Day 18: My Mom’s Last Ride

Phase oneℹ️ complete! 🎉🚴💪

Today, we made it to Tonawanda, NY (just outside Buffalo), marking the end of my mom’s leg of this trip. It’s been really great riding with her the last weeks, and it will be very weird not having her by my side/in my rear view mirror all day. She went over all the mountains and hills with me and only got to enjoy the flatter parts of the country for a couple days. However, now she’s in peak shape to ride with the Sakonnet Cyclists back home and can show off her tan lines at the Art Cafe this weekend.

Flat Flat 🥞

Bill and Sharon fed us one of our favorite meals for breakfast, French toast, which was an auspicious start to the day. It was so much fun chatting with them and swapping tips on routes and gear 🤓!

Thankfully, the canal trail was a bit drier today than yesterday in the rain. It still had some soft spots, but we were able to cruise along a bit faster and to enjoy the peaceful views along the way (instead of glaring at the path trying to figure out the least bad route through the next puddle). I don’t think there were as many people out riding today as the geese were acting like they owned the path and hissing at us when we would ride by while trying to give them as wide a berth as possible.

I got a flat in my front tire from a very sharp shard of a rock. Easy enough to patch, and the location was ideal. There was even a bench to sit on while fixing it.

We found a great cafe in Middleport where we stopped for lunch. We split a couple of paninis and a salad and enjoyed sitting outside in their wicker lounge chairs.

In Lockport we finally got to ride on pavement again, but with that came a short, but steep, hill. There are three locks back to back to back, making for a fun sprint upwards while attempting to check out the inner workings of the locks. At the top of the hill was a welcome/education center where we poked around a bit then had a quick snack and lie down in the shade.

From Lockport on, we were on a fun paved bike path that was a bit more windy and occasionally dumped us out onto quiet roads with good bike lanes. It was fun to really bike again with an occasionally gear shift and everything!

At the end of the day, just before the canal hits the Niagara River, we turned inland towards family. My dad grew up in the area, and my Aunt Joannie and Uncle Gary live here still. My dad drove up with Otto (the dog) earlier today and they were all sitting on the porch to greet us as we rolled up to the house. Otto was especially excited, running up to us on our bikes to get lots of pets and say hello.

We’ll spend the next couple of days here, and then I’ll head into Canada.

ℹ️ I think of this trip in four phases. The first is riding to Buffalo with my mom. Next is from here to my friend Martha Grace’s house in WI for a long Fourth of July weekend visit. Third is from WI to Glacier National Park where I’ll meet up with MJ and bike to the pacific coast for phase four.