Sherkston Shores, Fort Erie, Ontario to Niagara Falls, Ontario
We stayed up quite late last night – but when on holidays, who needs sleep!! But I did have the best sleep so far this trip, as Debbie and I had a comfy King bed!
It is going to be a hot day!! We couldn’t have lucked out better with our weather. Other than the first day, where a storm came in late in the day and we had tornado warnings, the weather has been beautiful!
We stopped by Sil’s to say good-bye and then we were off before 11 a.m. Since we had a short day yesterday, today we have a longer day of 50+ km to Niagara Falls.
My friend Lisa had a good idea – for us to go out the back gate at Sherkston, which was very close to us and would save us cycling all the way through the park. She thought if all 6 of us went in a row, we might trigger the gate to open, but nope it didn’t work. I asked some landscaper guys if they had the code and they didn’t, but the guy showed us where the sensor was in the ground (right where Janet’s pack is) and he said it reads metal. So we laid Irene’s bike on the road so the handlebars (the only metal part on the bike) were touching. Nope didn’t work. So we laid Janet’s bike beside Irene’s and YAY it worked!!! But then Janet’s pannier fell off and then she had a mad scramble to get through the gate just before closing!! lol. too funny! Soon enough we were back on the friendship trail (about 1.5 km from Sherkston)
We cycled under the Peace Bridge (Fort Erie, Ontario to Buffalo, New York) and when we got through Fort Erie, we stopped at a park and had a picnic! Janet and Betty had made us each an egg salad sandwich in the morning (Mmmm!) and it went really well with my cold beer!! Cheers! We are now on the Niagara River and on the Niagara River Recreational Trail.
We stop in Stevensville for water, and some had ice cream! and once we got back on the path, it wasn’t long that we saw Niagara Falls!
When we stopped for lunch, we chatted about how we would get to our hotel as we knew we had to go up Murray Road (which is a steep hill) and that was the last thing I wanted to do was push my heavy loaded bike up that hill. We had free tickets (from Betty!) for the Incline Railway, so I googled it to see if we can take bikes on it. Yep!! Perfect. The trail took us right to Table Rock which is where you catch the incline up the hill to Niagara Falls Blvd area. We could take 2 bikes on the incline at a time. Our free passes were a day pass, which is great as tonight when we go to the Power Plant we will go up and down again. Otherwise the fees were $8 for a day pass (per person) or I think it was like $3.50 for one trip.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn. Betty, Debbie and I have stayed there a couple times in the past, and so we knew what rooms would be good to accommodate our bikes, and that the hotel was good with us taking our bikes up the elevator. They had an indoor and an outdoor pool, so after a day of cycling the pool felt great!
We went for Italian food again – Zappi’s Pizza and Pasta! Cheers!!
They have a new (nicely lit) path going from the parking lot at Table Rock (and right where the Incline Railway comes) directly to the newly renovated Power Plant. We had free tickets for the Power Station at Night (again complimentary from sister Betty!) exhibit. Ticket prices for this otherwise would have been $40 per person. We saw Currents Sound and Light Show on the main level. It will be nice to come back to visit during the day sometime, to see and read all the history of this Power Plant.
We then went down in the tunnel, which was built 118 years ago. You go down in a glass elevator 180 feet, where you can see all the workings of the power plant (showing how they pulled up all the water) and then get into the tunnel. It was cool as they have it all lit up at night. We walked 2,200 feet to reach the end, which is underneath the Falls.
Thankfully they had rain ponchos for us!!
We got back to our room at 10:02 p.m. and caught the last 3 minutes of fireworks from our balcony. The Holiday Inn only has 5 floors so you can’t see the Falls from our room, but you get a great view of the Skylon Tower!
We were all pretty exhausted – from cycling 50+ kms today, and then all the walking we did in the Falls. We had a night cap with the 6 of us and then off to bed we went!! The rooms we booked, have 2 queen beds and a seating area. 1 room could easily fit our 4 bikes and 4 people. It was perfect! Looking forward to our last day tomorrow. Sweet dreams!
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