Sorry there were no updates from Canada. I found out
that my laptop doesn’t translate Canadian to English.
The crossing of the Blue Water Bridge was great. Kudos
to the Michigan Department of Transportation for
closing the bridge for our crossing. It was a special
day and we biked to London, Ontario to spend the
night.
The next day we traveled from London to Brantford,
Ontario. Brantford is the hometown of Wayne Gretzky.
When you travel through downtown Brantford it becomes
apparent as to why Gretzky worked so hard at hockey.
He was trying to get the hell out of Brantford.
Seriously, the downtown is totally distressed with
little but vacant stores. Anything that is happening
is in the outskirts that are just ugly urban sprawl.
It is obvious that the city was totally mismanaged.
The downtown looks like it is getting ready to be
demolished. We don’t care to stick around long enough
to find out the root of the problem.
Today we biked about 72 miles from Brantford to
Niagara Falls, New York. It was an interesting ride
through Canadian farm country. We saw farms where they
were growing ginseng, tobacco, corn, sod, asparagus
and whatever else. Farming must be a good business in
Canada. The farm houses and barns looked very new and
had nice landscaping. The MacMansion has arrived in
farm country.
Of course the place is very touristy. Tomorrow is our
last rest day of the trip. We’ll probably spend it by
doing nothing that could be considered touristy.
Some friends of ours, Lance and Kathy Barrs met up
with us this evening. Lance and Kathy live in
Huntsville, Ontario and used to own the summer camp
that Matt and Tommy both attended and worked at. This
summer Tommy is a water ski instructor at the camp. We
had a great time and a great dinner with them. It was
a good break to our routine. Having met up with family
earlier in the week and the Barrs this evening gives
us a lot of support in taking on the rest of the trip.
There are only 7 more days of biking and we will touch
the Atlantic Ocean. It’s hard to believe that we are
getting this close.
Tomorrow we rest.
Brantford, ON. The runway markings at the airport have fallen into disrepair due to a downturn in the local economy.