...Not today!!!
After a gorgeous sunset last night overlooking Lake Huron, we slept in and got going at about 9:30. We headed toward the Georgian Bay.
As we headed down Rt. 6, we realized that the sad fact is with the number of people traveling, the main roads just aren't great for cycling. Mostly in Canada, the roads are few and the cars are many! Although the speeds were slower and there were less transports, there still aren't any shoulders to speak of and you have to watch constantly in your rear view mirror. This dampens the fun of the experience!
The good news is that the drivers for the most part are very good with cyclists. So they try their best to go around as widely as possible. We're on a popular cyclists route--900 km around the Georgian Bay. We saw a group of 7 cyclists today, which were a couple of days from the end of their 9-day tour. Wimps! Ha! Actually, they all looked quite fit and seemed to be having a fun time together--they were from Quebec.
I struggled today to get any speed up at all. The cycling was relatively flat and should have been easy, but for some reason (hormones? just plain tired? homesick?) it wasn't. However, we saw some beautiful country--farmland and national parkland--the beautiful yellow fields of rapeseed (canola) in bloom, and Cottage Country. They call this Cottage Country because it's the second home area for Toronto (which is to the south). It really reminded me of Winter Park! These "cottages" run from normal cottage size to absolutely huge! Many have a boat out front and their little piers seem to be made of stone. Really fun sightseeing!
It seemed like we traveled uphill to reach the water. We were traveling down the Bruce Peninsula, which was created from the Niagra Escarpment--an escarpment that must have helped create the Great Lakes. We stopped at this little gas station to get something to drink for lunch, and it turned out to also be a restaurant. We figured "What the heck?" and went in. We had some fabulous beef stew and fresh fruit with homemade bread (they have GREAT bread up here). It was in the town of Mar, and it was really fun to find this little place disguised as a gas station! By the way, they sell gas in litres here, and the equivalent would be about $4.25 per gallon. So the USA gas is still much cheaper than most of the rest of the world.
As soon as we could find an alternative route, we left Rt. 6 and traveled the back roads. Much better! Although they might be a little less smooth, it is worth it to have less traffic. A little more uphill, and FINALLY we found a nice downhill that stopped near the water of Owen Sound. What a sight! This is just gorgeous territory. We turned to go into the town of Owen Sound, and got some great house sightseeing. The houses on the water were big and beautiful, and the town on that side of the sound was really nicely kept and picturesque.
We rode through town and stopped at the local bike shop. As usual, we found friendly and very helpful people! They gave us some local bicycle maps which showed suggested bicycle routes that avoid the highly traveled roads. What a treat to have some more alternatives!
We rode for a couple more miles to the hotel on the Sound, and spent a happy night watching Le Tour!
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