Day 28 - Niagara Falls Canada to Geneva NY, 137 miles, 3750' cumulative climbing

Well, today did not start out very well.  We were to cross back into the U.S. shortly after leaving the hotel parking lot, and I realized that I'd forgotten to put my passport in my jersey pocket.  Which necessitated a 3 mile loop back to the hotel, where our trailer was fortunately still parked, to retrieve it.  Then, rushing to rejoin the group and get through passport control, I took my eye off the road for a moment and my front tire slipped on a piece of embedded steel in the pavement approaching customs, and down I went.  The sound of a bike hitting the ground is never a good sound, though I only took a couple of bumps and righted the ship quickly.  All this after it began to rain right as we exited the hotel lot, and continued raining for about the next 15 miles across the border, through the U.S. side of Niagara Falls, and into the countryside.  At least with the rain we didn't miss much of a view on the American side of the Falls.  It is an old decaying industrial town, not the bright attraction that the marketing department sells.  I even commented to a fellow rider "this looks like a town of the have nots and the have nots".

But this journey is a take-it-as-it-comes deal, so on we pedaled into upstate New York. State #35 for me and my bike!  (Still tied with Michelle)
Around mile 25 there was another small snag:  bridge out.  Everyone had to dismount, carry their bike and schlep through a muddy ravine to the other side.  Not a disaster but more like adding insult to injury.  And then after cleaning off shoes and getting mud out of bike cleats, onward we went again.  The sun came out for a bit, and we did have a moderate tailwind so all was not lost.  Seemed like the day might not be so bad after all.  Lunch was served in a nice spot off the road, but the clouds came back and it looked rather sinister as the crew members started battening down the hatches.  Cliff and I rode away, and unwittingly missed a turn, which was to cost us shortly. 3-4 more miles down the road the wind picked up from our right and the rain started.  It quickly became a sideways wind with heavy, stinging rain that gusted hard enough to move us over 3-4 feet in the lane.  I haven't experienced a wind like that in a very long time, actually being worried about getting blown off the bike.

Bike shoes and mud do not mix well

And, then the sun came out again!  Thank goodness that storm cell was brief because we were not having a good time at all.  It was a few more miles before we realized our directional error, and after consulting our maps we concluded it would be faster to take a direct ride on U.S. 20 to Geneva instead of backtracking to the group's route.  In my mirror I saw waves of storm cells come up behind us, but now we got just a little bit luckier and avoided more rain...barely.  The storm front did increase the power of our tailwind which helped get us home.  10 extra miles and an hour after the group had finished we made it to the hotel in Geneva.  Not many pictures of surroundings today because my iPhone was safely in a Ziploc bag in my pocket almost all day.

We were very glad to see this day end!  And it's also the end of the 4th week.

Stats for Week 4:                                                 Trip so far:

782.8 miles ridden (6 riding days)                        3180.9 miles ridden
15,650' cumulative climbing                                 98,640' cumulative climbing

Ominous skies at the lunch trailer