New York, New York.

Lake Eyrie Canada, and back to the States again.

the ferry over the St Clair river to Canada.

 

The riding through pleasant Canadian country – side that was tidy and well kept, was spoilt by the people of Dunneville – which I have now renamed to Dunnyville because the people are crap!!

Pleasant country-side.

 

Did you know that Canada has a day off work every month? No kidding. I thought the country needed taxes to pay  off debt etc, but apparently days off are more important. It is these days off that ruined our time in Canada this time. The Campgrounds were full to overflowing, and we had to literally beg for a piece of grass, or we will pitch it out the front on the road edge. They just don’t understand cycling and the point that you CANNOT go on to the next campground 20kms further on, on the chance they may have a spot free. Anyway we were merrily riding along when a group of Harley riders decided to overtake us and immediately turn right – right on top of us, almost taking Niel out who was in front of me. Then the second rider tried to turn in the 1 metre gap between Niel and I – almost taking me out. I yelled out “ f…wit” and gave them the two fingers. They yelled out  to f off and turned around to harass us. The one that told me to f off, sped up and cut me fine to scare me. Well that is just a typical New Zealand driver, so it didn’t scare us. 10 minutes later we caught them filling up at a gas station and we pulled up to mingle with them and get their license plate numbers. Well they sped off as if they were scared of us.

Someone's private beach on the Lake Eyrie shoreline.

 

Then we got to Dunnyville. They camp ground was full of campers who couldn’t afford to camp at the beach, we won’t call them tosser’s – opps  I just did, oh well it’s the truth. An extended family behind us, so drunk the women were cackling with laughter non stop, a family of many kids next to us that thought our campsite was the playground and I lost count of the number of times their balls got kicked into our tent, and on the other side of us - the boy racers and their girlfriends with their friends, alcohol and car stereos. Well at 12 midnight the kids finally wore themselves out and stopped screaming, at 1pm the drunk family finally finished laughing at everything and anything and went to bed, at 4 am I got up and told the teenagers to keep their voices down as we hadn’t slept a wink and had to get up early. They finally went off in their cars ( right beside our tent), some time after that. So after 3 to 4 very interrupted hours sleep we were up and out of there. 

I'm terrified of these bridges.

 

We coudln’t wait to cross back into the States. But as we were cycling the last bit of the Lake edge before the border we stopped to take some photos of the nice scenery. Did you know that people can own the beaches here!! In NZ no one can own the beach – it is crown land and no one can prevent  the public getting access to the beaches, rivers and lake edges. So after peeing on someone’s private beach, we left with glares from the obvious owner.

The American Falls.

 

The Horseshoe Falls.

So here we are back in the States in New York State. We have cycled off to Niagara Falls. The falls were stupendous, but the neighbouhood they were situated in was rough as guts, derelict buildings, broken glass in the shop fronts. The USA is not the land of opportunity, but the land of lost opportunity, if this was anywhere else it would be attractive to the tourists who flock here. And the tourists would be wandering around looking for lunch and other such stuff, but no, the USA needs to get it’s act together and get this tourist dollar to pay off their huge debt. Niel and I had a heated disagreement here as to who should carry the back  with the cycling shoes in it. Well as I was carrying more I thought it was a no brainer and Niel would carry it – that would be the chivalrous thing to do. But no, when you are married chivalry goes out the window.Anyway we were not happy happies as we perused the stupendous Niagara Falls. Unfortunately we have to pass through here again tomorrow on our way to the shores of lake Ontario – our last lake.

Sunset over Lake Ontario.

 

Why is that unfortunate, I have to cross that scary bridge again. That is 3 scary bridges in 3 days. One crossing from Canada to the US, one crossing to Grand Island where  the camp ground is, and one crossing back to the mainland to see the falls and carry on with our jouney. This bridge is scary because it is old and rusted and the cars roar inches passed you. The cycle way is so rusty it is warped with humps that you could call speed humps and these are sloped towards the outside railing. But worst of all is the manhole covers every 20 metres or so. These are so rusty that the hinges are broken and you can see the water through them. Only a rusty dodgy plate between you and the water that is about to rush over the Niagara Falls. I kept telling myself “look at the path or the road and not at the water. Calm down”. Over and over like a mantra until I got to the other side.  

We are talking to each other again, but  we are tired in every way except physically. We just want to get to the end now and go home to our lovely home and our poor old cat and kittens stuck in the cattery for 9 long weeks. The real temptation is to do big miles and just get there, but we can’t go home until our flights on the 25^th Aug, so we just have to get over this jaded feeling and keep to the schedule.