Friday, August 9, 2013
Ride Day 135
I woke up early and crawled out of my tent still tired but unable to sleep. My tent was all wet so I emptied it and turned it over to dry and put the fly and tarp over picnic tables to dry also. While I waited for them to dry I charged my electronics and made some coffee and oatmeal. When I finally got loaded onto the bike I took off. The road today was a long straight flat kind of boring farmland county road. There was construction for about 6 miles where the road was scalloped for resurfacing and I had to ride over the scalloped road. That short ride probably shortened the life of my bike tires by 1500 miles. I felt them after I was past the construction and there was a coating of rubber dust on the tires from the abuse of the rough road. I came to my first small town at about 40 miles and stopped for a breakfast of bacon and eggs. I got back on the bike and rode another 30 miles before I stopped for some lunch then I stopped just up the road from lunch at Holland House for a second coffee break. I started talking to the owner and all the customers about biking and ice skating because an 82 year old Dutch man told me he still skates competitively and rides century bike rides as well. We talked for about an hour which I enjoyed and then I finally got back in the saddle. I rode another 10 miles before I suddenly started to feel sick so I checked into a motel for the night so that I would have easy access to a toilet. After a few hours of agony on the toilet I felt better. Tomorrow I will try to make it to Niagara Falls but my stomach may have something to say about that so I will just do whatever I feel up to. I have to stop staying in hotels or I will be bust in a week. Hotels just are not in my tight budget and I have had two in the last week, both "emergency" hotels so to speak.
I took very few pics but here they are.
Ride Day 134
This morning my friend Regi gave me a ride through the worst parts of Detroit that I needed to get through then we said goodbye and I took off pedaling along the lake near Grosse Point which is a ritzy area right next to a bombed out area of Detroit. I rode for 25 miles along city streets with an increasing headwind slowing me down then I turned out of the wind and hit road construction. I finally made it to the ferry very tired for such a short ride. After the ferry took me to the Canadian side I had to go through immigration. they almost did not let me in the country. I had to correct them when they told me I had been arrested multiple times when in fact I have never been arrested other than the fiasco in Nigeria but I failed to remember that at the time. They would not tell me what arrests they were talking about but rather asked me to explain all my arrests. I told them I have no arrest record and maybe they have the wrong records or something. They finally gave in and allowed me to enter. I immediately found a campground and set up camp then I jumped on my bike and when looking around. I rode north along the river and ended up stopping at a bar grill and had a beer and a burger. I chatted with the owner and the waitress for a long time and a had fun with a few drinking patrons also.
I then ambled back to the campground which cost $30 by the way plus tax. Some of the people in the campground came over to talk when they saw my bike. I then went down to the river to see what was going on and ran into a man named Jim that was monitoring the ship traffic on his scanner and then watching each ship go by. He told me all the facts of each ship as it passed. He is a retired ship worker and also worked for GM long enough to get a pension. We talked for a long time about his career and then about his daughter that is doing a charity bike ride from LA to Jersey. She raised over $10,000 for her charity. He also told me about the storm the night before that brought down a lot of large branches and a few trees along with some heavy rain showers. Glad I got here a day later. The night was beautiful but again the campground was very noisy until very late at night. I really do prefer the quiet solitude of camping alone along the side of the road somewhere. I got my 2 hours sleep in but they had no wifi so I could not communicate with anybody.
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