July 17, 2016
Day 47 in Queenston
We love Ontario. In the southern US, striking up a conversation with strangers will usually get you friendly interest and warm smiles. In the northeastern US, it may get you a friendly response, but just as likely will get you nothing but indifference (or worse!). But in Ontario, talking with strangers has resulted in free wine two days in a row. The stokers are happy!
Our plan for today was to ride around the Niagara region, enjoying the vineyards and orchards, probably stopping at some farm stands and maybe a winery or two. We also planned to ride some distance along the Welland Canal and go to their visitors center. The last thing on our list for today was a stop at the locally famous Avondale Dairy Bar for fresh made ice cream. We were out on the bikes for about 10.5 hours and got all of that in and had a wonderful time doing it.
We left the hotel a little after 9, having has a delicious breakfast cooked to order by the owners. We rode up toward Niagara on the Lake, which is a very beautiful town filled with flowers. It sits on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River.
We stopped at a fruit stand which had an assortment of fresh, locally grown fruit. We got a mixed basket of cherries, small sweet plums and peaches. It was all good, but the little yellow plums were the best. Later in the day we found some apricots which were also good.
The next fruit we enjoyed was grapes at the Kunzelmann Winery. We pulled in there and there were several cyclists outside. We started talking and found that one couple, Margie and Graham, were actually leaders of cycling wine tours. They were on their own today, not leading a group. They told us we had chosen one of the very best wineries in the area. We chatted with them for a few minutes and then went in to decide what we wanted to do about tours and tastings. We found out that Margie and Graham had spoken to the manager and we were invited into the tasting room to chose a glass of wine and take a tour at no charge. The wine was excellent, the tour was very interesting and the wine tour cycling business in Ontario has at least one fabulous couple! Thank you guys!
The next thing on the day's itinerary was the Welland Canal. We rode out to the north end at Lake Ontario and got great views of the lake.
We rode a few miles up the canal, past a couple of locks, then stopped at the visitors center at lock 3. There were no freighters to see today, but we did see one small tour boat lock through. The boat was approaching the lift bridge we needed to take back across the canal and we got there in time watch the bridge lower.
We rode over to the Avondale Dairy Bar and had our ice cream, THEN we stopped for dinner. When we finally got back to the hotel, we had been out for about 10.5 hours. It was a very good day!
Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 2,344 miles (3,772 km)
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