Day 48

Tuesday, August 10th
Owen Sound to Alliston
127km

What a busy day!

Woke up at 5:30am to get a jump on the day.  We rode into Alliston today, where dad was meeting me...so I wanted to arrive in good time.

I was really well organised, so everything got packed away quickly.  I was ready to go when I noticed that I was missing my wallet.  Unpack everything, search around the truck, rifle through Roger's stuff on the shelf beside me...nothing.  Stupid wallet.

At that point, we'd wasted 45 minutes searching around with nothing to show for it, so we rode off anyways.

Enter massive headwind.  Stupid headwind.  What a great way to start a ride that is supposed to last 167km!!!  I was definitely not in the best of spirits.  Plus, it was threating to rain.  Big black clouds, gusty, swirly winds and the distant grumble of thunder.

In the face of all this adversity, we coped the only way we knew how...found a shorter route.  Instead of meandering all around the safe, scenic local roads, we opted to take highway 10 all the way down to highway 89, and then 89 all the way to camp.  On a map, 10 and 89 looked like two pool cues in the middle of the spaghetti route that bud had given us.  It was a brilliant move, which ended up saving about 45km.

Just about everyone in the group took this route, but I was riding with Rosalyn, Jonny, Paul and Rick...so we got into camp first.

I unpacked EVERYTHING at the campsite, and still couldn't find my wallet.  I called a Tim Hortons and a bike shop where we had stopped yesterday, but no luck.  I gave up and called CIBC to report my cards stolen.

As a CIBC employee, I realize that I am somewhat biased, however, CIBC did an amazing job of helping me out.  I explained the situation, and the fact that I would be travelling from city to city for the next 3 weeks...in desperate need of money.  (Can you imagine cycling without secound breakfast?)  They put a rush on my request, and said that I could pick up a new credit and debit card at the branch by my parent's house tomorrow.  I was completely impressed.

With my finances in order, I packed up all my stuff to take back to Niagara with me.  This was my big chance to get rid of all the useless crap I had brought with me.  (The worse offender was the pair of XXXL overalls that I bought as apres bike apparel, eveb though I don't need apres bike apparel and I could potentially fit an entire paceline into the pants with me.)

Colin's family also made an appearence at the camp today.  His parents and some other relatives were there, as well as a close friend of his.  They brought some snacks for people, and traded somw Colin stories with us.  I passed on the condolences and kind words that everyone had sent to me after the accident.

Dad arrived shortly after that, and took Paul, Rick and Jonny into Toronto for supper and then onto Niagara.  The original plan was to go out for dinner with my grandmother, but she had prepared a typical gramdmother feast for us, so we ate at her place.  The food was wonderful, and more then sufficient to feed 4 hungry cyclists.
The dining room table, comlete with mini chandelier, was a far cry from sitting on the ground, resting our plates on our laps.  Such a treat.

After dinner, I took the guys downtown Toronto.  In only 2 hours we saw:
-the TTC
-the ROM (from the outside)
-the view from the Hyatt bar (happily, we were asked to leave because Jonny was only 16, as opposed to being asked to leave because we looked like smelly camping cyclists.)
-Yorkville
-Queens's park
-University Ave
-Dundas square
-the Eaton's centre
-old city hall
-new city hall
-Muchmusic
-the Skydome
-the CN tower
-Union Station
-BCE plance
-Commerce Count North
-my apartment

It was a very busy 2 hours.  Luckily, we are all used to taking photos from moving bikes, so it was not much of an adjustment to take photos without breaking stride while walking.

After our trip around TO, dad picked us up and drove us back to Niagara Falls.  We arrived at 10:30pm, which is about two hours later than a standard bedtime.  We were all zonked, and went straight to bed.
-----------------------------------------------
Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831