Day 40 - 82 miles from Port Huron, MI to London, ONT (Canada)

Today, Anne and Michael rode the Co-Motion into Canada; our first time ever being in Canada. A couple of things did not change - the beautiful weather and the very flat terrain. The winds, however, were not as favorable as those we had in MI.

After getting ready, all the riders had to line up and awaited the phone call from the Canadian police saying they were ready to escort us across the Blue Water Bridge (6,178' in length) to Canada. They were nice to close one lane of the four lanes just for us and provide an escort.

Anne and I are ready and awaiting the word to go.

We head for the bridge.

No pictures were allowed (for safety and timing reasons) while on the bridge; so, here we are waiting to have our Passports okayed.

We are in Canada!

In Ontario.

We're off. These streets don't look any different than those in Burlington, IA. I guess why should they as we are not so different, duh.

Don catches us again. This time in a neighborhood of London, ONT. That is Chris and his dad, Kevin behind us.

The have windmills, too. Although I didn't get a picture, we passed many acres of solar panels. More than I have ever seen.

Is this RAGBRAI or Canada? Notice how flat the terrain is in the following pictures. Great for tandem riding or any bike riding for that matter.

Canada has lots of corn and bean fields, too.

In Delaware, ONT, we stopped at this grocery store and deli. Prices are higher than in the US. For example, a pint of chocolate milk was $2.25. At one stop in the US, we bought a gallon for $3. Canada no longer uses a penny as they round up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

Here is the group Anne, I  and the Co-Motion pulled over 90% of the the 82-mile ride. They enjoyed it, were surprised at the speed and were very appreciative of our efforts. They should ride with the Tue and Sat group rides in Burlington! It was fun riding with (from l to r): Don, Drew, Holly and Gardner. They are from either OR and MA.

When we got to the motel we found a camping and bike store just behind the motel. We bought these jerseys. Anne's is white. 

Later, I walked around the area surrounding our motel which is a busy area of London which has a population of ~366,000. None of the four service station/convenience stores I visited had any fountain drinks nor donuts; so, they must not serve these in Canada like in the USA. I saw no DQ's nor any good ice cream places. Maybe there obesity rate is lower than in the USA. Gasoline is ~$4.60 per gallon. Basically, all products I saw appeared to be about 15-20% higher than in the USA.

Our motel is so-so and the food at the restaurant was so-so at best. However, I must say the people here are very polite and friendly.

Tomorrow's ride is 69 miles to Brantford, ONT with a population of ~100,000. So, we will see what it has to offer. It is the home of Wayne Gretzky, the famous Canadian hockey player.