Back into Ontario...eh?

It was hard waking up this morning, after staying awake far too late last night, but I dragged myself out of bed around 6:30. I ate some cereal and then left over chilli for breakfast, and was ready sometime before 8. Bonnie bid me farewell and I was off again. I worked my way to the waterfront and rode some of the same stretch I walked with Bonnie the night before. There was a whole mess of construction that made staying on the waterfront harder than it normally would. But I managed my way out of town, getting to ride on a bike path in between the divided highway for awhile. My damned saddle is creaking again after all these miles (a problem I had long ago when I first got my bike) and I applied a little grease, but being unwilling to actually take it off its rails and mess up my adjustment in order to fully grease it, it only did so much. I had a couple of older cyclists pass me, with a somewhat angry ring of the bell as I was doing this, despite being off the farthest side I could be on the trail, then they later seemed shocked when I came up behind them myself, repeatedly calling "On your left" to no avail as they rode side by side, right until I was crawling along directly behind them. There was bike trail paralleling the highway for much of it, but I chose to ride shoulder instead so I didn't have to deal with any more of that, or any uncomfortable side road crossings you get on trails and avoid by being on the highway.

I finally did decide to ride the bike trail for a bit, and that happened to be right when it stopped following the highway and went where I didn't need it go. But it was fine, as I was then able to stop in a park and use the restroom before turning back around o the highway. I also called my dad there to tell him I was soon for Ontario. I made my way into Marine City and to the ferry there to Sombra. As things tend to go with ferries for me, I just missed the one leaving and had to wait the full run of it going out and back, standing on the dock reading in the oppressive heat. It returned, I loaded up, paid my $2 and crossed to Canada. The border guard gave me no issue, and like that I was back in Ontario.

At first I was on a rough, shoulderless road (at least not a paved one I would want to ride) and felt rather slighted. But then suddenly the road developed a shoulder, and even one with a bike symbol to indicate it as a bike path at that. But I was still dealing with an ugly south wind that slowed progress. It was beautiful along the river, but I soon turned inland and there was little to see but farms all the way after that. Life was good going east, and unpleasant going south, and alright when going at an angle. Not having data, I vastly underestimated the size of Wallaceburg, it appearing as just a few roads. ...And that was how I realized I'd messed up and not cached map data in thorough enough detail. I came out of the town onto 40, felt extremely unsafe on the tiny shoulder, crosswind trying to shove me into the stream of fast moving traffic. I turned around, flying as I went the other way with the wind at my back, to get to 15 where Google had wanted me to turn. I got to soar on 15 too, going east. Then I hopped onto the diagonal Prince Albert, all good with the world for the time. ...Until the pavement ended at an intersection and it turned to gravel. Gravel itself would be fine, but it was worn to washboards at many stretches. Eventually my hands turned to painful sensations where hands had once been, or at least that's how it felt.

Eventually I could no longer stand it as I hit a stretch worse than before. I got off and rode rural roads east, south, east again, trying to zigzag back to that diagonal at a point it was hopefully better, flying blind as my map had no data filling in that space. The wind seemed to shift more to a west rather than south wind over the day, which was good for me. I eventually made my way to 2, which had the misfortune of running a little bit Westward as it went south on account of a river, not only taking me a bit backwards, but putting me against the wind. After that I ended up back on a stretch of 40 and rode that diagonal all the way into Blenheim where I'm staying tonight. I spent most the day hot, my hands hurting from the washboards, and tired from the winds.

It was a great relief to get in around 4:30, greeted by an American flag out front my hosts had put up for me (a habit they have for cyclists from different countries). My hosts are extremely friendly, talkative individuals with a home filled with eclectic stuff all kinds in a way that is surprisingly pleasing rather than cluttered. They're not really cyclists these days, going so far as to describe it on the Warmshowers profile as silly and dangerous, but they seem to really love hosting them anyways. I got to shower off my filth (after embarrassingly not being able to figure out how to operate the strange European style shower), then was provided a great homebrew beer while waiting on dinner. There's no AC right now, and I was hot and sweating just sitting inside, but the good conversation kept me mostly distracted from it. Chris and his son were fixing up an old bike while dinner was being prepped, and I had to confess my ignorance on most matters mechanical. I'm better than I was, but you still won't find me installing v-brakes and derailleurs and running cables. At dinner we talked everything from politics to traveling to environmental issues to local business to you name it.

I sit here now typing this before bed well sated on salad, pasta, beer, and wine. It's supposed to storm tonight (which is good, might cool things off, eh?), but should be a clear day tomorrow. It's short too so hopefully it will be an easy time.