Day 40 -- ♪ Oh Canada ♫ Over the river and across the bridge! ♪

July 30, 2004

ROUTE: Port Huron MI to London Ontario Canada              
DISTANCE:  76 miles                 
WINDS: Light SW...

WEATHER: Overcast and humid all day...missed a good chance to get us wet               
TERRAIN: Flatish most of the day         
TOTAL CLIMBING: 1420 feet

RIDE OVERVIEW: Mike here. Today, I felt like I was back in the military trying to herd the troops to a common goal at a designated time.  I think I said it a long time ago trying to get all these bikers organized and at the same place at the same time is like herding cats. But in spite of the 50 different agendas, we seemed to be at least a little bit organized this morning. [One of the things that presented a roadblock was the fact that at the last minute, I discovered that my bike had a "motel flat" [fine that night flat in the morning]. I asked 1-minute Mike for help in changing the tube as we were rushing to meet the bridge deadline and I didn't think I could get it done in time. Whoa! Harried Mike's disdainful look is seared in my memory to this day."What help the staff change a tube?" Mark came to my aid and we two were the last ones in the procession by the skin of our teeth. Susan 2016)

Breakfast was at 6:00 to allow everyone enough time to gather for a 7:30 load and a 8:05 rolling departure.  We were scheduled to meet the bridge authority at the toll gate no later than 8:15 as a group.  It was only about 3/4 of a mile to the booth, but it was a little climb up the ramp to the bridge and I knew we didn't want to be late. We all lined up with the red van in front, all the riders, then white, and Barbara driving the luggage truck in the rear. The riders were nestled all snug in between as we rode as a group to the toll gate to wait for our escort across. Everyone wore their ABB jerseys this morning and it really looked impressive. I couldn't believe we got all of them together on time . . . but somehow we did. 

After a short wait for the traffic to die down and for the Canadian Customs to prepare to receive us, our escort led the procession across the bridge. They closed the entire US-to-Canada lanes until we'd ridden the mile or so across the river.  Our biggest challenge was to keep all the riders together as a group...our second biggest challenge was to get everyone across the giant expansion joints in two locations on the bridge.  We made everyone stop and walk their bikes across, and even then a couple of riders got their bikes stuck in the wide cracks. I was in the red van ahead of the front group as they approached the first set of joints.  I had warned them about the joints, so they were expecting them, but as they approached them the entire front group said almost in unison:  "Oh my God! He wasn't kidding!"

Once we got everyone across and through customs, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.  I must say I really like Ontario in spite of all the stress of getting everyone into the country.  There was a survey done on the Internet someplace and they said that Canada was the 4th worst for friendly people. They could not have been talking about Ontario. I couldn't stop without someone stopping by and asking what was going on and wishing us well.  Every time I stopped to take pictures, someone would ask if I wanted them to take one of me--just out of nowhere--and everyone was so friendly. 

The initial highway after the bridge was a bit busy and very narrow.  I gave the riders the option of riding on a road about 2 miles south of the published route.  I think all the riders who rode the alternate route really appreciated the quieter road, and I definitely liked it better.  We took the notes to make this change in our routing next season. The alternate route, Churchill Road, took us on a straight, flat road through the vast Canadian farmland. Even though the published route was a bit busy, the drivers seemed to give us lots of room when they passed, and sometimes they even slowed to our speed until it was clearly safe to pass.The roads we were on had no shoulder but were lightly traveled, so we really appreciate the driver courtesy on the roadways.

Today's terrain was so flat I don't even think it registered on our altimeter today.  We did pick up a little headwind in the afternoon, but nothing too serious.  We were in farmland almost all day that seemed like Iowa to me...flat and lots of crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat (we even saw some tobacco on one farm).  I drove out into a wheat field to photograph wheat transfer from the combine to the shuttle wagon.  The farmer said I could drive out and take some pictures...told you they were friendly here.  

Another thing I noticed here is that they even have better lawn art than we've seen in Michigan and other states. We passed many houses that were adorned with colorful flowers and various displays of wishing wells and serenity gardens.  One thing I noticed was when farm machinery gets past its life expectancy, they just park it in the yard and plant flowers around it...it's now lawn art!  If I tried to plant flowers like that in Alabama, they would just burn up.  It's nice to see such color and pride in people's yards.  I've included a couple of photos at the bottom of today's journal of some examples.

Our biggest challenge for the next couple of days is figuring out the money here.The exchange rate is really good, but Loonies and Toonies?  Also, all Canadian money has the same person on it--Queen Elizabeth II. If it's not her, it's a bear or an elk, but she's the only person.  Canadians have issues with our money too. They can't figure out how we can have all our bills the same color and size and keep them straight. LOOK AT THE NUMBER IN THE CORNER might be a clue!  And we have different people on different denominations. Let's see, Ben Franklin is worth...?  And our nickel is bigger than our dime. The penny is bigger than a dime too. Very confusing to the people north of the border. 

HEARD ON THE ROAD TODAY: 

• "Looneys and Toonies?  Oh, I get it...funny money."     
• "Mike said the high temperature today was going to be 29 degrees...yikes...is there a front coming through?"  

DUH! OF THE DAY:  Goes to our first Canada town...Sarnia.  They had a street sign someone had turned 90 degrees.  Barbara thought everyone had missed a turn.  After a panic call to the other vans, order was restored when I came riding by not noticing the error.  She couldn't catch me until she got to the next street sign at which point she realized we were on track.  Or should the Duh go to Barb?

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: 

We run into many odd things on these rides...most roads have turn lanes,
merge lanes, or passing lanes . . . in Canada they have "bowling lanes!"

Another odd sign in Canada...I think it means "Watch out
 for the speeding truck slamming headlong into a tall black wall."

I was just standing by a tree when William Tell decided
to try to shoot the owl off the top of the tree...oops...windage error

Ted just wanted to make sure everyone knew which way
he was going to ride...not necessarily the published route,
but he was going that way anyway...Go East Young Man!

The sounds from Canadian cows.

Must be their "flood" tractor.