We're back in the USA. PeterB and I rode through nearly 300 miles of Ontario in less than three full days. Ontario was flat so high mileage days were the norm. We stayed at a provincial park last night. I met a family RV camping near us and wound up getting drunk with the father. He just kept handing me beers. Very cheap beers. It made for a rough morning today, but another century was in order.
We met three college-aged people - two girls and a guy - riding from Washington (state) to Burlington, Vermont. We rode with them for a couple of hours and chatted. Two days earlier we stopped and talked with a couple of girls riding west from NYC to Seattle. Both groups mentioned a story that we had been hearing in various forms since North Dakota, namely that there is a 70-something-year-old, recently widowed woman, (we've also heard a variation that involves two women riding together), who is riding across the country alone. We're always told that this woman/women are a day or two ahead or behind us. And we've heard this a few times since North Dakota. And we've never seen this mythical lady. The trio we met today added a wrinkle to this tale: according to them, they had met this woman two days earlier. I still don't believe it.
The group also claimed to have substantiated another bike touring urban legend. We had also heard a story for a quite while involving two older guys. One of the guy leaves their motel in the morning to start his ride, while the other guy stays a bit longer inside. Guy #2 has a heart attack, while guy #1 blissfully unaware of this tragic development rides along all day. Near the end of the day, the cops catch up with him and give him the bad news. Again, we had been told about this at least a month ago. But the three people we met today claimed to have met the unfortunate rider who's riding partner died, and they met him a few weeks ago. I can't and don't believe it.
We crossed over the border today at Niagara Falls. I had never seen the falls before, and it is a really impressive spectacle, especially from the Canadian side of the border, but it was a zoo around there, so we didn't stay around there for very long. Tomorrow we head to Lockport and start heading east along the Erie Canal toward Albany and then south through the Hudson Valley to the City, If things play out the way I think they may, we'll be done by the weekend.
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