Ian and Ben are cycling across Canada to raise funds to support the Alzheimer Society. Here is their latest blog.
Hello Blog readers!
With any luck there will be some new readers out there as I understand the story just ran in the Peterborough Examiner. Welcome and thanks for taking an interest in our project. We have been having a lot of coverage lately which is great news. It means the reason behind our ride is getting out there to people all over the country.
We are currently just packing up our camp after sleeping out on someones’s lawn in South Baymouth. At 9:00 we will be jumping aboard the ferry to get to Tobermory. From there it will only be a 100km ride until we arrive at Ben’s parents’ place. We are both really excited although I imagine Ben is even more so. It will be great to get some home cooked meals and take a day off. (I know, how lazy of us)
The ride from the Sault had a few nice surprises along the way. The first day we rode 110km to Iron Bridge. The ride went well although HW 17 at this point had a limited shoulder and we were dealing with the weekend traffic. It was all worth while when we reached our end destination. Through a distant connection that Eric had (guy from California we have been riding with) we already had a house where we could pitch our tent. When we got there we found out the owner of the house used to run a B&B. She offered us some beds as well as dinner, breakfast and a shower. We had a good time filling up and getting clean. Thanks Hughes family!
The next day we rode 130km to get to Espanola. Here we had some more good luck with places to stay. I asked a man who was outside if we could camp on his lawn. He didn’t have a problem with it. In fact he then fired up the BBQ and made us some delicious burgers! He also let us use his shower and made us breakfast in the morning. We also leanred that all those Tim Horton bags for doughnuts are made in Espanola at the paper mill. This and the paper on doctor beds that they have in their offices. You learn something everyday. Thanks for the hospitality Mark.
Yesterday we rode 117km from Espanola to South Baymouth. When we got to Little Current we stopped and met up with Alison from the Alzheimer Society. She was kind enough to take us out for lunch with some other people involved with the society on the island. After this we went to the visitor centre for a small gathering and some dessert. Quite a few people dropped by and the cake was fantiastic. The party almost got crashed when the police showed up. I think he thought he was about to make a major bust on some weekend drunken picnic party. Sadly for him it was just a couple of cyclists and some people from the community drinking iced tea and eating chocolate cake. Sorry sir!
The rest of the day went by smoothly and we reached South Baymouth around 7:30. We found a place to camp, grabbed some food and then explored the docks a bit. Yesterday was a nice day for riding because it was the first day I can remember where we didn’t get passed by a single transport truck. I guess we were just too fast! The real reason was that there were no trucks on the road after we got off HW17. This was a very nice feeling.
Well, I’ve got to go help Ben fold up the tent. Thanks for reading.
Oh, one more thing. We are planning on getting into Owen Sound this afternoon. On Friday we will be getting into Peterborough. For those interested we will be meeting up at Wild Rock Outfitters at 3pm where we will then ride with a group of cyclists into Lakefield. On Sunday, starting at 4:30 there will be a BBQ fundraiser at my parent’s place. Try to make it out as it is sure to be a good party in the barn! We are almost at $11,000 which is fantastic but we are really hoping to push this up even higher after the weekend.
Ian.
