I met a great couple a few years ago, Patti and
Chris, who live in Erie and they told me about Roger’s Ride/Niagara Century. When I signed up I was not planning to do another
bike ride and it sounded like a pretty ride.
I mentally reasoned I would have plenty of time to train. No sweat!
As the months rolled by and the winter of our
discontent raged on, I found myself with less and less time to train. Then work and other obligations took
priority. Then it was May! When nicer weather emerged, my thoughts
turned more to yard work than biking. (I
usually don’t start riding until June.) I
rode 30 miles May 3 and 35 miles May 10.
Felt pretty good, but that is short mileage. The next Saturday I didn’t feel like riding
so decided to taper. (Ha) May 24 I rode 30 again. I meant to go longer, but again, didn’t feel
like spending all day on the bike. I
reasoned that the route was flat and I am pretty active so I would be ok, just
a little sore. But in my head I was
saying, “Note to self: do NOT sign up
for a century in early June ever again.”
Here’s how the ride weekend went: my bike friend Bob and drove to Erie Friday
afternoon. We had dinner with Patti and
Chris at a great Italian restaurant in town, Mi Scuzi. We were up early Saturday morning to meet the
group in North East. The ride averages
20-30 riders but this year topped out at 62.
We took off at 7:30 a.m. and rode along Lake Erie toward Buffalo, NY.
 |
| If you look closely, you will see a bra hanging on the side of the left sign post. Someone had a great time on the state line! |
 |
| All the short men in NY live on this road. Let's get out of here! |
I’ve been to the falls before, around 20 years
ago. It is a wondrous site, but when you’ve been on a bike for almost 14
hours, and the temperature drops what feels like 20 degrees as you round the
curve past the falls, and your friend has your bike jacket and knickers in his
bag because he rode ahead of the group and you’re freezing, you don’t look at
it too much. I glanced over once or
twice, shivered many more times and kept pedaling toward the hotel.
Once we secured our bikes and got our luggage off of
the truck, we quickly showered and our group of six headed out for dinner at
9:30 p.m. at Remington’s.
Even though we were dead tired, we had a fun time
with Patti and Chris, and their friends Julie and Greg. It was Julie’s first century, so cheers to
her too! My head hit the pillow at
midnight. Overall, I felt better than I
expected. Shoulders a little sore. Bum a little sore. But not too bad for a 45-year old! I later heard a 20 something young lady was
so tired she went right to bed and didn’t eat.
Food is one of the priorities of my life, so couldn’t skip that. The Donger need food!
The next morning I biked down to the falls by myself
to see what I missed the night before.
So pretty!
The group rode 16 miles further north to Niagara
On-The-Lake. We changed clothes and put
our bikes and bags on the truck, then walked into town for lunch at the Shaw Cafe and Wine Bar We sat on the upstairs patio. It was perfect! The colors seemed so much brighter in
Canada. The flowers more colorful, the
sky a perfect shade of blue. Oh, Canada!
After lunch we got on the bus for the drive back to
North East. We stopped at the duty-free
store but I didn’t get anything. We
arrived at North East at 6 p.m. Bob and
I packed up his car and drove back to Indy.
My head hit the pillow at 1:30 a.m.
O.M.G. What a whirlwind
weekend! (Note to you all – the reason I
drove back home is that I am low on vacation days.)
As I do on all my riding adventures, I met some
great people. This time I even earned a
couple of new nicknames. The father of
the 20-something woman I mentioned earlier walked by me one day and said,
“How’s it going shortcake?” It made me
laugh. I told him I liked that name and
asked him, “Should I call you beefcake?”
The next day he called me slim chicken.
That made me laugh too. And that’s
what these rides are all about. Meeting
fun people. Seeing parts of the
countryside you’d never see in a car. Eating
great food (and a lot of it). And having
lots of laughs.
Note to self:
next time, do the ride when you have more vacation days and extend the
weekend fun!
