Chris Nadovich's 2009 Transamerica Bike Tour.

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Lockport, NY -- Back in the USA

I had some misfortune in Canada. The numbers and some of the letters on my eee PC became non functional. My rear rim began to crack so bad that I was forced to buy a replacement. The rear derailleur shifter jammed again. My cell phone hardly ever found a signal. And none of my bank cards worked in the teller machines.

But other than that it was great fun, especially today when we passed Niagara Falls. I'd seen the falls before, but not like this. Every other time they seemed big to me. This time they seemed small. Still wonderful, but small compared to the distances we have conquered.

It was supposed to be a relatively short day, but we ended up with 90 miles into the Erie canal town of Lockport. Some of those were "bonus miles" spiraling around the entrance ramp of the Queenston Bridge, our crossing back into the states.

The riding was easy. Almost half of it was along the Niagara River on the bike trail. For the most part it was a decent trail, although we did see some near incomprehensible warning signs.

After breakfast, we began stopping at bike shops in search of a replacement wheel. Thirty-six spoke wheels were totally unavailable, and most of the thirty two spoke wheels had no eyelets, let alone double eyelets. I ended up choosing a less than ideal wheel not based on its specs, but based on the fact that the bike shop selling it had a decent restaurant nearby. Gary and I ate an excellent pizza as my wheel was replaced.

Crossing the Queenston bridge was "interesting" in our eastbound directions. The trick is not to follow the signs that say "Bridge to USA", which take you on a six mile loop back to where you started. Instead, what you do is to ride into the employee entrance to the toll plaza and ask the bridge master for directions. We learned this trick after logging the six bonus miles, but maybe some eastbound rider reading this will benefit from our mistake.

We rode through some chutes and merge ramps that dumped us into the leftmost (yes leftmost) lane where we were instructed to ride. Customs was quick and easy. Back in the USA! Ummm... not quite. We were actually on Seneca Indian land.

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