July 26
Thursday, July 26
Port Huron, MI to London, Ontario Canada 74 miles
At route rap last night we were told we would
not be able to ride our bikes over the bridge over Lake Huron to Sarnia,
Canada. Doug had talked to Port
Authorities earlier and he was told no bikes across the bridge. The plan was the two ABB fifteen passenger
vans would load our bikes on the roof racks and drive us over and that would
mean about three trips with the
vans.
We were all up early ( I was downstairs by
5:30 ) having the Continental breakfast and waiting to get loaded for the
transport across to Ontario, Canada.
Then Doug came in with good news – we were going to be able to ride our
bikes across the bridge. We had to do
this before the night shift change at the Port Authority. We couldn’t leave until 7:30. We sat around eating up everything they put
out for the breakfast. ( It was a great
selection of food! )
We lined up two by two and followed the
lead van and bringing up the rear was the second van, luggage truck and
mechanics truck. It was a really neat
sight all of us biking en-mass. We were instructed that we had to get off our
bike and walk it over the large expansion joints. They are wide and no way can you bike over them, the wheels would fall right through if you tried. There was two sections of these on the
bridge.
It was a beautiful, sunny and cool morning
as we made our way to the big bridge.
It was windy. The view of the two towns on each side of the lake was
outstanding. There were sail boats and
freighters on the lake and the water was such a beautiful blue color. I couldn’t get any pictures, but some were
riding single handed and snapping shots.
I chose to ride at the tail end of the
pack. But doing this put me way last
getting a start on the 70 miles. The
day was wonderful as far as our weather but boy did we buck a strong head wind the whole time. I just couldn’t find a comfortable gear to
stay in. The strong gusts off wind, on
coming big trucks and some rolling terrain would throw me off and I would have
to go back and forth clicking into different gears. The wind and I just can not make friends! Looks like tomorrow we will again be heading
right into the wind. These short mile
days will be long days for me.
The views of the countryside that we rode
through today were very nice. I loved
how green it was. The corn fields, soy
beans and hay fields all looked very good.
The corn is the tallest I’ve seen and all tasseled out with good sized
ears of corn. We passed by many, many
dairy farms on the back roads. The roads
so far here in Canada are much, much better.
The drivers are very biker friendly too giving us plenty of breathing
room when passing. Very courteous.
I can’t help think how stress free this
entire group is. We were talking about
this at dinner tonight. For a group of
65 riders who are basically highly motivated, type A, driven individuals it is
amazing how carefree, stress-free we are.
Life out here is quite simple: Eat, ride, sleep – repeat.
Wonder if the hotel will fax this to the
USA for me? Hasn’t been any problems so
far – maybe I’ll have to pay for an international phone call to fax while here
in Canada.
I find it interesting going in to food
stores, even the Quick Stop Shops, in a foreign Country. It kind of makes me stop for a minute when I
see all the strange brand names.
Interesting.