Farewell Canada, until the next time

Jul 6 - Rondeau Point ProvIncial Park ON to Sombra ON: 69 miles

I'm going to try something different this time and tell today's epic story in pictures. 

First the overview: early departure (before 10am) from rondeau point, target destination Sombra where we will catch a ferry to Marine City Michigan tomorrow; our path takes us away from Lake Erie now, up toward Lake Huron.

AND, I think I managed to dIal in my cleat position today, at least close.

Lastly, the Thames River in Ontario is not at all like its namesake, sorry no pic, I couldn't even stop for it. 

 

New cockpit view: bueberry stop at 10 miles, nice cold berries on what was already a hot day by 11 am when I got them at a roadside stand

Long straight roads for most of the day, a mix of west and north, with a headwind whenever we turned west... Most of the roads had names "something Line Road", and most of them had a really rough surface, ouch!

Note that the is day 3-1/2 of farms... A little monotonous, but I can't help thinking that I'm sure there is much more to come on this trip... Corn, soybeans, hay, and .... Asparagus (we agreed this was first ever field of asparagus that we've seen)!

I really wanted to get lunch in this cute town but couldn't find any cafe or sandwich places, so I ended up backtracking to a Tim hortons for lunch, coffee, wifi, and my first donut in like 12 years

after all the great roads we've been on in New York and Ontario it was kind of surprising to be back to Massachusetts-like surfaces... We often had to ride in the middle of the road, but not much traffic, you can't see the heat waves in this photo but trust me they were there

I had a nice tour of wallaceburg... I saw this block of shops 3 times; I left off a critical turn on our sheets onto a street that we needed to follow for about 1.5 miles, so I was looking for the wrong street here. I learned later that H had a minor crash just around the corner, just one of those clip mishaps, but lost some skin

Reaching the St Claire parkway with views of the water was a real treat after all the farmland ... We can see Michigan across the water -- so close!!!

Had to photo the first WORKING public fountain that I remember on this trip so far, and it was much needed here on the St Claire parkway after almost 50 miles so far in the heat on exposed roadways

Ice cream and convenience store shopping in Sombra. The ice cream woman convinced me that I needed to try three flavors, but it was hard to keep up with the heat melting it  

My first long chat with anither cycling tourer, he quit his high tech job sometime back and is now an organic farmer @dolwayorganic. It was so nice to talk shop, he and his wife have done some amazing things, not least of which is the farming venture... 

 Sombra camping nice, simple, inexpensive, quiet... Vs Prov campgrounds we had been staying at ... This is more like our lock side camping in NY... Much better for us.

There was Another bike tourer in the primitive site area with us doing a lake tour... 

We needed power, the sun obliged!! 

Our first attempt with rubbing alcohol didn't work out so well my car this at the convenient store in town,  50% is not enough alcohol to burn!!!!!

So we had uncooked gnocchi with salsa and canned chicken, it wasn't bad actually

I spent the evening walking along the riverfront before going to bed