52 miles. Hard day against the wind.

We enjoyed a leisurely morning with our friends, Foley and Marion and then they drove us back to the exact spot at the ferry dock in Marine City where they had picked us up on Thursday!

The short 10 minute ferry ride landed us in Sombra, Ontario, and after going through immigration we re-introduced ourselves to our bikes and headed down the road. We took part of yesterday’s rest to cull through our panniers and shipped several items that we don’t anticipate needing back to Paradise Valley including both sets of front panniers. The bikes are so much more responsive now particularly without the weight on the front wheels.

A few miles down the road we encountered streets blocked for a local parade. This is a holiday weekend in Canada (Civic Holiday). We watched part of the parade and talked with a local policeman then made our way through the crowd back onto the highway that parallels the St. Clair river.

I guess because we are in Ontario, my ear worm of the day was Neil Young’s “Helpless.” “There is a town in north Ontario….” And then that morphed into a bit of Ian and Sylvia!

This was intended to be a “light day” and since we got such a comparatively late start (off the ferry at 11:00) our goal was Ridgetown and a small hotel there. We hadn’t counted on the headwind, our fatigue from a little too much partying last night with our friends (Foley, Marion, John, Tola, Sunne, Michael, Johnathan and Malcolm) or having to ride a while on a dirt road!

By the time we reached our destination we were wiped out. No more light days, please! Tomorrow we ride 66 miles to an Airbnb in Port Burwell and the forecast is for more headwind but we plan on getting a good night’s sleep and an early start.