Back in the U.S.A!

Hi folks

Greetings from Brockport, N.Y! We have just had a great few days cycling through St Catharines, Niagra on the Lake and then Niagra Falls. Some of this was off the road on pathways which is always a great way to ride. Niagra Falls put on it's best behaviour and gave us a good day of weather and we enjoyed getting up close and personal with the falls on the "Maid of the Mist" boat which takes you past the American Falls and right up to the base of the Candadian Horseshoe falls. (Sorry - no pics yet - we need to get them burnt to a disk before we can load them and there is always a lag!). Walking along the path above the falls was also cool with the mist creating some very soggy paedestrians and forming some great rainbows across the falls. The sheer volume of water is amazing. In the evening we we very happy to meet up with an ex IAM Afghan colleague, Shamim & his wife Carmen, who live about 1.5 hrs from the falls but came over especially to have dinner with us. Shamim used to work in the Peshawar (Pakistan) office for IAM and was a great asset to the team. He and 12 family members emigrated to Canada about 5 years ago & it was good to hear positive stories of how he and his family are integrating into Canadian Society.
Yesterday (Wed) dawned grey,cold and very windy - but stayed dry all day which was great. We rode across the Rainbow Bridge back into the USA at about 9.30 a.m. The border guard asked the usual questions and then kindly recommended the best roads for us to get to Lockport where we began cycling on the Erie Canal Pathway. (He also recommended a great place to eat wings at a little Irish Pub in Middleport - which of course we had to indulge in mid-afternoon yesterday.) Seeing the HUGE sign - "Welcome to New York - Empire State" - as we crossed over was pretty exciting realising that we have come from California to New York mostly courtesy of our own wee legs & within 3 or so weeks we will be in New York City!!
Last night we free camped by the canal just out of Albion (with deer grunting around in the night)and today the sun is shining brightly and we've just enjoyed a few hours along the canal soaking in some sun - something that has been in rare supply recently! We will stay tonight to the east of Rochester with the brother of one of my British Medair colleagues in Afghanistan, Matt Glover. Will be cool to meet his brother and to see the canoe that Matt made from Birch bark and solo paddled down the Yukon River in for 3 months a couple years back(now stored with his brother).
We then head to Ithaca, passing alongside Lake Cayuga (one of the finger lakes. Ithaca is a University Town and a bit of a hippy hang out so we hear (so we'll fit right in!). We are diverting here so as to go eat at The Mossewood Cafe - the place where "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" and "The Moosewood Cook Book" come from (anyone with Vegetarian leanings will know these are quite famous in the vege world!!). Our mate Justin Kinghan, from London, UK, meets us in Ithaca on Monday and will cycle the remaining 2.5 weeks with us back to New York City. We were at his wedding in May so is great to have him along for the final leg of the ride. We will meet with his wife Liz and another couple, Katie and Khaled (friends from Kabul) for 4 days in Novemeber in New York City which will be a blast.
So...enjoying the sun now whilst it still shines and looking forward to all that lies ahead still. Keep the comments flowing :-) Marty