As we made our way toward the Canadian crossing we rode through typical Michigan countryside and got in late to a delicious dinner of Campbells soup for me and canned green beans for Kelly..Yummy! The campground started out quiet but soon our nightly entertainment started. First was a local cat banging around in the garbage can near our tent. After chasing the cat off and covering the can we settled in again until we were next treated to a loud cell phone argument between some guy and his girlfriend which was initially annoying and then quite funny as we heard him trying to weasel out of obvious lies. Finally, his battery died and we were just dosing off when the friendly neighborhood raccoons started their rounds. As you can tell, the bloom is off the camping rose for us and we are pretty much ready to rejoin society.
This campground made us wonder about a phenomenon we have encountered throughout the midwest. The campgrounds are mostly full of RV's apparently parked in parks for the summer. They have decks, patios, lawn furniture and tiki lamps surrounding their spaces and are parked cheek to jowl with a hundred other similar rigs around a quarter acre pond in hot, humid, bug infested woods. What are their homes like that this is the way they choose to spend their weekends? We have yet to figure this out and have seen it since we entered Minnesota.
We next made our way to Marine City, Mi where we were planning to take the ferry across the St Clair River into Ontario. As we pulled up to our motel in a rather lively thunderstorm my tire exploded. I literally walked my bike into the lot to deal with it in the comfort of our room. I found that my tire had worn completely through and was shredded beyond repair. I had brought a spare for Kelly's bike but none for mine (dont ask why). There is no bike store within 30 miles of Marine City and since it was Friday night, an internet purchase couldn't arrive until Monday sometime. We were stranded! Luckily, there was a young fella, Ryan, who was fixing a leak in our motel toilet and overheard us talking about our problem. He said he was going to the sporting goods store and would give us a ride. We gladly took up his offer and by afternoon were back with new tire in hand. I went to install my tire and found it was an inch too big for the rim. Apparently, a 26" tire is not necessarily a 26" tire...you need the right 26" tire. Back to square one. At the last minute I found a bike store with an employee who lived in the town where we were stranded. He dropped the right tire off on his way home and we were back in action.
The next morning, after a short ferry ride costing a whole dollar, we entered Canada for our ride through Ontario. We enjoyed a beautiful day, sunny and cooler, riding along the St Clair River and then inland through well kept farmland and quaint Canadian towns. We ended our day at Rondeau Provincial Park on the north shore of Lake Erie. The park was spacious and very well kept and we had one of our best camping nights of the trip.
We rose early and got a good jump on the day hoping to beat the predicted increasing temperatures. Since we had sent our cooking stove on ahead, we hoped to catch some breakfast in the first town along the route, some six miles down the road. What we found was a nearly deserted town with a diner which looked to have been closed for years. The next eatery shown on our map ended in similar results. Finally, after 30 miles of hungry riding we came across a little roadhouse for a nice attitude-improving lunch. The riding was very pleasant again through typical flat farmland with little traffic. Our day ended in mid afternoon in the little beach town of Port Stanley where, after failing to find the campground shown on our map, we "bit the bullet" and settled on a very overpriced motel room. However, it was right on the beach and we enjoyed a great afternoon of lounging on the white sands of Lake Erie. Again, we were pleased and surprised at how clean the lake waters are these days. Port Stanley is a pleasant little beach town which reminded me of some of the beach towns I remember from the Jersey shore of years ago...just with more class. We liked this town very much.
The next morning dawned with cloudy skies which soon turned to rain. Unlike our western storms, the rainstorms here are pretty warm and we rode for several hours without rain gear. We found that, if wearing rain parkas while riding, you are wet from sweat and hot instead of just wet. I'm sure we looked miserable but it's really not a bad way to go. We pulled in for the night at another provincial park where we scored a site just 50 ft from the shore of the lake. Our friend Steve (Otto) from back home met us there for a couple days of traveling. He was on his own cross country journey in his Volkswagon van and we were thrilled to share such extravagances as a cooler with cold beers and a home cooked chicken dinner. It was another night of great camping in a Canadian park and we were becoming very impressed with their parks. Imagine all this and free health care...maybe they are on to something.
In the morning, Otto and I took off for a 'guys' ride while Kelly took a well-earned day off driving. It was a real treat for me to ride without the dreaded panniers on my bike and I felt as if I was on a motorcycle. After another great night in camp we took a day to be real tourists and drove to Niagara Falls to enjoy the wonders of nature with an estimated 10,000 Japanese tourists. It really is a remarkable sight which was only slightly diminished by forking over $15 to the Jimmy Buffet retirement fund for a mediocre burger at Magaritaville...should be named Mediocre-ville.
It was great to share time with a hometown friend but was time to return to our bike journey so in the morning we had Otto smuggle us back into the US at Buffalo, NY and drop us at a campground along our route. We now headed south to Pennsylvania for the final leg of our trip. In our first Pa camp we encountered the beast I've been dreading since we left Ca...the New Yorker! " Bobby! Whataya doin? Get the Hell ova heah" We had finally arrived in the East!
In the morning we completed a short 40 mi. ride to meet up with Ian Marshall, an old high school friend, who lives with his charming wife, Megan, in State College, Pa where they are both professors at Penn St. We had a great dinner at a local brew pub and in the morning Ian and Megan joined us for a ride as they guided us on a tour of the rail trail up the Grand Canyon of Pa. It was a beautiful ride with cooler, dryer weather and was one of the most enjoyable touring days of the trip. We stopped in the nearly perfect little town of Wellsboro for our afternoon ice cream break....if there had been an outdoor pub we might still be there. Moving on, the hills increased and, after a long search for any campgrround or motel, we were lucky to get the last motel room in town under $120. Apparently, there is gas field development going on in northern Pa and the workers are taking up all available motel rooms with prices rising to meet the new demand. After riding another day with deteriorating roads and heavy construction traffic we are ready to call it quits and have arranged for family to come rescue us with a ride from the Scranton area, near the NJ border. Tomorrow we will ride our final day of our tour, a 60 mi. ride to our tour...Check in again for our last post and a wrap up of our tour.
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