July 13 - Friday - Saginaw MI to Buffalo NY - 373 miles

It was raining when I woke up around 5:30. I have a brandy new front tire and awesome rain gear so no biggie. I am exhausted and it's time to get home.
I forgot to spray the chain last night so I'll stop somewhere today when the chain is warm, spray it and take a break. The chain lube I am using is great. I have about 13K on this X-ring (DID) chain and had have only adjusted it once (half turn on the adjuster screw). It is made by DuPont and is a waxy teflon mix with a volatile. You spray it on, wait half an hour and then ride. I always do it last thing so it has time to penetrate the rollers. No dirty on the chain either.

My ATT Canada cell plan has expired so I downloaded the map for Ontario ironically through my cell connection because the motel wifi was not playing nice with my phone. I realized I do not have any maps (you remember those paper things) so have trusted my phone the whole trip.

Coffee, yogurt and toast, pack the bike, and off.
I picked up a new rattle sound yesterday which i hear on bumpy roads. I thight it was the caribeners I use to secure the Giant Loop bag to the bike with but it turns out, my front disc brake pads are rattling. Good chance I am almost out of brake pad (gee you think, after 30K miles), but they work fine and there is no metal scraping (yet). It will last 3 more days. I checked them pretty close tonight and they look ok, just rattling.

I told Google girl the route and away we go. Google maps has given me some interesting routes and today's was great. She immediately got me onto nn-crowded back streets, little tour of Saginaw, then out into the countryside where I picked up crops again (wheat, hay, corn, and something else). Yesterday I say signs for rhubarb all over so that may be a big crop. Ontario is covered with huge greenhouses, wind turbines and solar trackers. They are making good investments for the long term.
 Stopped for coffee in Algonac, and realized I was right on the Canadian border. Forgot to buy cheap US gas so ended up buying half a tank mid-Ontario. I was pleasantly surprised when Google girl dropped in the parking lot of a tiny ferry dock. These small ferries I think are run by one of the native American tribes. It could fit 9 cars on it and we had 3 cars, me and a truck pulling a small camper. Nice ride and by the way, the rain stopped before I headed out this morning, so no rain gear. One random angry little cloud dumped on me at a road construction site, but only for 2 minutes. I dried out over the next hour or so. The flag guy and I looked at each other and laughed. Temps were in the 70's to mid 80's so no big deal.

Google girl did a great job sending me down lots of sleepy roads today so I got the real deal tour of Ontario. Lots of big flat fields and crops, not many big towns which surprised me. And I started seeing motorcycles, more and more as the day wore on. Turns out every Friday the 13th, in the summer, there is ahuge bike gathering in ths part of Ontario. All kinds. It's a big deal. Not just Harleys, but every kind of motorcycle you can imagine. I chatted up a Harley bad ass looking guy and his girlfriend and they said it was 10K or more bikes every time they do this. Something nice about a bad-ass Harley guy and his tabooed girlfriend wishing me a safe trip.
And the Google girl got  moody on me. She does this thing where she just doesn't say anything and next thing you know, you are in the middle of a corn field, you look at the map and she says, "Oh yea, you are in the middle of a corn field". Not sure if she just takes a powder, or is angry or what, but she did it 2 or 3 times today. The second time I was riding along on this nice road, all by myself and I look over to my left and there is the lake, and I thought, nice, I though Lake Erie would have been on my right, and then I look at the compass ball and it says I am going west, and I stop and look at the map and I'm going the wrong way. Where did she go??
On that occasion a nice couple stopped to see if I needed help and I explained and they laughed and asked if I wanted some cold water. This is what I mean about random acts of kindness.
The closer I got to Buffalo, the busier the roads got and the more and more bikes I shared the road with. The border crossing is always confusing road wise because they seem to always weave you around town before they put you on the bridge, bu Google girl suddenly got cheery and guided me right through the back streets and onto the bridge and even gave me a perky "Welcome to the United States of America".

I decended the bridge into a small sea of waiting cars at immigration. I turned the bike off and it felt good to just push it along. There was a continuous din of Harley engines running and one of the Harley guys dropped his bike and almost knocked me over. Not a scratch on the Kawasaki, but it scratched his pretty red bike up quite a bit. Boy was he embarrassed.
The customs guy was real friendly and quick. He asked me about my motorcycle clothes, if I got hot, etc). I think he was enjoying the break us bikers give these guys and the toll booth guys.
So Google girl twisted me through some seedy parts of Buffalo where a couple kids ran up to me at a stop light saying "wheely, wheely", yea right. Another guy offered to buy my bike. Then Rt 5 out of town, and right to the door of the motel.
Turned out to be a great Brew Pub next door so a couple pints and a burger, the bed. Up at 3am and writing this before it leaks out.
This is my last nigh in motels and my last dinner out. Tomorrow I'll stay with Debs dad and the next night I'll be sleeping in my own bed, if those brake pads stay put..



Odometer = 29759 - 29386 = 373
29759 - 18289 = 11470 total trip