Not so eastbound anymore

New York City was a blast. The challenge of traffic was like a real life video game of swerves and near-misses. From there we rode up to New Jersey, and back into New York state to stay near Buffalo. We motelled it to dry off our gear. The next day we got up and rode to Niagara falls, found a good parking spot and strolled down to check out the falls. Took a picture:

Because you can't go to Niagara and not take a picture.

We then booted straight for my birthplace: Sarnia, Ontario. A best friend of mine that I grew up with was kind enough to be our Sarnia guide. She took us for fries under the bridge, a famous Sarnia thing to do. It's great now because it's probably the only place in the world where people have "fries under the bridge" while under two bridges. We stayed in a stellar beach bungalow right on the beach. We decided that a nice quiet bar would be a good place to get a few friends together to catch up and chat. The quiet bar turned into a very loud, very late karaoke bar where I flaunted my karaoke skills:

Tara, Alex, Krysten and Me. I hung out with all them until I was 8.

We went pitch-black swimming, but it was too cold to stay out for long. The next day we got up and went out for breakfast downtown at a timely 2pm. By the time we'd said our goodbyes, packed, crossed the bridge and gassed up in the states, it was 5pm. Almost 600km later we pulled into "The Warren Dunes" in Michigan. Home of the Cicada Killer Giant Wasps, which are awesome:

Click for a huge scary picture!

Next day was a scorcher, and we rode in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa (possibly in that order.) Apparently, we scraped shoulders with a tornado in Iowa.

The last 60km of our longest day yet was the most beautiful non-coast non-mountain ride. Rolling prairies where you could see for miles. Riding fast west means a sunset that lasts for hours. Breath-takingly epic.