Well I made it home for PRIDE just like I promised I would. In fact I had made it with a few days to spare. None of my clothes fit me here anymore having lost 4 inches off my waist and 30lbs total!
Z and I on our way to PRIDE
Nicole came and joined us at the end of June and she and I headed out to Montreal. The plan was to ride to Montreal in 5 days and have our other sister, Renee join us there. Nicole would fly home from Montreal after a few days and Renee and I would either continue on or ride back to Toronto.
Nicole and Zuimei
Now I made an error by leaving East from North York (I live at Yonge and Finch) The number 7 highway is just stupid. It is busy, narrow shouldered and not really very scenic. Nicole and I rode out of the city which took longer than I had originally anticipated. Traffic was very thick and the fucking hills! OMG they just kept rolling on and on. We stopped for lunch at a little town. I’m sure Nicole could tell you where since she kept track of where we ate. I guess everyone remembers different things about trips and it seems she remembers meals. Or that meals trigger memories. Anyway it was the only time it rained and as good luck would have it we were in a cafe eating perogies for lunch. plus our bikes were under a big awning so nothing got wet!
That first night we found a campground that was part of an RV park.
Just before the cold really kicked in.
Nicole and I had identical tents. How cute! Now it was about this time I started getting sick and by 9 pm I was out. I had a fever, chills, sweats the whole fucking nine yards! In the middle of the night I guess the birds were making a wracket keeping Nicole awake and then the coyotes started in and she couldn’t get to sleep. I was so sick a heard of elephants could have tromped by and not have woken me.
I don’t know if it is a virus or a cold but I still haven’t shaken it, three weeks later!
Check out those rocking tanlines! You gotta be a real cyclist to appreciate those
Nicole and I continued our way along until Peterborough. I was very surprised to find such a lovely town. Not that Ontario doesn’t have lovely towns but there seems to be this thing about larger towns in Ontario being ugly. We stopped for lunch at this great little restaurant called “LUNCH” and guess what, they only do lunch! Good food.
In Peterborough I had to get my bike fixed. The wear on my front middle cog had caused the teeth to misshapen and they were causeing all sorts of problems. I attempted to fix it myself but that only made things worse. At this great bike shop we were goven directions to head south to the number 2 highway which was much more bike friendly. However, the ride south was going to cost us a day.
We stopped for the night at snake point or something like that. It was a native meeting place and they would camp off this beautiful lake in the summer. It was now a park. The night was pretty uneventful and the next morning we started South in earnst.
Hardcore Nic.
About 10 am Zuimei called and asked me to call the bank. It seems some fucker had skimmed $1000 from our shared account with my card. Despite the fact I had the card in my possession. Luckily for me, I was no where near TO and had the card in my possession. However, this too ate time up and it was looking doubtful that we would make Montreal on time.