Day 40--Port Huron MI to London ON--July 30th
Miles Ridden 88.5 (147 kilometers)
Avg. Speed 16.7 MPH
Climbing 1500 Ft.
Total Miles Ridden 2927
Miles To Go 702
Today started with the crossing into Canada which turned into one of the highlights of the trip. Our hotel was right at the entrance to the Blue Water Bridge and we left the parking lot as a group. With one of the vans leading the way we pulled past the toll booths and waited as they shut the bridge down for us. Once the traffic cleared we started the climb up the empty bridge. It might not seem like much in a car but it was a steep pull. We had to stop part of the way up to walk our bikes over the metal connecting connecting grates. We had to hurry but got to watch the sun rising over Lake Huron before pulling into Canadian customs at the end of the bridge. The customs supervisor came out and asked us as a group if we had any weapons. We shouted out no and he said "good luck" and let us go.
One of the riders, Jeff, was originally from Sarnia and he took us for a tour along the river and lakeshore and then we met his mother who had bags of great Canadian specialties...butter tarts and nanaimo bars among other things, which were hauled to the first rest stop. The ride out of Sarnia was thoroughly confused due to detours and closed roads and the riders split up. I ended up on a very hazardous truck route with no shoulder that created lots of anxiety.
While trying to find my way back to the route ended up on a closed construction road for the largest solar power facility I've ever seen. It covered the ground for about a mile and a half and was half a mile wide. I later found it is the largest in North America. Hard to believe they put it in Sarnia which has about the same level of cloudy weather as Michigan.
Once we got out of town the roads were smooth, flat and empty with a nice tailwind to boot. We passed through five or six small towns in a fast and uneventful ride to London. We're again on the outskirts of town just off the 401 so we won't be seeing much of London even though just about everyone finished the day with lots of energy left. Tomorrow we have a short ride to Brantford so we can't leave here until 8:30 which gives us the luxury of sleeping in until 7:15 or so.
Avg. Speed 16.7 MPH
Climbing 1500 Ft.
Total Miles Ridden 2927
Miles To Go 702
Today started with the crossing into Canada which turned into one of the highlights of the trip. Our hotel was right at the entrance to the Blue Water Bridge and we left the parking lot as a group. With one of the vans leading the way we pulled past the toll booths and waited as they shut the bridge down for us. Once the traffic cleared we started the climb up the empty bridge. It might not seem like much in a car but it was a steep pull. We had to stop part of the way up to walk our bikes over the metal connecting connecting grates. We had to hurry but got to watch the sun rising over Lake Huron before pulling into Canadian customs at the end of the bridge. The customs supervisor came out and asked us as a group if we had any weapons. We shouted out no and he said "good luck" and let us go.
One of the riders, Jeff, was originally from Sarnia and he took us for a tour along the river and lakeshore and then we met his mother who had bags of great Canadian specialties...butter tarts and nanaimo bars among other things, which were hauled to the first rest stop. The ride out of Sarnia was thoroughly confused due to detours and closed roads and the riders split up. I ended up on a very hazardous truck route with no shoulder that created lots of anxiety.
While trying to find my way back to the route ended up on a closed construction road for the largest solar power facility I've ever seen. It covered the ground for about a mile and a half and was half a mile wide. I later found it is the largest in North America. Hard to believe they put it in Sarnia which has about the same level of cloudy weather as Michigan.
Once we got out of town the roads were smooth, flat and empty with a nice tailwind to boot. We passed through five or six small towns in a fast and uneventful ride to London. We're again on the outskirts of town just off the 401 so we won't be seeing much of London even though just about everyone finished the day with lots of energy left. Tomorrow we have a short ride to Brantford so we can't leave here until 8:30 which gives us the luxury of sleeping in until 7:15 or so.
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| Group photo before we left this morning |
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| Gerard from Arkansas decided to film the crossing with his new video toy |
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| Crossing the Blue Water Bridge while a lot of truck drivers waited |
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| Lined up at Canadian customs |
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| A butter tart which provides enough calories to cover about forty miles |
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| A nanaimo bar |
There is quite a bit of sustainable energy over there. The section across from Whitefish point has over a hundred wind generators, so that at night it looks like an alien invasion coming across lake Superior.
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