Day 3 recap - Niagara Falls

Just the bullet points, today. Long night, late morning. Calling it in.

• We hit 5 minutes of rain right outside of Canton. It was light. We thought we were lucky. It was a sign of things to come.
• We crossed at Ogdensburg, NY. Took us forever to find the border crossing. You think it would be easy to find the only bridge crossing the St Lawrence river anywhere near there. Not so much. A special thanks to weird redneck guy and his kids for pointing us in the right direction. Sorry to disrupt your morning swim.
• Border crossings are so much better at little towns. I've waited an hour on the highway on I-87 trying to get through. But you come to a little place like Ogdensburg, you're the only person. Literally. Plus, leave it to the Canadian border crew for maintaining a spotless bathroom for the morning business.
• But the other side of the crossing ... There was this steel grate bridge across the St Lawrence river...I can already tell you that's gonna be the worst part of the trip. This thing was slick and squirrely. It had a mind of it's own. We went over this thing just trying to keep things upright. I am seriously glad it wasn't wet. That bridge must take down at least a few motorcycles a year. Do you have anything to declare? Yeah, that bridge sucks.
• Our ride was 250 miles of slab to Toronto. It was mind-numbingly dull (For me, anyway. EG is much more in tune with the zen of highway riding than I am. He liked it just fine.)
• Major rainstorms all day, off and on. The last one was easily the worst rain ever -- the clouds loomed over the horizon all full of lightening, and we just rode right into it. The first time either of us has stopped under an overpass to let the storm pass.
• I'll admit it. We come to Canada for the caché of riding to another country. But the roads up here are just terrible. Straight, flat, horrible condition. If I lived up here, I probably wouldn't bother owning a bike. And they have to do all the road repair in the warm months, which in Canada means July, so everywhere you go, it's all torn up.
• We saw very few motorbikes on the road yesterday. Personally, I think it's because Canadian roads suck for motorcycling and nobody wants to bother. Everybody else has different theories.
• Everybody in Canada uses daytime running lights. Sure, it's safe, but it makes it much harder to pick out Eric's headlight in my rearview mirror. It's a sea of headlights, and I'm constantly having to search to make him out and make sure he's still out there. Which, of course, he is.
• I just need to remember this for next year (because I forgot from last year) but E just prefers to ride in the number 2 position. I think that's fine. I like being up front. But I should stop trying to give him time up front. He'd rather be in the back taking pictures and doing his own thing.
• We passed this factory on the 401 that looked like a Demuth painting. It was pretty awesome. I could have looked at it for hours.
• We passed some great places. Hardscrabble Rd. Cobbledick Rd. The kind of signs you want pictures of, but they pass so quick, you have no chance. Also Wild Cat Zoo, Nuclear Information Center, Hell Hole Landing, Ontario.
• The hotel is fine. Full of bikes/bikers. Close enough to everything.
• Niagara Falls is a circus. I mentioned it earlier, but there seriously are 10 wax museums and a thousand haunted houses. It's tourist-kitsch-extreme. Ripley's is making a killing on paid admissions.
• We hit the Beef Baron for dinner. so-so steaks, but the best waiter ever. Nathan was a lot of fun, and super helpful. He's just the sort of guy you want taking care of you when you're in a strange town. He definitely earned his tip. About a local bar, his sage advice: "I haven't been there in years, but I heard it's getting better."
• From there, it was a night-time look at the falls, fireworks and the casino.
• We spent a couple hours at the roulette table. I left up 60$. Together we left up 10$. The place was too crowded, which is why we left. But we were hitting numbers left and right. Eric's first time playing roulette, and he hit 22 twice in a row, on his first two spins of the wheel. Beginner's luck, indeed.
• We ended up at a bar on the west side of town. Sketchy place, which is apparently in the prostitute district. And I'll tell you, the prostitutes here are rough. Seriously, they walk funny -- let's not forget that.
• Today is the biggest ride of the trip. 460 miles across the top of Lake Erie and South to Dayton. Lots of slab. Should get our tires all squared off for when we hit the mountains. (For those of you that don't ride, that's not good.)