Day 42 Paisley to Sebringville ON

A typical farm house in Southern Ontario

Our night at the Cornerbrook B+B was very pleasant and our hosts, Jack and Elaine Moffat were great. They had a room with two twin beds so it was also inexpensive. A very nice place and they do bicycling packages if you are into B+B to B+B type cycling. We left there about 9:30 AM: It is hard to get away from good B+Bs! The Moffat's had worked hard to find a B+B for us near Straford where we wanted to attend a play at theShakespearean festival. They found us a good (but not nearly as good as theirs..) B+B in Sebringville - Mrs D's B+B, about five miles from the festival. They also helped us pick a good route down to Sebringville.

Sign from the middle of this days ride

Routing in this part of Ontario consists of picking which roads on a grid you want to use. The grid is oriented south east to north west and there are paved roads about every five miles. We started by riding south on CO 20 (the grid is north south above Hwy 86) which became CR 4. We stopped for first lunch at Teeswater.

The wind was out of the south and later the south east, so we had headwinds most of the day. As we rode into Wingham, my rear derailleur cable broke. Bob went searching for a phone card while I replaced the cable and brought me back an apple fritter just about as I finished. My shifting had been deteriorating for several days but I hadn't noticed that the cable was fraying until half an hour before it broke. That cable lasted almost 5000 miles - almost twice as long as the last two. It seems to be a design problem with the command shifters - they flex the cable a lot near its end - and I always (after one bad experience) carry a spare.

When we headed out of Wingham on 86, the south east to north east grid meant we headed south east right into the wind. We also rode through a lot of construction and had to content with a lot of big dump trucks the road with no shoulder. I bailed out once when I saw that dump trucks coming from both directions would pass me at the same time, but the general polite behavior of folks up here made riding safe. Northern Ontario has been very good in that respect. Almost as good the Canadian Maritimes and much better than Quebec or any of the US states I have ridden in.

After a short stretch on 86, we turned south west on hwy 12. It has a shoulder and light traffic and the wind was a cross wind instead of a head wind! We rode 12 to Brussels where we ate at a ice cream and Pizza place. I accidentally left my house key there when it fell out of the change pocket in my wallet as I was paying. I got it back because the lady who ran the place left her business to get in her car and catch me as I rode out of town!

SeaforthAt Seaforth we turned south east on 8 and stopped for a snack before riding on to Sebringville. 8 was not fun - too much traffic and no shoulder till Mitchell - but it was pretty fast riding because the wind had died down. One fellow did blow his horn at us in protest, but only after he slowed down and waited for a safe place to pass. One large truck passed us in an unsafe manner, but everybody (were talking hundreds of vehicles) else was very polite. This is a nice area for bicycling!

Today (the day after Day 42) Bob and I got a ride into Stratford with another guest and spent the day there before walking back - a long walk. I got a replacement derailleur cable and Bob got a new pair of gloves at a rather good bicycle shop. We had a wonderful time and saw a great production of MacBeth. It was a bit expensive - about $40 USD each for the tickets, but well worth it. I wish I could see The Tempest, but it was performed last night and was sold out. MacBeth was great, and therefore depressing! We will ride on south and east tomorrow, hoping to make our way to somewhere near Niagara. If we can do that, then it will be a day's ride to Bob's home in Rochester.

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