AAN Day 40 - Port Huron, MI to London, Ontario

Daily Statistics:
Mileage: 88.0 Average Speed: 16.5 mph
Vertical: 1843 feet Depart: 7:20 AM Arrive: 1:44 PM
Calories: 6337

Link to Garmin ROUTE DATA

Today was a wonderful day on the bike. It started with a little more logistics than usual. We usually load luggage and leave when we are ready. Today, however, they were closing the bridge over the St Clair into Ontario specially for us, so we had to all form up and get ready to depart en masse. Here you see the troops ready to go in the hotel parking lot.

We proceeded smoothly across the bridge. The Canadian customs agent mostly wanted to know if we had any firearms, and no one did, so we were on our way. Of course, we had to stop immediately so everyone could get the "Welcome to Ontario" shots out of the way.

We had a native of Sarnia, Ontario (the town immediately across the bridge in Ontario) with us (Jeff Douglas), who set up a meeting with his 85 year old mom, and a detour to a nice park with great views of Lake Huron. Here you can see a number of the riders enjoying the view.

One of the things this did is have virtually everyone riding in a group for the first time for over the first ten miles. I took this shot of the folks in front of me riding along. The whole thing added about 8 miles to our day, but I certainly enjoyed it. After things broke up, I wound up riding at a very fast pace with half our thoroughbred team of Jeff, Joe, and Alex. They took me a good chunk of the way to the first SAG. It was fun, but if I rode like that every day, I would be in the van half the time exhausted.

After the SAG, as chance would have it, I met Toronto Mark along the road with his wife and parents. After introductions, he said let's ride together. We were quickly joined by the remaining thoroughbred member, Dave, and I was off at high speed once again. We went about 10 more miles before we fell apart. Dave and I then went on the BJ's deli in the town of Delaware, where we got a wonderful lunch. We were soon joined by the other thoroughbreds, Mark's wife and parents, staff Jeff, and by the time I left, others were coming in.
I rode the final 20 miles on my own, having done all the fast riding I could handle. I took a picture of an Ontario farm, to show that they grow corn just like MI, WI, MN, and SD. They also had soy bean fields as well.
All in all, the first day in Ontario was a fine time.

Link to ROUTE ITINERARY.