Today teetered between fun and frustrating. We spent a great night in Buffalo with Cliff and Carol. Breakfast was splendid. Attempting to find and stay on the poorly marked bike path was less than enjoyable. Biking across the bridge to Grand Island was really cool. Biking on the island itself was alright. Most of the way there was a large shoulder. But again, the bike route was completely unmarked at the moment it most needed to be marked. The bridge to Niagara, NY was cool. We could see the mist from the falls! The ride to the falls was lovely. It went right along the river and we watched the current get stronger as we neared the falls.
Niagara Falls might be one of the most touristy places in the US, but I think we can all agree it is really amazing. 675,000 gallons of water go over the falls every second! That's insane! We met up with Ken and Emme, two cyclists we met at the campground in New Halem. They had been behind us for awhile, but then took the route through Ontario. So it was nice to swap stories.
We decided to bike up to the whirlpool, and found ourselves on a bike super highway. It was seriously five lanes across! The problem was after we got to the whirlpool we couldn't get off the bike highway...why would they put people on a path they can't get off of with out having to hop a guard rail and cross a highway!?
Fear not, we found a safe way to cross, but we still found ourselves on really confusing bike unfriendly roads. At one point a road we turned down turned to dirt. I didn't know dirt roads still existed in Niagara! Crazy. Once we got on the road we needed we had one more signage issue before making it to Lockport, but by this time we were all tired of having to turn around.
Lockport started out pretty low. We got in late. The best we could do for food was a Rite Aid. And the the park we were told we could camp had no running water or restrooms - correction, there were both of those things, but the water was off and the restrooms were locked. The worst part was that the police, who told us to camp there, couldn't unlock them for us.
Rather defeated, we started to set up camp in the picnic shelter since it looked like rain. Sara took all our water bottles and went down the road to the pump. Five minutes later Sara comes sprinting down the road. Jeremy gets ready to fight someone and we ask what is wrong. "I found us a place to stay!" We always joke that Sara has all the luck, but tonight proved it. Not everyone came go to look for water and come back with a shower and a lawn to camp in!
So our day ended on a great note. Everyday is an adventure, but I think we are all hoping that tomorrow is a tad bit less eventful.
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