Day 47

Monday, August 9th
Tobermory to Owen Sound
113km

Leisury ride (with lots of breakfasts) today before a long, tough ride tomorrow.  Three pieces of french toast in camp, and I hit the road.

We stopped at the 41km mark for a second breakfast at a small resteraunt by the side of the road.  What started out as a pee break turned into an hour long meal.  I had eggs, homefries, sausage, toast, etc.  Yummy.

After that, it was another 30km to Wiarton...home of Wiarton Willie.  We went to see the city's most famous rodent, but he wasn't really in the mood for socializing.  He stayed inside his little hut, but we saw him scurry around every now and then.  Paul said that he got photos of each of Willie's parts so that he can paste them together later.  Happily, the statue of Willie was out and available for photos.

After our photo opp with big limestone Willie, we went for a third breakfast at a little resteraunt in town.  I had a toasted western sandwich and, as is the third breakfast tradition, we finished off the meal with some icecream cones.

The map sheet into Owen Sound left much to be desired.  Everyone in the group got lost...all in slightly different ways.  At one point, we stopped in a Timmies and watched as TDC cyclist after Tdc cyclist rode by...each heading in a completely opposite direction.

The first sign of trouble was a bunch of signs saying things like “Route 1 is now route 17.”  On its own, this would not be so bad, except for the fact that there was already a route 17, with was perpendicular to the old route 1.  I took a photo of their intersection.

The other sign of trouble was the “Dead End” sign, which appeared just as I thought that I had gotten us back on track.  As the navigator, I was dreading Rosalyn's reaction to the dead end street when we spotted Leslie across the street...just as lost as us.  There were some friendly Union gas guys there, who drew us an excellent map to the campsite.

When we stopped to ask for directions, Rosalyn noticed that she had lost a screw from one of her bike shoes, and announced to the group “I need a screw.”  This is probably not the best thing to yell at a group of union gas employees, and we got a variety of clever (and not to be repeated here) responces.  We had such a laugh, that we took a photo of the union gas guys.  As soon as the camera came out, they all rushed around looking fir their helmuts...”Just in case the wrong people see the photo.”
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Daniel Longo
CIBC Corporate Development
(416) 956-3831