St. Catherines, ON to Byron, NY

WE ARE BACK IN THE U.S. of A!!!

Our last full weekend on the tour is completed. We were camped over the weekend at Beacon Christian School in St. Catherines. On Saturday night we were bused to Niagara Falls for sight seeing. Julie and I and a lot of others had decided to take the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the base of the falls. We walked a long way to get to the ticket office and arrived there at about 7:17, only to find that they stop selling tickets at 7:15. It was a long walk there and we were disappointed. We just did some sightseeing of the Falls and stopped for some refreshments. The last time we were here on the Canadian side, it was in the Spring and was not very busy. This time it was wall to wall people.

Sunday morning breakfast was provided by the CR church across the street. As we were eating, someone came into the gym saying it was pouring outside. I quickly ran to the truck and began stuffing things into the rear bed of the pickup. That was a good thing, as the floor of the tent got very wet. After breakfast, we walked across the street to the CR church for their service.

In the afternoon we were bused to Queenton Park in Niagara On The Lake for a peach social to meet the local supporters and that was followed by a celebration service in the park. As we arrived at the park, it began to rain and it continued to rain hard until it was time for the celebration service. The service was planned for outdoors and there was no backup. Thankfully, the service could be held, but it probably hurt the attendance. We were then bused back to the school for a provided dinner.

Because the tent was still wet, Julie and I slept in the bed of the pickup for the first time on the bad platform Brett and I had made for the back. I was a little snug with the low ceiling, but we slept well.

The next morning we left to pedal to the border crossing at Niagara Falls Rainbow Bridge. As we were coming to the end of a St. Chatherine’s street, there was a moving, huge freighter in front of us. It was in the Welland Canal that bypasses the Falls. We then turned and followed the canal and later crossed it on a bridge. The ride to the Falls was pretty and included a bike path along the Niagara River and into the city. We all staged in a parking lot until everyone was accounted for, and then biked to the bridge for the border crossing. I have never had such an easy border crossing. The U.S. Customs knew we were coming and had a copy of all our passports. They opened up one lane on the bridge for us and about 3 booth lanes and just waved us through! They did not even look at our passports, and one even took a photo of our large group crossing.

After negotiating our way through the American side Niagara Falls, it was on to flat farmland to our destination for the night, an RV campground outside of Byron, NY. They had a nice shelter that we could eat in and 3 resident campers were Christians that came later and played gospel and blue grass music for us. It was a fun night.

Love to all, P & J.