Post Trip contemplation!

Having ridden around Beaverton these last couple of days - been driven really I should say - it seems impossible that I have actually completed the trip. It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I set off, wobbling my way south on Highway 12, getting used to a top heavy bike and riding on the wrong side of the road.  Now nearly 9000 miles, 14 states, 4 provinces and 2 countries later I'm practically in a daze with flashes of recollection  hitting me causing me to step back and say "wow, I really did see that!"

It is only after it stops that you realise what pace you were actually travelling even though it felt leisurely at the time. And what level of anxiety must have been there just below the surface - was the oil going to cope with the heat range, were the tyres going to hold out on the dirt roads, would the bike run on 89 Octane fuel with 10% ethanol when it should have 95 Octane straight - oh there was never any real danger though  there could have been a lot of inconvenience and discomfort if things had gone wrong. But they didn't. The bike never missed a beat in all those miles, in snow, desert heat or torrential rain. I've broken a bit of plastic, scratched a bit of paintwork and a tail light bulb has gone - some advert for Honda eh!

I transported spares - the service interval is 8000 miles - oil, coolant and puncture repair kits around North America and used hardly anything. Worn a pair of boots out, lost a couple of socks (unfortunately not one pair) and bought - and had bought for me - a couple of "celebration" tee-shirts.

I've met some truly wonderful people, some for the first time, some who it's been great to see again. I've not encountered one incident of aggression or even close to it and, until I rode down towards Beaverton on Sunday through the "going home from the coast after the weekend" traffic  I've hardly seen any bad or crazy driving.

I've had a couple of  genuinely humbling experiences, both on the same day actually and which at the time I struggled with and therefore didn't include in my blog. But to fail to recognise them would belittle the achievements of the young men involved and that would be unacceptable.

My reason for going to Thunder Bay was to see the Terry Fox Memorial. Terry was a cancer victim who had his right leg amputated because of the disease at the age of 18. In April 1980, at the age of 22 he set off from the Atlantic Coast in Newfoundland on a “Marathon of Hope” across Canada on the Trans-Canada Highway – all 5300miles -  to raise money for Cancer Awareness. Running 26 miles each day he had passed through 5 Provinces by the time he hit Ontario in June. Then, at mile 3,339 recurring cancer forced him to give up and sadly he died a year later. However he inspired the Canadians Nationwide and some $24 million donations flowed in. This memorial and the highway he ran on are dedicated to him. I’ve been trying to think of something to say to put my feeble effort into perspective – but there’s nothing there.

There was also a view-point at the base of Terry’s statue but as I showed you earlier the clouds had closed that in which in a way made the visit even more poignant.

Later on that day I visited a waterfall at the Aguasabon Gorge. The last entry in the visitors’ book were a couple of names followed by “Coast2Coast4Cancer Ride”.

A few miles further on I caught up with a car with hazards flashing and a sign repeating the Coast2Coast Run Message. In front of the car was a young man on a cycle. He turned out to be Justin Danecke who had lost a family member to Cancer and had another diagnosed with the disease. He was cycling right across the country for charity.

 

 

 What a tremendous thing to do. I’m embarrassed to go on about my jolly. Well done Justin – and if anyone is minded to support him then go to http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/coast2coast4cancer

Would I do it again, like a flash, so much more I could have seen and done - except for the Prairies perhaps - as I think it was Andy told me by the Winnie-the-Pooh statue, quoting his father after his one and only ride across them - " I've  ridden across the Prairies twice, once for the first time and once for the last time!

 

 

Sunday 2nd June - I've done it!

Started writing a "normal" blog day but really it didn't flow because it wasn't a normal day, can do that later. 

 

I was more anxious this morning than I have been all the trip - felt I was so near to completing this wonderful journey without any mishap or incident and that it possibly couldn't last.

 

But it did and although I set off in heavy rain it soon cleared and I had a great ride for in the sunshine, over rivers and through lakeside towns for 199.7 miles 'til I reached the end of my journey - Beaverton, Ontario, 3pm Eastern Time -  and this reception...







 

8927 Miles completed - A dream realised.

             For once I don't know what to say,

                         other than thank you for being with me......

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 



Saturday 1st June - Lake Huron and the North Channel

I am feeling absolutely shattered tonight and don’t know why really. I have only done 230 miles after a very late start – it was throwing it down all morning and I really don’t have that far to go til I’m back at Lyndsay, Reece and Dacry’s at Beaverton so saw no point in getting soaked IF it was going to clear up later – but I have done a lot of exploring and socialising.

It did stop eventually although it came back quite heavily a few times during the day. I've gone on a lot about the rain and then looking at the photos it mostly seems dry and bright - well explanation is simple, not a lot of point taking photos in the downpours and fog I've ridden through - this, for example was the "view" from quite a famous Viewpoint...

    good eh!

First deviation was over to an Island I hadn’t even heard of or picked up in the map – St Joseph Island accessed up to 3 years ago by a ferry but now by a new bridge.

 

Just though I’d have a look and am so glad I did. It is absolute paradise. My ignorance would have put it in Lake Huron but it is apparently in St Mary’s River and at 99,000 acres it is the second largest freshwater island in the world - Manitoulin Island, the largest (which I didn’t get to) is just next door as it happens. It just has everything, except people and traffic - rolling hills, pastel coloured wooden clapper board houses, forests, fields, beaches, coves and harbours. I must, I will, go back. Spent half hour or so talking to the harbour master and a guy doing his garden near a church I visited both of whom, of course, sang the islands praises. Trouble is none of this was in the planning so already a bit behind schedule.

 

And the real selling point.....

 

Visited the museum – Closed of course – but looked around outside anyway.  And there was a new slant - yes of course all the old houses, schoolrooms etc. which I won't try your patience with - but, now pieces of rock, sorry Puddingstone! 

 

 Admit I thought – yeah right – when it said it isn’t found in any other places, but apparently it isn’t.

Puddingstone with different constituents is found in a few, very few, specific places, but each has its own unique make up – this one contained pieces of jasper.  Another example is Hertfordshire Puddingstone, found in Herts, England funnily enough. 

Will say one thing about the Curator though, he or she has a real eye for a treasure....

 

Back on the mainland I rode east to Sudbury and Parry Sound where I would eventually turn South for the final leg.

What the Americans can do with Cadillacs the Canadians do in a much more subdued form…

 

I came across a meeting at this round barn attended by people from a community similar to the Amish – I admit I don’t know what they were. Felt ok photographing some of their buggies but it didn’t seem right to photograph them without asking permission and they all seemed to be socialising.

 

When you see the size of some of the rivers feeding the lakes you realise why the are so large..

 

 

This is the Mississagi. I know some rivers in Europe look as big but they of course empty into the sea.

I bumped into this group of paratrooper vets at a coffee stop – yes a Tim Horton’s.  Now these are guys that jumped out of aeroplanes to kill people and look how they are dressed - believe me now about the weather? Anyhow it was good to see Harley riders wearing more protective clothing than I was.  I mentioned it to the black guy front left and his opinion of his west coast counterparts can’t be repeated here.

 

In Blind River there is the Loggers Memorial, a life-size bronze sculpture of 2 “rive drivers” walking on logs to clear a log jam which is a tribute to the contribution loggers have made to Canada’s development.

 

A bit outside Blind River I had to swerve to avoid what at first I thought was a piece of shredded lorry tyre - the roads are littered with the stuff. But when I saw what it was I couldn’t then leave him in the road. I went back and had a sickening couple of minutes as 3 or 4 cars shot past, him, 2 actually straddling him. I actually chased him and shot off the road at a surprising speed and never once said thanks. It is a Snapping Turtle - didn’t want to put Froggy near him this time as he didn’t look particularly friendly - and he didn't give me chance - so no sense of scale but his shell was about a foot long.

 

Got to Sudbury and decided to call it a day as my concentration going and feeling quite tired – had been through lousy weather again and traffic had been much heavier than previously – really had to keep up with it rather than pulling over and waving it past.

Mixed feelings as last full day if things go to plan – but I sense fatigue setting in a bit and that is when the wheels come off - figuratively if nit literally.

Let’s see what the last day brings.