September 2-7th (boy time flies when you are having fun)

Can you tell that we were not the only ones that wanted to get out of the rain.?  All these bikes were at our motel for the night.

         

              

Our plan for today Aug.2,2013 was to ride to Sudbury, but include a side trip up hwy.# 69 to Elliot Lake to visit an old friend from our days  in the Peace River. The weather was definitely more agreeable to bike travel and the road was clean of animals and had a light flow of traffic. It was good to have a face to face (first time in 28 years) with Dorothy Daly who was our Anglican priest at St. Peters Anglican\United Church while we lived in Hudson's Hope, BC.

                

                   Gayle and Rev. Dorothy Daly at home in Elliot Lake

We did a quick ride about town and Gayle found a bike that she thought would  fit her solo riding.

                           A Chinese manufactured electric unit parked at Tim's

Nature call at Tim's then back onto hwy.# 17 to Sudbury and holed up there over night. It feels great not to ride in the rain even though it has turned cooler. Supper at Kelsey's restaurant to warm us up before some shut eye.

The next day's ride down to Elora was windy while on highway 69\400 with a definite increase in traffic. The scenery was more to our liking with rolling farmland, as we left the main drag for the more rural secondary highways of 9, 3, 18.

Found my cousin Sharon's place with no problem (on board GPS) and called her at work after 4pm to announce our arrival in town. Ian, Sharon's husband was still at work for awhile longer,so we snacked and wined until his introduction to both Gayle and I. We had never met Ian who is now 72 and has been married to Sharon since forever. Hard to imagine!

We went out to The Cellar for a wonderful supper and more conversation, after a quick tour of their lovely town. There are so many great looking little towns in this area of Ontario. It would be hard to choose one if we ever considered moving to "Upper Canada." One thing about living in a small town.....you certainly get to know most everyone over the years.

    The Girls [Cousin Sharon (Day) Rice and Gayle.]

    Ian and Sharon Rice. We finally got to meet him!

These people should both be retired but had to be up and about in the morning so we tried not to keep them up too late when we returned home. We were up in time to say goodbye to Ian while Sharon put together a fantastic breakfast before excusing herself and leaving for work before we mounted up for the day.

Off to the most southerly point in mainland Canada today Aug. 4th. Why that is Point Pelee National Park of course. "It forms the southernmost point in mainland Canada (its latitudinal position is the same as the northernmost counties of California) and is part of a bird and butterfly migration corridor over Lake Erie via Point Pelee and the Lake Erie islands. Over 360 bird species have been recorded in the park. The peak time for bird migration is spring, especially May, when tired migrants make first landfall after their journey north across the lake. Bird species include Cooper's Hawk, Painted Bunting, and Yellow Choochity Warbler. Many birdwatchers from North America and abroad visit the park in spring, often staying in the nearby town of Leamington. One attraction, apart from the sheer numbers and variety of bird passing through on migration, is the opportunity to see more northerly breeding species such as Blackpoll Warbler before they move on." (I threw that in here for my friend Jim St.Laurent in Calgary) :)

Rode the bike into the area as far as the park officials would allow me and checked out the visitors centre before mounting up for the ride to London.

We were not aware of the beaches of the park being "nude" but we did see another bird species returning to his SUV while leaving this view point. Rather old and wrinkled with a lack of plumage!

That's Lake Erie out there and very windy on this day.

The next day was set aside for a 20,000km warranty maintenance visit to Wolf BMW.

Ian and Christine Mc Queen run a great shop here in London

I met a customer of theirs who came in to book a rear tire replacement. Blair and I talked about bikes, travelling in Canada and most interestingly renting a BMW in New Zealand and group touring two up with his wife last winter. He was entertaining and engaging for almost an hour. Great fun.

Sticking with our plan (someone's plan) of checking out quilt shops took us next to The Hobby Horse Quilt Shoppe just north of Georgetown. Gayle got to spend time with Gail Spence and staff while I was able to talk farming with Gail's husband Al. Great visit on a bright sunny day. Wonderful location!

Just the lower building was the shop thank goodness or we might have had to stay longer:)

                                   BEFORE

                                                     

                                  DURING            

                                                                                                         

                  AFTER (notice the smile)

                 Oh yes, there was a cat to be seen on the farm Angela and Jessica

Because we were so close, we just had to check out where Nicholas used to work before moving to Vermont. As luck would have it we caught Dino Deligiannis, the President in his office and he went to tell Dan Goodwin (from Fredericton) that we were outside in the parking lot. Another employee, Rob Wardlaw took the opportunity to come out to meet us as well as check out the bike.

                              Good sports from Intlvac. Dino, Dan and Rob

To finish the day's ride to Peterborough I planned a route to circumvent the Friday afternoon traffic around greater Toronto. I now know that there is probably no such route and like I'm finding in much of Ontario the highway signage giving you a heads up before the road changes actually are upon you, is TERRIBLE at best. Many small towns will post a street name and not tell you that is is also a certain highway # you have been navigating on, for over an hour. It is almost as if they want you to get "lost" in their town and have to stay awhile! I didn't get too lost at any time but probably took longer than necessary to arrive at the motel. :)

August 7th saw us waiting till mid-morning for the rain to let off a little. We then followed highway 7 from Peterborough to Carleton Place under heavy overcast skies and no predicted rain, then north to Mississippi Mills (Almonte) on highway #29 to Quilting Quarters. (Not another bike shop!)

                      Do I see more smiles?