The weather forecast was for 80% chance of rain today. I brought the shower cap with me from the motel so that, in the event that we had another gully washer like yesterday, I could put the shower cap over my helmet to keep my head dry. We had also gone to the Laundromat yesterday to clean our clothes after getting so much road grime on them. I had brought some of the clothes back to the room a little damp. Always before they had dried easily overnight, but not this time. It was so humid in my room; the bathroom floor was wet in the morning.

Team Stops A Lot hit the road in their usual good spirits. We left the motel about 7:15 AM and rode in very dense fog for the first hour before it thinned out a bit. I wish I had had a light on the back of my bike it was so thick. We made sure we rode in single file due to poor visibility. This morning some people left in full rain gear and others just wore shorts and a jersey. Yesterday’s weather had certainly taken a toll on some. Our riding speed, as opposed to our accumulative time, has increased over the last three days. We have been keeping it at about 18 mph as an average. This requires all of us to generally up our level of intensity as we pedal.

We arrived at the first SAG (Support and Gear), mile 35, right behind the thoroughbreds. At that time it had actually not rained on us and we were commenting that, if it stayed like this all day, we would be very happy. It started to drizzle just as we were about to leave the SAG so we put on our windbreakers.

Danny took it out pretty hard for the next couple of miles and, when we got to a stop sign, Steve and I pulled over to take off our coats. I was soaked in sweat. In a matter of seconds I had mine off and stuffed in the back pocket of my jersey and had caught back up to Mary and Dan, who were riding casually ahead. Steve, on the other hand, is much neater than I. He took forever folding his jacket up and putting it in a stuff bag, which he had attached to the rear of his seat with two nylon straps. We had teased him earlier that he looked like he was riding on a self-supported bike tour. Now, we never fully abandon each other, so Danny had gotten way out in front of Mary and me as we slowed to wait for Steve. After too much time had gone by we decided to merely stop and wait. Maybe he was having some other kind of difficulty.

As we waited we could see some cyclists approaching us, but no Steve. Now our concern was really beginning to rise. As we looked back we could see Charles (aka “The Chuck Wagon”) riding the recumbent, approaching with Vern (staff member and strong rider) very fast. Mary had commented that she still didn’t see Steve, and that was when the action started! It is hard to draft off a recumbent, so Steve was hunkered way down behind the Chuck Wagon, holding on for dear life. The Chuck Wagon was moving out at about 22 mph. As they flew by us Steve waved at us to get on board this fast moving train. Mary and I took off at a full sprint for the next minute and barely managed to catch the draft behind Steve.

Now picture this: Vern has just pulled in front of the Chuck Wagon and stepped it up to 23 mph, followed by hunkered down Steve, little Mary and tall Clark who was also hunkered down to benefit from Mary’s draft, all screaming down the road. This was excitement enough, but do you remember Dan? We were reeling him in faster than a hot knife in butter when he spotted us coming.

Now Dan has a number of issues he is working on, one of which is having people pass him on a bike. The three of us all know this because, from time to time, all three of us have smoked his pipes and have had the chance to observe his reaction. So when Dan spotted us coming he down shifted and kicked his trusty steed into high gear. Now Vern is the competitive type and, as you remember, he is pulling our train when he spots Dan accelerating. He gets impatient and goes off the front and pursues Dan.

This was a thing of beauty because their riding styles are so different. Dan drops down to his aero bars and pumps hard and fast and accelerates to (he said later) about 32 mph for a while. Vern turns huge gears and stands up the entire time, pedaling very slowly as he reels Dan in. We were all watching this happen as the Chuck Wagon was pulling us down the road at a measly 22 mph.

After Vern caught Dan they sat up and slowed down. The remaining Stop A Lots knew Dan’s competitive ego would need some recovery time. (I should add here, Vern was sucking wind and soaked in sweat.) Oh, back to the action! Yes, here comes our merry little band led by the Chuck Wagon. We are reeling Vern and Dan in quite rapidly now. They see us coming, so Dan and drops once again to the aero bars and takes off with Vern in his draft, now followed by the Chuck Wagon, Steve, Mary and me. Dan takes us up to 26mph, then tires and rotates to the back of the line. Vern maintains this speed and is holding it. As Dan rotates back, I look at him from my hunkered down position and yell at him, “Can you believe this?” We are moving so fast, and Dan is so spent, that we nearly lose him off the back of the train.

Now to recap, Vern is pulling, followed by the Chuck Wagon, Steve, Mary, Clark, and Dan screaming down the highway at 26 mph. This by itself is enough to make our day, but then it happened! BANG! There was a huge explosion! It sounded like a gunshot right next to our ears. When you are moving in a pace line at these speeds, you never do anything fast or it may result in a major pile up. When we heard the bang we all ducked, slowed, and watched for others. Mary dogged left. Fortunately there were no cars coming. Vern, who was pulling, continued straight ahead and slowed. Steve, Dan and I remained in line and slowed down. That is when we spotted the Chuck Wagon off on the shoulder, moving through the gravel in Fred Flintstone fashion, with both feet off sliding along the ground.

After everyone was stopped and safe, it was obvious that Chuck had had a blow out. But when we removed his wheel, we discovered that he blew about 8 inches of his rim off the wheel. This concluded his riding for the day. Apparently it is also an odd sized wheel and we just hope he can find a replacement. We called for the red van to pick him up and left the broken down Chuck Wagon alongside a lonely stretch of highway in Ontario, Canada. What a sad ending to a wonderful memory.

The rest of us proceeded to our next turn in the road and stopped at a gas station for a Sobe and an opportunity to use up our remaining Canadian money. We put all of our change, which we all had in zip lock bags, on the counter and the attendant took out what he needed for our drinks. We had just enough, so we did not have to use any US dollars. I only mention this stop because it plays an important part in the day’s other exciting event.

By now it is beginning to rain pretty steadily and we all have put on our rain attire. As we approach Niagara more riders have joined our merry band, and by the time we get on the Rainbow Bridge there are about 15 of us. We are right in the lane with all the other stopped traffic waiting to go through customs. We eventually dismounted and walked our bikes. Big Mike of “M&M”, Mike and Matt, discovered a large aneurism in his rear tire, so he would have to ride very carefully the rest of the way in.

Now our merry band is about 50 feet from the customs area. Most all of us, in our soaked “Across America by Bicycle” jerseys, (We look really sharp!) reach for our picture ID, most of which has been kept dry in, you guessed it, zip lock bags. We all find our picture ID right where it is supposed to be except for guess who? Dan! Dan’s credit cards, drivers license, and cash are all gone. Panic stricken and running out of time, we call Mike back in the red van and tell him what has happened. He will go back to the gas station to see if he can find Dan’s things. Now we all picture Dan sitting in a room being interrogated for hours under a bright light, sitting by himself in a straight back chair.

Tony was at the front of the line and greeted the customs officer with a big “Good morning sir, we’re riding our bikes across America and we are so glad to be back in the USA.” I’ll never know whether it was Tony’s warm approach or Divine intervention or both, but the officer was very friendly and asked the first few riders if they were US citizens and then pretty much asked the entire group and waved us all through. Dan, who had lingered back toward the end of the line expecting the worst, answered the questions and rode through. I suspected that he rode through on his aero bars. After we cleared the gate I turned around to see what had happened to Dan and couldn’t see him. I asked Steve what happened to him and Steve said he was up front. Dan had moved from the back of the group to the front and did not want to risk being asked any questions. Of course, some of the riders threatened to reveal Dan’s lack of ID.

Well, what a day! What a great and wonderful day! We found our hotel, arrived soaking wet at 1:00 PM and sat in the bar eating lunch wrapped in towels until nearly 3:00 PM waiting for our rooms to be cleaned. Later, a hot shower never felt so good. Mary’s brother Mike had ridden his Harley up from Pennsylvania. He is a great guy and we thank him for treating us to lunch. He thanked us for keeping an eye on Mary and this opened up a line of Mary stories.

Well, this is more than you ever wanted to know, but it is what happened on my ride. That evening I was down in the lobby looking at the easel with the large map of the USA attached to it. There is a line drawn identifying our route and how far we have come to date. Barbara, the ride leader’s wife and staff member, came over and we chatted for a while about the trip. It was an opportunity for me to tell her once again that the ride has been everything I had hoped it would be and so much more. I can believe I have ridden my bike every day for the last 42 days, because I have a sore rear end to prove it, but I can’t believe that I have almost ridden across the entire USA! Wow!

Tomorrow is a needed rest day, so I will not be on the road. I am planning to walk over to the Canadian side and look around. The USA side seems quite depressed to me and, other than a beautiful view of the falls, there is not much here. Have a nice day on Monday. I will be back on the road on Tuesday and I will look for you then. Thanks for joining me.

Click here to see more pictures from today!