Day 97 Salem to Adolphustown, Ontario

August 5, 2011

Strangely, since we are in southern Ontario, in principle the centre of Canada, we are running into some limitations that we would have predicted more for the mountains or the prairies. For example, more often than not there is a lack of cell signal that we can use for internet connection. Also, we seem to camp and then realize that we have no source of food for supper. This happened last night, so this morning we were quite eager to find a cafe.

We did a small detour to get to a cafe at Gosport - South of Brighton, only to find it was taken up by a Rotary meeting. Some judicious begging seured us a table in a far corner, and we got to listen to the inspirational speech.

From Gosport it was not long before we were on the Loyalist Parkway - a mostly country road with a paved shoulder. Now we were cruising through Prince Edward County, which is a large island, just before the eastern end of the lake. It is lovely, with farms, heritage houses, and quaint towns.

Early on we encountered our first farm market of the day. They had fresh home made donuts. This is a specialty that was to pop up at other places along the route, joining (but not displacing) butter tarts. Cinnamon buns as a specialty, however, are long gone.

Just east of Wellington we came upon a garage sale in progress. Since before I found Algy the Duck, Dodie has wanted to have a turtle as a touring companion. A garage sale is the right place to look, so we stopped. The garage sale was being held by Saskia, Tessa, and Erika as a fund raiser linked to an upcoming cycling fundraiser in aid of cancer research. The cycle will be from Toronto at the CN Tower to Niagara. We picked up something for Amelia and made a small donation. No turtle, however, was there for Dodie.

Just in passing I inquired whether there might anyway be a mouse, since the one purchased for the netbook at Best Buy in Washington had packed it in. It was a shame, since that mouse, although wired, was very compact with the cord being retractable.

Saskia disappeared into the house and came back with .. a mouse. Not just any mouse, but the same size and design as my broken one. Is this just a fluke, or does fate think we did something right recently?

Just down the road, a yellow painted bike stood in the middle of a field. Another strange sign from heaven? or are Ontario farmers going into raising yellow bikes?

Everyone says a stop at the bike shop in Bloomfield (just down the road from Wellington) is a must, and this turned out to be true. Scattered around the complex site was a mixture of high end/rare items, normal stuff, artistic stuff, and weird stuff. What shone through it all was a clear love of cycle and cycling. It was a fun though brief visit, since we were eager to make it to the next campsite before it got too late.

We arrived in Picton, which turned out to be much larger than expected, with a very long commercial street. This gave a chance to search out some milkshake, and we landed at Scooperman. Scooperman featured an action hero theme, and in general seemed like a swell place. To be fair, the milkshake was good, but have a look at the photo. What's next, milkshake in a shot glass?

Even with this teeny amount of fuel, we motored over to Glenora, where the ferry hops off the island. Shortly after that we arrived at the United Empire Loyalist Park and Campsite. Again, it is a lovely site by the water, but all you get for $31 is the chance to put your tent on a patch of grass, and feed quarters into a box - if you get in to the one shower provided for the hundreds of people.

Still, we have arricved at the state of grace in which our tent is up, our pouch of quarters is empty, and we are ready to turn in and listen to one of the Big Bang Theory episodes, all of which we know by heart!

The Loyalist Parkway - our "Way" for the next two days

We were tempted to head for Ameliasburg in our quest for Amelia, but quickly realized this would be a wrong move!

Freshly made donuts replace butter tarts to some extent here

Some fully kitted out cyclists headed west. Neither they nor us stopped to chat but we deduced they were from Quebec, mainly from their accent on saying "what?" as I called out "from where to where?"

Weird large house had tractors on a stick.

We have seen a number of these old barns with neat stone foundations

Dodie likes the trim of this house in Wellington

Saskia, Tessa, and Enka were doing a garage sale just east of Wellington

Another Bloomfield house. The town is full of places like this

A sculpture at the entrance, plus interesting sign

...but is this $4.50 worth of milkshake?

The M.V. Glenora, far from "Glenora" near our home!

Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 5,924 km (3,679 miles)

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