Around lake Erie - Day 10

Day 10, Tuesday August 26 2014.

From St. Thomas to Brantford, ON - 115 km.

Day 10 planned route.

Started early, the Sun was still low on the horizon. The road had nice shoulder to cycle on. Some clouds but no rain fore casted. A good start.
A few km later the first gravelled dirt road 'appeared', but it was a short one. However, soon more and more gravelled dirt road for longer distances. Not a good sign.

Sun, still low on the horizon.

Surprised to see some baby llamas on a small farm. They were cute and curious of me as I was of them.

Baby llamas.

More gravelled dirt road with some hills ahead, not good. May not reached today's destination before dark.

Will it end?

Was I seeing things? Did I see paved road ahead or was it just a mirage? It turned out that it was just a small patch of asphalt across a small bridge. Bummer!

Paved road ahead?

Heard a horse galloping behind me. On this dirt road the horse pulling a carriage was faster than my cycling. It stopped behind me and I took a picture of it. Apparently I was cycling through the Amish community. On my right side I saw women and children sitting around some tables in the yard under a huge tree, working. They were wearing their traditional clothes. Asked if I could take a picture of them, they refused.

Horse buggy.

Many working horses in this area. A couple friendly ones galloped towards me as I cycled by.

Friendly horses.

After crossing a paved road onto another dirt road, I stopped and took a break. By this time, I had cycled 45 km mostly on gravelled dirt road. I had enough of it, my forearms and shoulders were sore from slipping, skidding and bouncing of gravel for the last two days. Studied the map on my tablet and saw rte. 18, which continued on to rte.3, parallel for about 40 km to this dirt road that I was cycling on. It was only about 2 km south. Without hesitation I turned around and took this alternate route. It was the best decision I made this day. For the next 45 km I cycled on nice paved road with good shoulder; what a bliss.
Stopped in Norwich for lunch and had a cold beer, the day was hot. The beer tasted especially good.

Peaceful resting place.

Took a break and rested at another 'final resting place'; always a good place to rest. Re- applied my sunscreen. The sun was hot, I needed many short breaks in the shade to cool off.

At the end of rte. 3, I cycled North, back to the planned route. After a short ride on dirt road, I turned left onto a nice wide paved trail. Cycled on this trail for the next 11 km. A local guy I met on the trail told me that this trail started from Cambridge on the North side and extended to Port Dover on the South side - very nice.

Cycling the last 10 km through the city of Brantford was not easy.
Ingrid at the front desk of the Days Inn in Brantford was very helpful, she assisted me with my loaded bicycle as I stumbled and was not able to think straight, perhaps due to the heat of the day.

Theresia, Edward and Elaine came to visit. I just finished showering when they showed up. We had supper at William's, next door to the hotel. That was nice of them. I had a visit on my first day and now another visit on my last day - nice symmetry. That reminded me of my last year ride around lake Ontario - I had lunch with an old friend on my first day and also lunch with another friend on my last day of the tour. Amazing.

It was a hot and interesting day. Tomorrow would be my last day on this tour. A little sad but also exited of the prospect of sleeping in my own bed again. End.