Day 116- Thank You and Happy Hot Anniversary, Jim and Mary !

Day 116 Wednesday, September 1, 2010 Distance 132.45 km. Time 6 hr. 5 min. Total so far 7978.72 km. We woke up at 6 am. I made 2 eggs and toast and had one of Mary’s banana muffins. I should have fuel like that every morning. We finished loading our bicycles in the garage. It was very warm and I already changed my short sleeved shirt for a tank top. Jim and Mary watched and were amazed at our load. We hugged goodbye and Jim took a couple photos. Thank you, Jim and Mary! We had a good rest, good food and good company at your house. As we left Chesley, I took a photo of a big bull statue there. We headed across a side road to County Rd. 10 which eventually led to Hwy. 6 at Wiarton. We passed by Doddinton, Tara, Alvanley, Hepworth and Clavering and reached Wiarton after 2 hours of riding.We stopped at Foodland where we met Jim on his bicycle with his helmet and safety vest on. It is so nice to see other bicyclists who are safety conscious. He rides into town in the vehicle with his wife and then takes the bicycle off , rides around and then bikes 10 km. back home. I told him to keep training and he could be Dave’s partner next year because I’m too slow. Most of the road today was all new pavement which was great. There were only a few sections of stripped off pavement. Dave had lots of energy today and was way ahead all the time. The wind was on our back or our side so we were making good time. Up to Wiarton, it was all farmland with hay bales still in all the fields. There were also lots of cattle farms. Further on, there was more rock and some swampy areas. We had lunch, at a little place near Ferndale where we talked to Bill and Maureen who were on a little trip on a motorcycle. Later, I mentioned to Dave that I thought Jim and Mary's anniversary was sometime in early Sept. and Dave said that it was today, the 1st. I could kick myself for not remembering and congratulating them. After lunch, Silver, who had been good all morning, started acting up again dropping the chain off the big ring to the middle ring if I hesitated while peddling on the big ring. It was most annoying because except for a huge hill exiting Wiarton, most of today's ride was pretty flat. Toward the 4th hour, I could tell that Dave had in his mind to make the ferry. He was so intent on his forward progress that he didn’t see a tourer go by on the other side of the road. Ken crossed over to my side of the road and we chatted for a while. He is 48 years old and has bicycled from Vancouver and is aiming to make it to Ottawa to proclaim some opinions about political issues. He had a Velorution sticker on his Surly bike. When I asked about it, he said that he camped at the store in the Sault for a couple of days. That is the 4th tourer we meet that has been to Velorution. We made it to the 4 pm. ferry at Tobermory with only 20 min. to spare so I couldn’t browse around there. I got a photo of the Chi Cheemaun as it was coming in. The 5 motorcycles and our 2 bicycles were let on first but by the time we finished tying the bicycles good , the boat was moving. We sat on a bench outside with a lot of people holding dogs. It was warm out there at first but I could feel my legs tightening up after a while. I worked on the journal and later we took turns going for a walk to stretch. The ride was an hour and 45 min. long and we were off first at South Baymouth in a drizzle of rain. After a few inquiries, we found our way to the home of a former neighbor of ours but they weren’t home when I called the last few days and they weren’t home today. If it hadn’t been raining, we would maybe have set up in their yard but Dave decided to look for a motel. I had been unhappy about everything for several hours because I think Dave was striving for too much today. The motels right at the ferry dock were too expensive so we had to ride a few kilometers more and found the Buckhorn Motel. It was now past 6 pm. We would have to have leftover lunch for supper and the bicycles couldn’t come in the room so I couldn’t work on Silver. I wasn’t a very happy camper.