Day 9 – Sunday, September 21, 2008

Morning view: cows!

We woke up knowing that it was our last day on the bikes!   But we weren’t entirely sure how long we had to travel today. We thought it was somewhere between 60-75km.  We knew we had a few climbs to do but it would be mostly flat or downhill today – yeah!

Once again, my knees were aching so Reuben had the trailer for the start.  I contemplated biking out of the way towards Milton and catching the a bus home, but Reuben reminded me that it was important to finish this trip on our bikes.  My knees were just in so much pain I didn’t think I could make it.

After 9 days cycling, Eden still loves the trailer!

Since we were now close to home, we were starting to recognize the names of roads and local signage.  We stopped at a playground for lunch again.  By this time, Reuben was truly exhausted from pulling all of our gear.  He lay on the bench and couldn’t move.  I made lunch, played with Eden and at the end, took the trailer back again.  We had almost finished the climbing for the day and then downhill it would be downhill the rest of the way!

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Day 8 – Saturday, September 20, 2008

We were waking up in the tent when we heard Frank, our farmer host, on the outside.  He invited us in for breakfast with him!  We gladly joined him for some toast with jam, blueberries and tea.  Eden played in the living room while we had a great conversation about local farming practices, employment in the area and high speed internet in rural Ontario.

We took off from Frank’s, and headed south.  It wasn’t very long and we saw another bicycle coming our way.  The bicycle was also fully loaded and soon crossed over to our half of the road to chat – and had been traveling from Ohio.  He was the first and only other tourist we saw on this trip (we were hoping to see more since we were using the ACA route). We told him he’s in for a really beautiful downhill ride for the day!

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Day 7 – Friday, September 19, 2008

After living in the hotel for two days, it takes a while to pack everything back up on bikes!  After we checked out we headed for Tim Horton’s for breakfast (no pattern there, right?).  After a quick breakfast sandwich, donut and drink, we headed to the Cranberry Resort Harbour Castle.  In order to get a great deal on our hotel stay and our free dinner, we had to attend a time share presentation this morning. Eden was in heaven when she stepped into the childcare room (the resort offered childcare during the 2-hour sales pitch).  All she had seen for the last 7 days were the same few toys over and over again in her trailer.  Thinking she might freak out when we dropped her off, we tried to explain that we would be back soon, but  she just turned around, waved and said “Die” (her way of saying Bye).  Then she quickly redirected her attention to all the new toys.

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Day 5 – Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I woke up nervous this morning.  Really nervous.  I knew there was a huge climb up the Ontario escarpment out of Owen Sound.  I couldn’t shake the butterflies from my stomach.  My knees were also very sore this morning and I needed to pull the trailer for a good part of the day.  Reuben had already offered to take the trailer for the uphill climb so I needed to pull it at least 20-30km. I don’t think I’ve felt this kind of pain from my knees ever before in my life.  I was biking about 10-12km an hour and that is SO SLOW!!  I could hardly bike any faster without feeling like my knees would explode.  I had already taken an ibuprofen but it wasn’t helping.  So Reuben forced me to pull over and he took the trailer early so I wasn’t putting as much pressure on my knees.  I was relieved but it still  hurt to keep up with him (even though he was pulling about 150 lbs of gear!)

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