Day 9 Niagara Falls 6-31

As we walk out of our rooms to eat we meet up with Mark. He says they are both very tired and are just going to stay in today. Well, I tell him that we are thinking about going ahead and checking out today and make some miles back  towards home to beat the rain. We go ahead and sit down and eat, and Diana & Chris,and Jennifer and Steve show up, and we discuss the plans that we discussed last night. Rains are definitely coming and if we wait another day we will be right in it for sure. Diana &I go down and tell Mark and Carolyn we have all decided to head south. They agree, and we all start packing up to head towards Cuba, Missouri. It is around 10 and we are on the road. The heat index is supped to be over 100 today, and as we pull out there is a cloud cover and it makes for a nice ride. We actually run into a little rain, and it would dry on you before you knew it. Would be nice to have that type of ride all day, but we couldn't be that lucky. Each time we stop to get gas, it is getting a little warmer. Passing a guy that is a hot tar roofer, looks like his pot was overflowing and got the 3 bikes behind us.

 As we pull up to get gas, we are all checking the damage it did to the bikes.  This is going to be interesting to see how to get this stuff off.  This is the same stop that Diana makes a call to the Best Western in Cuba, Missouri  to see if they had any rooms. We hadn't even been thinking that this is a vey busy weekend with it being the  July 4th weekend. She is able to get us rooms, and we get there about 7:30. We are all vey hot tired and hungry. As we are checking in, Jennifer says that Steve is just wanting to stay one night and go ahead and head in tomorrow. Looks like we are going to loose Carolyn and Mark too. They are going to ride back with Steve. Guess it is a good thing we have the Biggs with us or we would be riding back by ourselves. I just hope eveyone understands that Chuck has been planning this trip for over a year.  If you have never planned 11 days on a bike, and how to get there, it takes a lot of research. The trip was altered a couple of times to accomodate the other riders in our group. We had said from the beginning it will be a tough trip. There will some down days, and there will be some days we have to hit it really hard. I just hope everyone has enjoyed the trip even if it was just a part of it. The heat has really been brutal and it doesnt look like it is letting up at all..we may be riding at night to try to make the ride home a little easier. Chris is trying to figure out what town we were in when the tar blew all over the bikes, and he and Steve are able to pinpoint it pretty well.  Looks like the Alvey's and the Scoggin's will be pulling out about 6 am to head home.  By the way, today was Steve's birthday....got him a cookie for lunch from Subway, and picked up a card for him...signed by the Moles of Silence....how special :)