Journey Notes

We have taken a couple of days off to rest and visit with family in the Toronto area.

We managed to get VanGo's oil changed. It turns out that is not all that easy to do as most oil changing places don't stock the oil filter that it uses.

I had planned to get back on the bike today but due to unforeseen circumstances, Rochelle had to do a seminar this afternoon remotely via Skype. The internet connection at the place we are staying is very solid and it seemed safer to run the seminar from there instead of via a MiFi cellular connection, especially as it looks like the cell coverage will be a bit spotty in the direction that we are heading.

Over the last couple of days, we have changed the route a few times. It now looks like we will head northeast for a while and head up into cottage country. We have some relatives in that area that we would like to drop in on. After that, we head towards Montreal and our flight back to Vancouver for a bit of a break.

Today's ride was a bit different that most. It was mostly spent crossing the Toronto area from west to east. The route that I chose was not the shortest but it ran along the north side of Lake Ontario on part of a path called the Waterfront Trail. It looks like this trail runs right up to the Quebec border so I can potentially use this trail for parts of the 6 or so days of riding to Montreal. The trail is a mixture of calm city streets, paved trails and even some gravel paths so at least some of it will be useful for me. I'm quite happy to have found this trail.

I rode by Ontario Place and the CN Tower as well as a lot of busy beaches. I think that it was a little cooler along the water too. The highs today were 32C in the area (90F) but I think that the water moderated that temperature somewhat. Either that or I am just used to that kind of weather!

The day ended in Ajax, the town that I lived in up until I was 13. I was tempted to find our old street and ride down "the big hill" that I remember so well as a kid even though I know that it is barely a hill at all. Instead, I caught up with Rochelle at one of my cousins that lives in Ajax. It is amazing how much this area has changed. The area that I rode in on was all farmland when I was a kid. Now, it is almost all built up with lots of new residential, commercial and industrial areas. And lots of traffic.

We will spend the next couple of days here, visiting and resting.

I awoke to the sound of rain falling lightly on VanGo. That wasn't in the forecast. When it didn't seem like the rain was going to go away quickly, I got ready for a rainy day. Shoe covers, knee warmers, new Walmart light rain jacket, etc. I also got a fairly late start, hoping for the rain to end.

I headed out at about 10am for the first city on the route, Woodstock, Ontario. By the time I got to Woodstock, I was wetter from sweating than from the rain and the rain had finally stopped so I removed the extra layers.

Again, the day consisted of back country roads through farmland with the occasional very small town. I didn't see much population until I passed into the north edge of Hamilton, followed by Burlington and finally Oakville were we found Bronte Creek Provincial Park to camp at.

It is a nice campground but at $42.75 a night, it is the most expensive one that we have stayed at. I guess that is standard pricing for provincial campgrounds in Ontario. I'm used to government run campgrounds being the cheapest places you can stay.

Today was the beginning of our 9th week on the road.

Now that we are in the Toronto area, we will be visiting people in the area so our schedule and route might be a bit erratic.

I noticed this morning that the backs of both of my hands had sunburns. I started using some new gloves yesterday and hadn't considered the new holes in the back when I put on sunscreen. Today, I did a better job.

Today started off well. I had a really good pace on a very straight highway with a wide, smooth shoulder and little traffic. There was a bit of wind and it was slightly from behind. Then, the road jogged a bit, the shoulder disappeared and the wind shifted to a cross headwind. That really started to eat up energy. After 139 km, I was (am still) pretty beat.

I passed through London, Ontario at about the 100 km point in the day. I am not sure why but it reminded me a bit of Calgary. Maybe, it's just because it's the first big Canadian city I've been in for a while.

Google maps had a few surprises for me. First, it decided that I would like a little single track to enter London. Might have been fun if I had the right bike or at least better tires. The second was in the last few kilometers before reaching our campground. It took me down a long country road that half way turned into a gravel road. I had 3 or 4 km of tricky riding before it went back to paved again. Google maps has a "bicycle route" mode but I really wish it would have a "paved only" checkbox.

Why did the duck cross the campground?

I'm not too sure that even s/he knew.

This morning, John gave me a great lead out of the Detroit suburbs and onto a paved railway path. At the path's end, it was just a short distance to a very straight road that took me all the way to Port Huron and our border crossing to Canada. I had a nice tailwind for most of the ride so it went very quickly with long stretches running at 32 to 35 km/h (20 - 22 mph). I did miss one odd turn on the path and ended up on a long dirt road before I managed to find the path again.

When John got back home, he took my old mangled rear wheel back to American Cycle & Fitness in Sterling Heights where their master mechanic, Antoon, not only fixed a couple of problem spokes but also trued and made round the wheel (yes, the wheel wasn't even round anymore) and got the spoke tension correct. The spokes were under too much tension and that may have been part of the problem with broken spokes. So now I have what should be a reasonably reliable backup rear wheel!

With lots of things going on and my speedy arrival at Port Huron, Rochelle was in a hurry to get going and in the rush forgot to unplug VanGo. The plug came out of the receptacle but got caught under a door and pulled the molded end off. So there was a mad dash to Lowes to find a replacement end and fix the cable. Luckily, the end within VanGo was ok.

So while I was waiting for Rochelle, I checked out the beginnings of a big weekend sailing festival in Port Huron. The Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race runs tomorrow. They had many of the downtown streets blocked off and there were a huge number of sail boats around. Many done up with lots of flags. There were a couple of stages but they were only doing mike checks while I was there.

Rochelle and I met at our meeting point and I hopped into VanGo. The board crossing is the Bluewater Bridge and it did not look very cycle friendly. That and it seemed like a better idea if I crossed with all of my stuff. Less questions to answer at the border.

After Canadian customs, I hopped out and got back on my bicycle and crossed Sarnia to tonight's campsite, yet another Walmart. We could not find any campgrounds anywhere near Sarnia so we went to Plan B, a Walmart parking lot.

Tomorrow, I will attempt to reach a campground near Salford, Ontario, 138km away. That might be difficult as I will likely have a bit of a headwind.

It was nice to sleep in a real bed and get to know a new nephew. We spent most of the day with the family and relaxing.

John did a great job cleaning and tuning my bicycle and getting my backup wheel usable again.

Rod & Craig at American Cycle & Fitness in Sterling Heights, MI were very helpful, generous and accomodating in getting me new parts to keep my bicycle on the road. If you are ever in the area, I would highly recommend stopping by.

Tomorrow, I will be back out on the road again, crossing back into Canada at Sarnia, Ontario.

I didn't get to putting together a blog post last night as we were visiting with Rochelle's brother and family. I spent the day weaving though the suburbs of Detroit. Detroit, unsurprisingly, is not a very bicycle friendly city. I did manage to find a number of streets that had nice wide curb lanes that were suitable for cycling although I only saw one other cyclist all day on the roads.

One thing that I really notice as I arrive in larger cities is that the quality of the surface that I ride on deteriorates considerably. There were streets that were so bad that I had to find alternate routes. Interestingly, there were others that were extremely nice to ride on. Maybe I just got lucky and found some new concrete. That's another thing, concrete streets are not very bicycle friendly. Even new, the expansion seperators make for a rough ride. Once they start to crack and get patched, you really have to pick your line carefully.

It was great to arrive here. It is one of our major destinations on the trip and we are now considerably into the second half of the trip!

It was actually cool when I left the "Way Back In" campground this morning. It stayed relatively cool until about noon but eventually reached about 28C (82F). Unfortunately, I had fairly consistant headwinds the whole way so my pace was slow and it was really draining.

I passed a meat processing place that had these "sculptures" next to it.

Along the way, I passed the Michigan International Speedway. It hadn't occurred to me that the trip might intersect with NASCAR racing. It would have been fun to see a race.

We also saw a lot of abandoned roadside attractions. The area is obviously not doing as well as the Wisconsin Dells.

I also saw VanGo's long lost cousin, a customized convertible VW Bus for sale along side of the road.

We stopped for lunch in Saline, Michigan where Rochelle made yet another wonderful salad and got my batteries recharged as much as possible before heading out again.

I finally made it into our campsite for the night, the Wayne County Fairgrounds. Fighting the wind all day so wore me out that I laid down in the back of VanGo and slept for about an hour before dinner.

Tomorrow is a short day as I ride across the Detroit area to drop in on Rochelle's brother and his wife and kids.

Today was a fairly pleasant day with little wind and a high that "only" reached 32C (90F). There were a lot of big fluffy clouds in the sky. The route today was almost exclusively on highway 12, "The Chicago Road" a route the developed out of native routes between the Detroit and Chicago areas. It was two lanes and not very busy. The shoulders were generally pretty good although there were some tricky sections.

After leaving at about 9:30 am, I quickly left Indiana and entered Michigan. About 40 km into the ride, I passed the 4,000 km (2500 mile) point in the trip. That is about half way! Actually, based on the latest route updates, it's past half way.

I beat Rochelle again to our lunch meeting point at about the 75km point in Bronson. We had lunch and I refilled on water and ice and then headed out for the next 50 km to our next stop. We could not find any campgrounds in the Jonesville area online but were hopeful to find something along the road. Rochelle found Way Back In Campground just north of Jonesville. We planned to meet on the highway exit for the campground. As I was approaching Johnesville, a big black cloud came overhead and it started to pour. Luckily, just as I climbed the next hill, I saw VanGo parked on the side of the road and I did not get too wet.

The campground really is "Way Back In" and is very quiet. I nice change from the places we normally stay at.

Tomorrow, we are aiming at the Wayne County Fairground and RV Park in Canton, MI. About 110 km away.

We woke up this morning to thunder and rain. That was a bit of a surprise. I delayed getting up a bit because I really didn't want to ride in the rain or on really wet roads. Even so, I managed to get away by 9:30am and the roads were dry. The morning was cloudy and about 24C (75F) and a bit humid. In some ways it felt cold, but that's only relative to the weather that we have been having. The roads were a bit hilly and there were some headwinds but it was a pleasant 78 km ride to the edge of South Bend were I had planned to meet Rochelle. I managed to beat her there by about 10 minutes.

After a salad and adjusting our clocks due to having just crossed over into the Eastern Time Zone, I headed out again. In the afternoon, the sun finally came out and the temperature really started to climb. It reached 31C (88F) but it didn't feel all that warm. I am still surprised at just how well I have acclimatised to this warm weather. I would still rather it be cooler but the hot weather really hasn't slowed me down much.

South Bend is a city of extremes. Most of the parts of the city that I saw seemed to be in need of maintenance but parts of the downtown area and the area around the university seem to have lots of new development.

Twice while in South Bend, I was stopped and asked directions. I guess I look like a resident. Or more likely, they thought that someone who was cycling in a town actually knew something about the town. I barely even knew my route through the town!

It looks like another hot but manageable day tomorrow. We head into Michigan to the town of Jonesville, 125 km away. I am hoping for some slight tail winds in the afternoon.