I picked up a hitch-hiker today, a praying mantis. For ten miles or so we were good friends. It kept looking up at me as if to say, “Take the next left,” or something along that line. Maybe it has better GPS?
Leaving Port Dover this morning the skies were overcast but not raining. Almost the entire time I have been in Canada it has been overcast…how depressing. Here and there the roads were rough. The right side of the lanes tends to be all cracked from winter frost. The water runs down the camber of the road and collects on the right side, finds its way under the asphalt and then freezes and cracks the surface. I found myself riding in the middle of the road and then moving over when a vehicle approached; fortunately, traffic was very light.
About 11 miles (17 km) from leaving, I noticed my friends the wind generators were getting anxious. Every now and then a blade would move a little. Finally, they kicked into full rotations and I again had a headwind. At least the wind wasn’t as bad as the previous days. Instead of traveling at my normal 14-16 MPH (20+ km/h), I was traveling around 10 MPH (16 km/h).
Passing through Nanticoke, ON, I observed a very large manufacturing site. It had no identifying signs and had the feeling they were trying to keep it hush-hush. There were tall fences around the place that looked to be thousands of acres. Every now and then, there were large plumes of white gases, perhaps steam, belching out of some stacks. I have no idea what they were doing. I’m guessing they’re making those same sands as in Wisconsin, for fracking use. Any guesses? There was a long ramp (see photo) that went down to Lake Erie to load something onto barges.
Near the end of the day’s ride, I went through an area that looked very resort-like but gave me trouble breathing—I was constantly coughing, just like a cough I have in Sarasota, Florida when we have the Red Tide. I know large bodies of fresh water can have algal bloom problems and I wondered if that was the case. Whatever it was, it made me cough even more than Sarasota.
I arrived at Port Colborne in the late afternoon. I found a Knights Inn motel and pulled in for the night. This one is really old, but, as they say, any port in a storm. Tomorrow I will follow Friendship rail-trail ride to the US border at Fort Eire and then I will visit with relatives.
