Friday, August 6

What a difference a day makes! Actually, what a difference a storm makes. The storm that chased us into Port Dover yesterday afternoon left lower temperatures and drier air in its wake.

For the most part, today’s riding stuck very closely to the shore of Lake Erie, and treated us to very quiet, minor roads. We took our time, stopping at a small cross-roads restaurant for second breakfast, at a lake-front mini-golf / ice cream shop / hot dog stand for hot dogs and soda (I eat about one hot dog per decade, so I guess I’m set until 2020), and along the side of the road somewhere to snack on a can of mixed nuts we were carrying.

We weren’t sure we were going to make it all the way to Port Colborn today or not, but I really wanted to because it is here that the Welland Canal, which joins Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, meets the lake. When we cycled around Lake Ontario some few years ago, we rode alongside the Welland Canal for part of a day. Now we are at the other end of the Canal, and that gives me some sense of joining the two trips.

When we got here we rode around town a bit looking for a place to stay. We stopped at an antique store on West Street, fronting the canal, and Jodi went in to ask if they could point us toward a place to stay for the night. The proprietor took us next door to a bar / restaurant that has a bedroom / kitchen suite upstairs, and that is where we are staying tonight.

The canal splits the town of Port Colborn in two, and they are joined by a lift bridge. The windows of our suite look directly out on the bridge, and we’ve enjoyed watching the bridge lift a couple of times and some of the lake steamers making their way into and out of the canal.

When we leave here tomorrow morning we have about a 20 mile ride along a bike path to Fort Erie, then we will cross the Peace Bridge into Buffalo, NY and will have to contend with rude American drivers yet again.

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