Niagra or Bust!

We were feeling the need to get some miles behind us (after all we were still in Virginia), so after getting provisions in Front Royal, VA we zoomed north. Well, maybe we didn't zoom, but we went as fast as a big metal box on wheels can go on mountainous back roads, which is to say about 45 mph or less. So we meandered through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania where we stopped for a few hours of fitful sleep beside a cemetery (not going to do that again). By sunrise we were in New York State. We figured we were in need of a good cultural experience, so we went into downtown Buffalo for some NY style pizza for lunch. Yum! And it just so happened that today’s special was cheese and broccoli pizza, Adalaya’s favorite!

After lunch we crossed over the Peace Bridge into Canada where our customs lady was very chatty and told us how to get to “the best hot springs ever” in Calgary. No wonder our customs line took forever to get through! We then took yet another beautifully scenic parkway, Niagra Parkway, which took us north from Lake Erie to Niagra Falls along the Niagra River. It is an amazingly beautiful and uncrowded drive, and there’s a bike path along the river as well. When we started to see a plume of mist in the air we knew we were getting close, so we parked the van and rode our bikes to the Falls. What an amazing place! I was expecting a dirty brown river and tourist traps everywhere, but the river is an amazing emerald color and the whole area is clean and beautiful and full of people from all over their world. And the Falls themselves are indescribable. A full rainbow with a faint double rainbow above it graced the falls in its plumes of spray.