For those who don’t know “Winnie” was the name of a real bear in the London Zoo. She was puchased by Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in the town of White River, where I was staying. He named her Winnipeg, after his hometown and she was called “Winnie” for short. Colebourn gave the bear to the london Zoo for safe keeping, she was the mascot of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, and they were going over to fight in the First World War. A.A.Milne took his son to the zoo. The bear was very popular with Christopher Robin. It was his favorite animal at the Zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with the bear. The bear inspired Christopher to call his bear Winnie the Pooh. The name Pooh belonged to a swan.Anyway White River is the town where the bear first came from and is definitely the town’s biggest draw. This morning I left town for Wawa (which has giant geese) It was a short day (90km) and so I slept in late and took my time getting ready in the morning. On the way I ran into three men riding in identical jerseys.
Charlie, Gerry and Jan are riding across the countrty to raise awareness about mental illness and homelessness. They have raised something like $40,000 so far! If you are interested in finding out more, their website is http://www.hopelutherannanaimo.org/Tour/bicycle.htm
Anyway these nice gentlemen offered to let me ride with them and throw my panniers in their support vehicle. We were all going to the same place so I did. As a result the ride was very relaxing. Tomorrow I have a fairly hefty ridee of 140km to Pancake Bay, so named because the voyageur, with only a little flour left, would make pancakes before heading to the Soo for supplies. Apparently you can also see where the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.
stats:
distance: 90km