, we biked through the town of Dresden where Uncle Toms Cabin stands.  It is a historical site with a nice visitor center.  It also was our hottest day with highs reaching 91 degrees.  If we kept moving, it wasn't to bad.

July 23 - 72 miles to Port Burwell.  Canada is really pretty especially the bike route.  We are going along Lakeshore drive which is along Lake Erie.  Beautiful houses and waterfronts.  We are finding Canada really expensive though.  When we stop for just a simple breakfast, it is close to $20 for the two of us.  Today we had a strong head wind for the first 30 miles which made the ride hard then in the evening we had our second big thunderstorm.  Seemed like it lasted a couple of hours or more.  No one got much sleep.  Tempurtures dropped 20 degrees from the previous day.  This is the second time we saw tobacco growing.  You could smell it.

July 24 - 56 miles to Nanicoke.  The big site of the day was biking into Port Dover and spotting this huge mansion being built with a fancy entry and fencing.  Of course I had to stop and snap a picture even though there was a no trespass and video cameras.  When we got into town I asked a local who's house that was.  He said it was rumored to be Elton Johns!  That got me all excited as he told us the story and how it probably will change the small town in the future.  Guess it took a year just to prep the property and shore up the bank along the lake.  It was really the perfect day of biking.  We passed asparagus fields, cherry orchards, stopped for a wine tasting, fresh strawberrys at a roadside stand and camped at a beautiful provential park on the lake.  Wish every day could be so good.

Our New Biking Friends

Over the next few weeks I want to introduce you to some of our new friends.  We are so lucky that we have such a congenial group.

Johnny Randle - John divides his time between Hollywood, Florida and North Bay, New York.  He is retired and says he can ride a unicycle and rollerblade.  He calls himself a liberal and the guys manage to get into heated political discussions especially since some like FOX news.  John rides a high end recumbent trike made by ICE.  He just got his bike before the trip and has had a lot of problems along the way.  Most bike shops are not familiar with his kind of bike and his derailer is really low to the ground.  The funny thing is that Johnny came on this trip with only one spare tube.  How he thought he could go 4000 miles on the same tube is humorous.  His tires are an odd size so he had to mail order parts and tubs.  He has had at least 4 flats as of today.  He also has 2 motorcycles.  I give him a hard time because he has such a southern accent.  He said he was born and raised in Crockett County Tennessee.  John is up early each morning but one of the last out on the road.

Parade in Bowlus

John at Glacier

Frankenmuth - A Bavarian Town

July 19 - 60 miles to North Branch.  The highlight of the day was spending time in Frankenmuth (a town themed like Levenworth, but way bigger).  We heard they were famous for their chicken dinner, micro brewery and the worlds largest Christmas store.  We we skipped the Christmas store but did manage to have chicken dinner (it was good), sampling of beer and tour of the brewery but the most interesting site was visiting a reenactment camp taking place in the park.  It was the French and Indian War of the 1750's.  They had a British camp and a Indian camp and an American camp set up. They had their lodges, tepees, and period dress.  Also in the park was a Viper car show with over 200 fancy cars.  We ended up spending a good part of the day there.  Got into camp after 5:00 which is a late finish for us.  Our Campsite was noisy for most of the night and nobody got a decent sleep.  Seems that about every other night we manage a good sleep.  Weekend especially are noisy at the campgrounds.

July 20 - to Marine City - 76 miles.  Marine city is a nice resort area along the St. Claire river.  You can watch boats and barges go up the river (it is connected to the Great Lakes).  Couldn't get a campground so we booked the only hotel that had space called the Anchor Inn.  It is right out of the 60's!  They are letting us park the RV here so we are in good shape.  Sussie and Patty stopped at a town down the road because they didn't want to go so many miles and they are biking here today, our rest day.  John and Marilyn, biking friends that we met in Arizona, live close by so they came and we all went to dinner.  It was fun seeing them, Marilyn baked us brownies and drove us all to town.  We knew that they were from the Detroit area but we didn't realize that we were so close to Detroit. Luckily, Marilyn was following the blog and saw that our route in Michigan was close by.

The most challenging part of the day was biking through dense fog for the first couple of hours.  We left camp by 7 and the fog was heavy.  Russ led because he had a front fog light and the rest stayed close behind.  Patty got out in front once and we lost sight of her within 200 feet.  She quickly realized that and pulled over to wait for the group.

Today is a rest day and tomorrow we take a ferry into Canada.  It is a short ride across the river and we anticipate taking 5 days to complete the Canada portion of our trip.  While in Canada we won't have phone or internet service.

Cops and Donuts

Mug Shot

Claire was a fun small town and the highlight was Cops and Donuts.  As the story goes, 12 Cops bought this donut shop in Claire, Michigan and it now is a booming establishment.  When one of the owners, named Bubba (this is no joke) heard what we were doing, he delivered a dozen donuts to our campsite at 6:30 this morning for free.  These were not your ordinary donuts either.  They were like monster donuts of many varieties.  They also have souvenirs and I got a tank top that says "Hand Cuffs and Cream Puffs".  Really cute!  We also got a mug shot taken there.  They are open 24/7.   There also is a large Amish community in Claire and we saw 3 horse drawn buggies on the roadway.

July18 - 54 miles to Bay City.  The first 30 miles was on a rail to trail paved pathway that was in excellent shape and made the ride enjoyable.  The pathway ended in Midland which is where Dow Chemicals is located.  Locals said that you either work for Dow or you know someone who does.  The whole town is centered around Dow Chemicals.  We hung around and explored for a few hours.
Tonight we are in a motel in Bay City because the campsites were unavailable.  Bay City is a larger town with a lot of strip malls and traffic.  Not impressed but we have a bed to sleep in.

Donut Delivery

Taking a Vacation from Our Vacation

July 16 - to Luther.  56 miles.  The ride to Luther was nice, only got caught in one rain storm right at the end.  This part of Michigan is not as scenic as what we biked through in Wisconsin.  Lots of greenery but yards are not as manicured and it seemed a little more rustic.  At least we are not smelling cows here.  My friend Margaret picked us up and took us to her house for the night.  Sussie and Patty came along also.  She fed us a great dinner of steak, salad, corn on the cob and strawberry shortcake.  Russ stayed in camp and rode the 70 miles into Claire.  Margaret lives on a lake and we got a scenic boat ride and even saw a loon.  Sussie said we were "taking a vacation from our vacation!"  It was a great break.

Boat ride on Horsehead Lake

Michigan Cornfield and Barn

Margaret and I at her house in Michigan 

Message from Russ

On the Sub

Denise said that I had to blog a few lines about my experiences on this ride.  It's been great. Some rain, wind(all directions) & best of all cool weather.  Hard to believe, but we've Only had one day where the tempature has been over 80 degrees.  However that is about to change in the next few days.    Well that's my few lines,  Russ signing off.

Lake Michigan 

On the Ferry

Into Michigan

July 14 - 70 miles into Manitowoc.  Dean booked us at a campground that was over 10 miles out of town and when we finally arrived, mosquitoes galore.  We quickly sprayed ourselves and decided that we wanted to motel it in town. (The kicker was that Dean jumped on the opportunity also) since Bob and Grandma were coming to pick up Connie, he gave us a ride back into town.  Sleeping in a bed was really special after so many days camping.  Speaking of Connie, she joined us for 4 days of biking starting in Medford.  She kept up with the gang and this was her first camping experience in 40 years.  She loved it and the group truly enjoyed her company and wished she could have stayed with us longer than 4 days.

In Manitowoc we went to the Maritime Museum where we toured a submarine.  The USS Cobia which was commissioned in1943 and was used in WWII.  Our tour guide was excellent and we learned a lot.  Then we caught the ferry to Ludington, Michigan that afternoon.  It was a 4 hour crossing on Lake Michigan.  We arrived at 7:30 pm and only had to bike a few miles to the campground.

Coal Powered Ferry

Barn Quilts

Biking through Shanawo County, we learned about their initiative to add artwork to barns.  Here are some pictures of Barn Quilts.

Roll'in Through Wisconsin

We went off Adventure Cycling map route for 3 days.  The first day off route wasn't bad but the second day was not so great, bad roads, traffic and not very scenic.  But the 3rd day was scenic and like being on the back roads again so it all worked out in the end.  For the 3 days we biked through Bloomer (57 miles), Medford (65 miles), and Antigo (65 miles).  On July 12 we biked 64 miles to Shanawo and camped in the city park.

Dairy Farm in Wisconsin 

We are seeing many dairy farms and one of the highlights of our trip was impromptu tour of one of the farms.  This farmer had 800 cows that had to be milked 3 times a day.  It was a big operation and he took time to show us how the cows were milked.  We also visited Nichols, WI.  It had a few churches, a bank (which was a surprise) and of course a bar.  Instead of coffee shops in the Midwest, all the small towns have bars open for breakfast, so of course, we ate there.  Russ asked if he got a free breakfast because he was a Nichols, but they didn't buy into that.  Those who know Russ well will see the irony in this picture

Pictures

Potato Fields

Chain Saw Log Along the Road

Shoes With Flowers Along Highway

Amish Country in Wisconsin 

Amish Buggy

July 7 - Bowlus to Dablo - 62 miles

We woke to great biking conditions and covered 62 miles in a little over 4 hours of ride time.  We pulled into the "bicycle bunkhouse" two minutes before a big thunderstorm started.  We got our bikes in the barn and down it poured for about 10 minutes.  Then it rained off and on for the next few hours.  Jim, Diana, and Sussie got caught in the rain about 12 miles out.

Highlight of the day was Don Olsen who has converted a barn on his farm to a "bikers bunkhouse".  He had 3 private rooms, a dormitory room, silo converted to a room and a hay loft where bikers can sleep.  He had a sitting room, kitchen with lots of snacks and food, a solar shower and outhouse.  It was great.  We stayed dry and enjoyed his hospitality.  He converted his barn in 2010 and gets over 100 cyclists a year and he does this all for free.

July 8- to Sommerst, Wisconsin - 74 miles.  We crossed into Wisconsin this afternoon.  We had again perfect biking conditions, not to hot or windy and great road surfaces and little traffic.  All is well!

July 9- to Bloomer - 57 miles -  we decided to change the route and bike Highway 64 which runs across Wisconsin.  We agreed to try it for one day and decide if we should continue on the route.  As it ended up, going on 64 saved about 100 miles and it wasn't that bad.  But Diana and Jim were against the change and decided to leave the group.  They wanted to stay on the Adventure Cycle route and since they were self-contained, they left the group.   It was sad to see them leave us and I hope we will keep in touch.

July 10- to Medford - 65 miles - the ride was nice except for the last 15 miles when the road conditions were poor.  Our first stop was at an ice cream parlor where they made homemade ice cream, then the second stop was for pie and ice cream in the next town.  It dawned on us that we hadn't eaten anything healthy all day.  The highlight of the day was meeting this 26 year old farmer who was cute as a bug.  He farms 500 acres and milks 50 cows twice a day. Grows corn to feed his cows.  He and his dad moved to Wisconsin 4 years ago and sold their 3500 acre farm in Missouri.  He said he was the 6th generation farmer in his family.

Barn in Wisconsin 

Bowlus Festival

We planned our rest day to be in Bowlus for their big festival.  The highlight of our trip was being in the parade and attending a Polka Mass.  We were camping behind the Catholic Church and Sunday morning they had a Polka Mass outside that we attended.  Basically it is a mass and they have a polka band and play polka music.  Then we decorated our bikes and rode in the parade.  We were a big hit especially the trikes.  It was a hoot.  After the parade they had activities in the park, a beer garden and food.  We played bingo, listened to the bands, ate a lot of junk food and stayed up for the fireworks.  When we stopped for breakfast the next day, a few towns over, the locals said they saw us in the parade and were impressed with our group.  The fire departments for surrounding towns competed in a water contest where they have a keg suspended with a cable running across the street and two teams have two minutes to move the keg, kind of like a tug of war.  It was great entertainment.

Russ in the parade in Bowlus

Firemen Competing 

July 5 - Alexandria to Bowlus - 68 miles

We were on the trail for the whole day and although we had a head wind, it was easier than the previous day.  We stopped at a spot along the trail that was an antique shop and it reminded you of the TV show, American Pickers.  We mentioned that to the guy and he claimed that he was good friends with the guys on the show.  He had all sorts of old stuff.  We are taking a rest day in Bowlus and we are camping behind the church for two nights.  The priest has opened the church for us and a few guys are sleeping in the church.  We stopped at a few beautiful churches along the way.  Gothic style with beautiful stain glass windows.  It is amazing how such small communities can support these large churches.  Sunday is Bowlus's big festival and we have been invited to ride in the parade.  They also have a Polka Mass outside in the morning that will be interesting.

Antique Dealer

Old Gas Pumps

July 4 - Pelican Rapids to Alexandria - 78 miles

Built by the owner of the Great Northern Bike Shop in Fargo

Big Farms and Barns

Strong head winds all day long.  The scenery was beautiful but we were exhausted by the end of the day.  The first 25 miles were rolling hills among farmlands and the last 50 was on the bike path that runs across Minnesota.  Russ and I drafted most of the day and when we caught up with others, we pulled them along.  That made us close to 8 hours in the saddle which was hard but some riders were really struggling and needed support.  We ended up hoteling in Alexandria because all campsites were booked.  It was really great sleeping in a bed and having a shower.   We just missed a parade in Evensville but hit the community festival and got free root beer floats.

Flooded campground in Fargo

July 3 - Fargo to Pelican Rapids - 62 miles

Dalmatian Pelican 

World's Largest Pelican

Tent City in Pelican Rapids

Pelican Rapids claims the "worlds largest pelican" and a lot of the storefronts have custom pelicans like the fire department has a dalmation pelican and the drug store has one holding a prescription bottle.  When we got to town we found a thrift store and bought 4th of July decorations for our helmets.  Russ again was the man of the day by helping others decorate their helmets.  A few of us went swimming and I even joined a water aerobic class at 5:00.  The campground was tight and some family pulled in and set up a "tent village" .  It took them most of the night so needless to say, we got little sleep.

To celebrate the 4th

Flat as a Pancake

Today was flat as a pancake.  The only climb in our 61 mile ride into Fargo was an incline over a freeway.  We had to ride through a 4 mile construction zone today and the flag men let us go on our own and not have to wait for the pilot car.  It was nice having the whole road to ourselves.

Along the road today we had a section where the tiniest frogs were hopping across the road.  It took a while to realize what they were.  I wonder how many survive the crossing.  I suspect not to many make it.

When we stopped half way in Kindred for a break, we were right across from a John Deere shop.  A machanic was out working on a big combine.  It was used for harvesting soy beans.  He told us that they cost $400,000 each and many farmers have 3-4 of these machines.  They also have different attachments depending on the weather when the crops need harvesting.  So a farmer can easily have a million dollars in just a few pieces of farm equipment.

We are impressed with Fargo.  We are camped in a city park that is partly flooded from all the rain.  The camping area survived the flooding.  We went to a really nice bike shop in the downtown that is in the old train depot.  Russ needed a new chain.  The other day out on the road he lost the quick release link on his chain.  He couldn't find it and luckily, John came along with a chain tool and they took a link out to have a pin to reattach the chain.  Otherwise, Russ would have been calling for a pick up.

A $400,000 combine

Tomorrow we cross the river and enter Minnesota.