Today was the gift from the weather gods they were waiting for. Beautiful blue sunny skies, low 70's in the morning and mid 80's by the afternoon, low humidity and a mild tailwind most of the day. The words "perfect day for a bike ride" were posted on lots of blogs today.
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| London Lucy. Terry Is Trying To Catch Up |
The scenery continues to be much the same, farms, barns, small towns, pretty houses with lots of flowers. A new crop has turned up: tobacco. And ginseng farms, which export the ginseng to China. A side benefit to going through farm country is that farmers set up fresh produce stands along the road, and the hungry cyclists buy up everything on the tables. Some they eat right there, and some goes into the SAG Wagons as supplies for later. Having such fresh fruit and produce is a real treat!
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| YUM!! |
The calorie-consumption report from Terry is good: two Klondike Bars and one large piece of carrot cake so far today, and that's before the SAG stop or dinner. He really needs to calorie load because he's actually lost about 5 pounds....and there wasn't a spare ounce on him to begin with.
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| Terry's Two Klondike Bars, Gary and Matt |
Except for the currency and the accents of the locals, there's not much difference between Ontario and Michigan. Terry thinks the drivers aren't as tolerant of cyclists, though. They crowd the riders and generally seem impatient. One cyclist actually stopped at a bike shop and bought a jersey with the Canadian Maple Leaf on it, and swears that the drivers have been more courteous to him.
According to Travis, Brantford is nicknamed The Telephone City. It was here in 1876 that Alexander Graham Bell — then a resident of the town — made the first “long distance” phone call to another city. The call went all the way to Paris — Ontario, not France. Brantford is also the hometown of Jay Silverheels — better known as Tonto in the Lone Ranger TV series. Travis tells a cute Lone Ranger joke on his blog. I have one, also, which I can't tell here, but it was part of a Lenny Bruce routine. 'Nuf said.
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| Rolling Into Brantford |
Or, if you'd rather know a different part of the Brantford history, this comes from Mike: Brantford’s history can be traced back for more than three centuries to the time when native tribes led by Chief Joseph Brant lived in the area. He was better known to his people of the Six Nations as Thay-en-da-negea. His statue, made of melted down French cannons (many of which were used in the Battle of Waterloo) in 1886, stands in Victoria Park in downtown Brantford. Chief Brant led his people from their lands in the Mohawk Valley of upper NY to the Grand River basin where they crossed the river. This spot became known as Brant's ford...and thus began the name, location, and history of Brantford, Ontario.
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| Chief Brant's Statue |
Holy Blazing Saddles!! This map shows that they are really in the home stretch. Tomorrow, it's on to Niagara Falls,crossing back into the US and a REST DAY, and then no rest until they reach the Atlantic Ocean!!
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| Amen!!! |
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