. . . On the Road Again . . .: Stage Two: Hamilton to Niagara Falls... or so we thought...

Stage Two turned out to be Stages Two AND Three...
Probably about the same time Andrew was (kindly) posting our getaway message, Sam and I rolled down Main Street in Hamilton, feeling great about finally being on the road, until 18 minutes into the trip when a little *pop* and wobbly tire alerted Sam that she'd broken a spoke. Blast! We phoned Andrew, who as usual, was a hero and looked online to find downtown bike shops we might be able to walk to. We ended up at Central Cycle, got helped by the two really nice fellows who run the place (they also helped improve our route to avoid some really nasty hills), and learned as we were about to walk out that the 1st guy we'd been talking to was a 2-time Olympic gold medalist in the 70's in road cycling. WOW! A humble hero.
Finally around 10:45 we were back in action, heading up the Escarpment Trail to the ridge that Niagara falls off of. After our first PB&J picnic (see below), we re-mounted.

Imagine our delight when, only 15 minutes later, I (Libby) got a broken spoke of my very own!

Only this time, we were up out of the city scene. The first establishment we came upon was the Highland Meat Packing Company. Turns out meat packers, while they may have bloody aprons, are some of the friendliest folks around. Our second hero of the day, a young chap of 13 or so whose pop owns the place, came out to the corner where Sam and I were trying to thumb a ride in the back of a dump truck and offered to call a bike shop for us. After we went into the office, a lovely but slightly socially awkward lady named Judy said she could give me a lift down to the closest shop on her upcoming lunch break, and within a little more than an hour, we were back in business.
Happy to be back on the road, but feeling a little vulnerable about our mechanical issues, we cruised along and were delighted to be joined by another cyclist, a really nice Canadian man named Bill who's done 9 Ironman triathlons (!) We chatted with him about cycling and then jumped into healthcare. He said his family's experience with the healthcare system has been a true testament to the purpose that socialized medical systems serve; a year ago, his now 23-year-old daughter dove into a pool, hit her head, and ended up a tetraplegic. Bill is an attorney with his own independent practice focusing on labor law and human rights. "If I'd been practicing law in the States, I'd have been absolutely bankrupted by the medical expenses", Bill said. He went on to talk about the cost of care for his daughter, not only during her immediate recovery, but now that she's living with disabilities. His daughter is still mentally really sharp and hopes to be an attorney herself someday.
Bill rode with us to Ball's Falls (who names a place that?), where Sam and I enjoyed a dinner of veggie dogs and our homemade granola/gorp, set up our tent "Harriet the Habitat", and washed our clothes in a slightly greenish but not-too-stagnant creek. We weren't technically supposed to be overnight camping in the park, so we chose a covert location and then headed into the nearest town to scope it out (while hoping to avoid any park service folks closing down the camp for the evening). Coast was clear when we got back and we enjoyed 9 hours of sleep.
Today we had a lovely bike-problem-free morning and finally made it to Niagara (here are our photos). We sang the Star Spangled Banner (loudly and out of tune) as we rode across the Rainbow Bridge into the States, and had fun going through the car lanes of border check. Clearly, 2 sweaty, smelly girls are a threat to national security, but they didn't give us any trouble, mostly because they were incredulous that we're planning to bike across New York.

We'll keep biking this evening a bit, up to a Native American reservation we found on the map a little hop north of here to see if we can chat about healthcare. Love you, thanks for all the support!

P.S.- More photos to come! (Andrew's Edit: And here they are!)