gone global

Hello,
I'm in Canada. Yeah, the trip's turned global (hey, it is a big deal,
especially since i've never been to Canada).

I met up with Melissa on monday and we drove up to Syracuse listening to
three great road trip cd's (Guns and Rose's Appetite for Destruction,
Madonna's the Immaculate Collection, and Peter, Paul and Mary's greatest
hits).

We've started to run into other bikers. On Wednesday we stopped and had ice
cream with a couple who was biking for 2 weeks in upstate NY. They were
pretty interesting (the husband is Harvard's tennis and squash coach), but
the most remarkable thing about Bonnie, was that she was completely decked
out for a woman who was riding 40 miles a day. I'm talking eyeshadow,
lipstick, dangly earrings. Then, she whipped out her Chanel sunblock and
applied it to her face. I mean, who wears Chanel sunblock. I suppose the
answer is Bonnie.

On Wednesday we stayed in Palmyra New york at a bed and breakfast (there
were no campgrounds and luckily this one was pretty cheap). We were kind of
debating where to stay and fluctuating about continuing on to the next town
since there allegedly were fireworks there, when Barbara (from the b&b) said
that her and her husband were going to watch some and they would take us
along. So we piled in the back of their car and listened to the history of
Palmyra - Palmyra has about 85% of the country's cobblestone houses because
after the Erie canal was built, the people who worked on it were looking for
more work and found that they could build houses with the stones from the
lake...or something like that. We got to see some great fireworks (with a
full moon) over Canidaigua lake (i think i butchered the spelling on that
one).

Thursday and Friday we biked along the Erie Canal - it actually is a trail
so we were off of the roads - yay! I had never seen the canal before and it
was so fascinating - we stopped to read all of the placards and watched a
boat go through the locks (yeah, we're big dorks). People were extremely
friendly around Rochester. We were talking to one guy who was on his bike
and suddenly he turned to me and asked, "Are you Christian girls?" I froze
as I had immediate flashbacks to all of the times people in college would
come up to me and try to get me to attend their Sunday potluck dinners with
the Christian College Students club or whatever they were. I think my
response to him was a stuttering, "sort of. i guess i'm methodist - ish" as
my eyes flashed to melissa with a give me the sign and we'll make a break
for it look. He replied with, "well, i'm getting a really strong feeling
from the Heavenly father to pray over you girls right now. would you mind?"
i think melissa replied no, because within seconds my head was bowed and
he was asking for us to be watched over in our travels. Afterward, when we
were walking away, Melissa said, "wow that was really nice." In my i'm
still too close to the east coast voice i responded with "yeah, in a really
weird kind of way. The last time i had someone pray over me and touch my
shoulder - i was about 6 months old and getting baptised."

On Thursday night we slept along the Erie Canal (for free!) and they had
beautiful clean showers right there. We camped next to another biker,
Chris, who started in Seattle a week before we did. For the engineers who
are trying to do the mileage. Yes, he started in Seattle a week before we
started in Maine and we met in upstate New York. He's averaging about 100
miles per day...we're not. He was a really interesting guy - last summer he
kayaked from seattle to alaska for 2 months and he was telling us how he
also scuba dives in the cayman islands and sails for the rest of the year.
At one point I asked him what his day job was to support his habits and all
he said was, "I don't have one. I used to work in the tech industry but i
stopped that two years ago after i saved some money." Makes you wonder -
seattle... tech industry ...now has enough money to just travel, hmmm. The
next morning before he left, melissa asked him if she could take a picture
of me and chris and then i had to take a picture of chris and melissa and
then he figured he might as well get one too and then the park ranger asked
if we wanted him to take a picture of all three of us together to which
Chris finally blurts out, ok, now i see why you guys only do 50 miles a day.

I have to include this next story because I promised Buster I would include
him in my email. We were riding along the canal on Friday. By the way, do
you know that you can travel by boat from New Orleans to New York completely
by rivers and lakes? We're thinking 2002, 2003? Anyone interested? Anyone
know anything about boating? Back to Buster. We're riding along and this
dog comes bounding up to the trail. We stop because dogs are the enemies on
this trip. But this dog (spaniel of some sort, beautiful) was all about
making friends. So we just start riding again. And he starts jogging along
with us. It's at this point that we started making up what he was probably
thinking. He's thinking, "oh boy, we're going for a jog? great, let's go!"
We keep biking and he keeps going with us. Melissa remarks, "he'll
probably turn around soon." Buster's thinking, "you're going to Buffalo?
I've always wanted to GO to Buffalo!" We comment that he is pretty clean
and really well groomed and dogs like that don't usually get let out to run
around canals." Buster's thinking, "Damn straight!" So melissa called the
number on his dog tag and starts talking to a 5 year old. I hear from
Melissa, "is your mommy or daddy home? No? do you have a dog named buster?
Is he allowed out of the house? No? Can you come up to the trail and pick
him up? Well, honey i don't know where you live so i can't bring him home.
Your sister will meet us? ok." Meanwhile buster finally realized that
there was a big canal with lots of water next to us and goes for a bit of a
swim. Buster's thinking, "oh boy, i'm swimming, we're going to Buffalo,
this is the best day ever!" The story ends with us taking Buster back home,
the 5 year old meets us on the street and Buster is currently the envy of
all the other housebound dogs in the neighborhood.

That last story is funnier if you hear it in person. ok, it was only funny
to Melissa and me, sorry.

We stayed for free again by the canal on Friday night (we love the canal!)
in Lockport, NY. Today we rode to Niagara Falls. That's where we crossed
into canada. That was a scene. The pedestrian walkway over the bridge was
being worked on so the construction workers told us to walk our bikes on the
other side of the guard rail (in other words in the lane where the cars are
driving towards us) and walk them over the bridge. They thought it wouldn't
be a problem since i was wearing bright colors. Imagine playing a kicked up
version of chicken on a 2 lane bridge rolling about 75 pounds of gear next
to me in competition with an oncoming very immobile mobile home which is
driving about 40 mph. It was a thrill, that's for sure.

We met up with Melissa's parents once we got into Niagara and just got back
from lunch with them. Later we'll go out to the Falls (which i've never
seen).

Hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
leigh