In Memory of Warmer Summers

August 17 through 21

Yale, MI; Sambra, Ontario; Port Glasgow, Ontario; Houghton Centre, Ontario; South Cayuga, Ontario;  and just south of Niagara Falls, Ontario

On the 16th we stayed in the Yale Hotel in Yale, Michigan.  It was built in the very early 1900’s.  Our third-floor room was across the hall from a shared bathroom.  The rate was $50, but cyclists get a rate of $35 so spread the word.

Yes it had one of these staircases:

Down the street, CJ’s Restaurant opens daily at 7:00am and we were on the doorstep at 6:59.  We had a great breakfast and very much enjoyed the company of the owner, cook, and chief bottle-washer, Sandra.  We finished our very large and generous breakfast only to find the following written on our check:

After over 900 miles, we finally made it out of Michigan and crossed the St. Clair River into Canada. 

This afternoon we were setting up our tents at the St. Clair Township Campground in Sombra, Ontario when the caretaker came roaring over on her tractor and told us there was a bad storm coming and it was moving across the river fast.  She offered to throw our tents onto a Gator and get them to a pavilion where we would have some protection. We barely got the rest of our gear under cover and that storm hit fast and hard.  Gosh those Canadians are polite people! 

We'll just move this for ya!

Sallie is getting quite fond of pavilion tenting.  There’s no need for a rain fly, the tents fold up nice and dry in the morning, and there’s never a problem with rocks or roots under your bed at night!

As to the politeness of Canadians, here’s some observations:

When there are rumble strips on the shoulder of the road, they strip both sides of the strips so no one is taken by surprise if they drift over and hit the rumbles.  In the U.S., those strips are never identified, so if one drifts and runs over them, they run the risk of overcorrecting and having to deal with that.

Speaking of rumbles, you know those pavement rumbles they put down in the U.S. as one approaches a dangerous intersection or a “T” with a stop sign?  You know, the ones that cause a driver to think the front end of their car just collapsed and they ran over it?  You CANNOT ride a bicycle over these without having your filling fall out.  In Canada, those pavement etchings are very faint.  A car driving over them causes a musical tone that alerts the driver to pay attention.  You can ride a bike over them with no-hands if you want to (do not try that at home please).

Just like in Alberta, we saw no broken glass on the shoulder of the roads.  Are you kidding me?

On the 21st we stopped for second brreakfast at a small cafe in Dunnville that had a sign out front featuring “Chili Toast”.  I couldn’t resist going in as I’ve never had chili toast.  Seeing we were cyclists, the owner/cook insisted he’d fix a proper breakfast for a cyclist – we each were treated to 3 eggs, home fries, bacon, sausage, and a pile of toast that was at least eight slices. The charge for all that? $20 (Canadian).  Cheapest eats of the entire time in Ontario.

The coffe shop talk with the customers and the cook resulted in some speculative answers we had about the controversy over wind energy in Ontario.  We witnessed a lot of yard signs and other indicators that many folks were opposed to wind turbines, meanwhile we saw hundreds of the things up and operating. 

As described by the folks in the cafe, the proliferation of wind turbines is the result of offers to farmers of $50,000 a year for 20 years for each turbine on their property.  Their neighbor may not have enough acreage to support a turbine, and therefore unable to cash in like that.  As a result the neighbor’s property values decrease significantly due to proximity to the turbines and that has caused a significant split in the community.

In such a polite society, this cannot be easy.

Old meets new

Lake Erie

Ontario...elk??