2010 Bike Trip

July 17, 2010 10:45 pm

We left the motel reasonably early, with a good wind behind us.

The flag shows a strong wind out of the southwest. Tailwind!Back in town, after a little breakfast at Tim Horton’s, we went to the discount store to get headphones for Elliot. His iPod earphones had broken one side early in the trip, and the other side had just broken. It was a 50-cent flea market item, anyway.

Yes, I did buy a white T-shirt. There was only one naughty one left, though, and that was in large. I decided that such a shirt would not be useful for ordinary use (such as work) anyway, and got the one below.

This picture is especially for Janice. Too much dark chocolate. Crack it open to get the fresh cherry inside.It’s harvest time for wheat and some corn. I was surprised that wheat is only about 2 feet high.

Canada has amber waves of grain, too.

At Morpeth. No services, but still a tailwind.

Most small towns seem to have their own cemeteries, and they actually look like the ones in the movies. This one doesn’t have the wrought iron fence all the way around it.

We stopped at New Glasgow for lunch, at the Sunnyside restaurant. Eugene and Patricia from Windsor were sitting at the next table. They said that Niagara Falls is about 4 hours away (by car), and contrary to what I had been led to believe, they do not turn the falls off on certain days.

Eugene and Patricia

At another table (this was the only restaurant in town), a number of people were discussing some topics of evangelism. Outside, Jim Bergsma started up a conversation with us. He preaches from a tent outside the restaurant 4 days a week, a basic message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. We exchanged cards. His website is at http://www.heaven4sure.com .

Jim and Bert

Elliot’s iPod had gotten soaked in the rain, and the touchscreen wasn’t fully working. Here’s what we did to dry it out.

In a bag with crackers from the Sunnyside restaurant.

In Wallacetown, I had a wonderful homemade peach pie at the gas station restaurant. We also met Bob, a local farmer who has sheep, and I think also does corn and wheat. Here he is with his wife, whom I unfortunately did not meet. We said we were headed towards Port Stanley, and he warned that it was a busy resort town.

Just before Port Stanley, a rude driver blasted his horn at us and passed us without even moving a little into the other lane. This was the only jerk we had seen in Canada. A minute later, we passed a house with a balcony, and a man called out asking if we needed a campground. He said the only one in town was right across the street from him. I thanked him, but said we would seek a motel room, first. I didn’t notice the campground as we went by, actually.

See the sign for the campground?

We got to see a drawbridge in action at Port Stanley. While waiting, we noticed some geese. Geese here aren’t afraid of humans at all. They’re like pigeons.

Bob was right. Port Stanley was crowded with weekend visitors, and there were no rooms in the sole hotel. We inquired at the North Beach Inn, a bed-and-breakfast, and the owner said he was full, but called around to many of his friends to try to place us. He even called to Union, a nearby town. Nothing. His friend Elaine had a list of several private numbers of people who rent out an extra room or cottage, but after riding up and down the strip, I decided we should just go for the campground, rather than expend energy hunting. The North Shore Inn proprietor

Since there would be no food at the campground, we ate dinner in town. At Broderick’s Ice Cream, a woman named Synthia walked up to me and introduced herself as the mother of the owner of the Fiesta restaurant (see Blenheim post). Her son had shown her the card we left there. Unfortunately, I did not meet the owner, James Bolos, but he might have been the guy cooking in back at the time. James’ grandmother and Synthia’s husband, Jayce Trembley, were also there. Small world.

Virginia, Synthia, and Jayce

Our dinner was at Godfather’s Pizza next door.

The campground was called simply, “The Campground.” It had a modest sign, and the owner, Jerry, said he didn’t even advertise, but was always full. He led us to a tent site which was quite nice, with fire ring, good well water, porta pottys, and a shower building. There were even some electrical outlets nearby. Jerry waived the fee, since we were on bicycle.

Jerry Chapman

Jerry pointed us to this pile of sawdust and wood cut-offs in case we wanted to build a fire.

After sunset, a young couple drove in to the campsite next to ours. Mitch (Mitchell) and Paula were from London (Ontario, not England), and just on a weekend trip. The wood pile was wet. Since we had arrived when it was still light, we were able to select drier and better fuel, but Mitch and Paula’s wood was quite wet. Elliot gave them some newspaper, and we brought over some twigs and dry wood, and their fire came up just fine.

After dark, I did some offline blogging at one of the campsite tables. Jerry came by and told me that if I got in closer to his house across the street, I could probably pick up his wireless signal. So at 11 pm or so, I wandered around the campground in the dark with the laptop, trying to find the access point. There were several, even in that open field, but they were all password protected. Finally, all the way up the driveway, almost to the entrance to the campsite, I was able to pick up a signal. That’s why you saw a post, yesterday.

The TDSSkiller rootkit removal program from Kaspersky was apparently successful, because Windows Updates started happening. There was no table there, and the ground was wet with dew, so I squatted in an awkward position while doing the updates. At one point, I had to rest my eyes, so I looked up, and saw the marvelous expanse of stars that one can only see in the country. It was breathtaking! There’s so much we miss when we stay glued to our computer screens.

Our mileage for the day: 61.3

This bunny was at the bathroom the next morning. He wasn’t very afraid of me. and hopped away only slowly.