Day 8 - 80mi to Grimsby

We woke up and could barely believe that our tour was almost over. I had mixed feelings, it was great being on the road with David, camping out and only riding all day but my butt was happy to be almost over and it would be nice to sleep in a bed. We woke up early, got on the road early and were cruising at 18mph toward Niagra falls. 

At one point we stopped after biking about 30mi to see how far from Niagra Falls we actually were and another biker stopped to help us out. We asked him about how far we were from Niagra, estimating between 10-15mi and the biker says "Well your about 8mi from Lewiston and Niagra Falls is about 20mi from Lewiston so you have about 28mi" (WHAT!!!! well that was what I was saying to myself) David and I both looked at each other kind of surprised, we new we had 35mi after Niagra falls and we had already gone 30mi and now we had another 30mi before we even got to the falls, oh my gosh this is going to be impossible!!! I was so down, discouraged and sad after feeling so great at our pace for the morning. But we got back on our bikes and starting riding.

About 100yards down the road we came to a sign, a blessing really that read: NIAGRA FALLS 11mi. Oh man I was so happy I could barely stop smiling but we both laughed and couldn't figure out what that guy was thinking.

We arrived at the Rainbow bridge around 11:30 and biked through customs. It cost 50 cents for each bike to go over the bridge and questioning went smoothly. My favorite question of the customs agent was "and what are you carrying with you to protect yourself?" We both pause and didn't really respond (later we talked and realized we both were thinking the same thing...what our helments?) but the agent then clarified...pepper spray, knives, guns? ohh right of course that makes way more sense. 

Niagra falls was fun for about 30min, we enjoyed lunch, got our picture taken and then had to get out of the crowed "number 1 honeymoon location in the world."

I must say biking on the Canadian roads was not what I thought it would be like. The shoulder was all gravel so there was about 8in of space between the edge of the road and the white line so we were basically biking in the lane which was a little hairy at times. And I received my first flat. Our hand made tires from Germany that "can withstand 4000mi" didn't impress us too much but did a pretty good job. My tire got two huge holes in it, we found one, I changed the tube and then it went flat immediately again so there I was again having not only to switch my tube a second time but to switch my tire as well. We knew we had carried that extra tire for a reason. Other than our two flats there were no incidences. Which was great. We road the rest of our 20mi at a pretty quick pace wanting to arrive early and relax. 

And we did, we arrived at 3:30, upgraded our room to have a hot tub in the bathroom, ran upstairs and enjoyed a hot bath, cheesey twists and beer!!!! It was awesome, what an incredible accomplishment. We have finished 500mi and had only 20mi to do the following day and were enjoying fun food, good drink and a hot tub. And later that night Roger (David's Dad) met us at the hotel on his way up to Canada and bought us beer and dinner. The whole evening was awesome however for the first time we really noticed how bad my sunburn was even after wearing 70+ sunscreen that we put on twice a day. That's what I get for having irish blood in me.