Wow! what a crazy first day of the tour it has been! We woke up around 8, and began to get ready. I made some cinnamon rolls while joey went and made sure everyone was awake. We packed all of the last minute things that needed to go to the attic and visited with family. Joey's Mom, Christina, Morgan (Turby), my grandmother, mom & chris, and jessie were all there to share the big take off with us. We double checked everything that we were to bring on the trip and I took one last shower at home before putting on my cycling clothes. Chris and joe carried our obnoxiously heavy bikes downstairs. We took some pictures with everyone before saying our goodbyes. Once we were ready we mounted our bikes for the first time this trip and began peddling. We were both pretty wobbly at first since we weren't yet used to all the weight of the gear, me a little more than joey i think. We road right down main street heading for the peace bridge, taking some pictures along the way. When we arrived at the gate to get onto the peace bridge we had to go through a turn style, which we almost didn't fit through. Immediately after, we met an older man who looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll. He told us about a bike trail that would take us in the direction we were planning on going for about 150 miles. He also mentioned that route 3, which we were planning on taking, had quite a bit of traffic on it. We ended up walking almost the entire way across the Peace bridge because it was so windy that we were afraid we would blow off the elevated sidewalk into oncoming traffic. When we made it across, we had to go through a tunnel under the road to get to the sidewalk that would take us to customs. We did not have any trouble getting through like we anticipated. We assumed we would have to unload all of our bags, which would have been a pain. But the lady just asked us the general questions: what is your destination in Canada, how long do you plan to stay in Canada, are you bringing anything besides personal belongings with you, etc. We showed her the Halt (dog spray) that we had when she asked about weapons, but she said as long as we are only using it on animals, it was acceptable to bring into the country. After we made it through customs we called our families to let them know. We continued on our way along the Niagara River heading towards Lake Erie. We found the trail that the old man mentioned and took it for about 2 miles. By this time we realized that one of joey's rear panniers was rubbing on his wheel. At first we though that that we just had more weight in one side that the other, but then we realized that the metal bars that attached to the seat tube were bent a little. Upon further investigation we realized that one of the vertical bars on Joe's rack had snapped in half. We were at a loss. It was the very first day of the trip and we've never had that kind of thing happen so early. However, it would have been worse if it happened while we were in the middle of no where. We discussed what we should do and debated whether we should just turn around and return to Buffalo (as we were only 10 miles into the trip). We really didn't want to do that, especially since we just started. When we got a hold of family and discussed the situation, we decided to have them try to find a new rack at either Bert's bikes and fitness or eastern mountain sports (since all of the local bike shops in Buffalo and Canada were all closed because it was Sunday). We turned around on the path and went back about a tenth of a mile to the little park we had just passed. While we waited we enjoyed some lunch and had fun experimenting with our new stove. I cooked up some egg noodles with cream of mushroom and chicken soup while joey spent time on the phone talking to family about how to fix our situation. I enjoyed eating in the park since there were a lot of people out and about riding their bikes, walking their dogs, etc. We met one lady who was walking her two little scottie dogs. She inquired about our trip and ended up volunteering to drive by some of the bike shops around town and see if they were open. When she returned, she said there were not any bike shops open, but there was a place called Canadian Tire, which I guess is a lot like Lowes, but with a car and a bike section. She offered to take us there to see if we could find anything that worked. While joey went with her, i stayed to watch the bikes and clean up from lunch. They returned quite quickly as they were unsuccessful. But in the end, Andy and Mommy O were able to find a suitable rack, one that was supposed to hold 55 lbs worth of gear, at Eastern Mountain Sports. Grandma and Andy came and brought it over the border. The got a little lost, but they were eventually able to find us at the little park, which was called Waverly Park. It was nice to get to see Gram and Andy again, since we thought we had already said our goodbyes. After Joe put the new rack on his bike, we were all ready to go. This mechanical problem set us back quite a bit; we lost a lot of riding time because of it. The problem started around 12:30 and we didn't get on the road again until about 5pm. The rest of the day was very uneventful. We rode for a while before finding the trail we had started on again (Friendship Trail). We continued on that until we made it to Port Colborne. We took camp in a little park in the center of town right next to a bridge. There were quite a few huge boats in the water near us which was kind of neat. After getting in the tent, we quickly got what we needed and got some warm clothes on. It sure was cold (a little colder that joey had thought it would be I think). It reached a high of around 54 degrees today, but once the sun started to set it cooled right down. After having some leftovers from lunch and a couple chocolate bars we got snuggled in our sleeping bags around 9pm and tried to stay warm and get a good nights rest for our next days adventure. (We only rode 28.59 miles today)