Pelotonia

A few years ago a friend of mine rode in Pelotonia and until then, I really had no idea what it was. But hearing more from her, and doing a few long bike rides together while she was training, I started wishing I had signed up too. But by that point it was way too late in the game to a) train and b) raise the money that is required of participants. So I didn't do it that year. Or the next. But this year I am!

Three months from today I will be riding 100 miles from Columbus to Gambier. Am I crazy? Probably so! Am I excited? Definitely!

This summer I have a feeling I will be on my bike A LOT, which is not a bad thing by any means. I grew up riding my bike every evening and all evening around town with my friend Erin, so I'm looking forward to that past time again this summer. I just have to make sure Molly gets a bike to ride with me!

Because the ride is to raise awareness and funds for cancer research, there is a fundraising component to it. For the length I chose to ride, 100 miles, I am responsible for raising $1,800! If I don't raise that much, they withdrawal it from the checking account I had to provide during registration. They get their pledged amount one way or another and that's a lot of money that I just don't have sitting in the bank. So far in the 28 days that I've been registered I have already raised $874.50! I'm floored at the support I've received from friends and family. I'm so happy to already be at 48% of my goal with five months of fundraising still to go! You can help support cancer research and my ride by donating on my Pelotonia page.

I doubt there is anyone in the world who has not known someone who has been affected by cancer. This year I am riding in honor of my great- Grandma Primer and her twin sister, my Aunt Annie, who were both survivors of breast cancer at age 90. Cancer research and treatment allowed them to live an additional 10 healthy years. I am also riding in memory of Millie Dunham, a childhood neighbor and grandmother of my close friend Erin. She passed away in 2004 after a courageous battle with cancer. So many people have been affected by this horrible disease and I'm so honored that I can be a part of the fight to end it.

Let's go to Canada!

Saturday morning I woke up to my sister saying "Hey, let's go to Canada today." While I could have made a list of 20,492 things I had to do (and believe me, the list was that long), I got up at 7:30am and packed a bag and we left for Canada. Specifically Niagara Falls.

Molly had gotten her passport in early April and had been saying she was going to Canada the day she got it. With busy work schedules, it didn't really happen like that.

So this past weekend a few of my plans I had made (like running in the Cap City Half-Marathon) hadn't really worked out (for reasons like I haven't ran in weeks and weeks) and I didn't have anything on my calendar. After briefly talking about it while out and about on Friday night celebrating a few friends before they moved away the next day, Molly woke me up and was adamant we go, so we did.

The drive there wasn't too bad. I slept for the first two hours. One late night means I'm worthless the next day. Somewhere in New York we switched and I took over driving until we got to the falls and got to Clevleand again on the drive home.

We had a great time at the actual falls. They are beautiful. There is still giant chunks of ice - like ginormous icebergs still hanging out from the winter - at the bottom of the falls and on the rocks. On the American side you can see the falls to an extentent, but not as well as you can see them from Canada. So of course we had to go see both sides. And we saw them in the afternoon, close to dusk, at midnight, and then got up early to see them in the morning too! Just beautiful.

All that white stuff is snow and ice.

While still in America, we went on the Maid of the Mist ride out into the falls. It was awesome. It was only $17 which I think was a total bargain. We were almost in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls and we got soaked, but it was great.

Prior to being in the middle of the falls.

And right smack dab in the middle of them. Well, on a boat in the middle of them.

After we were done with the boat tour, we went to the island that is in between the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. It was pretty cool to be standing so close next to them and looking down at the water.

We went out on that ledge.

A little video to see how we were in between the two falls.

Finally we made our way into Canada. The first time on Canadian soil for both of us and Molly's first time in a foreign country. Niagara Falls, Ontario is kind of trashy. It's a total party city. We saw more bachelorette parties than I want to recall. There are two casinos and multiple locations of every chain restaurant there ever was. Except McDonald's, we didn't see one of those.

Selife with the Horseshoe Falls in the background.

We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that had amazing lasagna but was just a strange set up and drove back down to see the falls. We were both so tired from driving (and being up late the night before) that we went back to the hotel and crashed around 11. We had plans to go to the casino and gamble a little bit in order to park for free, but we just decided to pay the $10 to get out of the garage because it took less time! ha.

On our way back to the hotel we saw the gas prices there!  (Being totally sarcastic with the #thanksobama. I hate when people blame one person for high gas prices!)

Midnight selfie with the falls.

All lit up at night. In blue and gold....boooo!!!

Hey casino that we didn't actually go to.

Sunday morning we got up and saw the falls in the morning. I dropped Molly off at one end to get pictures and picked her up at the other end. Parking was expensive ($18) and I couldn't find anywhere to park for free. I'm all about free parking!

Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls (See that little boat, we were on one of those!)

Horseshoe Falls.

The drive home was good. We didn't stop anywhere except to get a McDonald's Flurry somewhere in Pennsylvania and to switch drivers in Cleveland.

All in all it was a good road trip. Despite the many "sleeping sister snaps" that we both apparently were sending out when the other was napping in the passenger seat. Oops!