Safe and at Home in Owen Sound

Yeap that's right, we made it back a day earlier than expected, we are that good. Orrrrrrrrrr..... Neil might have broken a bolt that holds on his seat on grooved pavement, we might have paid a guy 100 bucks to drive us to the ferry and Neil's Dad might have picked us up and brought us back to Owen Sound. That's the other story that some people are spreading around in the rumour mill..... you can believe whichever version you fancy.

It's crazy the random mechanical problems we have had on this trip. If you had asked me beforehand what problems I expected to occur.... I would not have named any of the issues we've had. In fact, all of the normal problems have barely occurred. For example, in ~4,200km I did not get ONE flat tire. Crazy.

Luckily my shifter problems that I was getting fixed in Sault Ste Marie ended up being a really cheap fix. The Velorution bike shop was able to take it apart and correctly reassemble it (we had messed up a spring when we put it back together) and repacked my bottom bracket stopping the wretched squeak I'd had since Sask. Total Bill? ~$57

Definitely check them out if you are ever in the Sault. We hung out there all day (camped there the night before for free too!) and they were super nice. They taught me how to redo my bar tape which I will admit I had never had to do before and pointed out the local bakery which had AMAZING sandwiches. It was a really good shop, and as I said before they really promote a cycling lifestyle, the owner is actually a bike enthusiast and does more bike-activism than actual running of the shop.

After the rain subsided a bit that day Neil and I biked another 70km outside of the city and ended up getting a motel room to dry out our stuff (and there were no camp grounds close by) in Bruce Mines. The next morning I awoke AGAIN with a swollen eye, same eye, different part. So I popped some benedryl and we went over to eat breakfast (Neil was aching for so meat and eggs for breakfast) and then we started riding again. The headwind was enough to do me in. I had so much Benedryl in my system that I just had nothing to fight with. Hard as I might try to peddle against it I was just not getting anywhere. So after 20km we were in Thessalon and Neil stopped next to this nice lakeside campground and said," Why don't we just have a rest day?" At first I was pretty upset because I thought I was biking really hard, but when I looked at my average and realized I was only averaging 16km I realized he might have a point. So we set up the tent and I had a great 2 hour nap right off the bat. It was a nice nap too because we set up the tent without the fly and I had a great nap in the lake breeze. I slept a lot of that day actually, Neil went for a walk around town and scrounged up some more groceries for the next day. It ended up being a great idea because we had a day to spare and when we counted it out later it was our 8th day cycling in a row- rest was required.

The next morning we got a late start heading out because we met one of our first random travelers! We've passed 3 different cyclist groups now, but never at a good place to stop and chat. But at this campground an Australian came over to chat with us. He was hitchhiking to Winnipeg to visit a friend there and he had just completed biking from the Northern part of South America to the Southern Tip for 8 months! It was really nice to hear all of his different stories and just get that comradely feel.


When we took off finally for the day we were making exceptional time and decided to stretch our day's goal to Espanola (right where you turn south to go down through Manitoulin Island). However, Spanish Ontario was as far as we got. About 1km West of the city Neil had a bolt break off in his seat post. He has a two bolt system and as long as we stood there and tried to engineer it, there was no way that we could see to fix it temporarily with zip ties or rope or anything else of the sort. The way his bike seat/post is designed there really was no way of securing it tight enough to ride with it, and with the trailer Neil really can't stand and cycle for more than a few seconds. So we pushed our bikes into Spanish where of COURSE it was after 5pm on a Saturday and the hardware store was closed. This time without the Lake of the Woods Search and Rescue team we were really in a bind because we had no idea where we could find someone who might have a tool to take out the bolt. We could have waited around until Monday, but my convocation is on Wednesday and we still wouldn't have been able to bike back to Owen Sound in time, although we might have made the ferry. However, if it is something that can't be fixed we would have wasted a lot of time and risked not getting back in time at all (not to mention then we would need to get rides during the WORK week). So we decided the best thing to do was cut our losses and get a ride back home. The ferry only runs twice a day now so we paid a local, Bill and his wife, to drive us in their Kia Sportage (it was a REALLY tight fit) down to the ferry. We had a really foggy ferry crossing and Ed de Laplante picked us up in Tobermory and brought us home for some tasty stew! We'll be in Owen Sound/Waterloo for about a week while we repair Neil's bike and go to both of our convocations. Then we'll be heading out for the second half of the trip that doesn't have such a tight deadline to St. John's! We're not sure if we will go north first to sort of make up the part that we missed first or just head East right away. I'm sure I'll update you on our route and progress more later!

Thanks again for all of the comments in the first half of the trip! It was always a joy to come online and read all of your support and laugh at all of your jokes! The photos are updated and captioned right up to the ferry and I've started a new album and slideshow for the second half to make it a bit easier to browse through!

Well that's it for now! Will update again before we head off!