DAY 37 OF THE AROUND-THE-BLOCK TOUR - AUGUST 6,2008

August 6, 2008 - Wednesday - Day 37
USA/MEXICO/CANADA
DOUBLE CROSS COUNTRY
& THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAY
-- OR BUST - SUMMER 2008
Miles Today - 300 - Total Miles - 8681
- Ignace,Manitoba,Canada to Terrace Bay,Canada
(-staying at Red Dog Inn -)
(Ontario)

- It was SUPPOSED to be a nice easy day… It was to be a cushy ride alongthe northern rim of Lake Superior. But it turned into the most challengingday of the trip - and one that included the most terrifying moment. -

- In terms of excitement, challenges and danger, probably the best day yet. -
***

It was another good restful night's sleep. My run took me through theIgnace post office where I sent a few postcards. It was interesting beingthere. The price of stamps for postcards and letters is the same in Canada- about a buck!
I saw Albert's wife. I had hoped to see him, and was lucky enough to do so a bit later before I left.
Albert warned me about not going fast through Upsala, about fifty milesdown the road, where he recommended a place I stop to eat. He said thatone of the officers there, who watches the roads carefully, would "give hisgrandmother a speeding ticket!" Albert said, "Don't go more than 60!" I said, "'Sixty' to you and me have different meanings. He then verifiedhe meant kilometers, also known as 'clicks.'
Man-o-man, I was so excitedto be talking with Albert, I almost forgot my back bag. I was on the bikewaving good-bye and was just about to drive off. I probably wouldn't havenoticed for a few blocks when I leaned back. But before I left, Albert'swife came running out with it.

The day began in grand style - nicepuffy clouds and warm enough to not have to use two jackets, and cool enoughto be comfortable.
I wouldn't normally have stopped so early - itwas around 11am - as I did in Upsala for a meal. But Albert of Ignace recommendedthat I stop there and visit with his friend, also named Albert. It turnedout the guy wasn't there, but I did enjoy a huge bowl of superb real oatmealand a butterscotch muffin. They had a wireless connection there for me, too,so that was also a bonus.

I passed a number of buildings thathad the mysterious initials, "L.C.B.O." on them. I never got to ask anyoneabout what they meant, but at one point in the day I googled it. "LiquorControl Board of Ontario."

There are some odd public road signshere. One that struck me as peculiar was "LARGE VEHICLES NEED MORE ROOM." Hmmmm… Duh!

It got very cold and grey heading into ThunderBay. I missed a wonderful photograph through a little clearing of trees.It was of train tracks and forest leading off to the far horizon with halfrainfall, half sunshine over a distant mountain.

As I approachedthe town, there was a full apron of darkness over Thunder Bay, so I juststayed on the highway and sailed right by. I did stop at the hillock wherethere is a memorial to that Terry Fox fellow. You'll recall back at MileZero there was a statue honoring him, too. He's the young boy who tried tohoof it across Canada in spite of his cancer on one good leg and on one prosthesisleg. This was as far as he got before the cancer got him. It was a movingtribute there on that high hill overlooking Lake Superior.

At one point this morning, I moved back home into the Eastern Time Zone. And it was good being back!

There wasn't much in between towns. Just trees and lakes, and the occasionalfarm and stream. And the towns were about 50 or 60 miles apart so that'sa LOT of trees.

There were a number of dirt roads that seemed tolead to nowhere which radiated on occasion from the main road. I wouldpeer down them as I zipped past, and they went over crests and around hills. Some disappeared in the tree thickets. And some went into the distancebeyond seeing. Dirt roads. Where do they go?

At one gas stopjust east of Thunder Bay at 2:40pm, I chatted with a nice young guy who wasgassing up a four-wheeled sport vehicle. I asked him about the weather tothe east, and he said he was just down that way and it was pouring. So Isuited up.

There were quite a number of times in the last partof the day that I put on raingear, and then the sun would come out in a fewmiles. And so I'd take it off. Then the dark clouds reappeared and I'd donthe yellow slicker and the gaiters, and put the cover back on the back bag.Then another turn of the road brought bright sunshine and high heat. Itwas frustrating.

Rolling along in one part of the afternoonI'd notice the black sky in front of me. And I'd go, "YEOW! that's black." And there'd be a turn in the road, and I'd look up, and I'd yell louder,"YEOW!! that's even blacker!" And that went on for a few times until I couldn'tlook up any more because of the rain, and having to concentrate on the roadway.

Then I came to a long series of road construction projects. On the two lane road, that meant that flagmen were set up to halt the flow of travelon one side of the road, while the other side progressed. Then, the otherside would be halted.
So there were a number of waiting periods -just sitting and waiting for the whole line of cars to move along throughthe other side of the two-lane highway. Sometimes it was for a half houror more. Even though it was raining, some folks got out of their cars andhad a smoke. I took pictures and just watched what was going on.

The roads went from semi-repaired to all dirt and gravel, to just dirtfor awhile. It was very nervous riding for me picking my way along with thesnaking line of cars at five-to-ten miles per hour over the garbled highwayin the rain. Then it would be fine road, and then the process would beginall over again.
With a broad smile I shouted over to one of the guysstanding with his orange warning flag in the rain in the mud, "Which oneof you guys is going to come and clean my bike tonight?" He must have beenthinking about being in his warm home in front of dinner instead of beingout there in the cold downpour. Because I didn't see much of a smile fromhim. (Maybe he laughed when he thought about it later in the evening.)
I kept thinking, "How much worse can this GET?" And then, you knowwhat? It got worse!!! MUCH worse! There came an uphill on wet gravel/sand/rock/dirtwith the rain coming down, and with a zillion cars in front and in back ofme - at one point I almost lost balance and the Nomad started to go over.I righted it, but not without feeling my left calf crunch against the backcrash bar before the bike was righted. It was a terrifying moment - the scariestof the trip. The big 800-pound cruiser wasn't made for tip-toeing over littlestones. Wet stones. In the rain. And I was pretty nervous as I felt the controlgo, and the instinct step in. But I barely got the bike righted and I'm surethat all those folks around me breathed the same sigh of relief that I did. It was about another score of yards or so before the road became solid again.
The calf felt pretty stiff and sore for about fifteen minutes before feeling better.
The roadway was in some state of repair for about twenty slow miles.


It was raining pretty good and steady at most times as I rounded themountaintops, but there were some pretty darn good views of Lake Superior.I was frustrated that I couldn't take more photos.
Towards the endof the day, a single big patch of blue sky was tantalizingly in front ofme almost all the way. But I just couldn't catch up with it. Meanwhilethe rain kept pelting me in the face. Because of the rain on the windshieldand on my helmet's shield, and on my sunglasses, eventually I had to ripoff the sunglasses without taking my helmet off.
At one point, an18-wheeler was bearing down on me. There was no way to let him pass onthe downhills, and on the uphills and straight-aways, I was way ahead ofhim. But on the downhills I could feel that truck snorting at me like somebull in the ring. Finally there was a passing lane on a slight uphill andI let him go by with a friendly wave. Whew!
And the rain continued.Sometimes heavy, sometimes in just big drops and sometimes in a misty drizzle.And the big trucks coming at me were tracking with the water on the groundand one could see the huge shrouds of water droplets as they made their waydown the highway. And then that splume of spray would sponge over me andpass by… There were never tsunamis of water like on other rides, but itwas always pretty damp.

I was intent on hitting 300 milesand not stopping sooner. So I kept going. And right at the goal mark wasTerrace Bay. The price was right in the first place I stopped (although Idid walk next door and find that place was full up!)… After securing theroom I went on a two-mile jaunt down to the lakeside. I figured Trish wouldlike it if I also touched the shoreline in the north as well as the fourcorners!
I stopped at a Subway on the way back. As I was leaving anolder guy was taking a picture of the cute young blond woman with the tooheavy black-ringed eye make-up behind the counter. As we left the store togetherI asked the man why he was taking the picture. He said it was his granddaughter,and that he was in the area visiting. Seems his son, her father, had dieda few years ago. The man said it should have been himself at 83 who shouldhave died, not the son. I inquired as to if it was natural causes that causedthe death. The man said his son had lost his job, and took to drink, andlost most everything. From the tone I assumed it was a suicide. The man tearedup as he talked from the heart and said it was hard to move on…

I got back to the motel, pulled around to the side, and unloaded. ThenI set about the huge job of cleaning the Nomad. It took about 45 minutesuntil it was gleaming again.
I like trying candy bars that are notavailable in the United States. So when there were a few available down atthe office I said to the lady there, "Well, you talked me into it, I'll haveone of those." She laughed because she hadn't said anything about it, andthen I said as I often do, "Well, just give me YOUR favorite one." Shesmiled and handed me one, and said that I could just have it for free since,"You asked for my favorite one!"
Got a little hungry around 10pm orso, and I took one of my microwave popcorns down to the kitchen. The friendlyyoung woman there who was cleaning up the remains of the salad bar said thatsure, she would put it in the microwave for me. She did so, and the smellwas great. Great, that is, until ----- she opened the door and billows ofdark smoke and burned popcorn smell enveloped the area. She kept apologizingprofusely, but I told her not to worry about it and that I'd get anotherbag. Which I did.
While we were standing there I asked her how muchthat delicious looking wedge of blueberry pie would be? She said with asmile that since she burned the popcorn I could just HAVE the pie. Thatmade both of us happy - she got her act of contrition, and I got the pie.And it was delicious!
Back at the room I worked on getting the rawjournal notes out of the tiny tape recorder, caught up on emails, enjoyedpart of the Cardinal game on the net, and stayed up a little too late Skyping.

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