After staying two nights in Ticonderoga NY, we stayed in Hancock, VT on Friday night.  Hancock is a small town in a valley.  As so often with the small towns we've been passing through,the restaurants, cafes and/or places to lodge have closed and we have to go to the next town.  But even though this cafe looked run down, dusty and closed, it was open. The proprietor served us a nice meal and also told us of an inn across the street we could stay for the night.  So we did, and because we weren't using petroleum for our trip she gave us a discount on the cost for lodging.

On Saturday night a warmshowers.org host invited us to stay in her yurt.  Our host was not home so we had the use of her house to make supper and take showers and we slept in the yurt.  

Break time.

       

Nice mountain views.

Riding through the Appalachian Mountains, we are often riding along rivers and streams and finding waterfalls.

Fort Ticonderoga overlooking Lake Champlain.

Crossing Lake Champlain to Vermont.

Some beautiful landscape inVermont.

A reminder as we begin our ride up some of the more difficult hills on our trip.

A nice ride down, a gradual ride up.

Riding on a quiet country road.

Beautiful cascades along the road.

We almost missed them.

Luke and his dog are riding from Vermont to Iowa and possibly on to Washington.

Blessings Received, Blessings Observed

After climbing a mile and a half and zooming two miles down, we arrived at Ticonderoga today at 11:30 am. It's our easternmost destination in NY, where we'll take a couple of nights' rest at a motel with internet - yay! Friday we plan to take a ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont.

The Adirondaks are similar to the Boundary Waters, but with 2,000-3,000 ft. mountains.  Gorgeous rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and forests have been a feast for the senses these past four days.  God has been richly blessing us with this time to simply enjoy His creation in an unhurried way.

God is not only blessing us, but I got to watch Him at work twice yesterday blessing other people. As we left the campground yesterday, we stopped at the general store across the lake. I was warmly greeted by the manager who was stocking shelves. A man then entered the store and I couldn't help overhearing the brief conversation he had with the manager.
    " Hi, brother. How are you doing?"
    " I'm really struggling right now, and I need prayer."
Immediately, they linked arms as the manager prayed for his friend. Just as quickly, the man left. He had come to the store to receive what money can't buy - the blessing of God through a friend's prayer.

At 11:30, as we entered a cafe for lunch, two tables were occupied by a group of boys and a group of girls from the local high school celebrating their last day of school for the summer. For six of them, exchange students from China, Vietnam, and Spain, it was their farewell lunch before going back home. As we began looking at our menus, a woman called the owner's wife/server aside, exchanged money, and left. As the students were getting ready to leave, the server announced to them, "Did you see that woman who just left? She just paid your entire bill and extended her congratulations to all of the graduates." None of the students knew her. She just wanted to bless them.

My heart is full as I think of the many generous, kind people we have met along the way, all extending God's blessings to us - the elderly couple driving out of their way to give us a map of town because we looked confused, the hospitable young man who offered us a beautiful shower, breakfast, and camping spot in his yard. He already had an extra dog he was taking care of, a friend who was spending a long weekend with him, and another friend living with him. (Thanks again, Chad!)

May you be blessed today as well.

Sunday night we stayed in Old Forge, a resort town in the central Adirondack mountains. We camped in the yard of another warmshowers host.  Chad (our host) lived in town and on route.  It was very convenient for us.  We were able to catch up on laundry.  His house mate, Shane, made breakfast for us.  Thank you Chad and Shane.

Monday night we stayed at Lake Eaton Stae Park, near Long Lake, NY.  We had a rare experience --- rain.  At the time of this writing we are eating lunch at High Peaks Kitchen and for the second time while riding we're having rain.

Camping at a state park near Long Lake NY.

We signed up for an adventure, right? When we started out yesterday, we knew we might have a challenge finding a place to stay, as the only available lodging in Redfield, NY, were a lodge and B&B that each cost $100 for the night. We decided against them and instead found a very sketchy map of the state forest we'd be riding through that included some primitive campsites scattered here and there near the large Salmon River Reservoir. Unfortunately, after riding 60 miles we were ready to settle down for the night, but we headed down the wrong road to find the camp site (I mean DOWN a big hill) We were spent by that time, and Ron found out from a local that there would be campimg at the end of Noble Road. Well, 5 miles later, we found it, an old, rocky, formerly paved road. When we met two women walking along the road, they said that there was no place to camp, but there was a lodge.  Once we arrived at the nice-looking building, it took us a while to rouse the owner, who lived upstairs. She finally answered our phone message, said we could stay there for $69.95 tonight, and let us in. After we told her our story and that we had biked 73 miles that day, she said, "Well, I'm only going to charge you $40, since you're biking so far. Praise God!  The sleep was luscious, breakfast delicious, and we're halfway through our second long day - this time around 63 miles.  After today, we'll really hit the mountains and will travel much slower.

We've been enjoying some beautiful scenery.

We've been meeting lots of people, including chatting a few minutes with this Amish farmer.

We've seen Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Now we've been riding insome hilly country for two days as we head through the Adirondack Mountains.

"...Low bridge, everbody down.

Low bridge, we're coming to a town..."

Riding along the Erie Canal

Upon leaving Ontario, we came back into the U.S. in New York.  At Lockport we started riding along the Erie Canal.  Wednesday night we camped near Holley, NY.  Thursday we continued our ride along the Erie Canal. Thursday night we stayed with a couple we met through warmshowers.org.  They were very generous in providing us a bed, showers and an excellent dinner and breakfast.  We enjoyed hearing about their bike experiences.  Thank you, Ken and Karin.

Today we head up to Lake Ontario and ride on to Wolcott.

Our silence the past week was due to no internet or spotty connection while we biked through beautiful southern Ontario. Along the way, we met other enthusiastic cyclists and many friendly Canadians. Our final destination in Canada was Niagara Falls, where we spent two and a half restful days. We enjoyed viewing and photographing the majestic falls from many vantage points.

Some of the people we met:

Angelo, a native of Winnipeg, who's cycling solo from Montreal to Windsor. He told us of many other bike trips he's taken all over the world, since he works for an airline. I can't believe his wife stays home!!

A man from Hamburg who was staying at our motel in Niagara Falls enjoyed conversing with me, since he doesn't speak English. He grew up in East Germany, a place he described as a prison, which he fled in 1989. That explained his desire to travel everywhere he could. He's been to more states in the US than Ron or I have!

Angelo Rossi, a famous glass blower artisan from Venice who spent his career in Montreal and Niagara Falls. He spent at least 20 minutes with us telling us his life story and relating all of the famous people who have commissioned him, among them Elton John, Ringo Star, Jane Fonda, and Carol Burnett. After he related some recent difficulties, we had the honor of praying with him. His last words to us - "God is good! He makes such good wine, and I love wine."

Sunday morning we rode on the friendship trail north along the Niagara River until we came to the falls.

Approaching Niagara Falls from the south.

We enjoyed three days and three nights at Niagara Falls.

We've had another good week of riding.  The weather has been good and our bodies have been doing well.

We also learned of a motorcycle rally that happens in Port Dover Ontario every Friday the thirteenth for over 25 years.  This time they were expecting over 100,000 people.  It just so happens that yesterday, Friday the thirteenth, our route took us through Port Dover.  It was crowded.  We had to walk our bikes through town.  Since we had to wait to get to Port Dover to eat, we had to stand in line for an hour to get lunch.  The crowd was friendly and orderly.  (There was good police presence).

We've been riding and camping along Lake Erie since Wednesday

It was so nice for this restaurant to welcome us.

We have to hang our food sometimes to keep it away from racoons.

I guess that sign earlier wasn't for us.

This was a motorcycle rally we couldn't avoid. 

Well, Canada let us in!!

We took a ferry across the St Claire River, passed our exam questions at Customs, stopped to get some Canadian cash and we were on our way.

Somehow we missed the visitor center, so we asked a passing cyclist for directions. He asked if we'd had lunch yet and invited us to join him.  Jim, a bike enthusiast in his retirement years, provided a wealth of information about our route and not only gave us lunch but a map of Ontario as well.

Our maps showed a lack of campgrounds in this area which Jim confirmed, so he directed us to a Days Inn in the next town, Wallaceburg, where we're comfortably spending the night.

Today was another beautiful day.  We spent a lot of time on highways with narrow shoulders.  After biking about 65 miles today we are spending the night in Wadhams MI.  Tomorrow we enter Canada by ferry across the St Claire River.  To avoid roaming charges for our 4G connection, we'll be dependent on wifi connections while in Canada. So our updates may not be as regular over the next week.

The weekend was restful and very refreshing as we rested in a Warm Showers host's (Greg and Kim's) lovely 32' trailer in Bay City, MI. After enjoying Greg's delicious cooking on Friday evening, we slept soundly and were ready for a short relaxing ride up the Bay City Rail Trail to the state park on the south shore of Lake Huron, the second of the four great lakes we'll see on this trip.

Our hosts, including their three sons and two dogs treated us royally and it was hard to say goodbye today after attending their church service (I even got to play "Revelation Song" for the offering!).

We left Bay City at about 12:45 but still decided to ride 50 miles.  At 7:00pm we pulled into the city campground in Otter Lake.  We passed through Munich, Germany on our way - or so it seemed.  Frankenmuth is a small town that has all of the quaint beauty of a Bavarian town, complete with glockenspiel, accordion player at our restaurant table, and horse-drawn carriages. It made me homesick for Europe!

Thank you Ed and Jean for your hospitality.  We enjoyed a good nights sleep in your back yard.

Today was a short ride as we only rode thirty miles to get to Bay City MI.  Our route took us on U.S.Bike Route 20.  Our destination today was Bay City because a family we met through warmshowers.org invited us to stay with them. We'll be sleeping in their camping trailer in their back yard for two nights.

We've had a beautiful week for biking and the forcast shows more of the same.  Last night we stayed at a nice campground near Lake George MI.

Today, thirty-three of our forty-seven mile ride was on a paved trail.  (The trail is more than seventy miles long.)  As we left Lake George this morning, we knew we wanted to stay in the Midland area tonight but did not see any campgrounds near our route.  Just as we started on the trail we met a man heading the same direction as us so we rode together for several miles.  As the discussion of lodging came up he offered his yard for us to stay in.  We took him up on it.  It is only one mile off route and it is in Midland.  Praise God.  He has a beatiful, shaded, wooded and quiet yard and sprayed for mosquitos.  He also offered us showers.

How would you describe a perfect biking day?  Just like the one we had today - 60-70°, sunny, with a tail wind of 20 mph. The colors of God's creation astounded me today, and they're only a faint reflection of His glory.

Since we began the Adventure cycling Northern Tier route yesterday, we met five other cyclists today:

Dave and Lauren will be biking across America, beginning in Washington in a couple of weeks. They asked if they could join us for a couple of miles, so we had a great visit on our bikes.

One man passed us going the opposite direction on his recumbent and yelled out, "Where are you headed?" Ron yelled, "Maine!", to which he replied, "Seattle!"

On our way to buy groceries, we met two young guys, one of whom is from Bloomington, MN. They're headed from Chicago, the other guy's home, to MN, going along the north shore of Lake Michigan. They'll be biking 1000 miles in two weeks!

Our campground tonight is near Luther, MI.

On the road again after a day of rest.

After a 55 mile bike ride this morning, we took the ferry across Lake Michigan.  We're camping in Ludington, MI tonight.